.TH M4 1 "May 2003" "GNU m4 1.4o" "GNU User's Manual"
.SH NAME
m4 \- short documentation for m4 1.4o
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B m4
[\fIOPTION\fR]...\fI \fR[\fIFILE\fR]...\fI\fR
.SH DESCRITION
.PP
Mandatory or optional arguments to long options are mandatory or optional
for short options too.
.SS "Operation modes:"
.TP
\fB\-\-help\fR
display this help and exit
.TP
\fB\-\-version\fR
output version information and exit
.TP
\fB\-e\fR, \fB\-\-interactive\fR
unbuffer output, ignore interrupts
.TP
\fB\-E\fR, \fB\-\-fatal\-warnings\fR
stop execution after first warning
.TP
\fB\-Q\fR, \fB\-\-quiet\fR, \fB\-\-silent\fR
suppress some warnings for builtins
.TP
\fB\-P\fR, \fB\-\-prefix\-builtins\fR
force a `m4_' prefix to all builtins
.SS "Preprocessor features:"
.TP
\fB\-I\fR, \fB\-\-include\fR=\fIDIRECTORY\fR
search this directory second for includes
.TP
\fB\-D\fR, \fB\-\-define=NAME\fR[=\fIVALUE\fR]
enter NAME has having VALUE, or empty
.TP
\fB\-U\fR, \fB\-\-undefine\fR=\fINAME\fR
delete builtin NAME
.TP
\fB\-s\fR, \fB\-\-synclines\fR
generate `#line NO "FILE"' lines
.SS "Limits control:"
.TP
\fB\-G\fR, \fB\-\-traditional\fR
suppress all GNU extensions
.TP
\fB\-H\fR, \fB\-\-hashsize\fR=\fIPRIME\fR
set symbol lookup hash table size
.TP
\fB\-L\fR, \fB\-\-nesting\-limit\fR=\fINUMBER\fR
change artificial nesting limit
.SS "Frozen state files:"
.TP
\fB\-F\fR, \fB\-\-freeze\-state\fR=\fIFILE\fR
produce a frozen state on FILE at end
.TP
\fB\-R\fR, \fB\-\-reload\-state\fR=\fIFILE\fR
reload a frozen state from FILE at start
.SS "Debugging:"
.TP
\fB\-d\fR, \fB\-\-debug\fR=\fI[FLAGS]\fR
set debug level (no FLAGS implies `aeq')
.TP
\fB\-t\fR, \fB\-\-trace\fR=\fINAME\fR
trace NAME when it will be defined
.TP
\fB\-l\fR, \fB\-\-arglength\fR=\fINUM\fR
restrict macro tracing size
.TP
\fB\-o\fR, \fB\-\-error\-output\fR=\fIFILE\fR
redirect debug and trace output
.SS "FLAGS is any of:"
.TP
t
trace for all macro calls, not only traceon'ed
.TP
a
show actual arguments
.TP
e
show expansion
.TP
q
quote values as necessary, with a or e flag
.TP
c
show before collect, after collect and after call
.TP
x
add a unique macro call id, useful with c flag
.TP
f
say current input file name
.TP
l
say current input line number
.TP
p
show results of path searches
.TP
i
show changes in input files
.TP
V
shorthand for all of the above flags
.PP
If no FILE or if FILE is `-', standard input is read.
.SH BUGS
Report bugs to <bug-m4@gnu.org>.
.SH SEE ALSO
The full documentation for
.B m4
is maintained as a Texinfo manual.  If the
.B info
and
.B m4
programs are properly installed at your site, the command
.IP
.B info m4
.PP
should allow you to access the manual as an hypertext.