Ubuntu Manpage: icmstart - A startup script for icmbuild program maintenance

NAME

       icmstart - A startup script for icmbuild program maintenance

SYNOPSIS

       icmstart [Options] top-dir [program|library]

DESCRIPTION

Although icmake-scripts can be written from scratch to handle program maintenance, often
the required actions are highly comparable. This observation resulted in the construction
of two icmake-tools: icmstart(1), initializing a directory for program development and
icmbuild(1), handling the actual program maintenance. Both come predefined with icmake’s
distribution, to initialize and maintain C++ programs (or, after minimal adaptation, C)
programs). They can also easily be tailored to other programming languages. The icmstart
script and icmbuild program can directly be called: icmstart is an icmake script, for
which the command-shell calls icmake; icmbuild is a small C program calling icmake to
process the icmbuild script in (commonly) /usr/lib/icmake.

This man-page covers icmstart; refer to the icmbuild(1) man-page for information about how
icmbuild can be used.

The icmstart script is a generic script that is used to initialize a directory with a
basic set of files that are commonly used when developing a C++ or C program.

Icmstart creates an initial directory (here named `top-dir’) and installs the files
CLASSES, VERSION and icmconf below top-dir. A second argument `program’ or `library’ may
be specified as the default mode of operation of the icmbuild(1) script, usually resulting
in adding additional skeleton source files. If the predefined set of files doesn’t fit
your needs, then the default set can easily be modified. The default set of skeleton files
is listed in the file /etc/icmake/icmstart.rc. Refer to the icmstart.rc(7) man-page for
information about how this file is structured and how it can be adapted.

After switching to the directory created by icmstart icmbuild(1) may be used for program
maintenance.

OPTIONS

       Icmstart supports the following options, which (when specified) must be  icmstart’s  first
       arguments:

       o      -b
              basic  installation:  the files VERSION, usage.cc and version.cc are not installed,
              and the #define USE_VERSION entry in icmconf is commented out;

       o      -c confpath
              use the configuration files (icmstart.rc, AUTHOR, YEARS and VERSION)  if  found  in
              `confpath’ rather than using the files found in ~/.icmake and/or /etc/icmake/. Once
              a file is found it is  used,  allowing  partial  overrides  of  the  default  files
              provided by icmake(1);

       o      -d
              do not execute any commands, but show the commands that would have been executed on
              the standard output;

       o      -I
              do not install files;

       o      -r
              unconditionally replace existing files. If -r is not  provided  icmstart  asks  the
              user  to  confirm  that  an  existing  file  must  be  overwritten.  If  a skeleton
              specification refers to a directory, the full directory and its subdirectories  are
              replaced;

       o      -s skeleton-path
              by   default   skeleton   files   are   listed   in   the  skeleton  resource  file
              /usr/share/icmake/icmstart.rc. Alternatively, the skeleton  resource  file  may  be
              specified  by the ICM environment variable, which -in turn- may be overruled by the
              path specified with the -s option. The skeleton path may be  specified  as  a  full
              file-path or as a directory, in which case the skeleton resource file is assumed to
              be icmstart.rc (see below at SKELETON FILES).  Since icmstart uses  cp  to  install
              files, cp must be available when icmstart should install skeleton files.

SKELETON FILES

       Skeleton  resource  files  may  contain  comment (empty lines and lines beginning with the
       hash-mark (#)). Comment lines are ignored. Otherwise, lines should contain  specifications
       of resource s to be installed.

       The default resource specification file is /etc/icmake/icmstart.rc, containing:

           CLASSES
           icmconf
           P main.cc
           P main.ih
           P usage.cc
           P version.cc
           P ? scanner
           P ? parser

       This   file  is  overruled  by  ~/.icmake/icmstart.rc.  The  ~/.icmake  directory  (called
       `configuration directory’ below) can be prepared using the following system command:

           cp -r /etc/icmake ~/.icmake

       This directory can also contain skeleton files. Default skeleton files are commonly  found
       in  /usr/share/icmake,  and could be copied to the configuration directory and referred to
       by the configuration directory’s file icmstart.rc.  See icmstart.rc(7) for  details  about
       how skeleton files can be referred to icmstart.rc.

CONFIGURATION FILES

The configuration files icmstart.rc, AUTHOR, YEARS and VERSION are recognized as skeleton
files and are, if available, processed by icmstart.

If the -c option was specified configuration files found in the path specified at this
option are used. If not specified or if a file isn’t found then the path ~/icmake is
inspected. If a configuration file isn’t found in ~/icmake either, configuration files in
/etc/icmake are used.

Configuration files are optional; if absent icmstart can still be used, but in normal
cases at least icmstart.rc is provided.

In addition to icstart.rc consider defining the files AUTHOR, VERSION, and YEARS in the
configuration directory:

o If the file AUTHOR exists it should have one line, defining the author of the
program. E.g.,

#define AUTHOR "Frank B. Brokken <f.b.brokken@rug.nl>"

If it does not exist icmstart uses the default:
#define AUTHOR "".

o If the file VERSION exists it should have one line, defining the program’s version.
E.g.,

#define VERSION "1.00.00"

If it does not exist icmstart uses the default:
#define VERSION "0.01.00".

o If the file YEARS exists it should have one line, defining the program’s initial
release year or range of release years. E.g.,

#define YEARS "2020"

or a range of years can be defined:

#define YEARS "1992-2020"

If it does not exist icmstart uses the default:
#define YEARS "yyyy" where yyyy is the current year.

The AUTHOR, VERSION, and YEARS definitions are concatenated to one file, called VERSION,
installed in the top-level directory.

If the file icmstart.rc does not exist (or is empty) icmstart merely installs the
top-level directory, icmconf and VERSION.

FILES

       The mentioned paths are sugestive only and may be installation dependent:

       o      /usr/share/icmake/icmconf Example of a icmbuild configuration file;

       o      /usr/share/icmake/CLASSES Example of a icmbuild CLASSES file.

       o      /etc/icmake/icmstart.rc Default skeleton resource file.

BUGS

       Path names containing blanks are not supported.

COPYRIGHT

       This is free software, distributed under the terms  of  the  GNU  General  Public  License
       (GPL).

AUTHOR

       Frank B. Brokken (f.b.brokken@rug.nl).