2.1 Invoking the preprocessor

The basic synopsis is:

mbflpp.sh [options] <INFILE >OUTFILE
mbflpp.sh [options] --outfile=OUTFILE [--] INFILE1 INFILE2 ...

all the INFILE pathnames are interpreted as files to concatenate in the specified order.

All the MBFL built in command line options are available, additionally the following options are supported.

--preserve-comments

Do not filter out comments.

--add-bash

Add #!$BASH at the beginning of the output, where BASH is the built–in variable of Bash, (bash)BASH.

--bash-program=BASH

Select the absolute file pathname of the Bash executable to use when the --add-bash is used. It defaults to the Bash used to run the preprocessor script itself.

-DNAME[=VALUE]

--define=NAME[=VALUE]

Define a new symbol (m4 syntax). This is equivalent to the --define option of m4.

-IVALUE

--include=VALUE

Add a search path for files. VALUE must be a directory pathname and it is handed to m4 to search for macro files. We can use this option multiple times.

--library=VALUE

Include an m4 library. VALUE must be the name of an m4 macro file which is evaluated before the input files.

-oVALUE

--output=VALUE

Select an output file, - for stdout.

-e

--eval

Send the result of preprocessing to bash, rather than print it.

--no-prepro

Do not load the installed preprocessor’s macros library. If we use this option: we are meant to use the option --library to load a replacement macros library from a known location.

This document describes version 3.0.0-devel.0 of Marcos Bash Functions Library.