NAME

       ecs - eC Symbol Loader Generator

SYNOPSIS

       ecs [-t target-platform]
           [-name]
           [-console]
           [-dynamiclib|-staticlib]
           input [input]* -o output
           [-symbols intermediate-dir]

DESCRIPTION

       ecs generates a symbol loader for an eC module (shared/static library or executable).

OVERVIEW

       The  symbol  loader is what allow for eC runtime module importing and ejection, as well as
       its reflection capabilities.  It is an eC source file with a .main.ec suffix,  which  must
       itself be compiled and linked into the target.

       ecs  also  takes care of the eC Distributed Objects binding mechanism and will include the
       client and/or server bindings as appropriate within the symbol loader source file.

       Additionally, ecs takes care  of  assembling  the  individual  internationalizable  string
       catalogs  (.bowl)  into translation templates (.pot).  The generated translation templates
       are compatible with the GNU gettext format.  Translations however are  handled  internally
       by  the  Ecere  runtime  library,  and can be embedded within eC libraries and executables
       under the locale/ module resources folder using the Ecere Archiver (ear).

       For an executable, the symbol loader implements the program's entry point at the  C  level
       (main()  function).   For  shared  libraries,  the  symbol  loader  implements an exported
       __ecereDll_Load  function.   For  static  libraries,  the  symbol  loader   implements   a
       __ecereDll_Load_[module-name] function.

       The  input  list  of  files specified should include all symbol files (.sym), import files
       (.imp) and partial translation string catalogs (.bowl) produced by ecp and ecc  for  every
       eC source file within the project.

   Output file
       -o output

       The location and name for the symbol loader generated.
       The name is normally module-name.main.ec

OPTIONS

   Platform
       -t target-platform

       Where target-platform is one of: win32 linux apple
       (Defaults to the host platform if not specified)

   Module Options
       -console Specifies that this application is a console application (Windows only)

       -dynamiclib Specifies that this module is a dynamic (shared) library

       -staticlib Specifies that this module is a static library

   Module Name
       -name module-name

       Name  to  be used for static library entry point, internally by the eC Distributed Objects
       bindings, as well as for  the  generated  translation  template  (locale/module-name.pot).
       (Defaults to the output file name stripped of the main.ec suffix)

   Miscellaneous Options
       -symbols intermediate-dir

       Specifies  the  location of the intermediate directory.  Note: Currently this is only used
       to check the currently built config, and only generate translation template (.pot)  if  we
       are  building  Release.   Since the output file name could be checked instead, this option
       should probably be phased out entirely as it is otherwise not required for ecs.