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GNU m4 is an implementation of the traditional UNIX macro
processor. It is mostly SVR4 compatible, although it has some
extensions (for example, handling more than 9 positional parameters
to macros). m4 also has builtin functions for including
files, running shell commands, doing arithmetic, etc. Autoconf needs
GNU m4 for generating `configure' scripts, but not for
running them.
GNU m4 was originally written by René Seindal, with
subsequent changes by Franc,ois Pinard and other volunteers
on the Internet. All names and email addresses can be found in the
file `THANKS' from the GNU m4 distribution.
This is release 1.4. It is now to be considered stable, future releases are only meant to fix bugs, increase speed, or improve documentation. However...
An experimental feature, which would improve m4 usefulness,
allows for changing the syntax for what is a word in m4.
You should use:
./configure --enable-changeword |
m4 considerably and is hardly acceptable. So, it
might go away, do not count on it yet.
1. Introduction and preliminaries 2. Lexical and syntactic conventions
3. How to invoke macros 4. How to define new macros 5. Conditionals, loops and recursion Conditionals and loops
6. How to debug macros and input
7. Input control 8. File inclusion 9. Diverting and undiverting output
10. Macros for text handling 11. Macros for doing arithmetic 12. Running UNIX commands Macros for running UNIX commands 13. Miscellaneous builtin macros 14. Fast loading of frozen states
15. Compatibility with other versions of m4Compatibility with other versions of m4 Concept index Index for many concepts Macro index Index for all m4 macros
-- The Detailed Node Listing ---
Introduction and preliminaries
1.1 Introduction to m41.2 Historical references
1.3 Invoking m41.4 Problems and bugs 1.5 Using this manual
Lexical and syntactic conventions
2.1 Names Macro names 2.2 Quoted strings Quoting input to m4 2.3 Other tokens Other kinds of input tokens 2.4 Comments Comments in m4 input
How to invoke macros
3.1 Macro invocation 3.2 Preventing macro invocation 3.3 Macro arguments 3.4 Quoting macro arguments On Quoting Arguments to macros 3.5 Macro expansion Expanding macros
How to define new macros
4.1 Defining a macro Defining a new macro 4.2 Arguments to macros 4.3 Special arguments to macros Pseudo arguments to macros 4.4 Deleting a macro 4.5 Renaming macros 4.6 Temporarily redefining macros
4.7 Indirect call of macros 4.8 Indirect call of builtins
Conditionals, loops and recursion
5.1 Testing macro definitions Testing if a macro is defined 5.2 Comparing strings If-else construct, or multibranch 5.3 Loops and recursion Loops and recursion in m4
How to debug macros and input
6.1 Displaying macro definitions 6.2 Tracing macro calls 6.3 Controlling debugging output 6.4 Saving debugging output
Input control
7.1 Deleting whitespace in input 7.2 Changing the quote characters 7.3 Changing comment delimiters Changing the comment delimiters 7.4 Changing the lexical structure of words 7.5 Saving input Saving input until end of input
File inclusion
8.1 Including named files 8.2 Searching for include files
Diverting and undiverting output
9.1 Diverting output 9.2 Undiverting output 9.3 Diversion numbers 9.4 Discarding diverted text
Macros for text handling
Macros for doing arithmetic
11.1 Decrement and increment operators 11.2 Evaluating integer expressions
Running UNIX commands
12.1 Executing simple commands 12.2 Reading the output of commands 12.3 Exit codes 12.4 Making names for temporary files
Miscellaneous builtin macros
13.1 Printing error messages 13.2 Exiting from m4Exiting from m4
Compatibility with other versions ofm4
15.1 Extensions in GNU m4Extensions in GNU m4 15.2 Facilities in System V m4not in GNUm4Facilities in System V m4 not in GNU m4 15.3 Other incompatibilities