protoize(1) GNU protoize(1)
NAME
protoize, unprotoize - automatically add or remove function prototypes
SYNOPSIS
protoize [-CfgklNnqv] [-B DIRECTORY] [-c COMPILATION-OPTIONS] [-d
DIRECTORY] [-i STRING] [-p PROGRAM] [-x FILE] [FILE...]
unprotoize [-fkNnqv] [-c COMPILATION-OPTIONS] [-d DIRECTORY] [-i
STRING] [-p PROGRAM] [-x FILE] [FILE...]
DESCRIPTION
protoize is an optional part of GCC. You can use it to add prototypes
to a program, thus converting the program to ANSI C in one respect.
The companion program unprotoize does the reverse: it removes argument
types from any prototypes that are found.
When you run these programs, you must specify a set of source files as
command line arguments. The conversion programs start out by compiling
these files to see what functions they define. The information gath-
ered about a file FOO is saved in a file named FOO.X.
After scanning comes the actual conversion. The specified files are
all eligible to be converted; any files they include (whether sources
or just headers) are eligible as well.
But not all the eligible files are converted. By default, protoize and
unprotoize convert only source and header files in the current direc-
tory. You can specify additional directories whose files should be
converted with the -d DIRECTORY option. You can also specify particu-
lar files to exclude with the -x FILE option. A file is converted if
it is eligible, its directory name matches one of the specified direc-
tory names, and its name within the directory has not been excluded.
Basic conversion with protoize consists of rewriting most function def-
initions and function declarations to specify the types of the argu-
ments. The only ones not rewritten are those for varargs functions.
protoize optionally inserts prototype declarations at the beginning of
the source file, to make them available for any calls that precede the
function’s definition. Or it can insert prototype declarations with
block scope in the blocks where undeclared functions are called.
Basic conversion with unprotoize consists of rewriting most function
declarations to remove any argument types, and rewriting function defi-
nitions to the old-style pre-ANSI form.
Both conversion programs print a warning for any function declaration
or definition that they can’t convert. You can suppress these warnings
with the -q option.
The output from protoize or unprotoize replaces the original source
file. The original file is renamed to a name ending with .save. If
the .save file already exists, then the source file is simply dis-
carded.
protoize and unprotoize both depend on gcc(1) to scan the program and
collect information about the functions it uses.
The options are as follows:
-B DIRECTORY
Look for the file SYSCALLS.c.X in directory, instead of the
usual directory (normally /usr/local/lib). This file contains
prototype information about standard system functions. This
option applies only to protoize.
-C Rename files to end in .C instead of .c. This is convenient if
you are converting a C program to C++. This option applies only
to protoize.
-c COMPILATION-OPTIONS
Use COMPILATION-OPTIONS as the options when running gcc(1) to
produce the .X files. The special option -aux-info is always
passed in addition, to tell gcc to write a .X file. Note that
the compilation options must be given as a single argument to
protoize or unprotoize. If you want to specify several gcc
options, you must quote the entire set of compilation options to
make them a single word in the shell. There are certain gcc
arguments that you cannot use, because they would produce the
wrong kind of output. These include -g, -O, -c, -S,-o. If you
include these in the COMPILATION-OPTIONS, they are ignored.
-d DIRECTORY
Specify additional directories whose files should be converted.
-g Add explicit global declarations. This means inserting explicit
declarations at the beginning of each source file for each func-
tion that is called in the file and was not declared. These
declarations precede the first function definition that contains
a call to an undeclared function. This option applies only to
-i STRING
Indent old-style parameter declarations with the string STRING.
This option applies only to protoize. unprotoize converts pro-
totyped function definitions to old-style function definitions,
where the arguments are declared between the argument list and
the initial {. By default, unprotoize uses five spaces as the
indentation. If you want to indent with just one space instead,
use -i " ".
-k Keep the .X files. Normally, they are deleted after conversion
is finished.
-l Add explicit local declarations. protoize with -l inserts a
prototype declaration for each function in each block which
calls the function without any declaration. This option applies
only to protoize.
-N Make no .save files. The original files are simply deleted.
Use this option with caution.
-n Make no real changes. This mode just prints information about
the conversions that would have been done without -n.
-p PROGRAM
Use the program PROGRAM as the compiler. Normally, the name gcc
is used.
-q Work quietly. Most warnings are suppressed.
-v Print the version number, just like -v for gcc.
-x FILE
List of files to exclude from the conversion process.
If you need special compiler options to compile one of your program’s
source files, then you should generate that file’s .X file specially,
by running gcc on that source file with the appropriate options and the
option -aux-info. Then run protoize on the entire set of files. pro-
toize will use the existing .X file because it is newer than the source
file. For example:
You need to include the special files along with the rest in the pro-
toize command, even though their .X files already exist, because other-
wise they won’t get converted.
SEE ALSO
gcc(1), and the Info entry for gcc, particularly Running protoize sec-
tion.
HISTORY
Ron Guilmette implemented the protoize and unprotoize tools.
AUTHORS
See the GCC manual for the contributors to GCC.
CAVEATS
The conversion programs protoize and unprotoize can sometimes change a
source file in a way that won’t work unless you rearrange it.
protoize can insert references to a type name or type tag before the
definition, or in a file where they are not defined.
If this happens, compiler error messages should indicate where the new
references are, so fixing the file by hand is straightforward.
There are some C constructs which protoize cannot figure out. For
example, it can’t determine argument types for declaring a pointer-to-
function variable; this must be done by hand. protoize inserts a com-
ment containing ??? each time it finds such a variable; all such vari-
ables can be found by searching for this string. ANSI C does not
require declaring the argument types of pointer-to-function types.
Using unprotoize can easily introduce bugs. If the program relied on
prototypes to bring about conversion of arguments, these conversions
will not take place in the program without prototypes. One case in
which you can be sure unprotoize is safe is when you are removing pro-
totypes that were made with protoize; if the program worked before
without any prototypes, it will work again without them.
You can find all the places where this problem might occur by compiling
the program with the -Wconversion option. It prints a warning whenever
an argument is converted.
Both conversion programs can be confused if there are macro calls in
and around the text to be converted. In other words, the standard syn-
tax for a declaration or definition must not result from expanding a
macro. This problem is inherent in the design of C and cannot be
fixed. If only a few functions have confusing macro calls, you can
easily convert them manually.
protoize cannot get the argument types for a function whose definition
was not actually compiled due to preprocessing conditionals. When this
happens, protoize changes nothing in regard to such a function. pro-
toize tries to detect such instances and warn about them.
You can generally work around this problem by using protoize step by
step, each time specifying a different set of -D options for compila-
tion, until all of the functions have been converted. There is no
automatic way to verify that you have got them all, however.
Confusion may result if there is an occasion to convert a function dec-
laration or definition in a region of source code where there is more
than one formal parameter list present. Thus, attempts to convert code
containing multiple (conditionally compiled) versions of a single
function header (in the same vicinity) may not produce the desired (or
expected) results.
If you plan on converting source files which contain such code, it is
recommended that you first make sure that each conditionally compiled
region of source code which contains an alternative function header
also contains at least one additional follower token (past the final
right parenthesis of the function header). This should circumvent the
problem.
unprotoize can become confused when trying to convert a function defi-
nition or declaration which contains a declaration for a pointer-to-
function formal argument which has the same name as the function being
defined or declared. We recommand you avoid such choices of formal
parameter names.
It might be necessary to correct some of the indentation by hand and
break long lines. (The conversion programs don’t write lines longer
than eighty characters in any case.)
BUGS
For instructions on reporting bugs, see the GCC manual.
COPYING
Copyright 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000,
2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
preserved on all copies.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the
entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a per-
mission notice identical to this one.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this man-
ual into another language, under the above conditions for modified ver-
sions, except that this permission notice may be included in transla-
tions approved by the Free Software Foundation instead of in the origi-
nal English.
GCC 8 December 2006 protoize(1)
