<!doctype html public "-//W30//DTD W3 HTML 2.0//EN">
<HTML>
<!-- This file was generated using SDF 2.001 by
Ian Clatworthy (ianc@mincom.com). SDF is freely
available from http://www.mincom.com/mtr/sdf. -->
<HEAD>
<TITLE>SDF 2.001: SDF Reference: sdfcli - Command Line Interface Utility</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="ffffff">
<DIV CLASS="header">
<P><IMG SRC="../sdflogo.gif" ALIGN="Right"></P>
<DIV CLASS="navigate">
<P ALIGN="Center"><A HREF="re_sdf.html">Contents</A> | <A HREF="in_prog.html">Parent Topic</A> | <A HREF="sdfbatch.html">Previous Topic</A> | <A HREF="sdfget.html">Next Topic</A> <BR><A HREF="../index.html">Home</A> | <A HREF="../catalog.html">Catalog</A></P>
</DIV>
<BR CLEAR="Right">
</DIV>
<DIV CLASS="main">
<H1><A NAME="sdfcli">11.5. sdfcli - Command Line Interface Utility</A></H1>
<HR>
<H2><A NAME="Purpose">Purpose</A></H2>
<P><A HREF="../ref/sdfcli.html">sdfcli</A> extracts command line interface (CLI) information from applications and formats it into <A HREF="http://www.mincom.com/mtr/sdf/">SDF</A>.</P>
<HR>
<H2><A NAME="Usage">Usage</A></H2>
<PRE>
usage : sdfcli [-h[help]] [-o[out_ext]]
[-l[log_ext]] [-O[out_dir]] [-w wrap]
utility ...
purpose: format a utility's command line interface into SDF
version: 2.000 (SDF 2.001)
</PRE>
<P>The options are:</P>
<TABLE CLASS="columns" BORDER>
<TR CLASS="heading">
<TD>
<STRONG>Option</STRONG>
</TD>
<TD>
<STRONG>Description</STRONG>
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>
<A HREF="#sdfcli_h">-h</A>
</TD>
<TD>
display help on options
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>
<A HREF="#sdfcli_o">-o</A>
</TD>
<TD>
output file extension
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>
<A HREF="#sdfcli_l">-l</A>
</TD>
<TD>
log file extension
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>
<A HREF="#sdfcli_O">-O</A>
</TD>
<TD>
output to input file's (or explicit) directory
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>
<A HREF="#sdfcli_w">-w</A>
</TD>
<TD>
column at which to wrap option specifications
</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
<HR>
<H2><A NAME="Description">Description</A></H2>
<P><A NAME="sdfcli_h">The -h option provides help. If it is specified without a parameter, a brief description of each option is displayed. To display the attributes for an option, specify the option letter as a parameter.</A></P>
<P><A NAME="sdfcli_o">By default, generated output goes to standard output. To direct output to a file per input file, use the -o option to specify an extension for output files. If the -o option is specified without a parameter, an extension of <EM>out</EM> is assumed.</A></P>
<P><A NAME="sdfcli_l">Likewise, error messages go to standard error by default. Use the -l option to create a log file per input file. If the -l option is specified without a parameter, an extension of <EM>log</EM> is assumed.</A></P>
<P><A NAME="sdfcli_O">By default, generated output and log files are created in the current directory. Use the -O option to specify an explicit output directory. If the -O option is specified without a parameter, the input file's directory is used.</A></P>
<P><A HREF="../ref/sdfcli.html">sdfcli</A> executes each argument with a -h flag and converts the resultant output to nicely formatted <A HREF="http://www.mincom.com/mtr/sdf/">SDF</A>. An argument of "-" specifies that the help should be read from standard input.</P>
<P>Formatting is done as follows:</P>
<OL>
<LI>lines are tagged as <EM>Example</EM> paragraphs, with the first line formatted to wrap option usage specifications nicely
<LI>if a line is found that starts with 'options:', it is replaced with a <EM>Body</EM> paragraph saying "The options are:", and the following lines are formatted as a table of codes and descriptions
<LI>if a line is found that starts with 'aliases:', it is replaced with a <EM>Body</EM> paragraph saying "The aliases are:", and the following lines are formatted as a table of names and descriptions
<LI>each option code in the table is formatted as a hypertext jump to a tag called <EM>cmd_opt</EM> where:<UL>
<LI><EM>cmd</EM> is the command name</UL><UL>
<LI><EM>opt</EM> is the option code</UL></OL>
<P><A NAME="sdfcli_w"> </A>The -w option specifies at what column to wrap option specifications. The default is 50 - this is the best for output imported into the <A HREF="http://www.mincom.com">Mincom</A> templates.</P>
<HR>
<H2><A NAME="Limitations and future directions">Limitations and future directions</A></H2>
<P>The table formats used are hard coded.</P>
</DIV>
<DIV CLASS="footer">
<DIV CLASS="navigate">
<P ALIGN="Center"><A HREF="re_sdf.html">Contents</A> | <A HREF="in_prog.html">Parent Topic</A> | <A HREF="sdfbatch.html">Previous Topic</A> | <A HREF="sdfget.html">Next Topic</A> <BR><A HREF="../index.html">Home</A> | <A HREF="../catalog.html">Catalog</A></P>
</DIV>
</DIV>
</BODY>
</HTML>