m4: Invoking m4
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1 2 Invoking 'm4'
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1 The format of the 'm4' command is:
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1 m4 [OPTION...] [FILE...]
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1 All options begin with '-', or if long option names are used, with
1 '--'. A long option name need not be written completely, any
1 unambiguous prefix is sufficient. POSIX requires 'm4' to recognize
1 arguments intermixed with files, even when 'POSIXLY_CORRECT' is set in
1 the environment. Most options take effect at startup regardless of
1 their position, but some are documented below as taking effect after any
1 files that occurred earlier in the command line. The argument '--' is a
1 marker to denote the end of options.
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1 With short options, options that do not take arguments may be
1 combined into a single command line argument with subsequent options,
1 options with mandatory arguments may be provided either as a single
1 command line argument or as two arguments, and options with optional
1 arguments must be provided as a single argument. In other words, 'm4
1 -QPDfoo -d a -df' is equivalent to 'm4 -Q -P -D foo -d -df -- ./a',
1 although the latter form is considered canonical.
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1 With long options, options with mandatory arguments may be provided
1 with an equal sign ('=') in a single argument, or as two arguments, and
1 options with optional arguments must be provided as a single argument.
1 In other words, 'm4 --def foo --debug a' is equivalent to 'm4
1 --define=foo --debug= -- ./a', although the latter form is considered
1 canonical (not to mention more robust, in case a future version of 'm4'
1 introduces an option named '--default').
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1 'm4' understands the following options, grouped by functionality.
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