shtool(1)
The GNU Portable Shell Tool
VERSION
GNU shtool 2.0.8 (18-Jul-2008)
SYNOPSIS
shtool
[ global_options ]
command
[ command_options ]
[ command_args ]
DESCRIPTION
GNU shtool is a compilation of small but very stable and portable shell
scripts into a single shell tool. All ingredients were in successful use over
many years in various free software projects. The compiled shtool script is
intended to be used inside the source tree of those free software packages.
There it can take over various (usually non-portable) tasks related to the
building and installation of such packages.
GLOBAL OPTIONS
The following
global options are available for
shtool. Any
commands
are ignored if one of them is present on the
shtool command line.
- -h, --help
-
Displays a short help page describing the usage of shtool and it's
ingredient commands in a compact way.
- -v, --version
-
Displays the version number of shtool.
- -d, --debug
-
Displays shell trace messages for debugging purposes.
- -r, --recreate
-
Recreate the shtool script with its own individual shtoolize(1) call.
COMMANDS
The following
commands are provided by
shtool. They are all called
via "
"shtool" command". Any command options
command_opts and
arguments
command_args are specific to the particular
command and
are described in the corresponding manual page
shtool_command(1).
The commands are listed here sorted by topic, i.e., related commands are
listed side-by-side.
- echo
-
echo(1) style print command providing special expansion constructs (terminal
bold mode, environment details, date) and newline control.
- mdate
-
Pretty-printing of the last modification time of a file or directory.
- table
-
Pretty-printing a field-separated list as a two-dimensional table.
- prop
-
Displaying of a processing indication though a running terminal
character propeller.
- move
-
mv(1) style command for renaming/moving multiple files at once and
allowing source files just to be deleted if contents did not change.
- install
-
install(1) style command for installing a program, script or data file
in a portable way.
- mkdir
-
mkdir(1) style command providing support for automatical parent
directory creation, directory permission control and smart skipping if
directory already exists.
- mkln
-
ln(1) style command providing automatic calculation and usage of relative
links if possible.
- mkshadow
-
Creation of a shadow filesystem tree by the help of symbolic links.
- fixperm
-
Fixing of file permissions in a source tree by cleaning up the
permission bits.
- rotate
-
Rotate a logfile.
- tarball
-
Roll standardized distribution tarballs.
- subst
-
Apply sed(1) substitution operations.
- platform
-
Determines platform identification information.
- arx
-
Extended archive command which can even put existing archives into an archive.
- slo
-
Separate linker options by library class.
- scpp
-
An additional C source file pre-processor for sharing cpp(1) code, internal
variables and internal functions.
- version
-
Maintain a version information file in either Text, C/C++, Perl or Python.
format.
- path
-
Deal with shell path variables.
HISTORY
Some scripts contained in GNU shtool were already written in 1994 by
Ralf S. Engelschall for use inside some private source trees. Then
they evolved into more elaborated versions over the years and were used
in various free software projects like ePerl, WML, iSelect, gFONT, etc.
They were complemented with other scripts from the author which he wrote
in March 1998 for the ``Apache Autoconf-style Interface'' (APACI) for
Apache 1.3. In April 1999 the shtool package was created out of the
accumulated master versions of the scripts and in June 1999 it entered
the status of an official GNU program and this way finally joined the
group of GNU autoconf, GNU automake and GNU libtool.
