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volume26
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cook-1.4
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part01
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README
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readme(cook) readme(cook)
NAME
cook - a file construction tool
DESCRIPTION
Put simply, the cook program is yet another make-oid.
The cook program is a tool for constructing files. It is
given a set of files to create, and recipes of how to
create them. In any non-trivial program there will be
prerequisites to performing the actions necessary to
creating any file, such as include files. The cook
program provides a mechanism to define these.
When a program is being developed or maintained, the
programmer will typically change one file of several which
comprise the program. The cook program examines the last-
modified times of the files to see when the prerequisites
of a file have changed, implying that the file needs to be
recreated as it is logically out of date.
The cook program also provides a facility for implicit
recipes, allowing users to specify how to form a file with
a given suffix from a file with a different suffix. For
example, to create filename.o from filename.c
HISTORY
The cook program was originally developed (starting in
1988) because I was marooned on an operating system
without anything even vaguely resembling make(1). Since I
had to write my own, I added a few improvements. When I
finally escaped back to UNIX, it took only two days to
port cook to SystemV. I have since deleted all code for
that original operating system, although clues to its
identity are still present. There is no prize for
guessing what it was.
After I had cook up on UNIX, the progress the world had
made caught up with me. It was gratifying that many of
the features other make-oid authors had thought necessary
were either already present, or easily and seamlessly
added.
ARCHIVE SITE
The latest version of cook is available by anonymous ftp
from:
Host: ftp.cse.nau.edu (134.114.64.70)
Dir: /pub/Aegis
File: README # what is in this directory
File: cook.1.4.tar.Z # the complete source
File: cook.1.4.patch.Z # patch to take 1.3 to 1.4
File: cook.1.4.ps.Z # PostScript of the Manual
To use anonymous ftp, give "anonymous" as the user name
(omit the quotes) and your email address as the password.
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readme(cook) readme(cook)
My grateful thanks to Paul Balyoz <pab@ftp.cse.nau.edu>
for his generosity in providing this archive space.
This directory also contains a few other pieces of
software written by me. Please have a look if you are
interested.
For those of you without ftp, I recommend the use of an
ftp-by-email server. Here is a list of a few (there are
many more):
mail-server@pit-manager.mit.edu
ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com
ftpmail@cs.uow.edu.au
In general, you can get a help message about how to use
each system by sending email with a subject of "help" and
a message body containing just the word "help".
MAILING LIST
A mailing list has been created so that users of cook may
exchange ideas about how to use the cook program.
Discussion may include, but is not limited to: bugs,
enhancements, and applications. The list is not
moderated.
The address of the mailing list is
cook-users@bmr.gov.au
To subscribe to this mailing list, send an email message
to majordomo@bmr.gov.au with a message body containing the
single line
subscribe cook-users
Please note that bmr.gov.au is an Internet site, so if you
have an address which is not readily derived from your
mail headers (majordomo is only a Perl program, after all)
you will need to use a message of the form:
subscribe cook-users address
where address is an email address which makes sense from
an Internet site.
The software which handles this mailing list CANNOT send
you a copy of the cook program. Please use ftp or ftp-by-
email, instead.
NEW IN THIS RELEASE
A number of features have been added to cook with this
release. A few of them are detailed here:
* The cook program is now known to work on more systems.
Most changes were aimed at improving portability, or
avoiding problems specific to some systems.
* The GNU long option name convention is now understood.
Option names for cook were always long, so this mostly
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readme(cook) readme(cook)
consists of ignoring the extra leading '-'. The
"--foo=bar" convention is also understood for options with
arguments.
* Tests which fail now tell you what it was they were
testing for. This will give the user some idea of what is
happening.
Plus the usual crop of bug fixes and tinkering. For
excruciating detail, and also acknowlegements of those who
generously sent me feedback, please see the CHANGES file
included in this distribution.
BUILDING COOK
Full instructions for building the cook program may be
found in the BUILDING file included in this distribution.
COPYRIGHT
cook version 1.4.D013
Copyright (C) 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993 Peter
Miller.
All rights reserved.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it
and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
License as published by the Free Software Foundation;
either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any
later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
License along with this program; if not, write to the Free
Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA
02139, USA.
It should be in the LICENSE file included with this
distribution.
AUTHOR
Peter Miller UUCP uunet!munnari!bmr.gov.au!pmiller
/\/\* Internet pmiller@bmr.gov.au
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