source: chapter06/m4.xml@ 00af9f7

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.3//EN" "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.3/docbookx.dtd" [
  <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../general.ent">
  %general-entities;
]>
<sect1 id="ch-system-m4" role="wrap">
<title>M4-&m4-version;</title>
<?dbhtml filename="m4.html"?>

<indexterm zone="ch-system-m4"><primary sortas="a-M4">M4</primary></indexterm>

<sect2 role="package"><title/>
<para>The M4 package contains a macro processor.</para>

<segmentedlist>
<segtitle>&buildtime;</segtitle>
<segtitle>&diskspace;</segtitle>
<seglistitem><seg>0.1 SBU</seg><seg>3.0 MB</seg></seglistitem>
</segmentedlist>

<segmentedlist>
<segtitle>M4 installation depends on</segtitle>
<seglistitem><seg>Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils, GCC,
Gettext, Glibc, Grep, Make, Perl, and Sed</seg></seglistitem>
</segmentedlist>
</sect2>

<sect2 role="installation">
<title>Installation of M4</title>

<para>Prepare M4 for compilation:</para>

<screen><userinput>./configure --prefix=/usr</userinput></screen>

<para>Compile the package:</para>

<screen><userinput>make</userinput></screen>

<para>To test the results, issue:
<userinput>make check</userinput>.</para>

<para>Install the package:</para>

<screen><userinput>make install</userinput></screen>

</sect2>


<sect2 id="contents-m4" role="content"><title>Contents of M4</title>

<segmentedlist>
<segtitle>Installed program</segtitle>
<seglistitem><seg>m4</seg></seglistitem>
</segmentedlist>

<variablelist><bridgehead renderas="sect3">Short Descriptions</bridgehead>
<?dbfo list-presentation="list"?>

<varlistentry id="m4">
<term><command>m4</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>copies the given files while expanding the macros that they
contain. These macros are either built-in or user-defined and can take
any number of arguments. Besides performing macro expansion,
<command>m4</command> has
built-in functions for including named files, running Unix commands,
performing integer arithmetic, manipulating text, recursion, etc. The
<command>m4</command> program can be used either as a front-end to a compiler or as a
macro processor in its own right.</para>
<indexterm zone="ch-system-m4 m4"><primary sortas="b-m4">m4</primary></indexterm>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>

</sect2>

</sect1>