How to execute a single preprocessor directive in a C file

Question

I have a main.c file containing one or more preprocessor macros defined:

#include <stdio.h>

#define VALUE 12

int main(void) {
    printf("This file is in version %s and contains value %d\n", VERSION, VALUE);
    return 0;
}

I want to export a main2.c file with only the #define VERSION "1.0" applied to the original source file.

What I tried:

• gcc -DVERSION=\"1.0\" -E will apply ALL the preprocessor directives instead of the single one I want
• sed 's/VERSION/\"1.0\"/g' will probably replace more than needed, and will need more work if I need more than a single directive
• cppp is a nice tool but may alter the source file a lot. Only supports simple defines with numerical values

Is there any way to execute only parts of preprocessor directives with gcc ?

Answer 1

Partial preprocessing is a nifty idea and exactly what you are looking for. The cppp utility by Brian Raiter only handles #ifdef and #ifndef lines, it does not perform macro substitution as you require.

Here is a utility I just wrote for this purpose: you can define any number of identifiers on the command line with -Didentifier (expands to 1) or -Didentifier= (expands to nothing), -Didentifier=str or simply identifier=str.

It will substitute identifiers only, preserving comments and strings, but some corner cases are not handled, albeit should not be a problem:

• no support for non ASCII identifiers.
• stdio in #include <stdio.h> will be seen as an identifier that can be substituted.
• some numbers will be parsed as 3 tokens: 1.0E+1.
• identifiers will not be substituted if they are split on multiple lines with escaped newlines
• defining include, ifdef and other preprocessing directives will cause them to be substituted, unlike the C preprocessor
• macro argument names may be substituted whereas the C preprocessor would preserve them.

pcpp.c:

/* Partial preprocessing by chqrlie */

#include <ctype.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

typedef struct define_t {
    struct define_t *next;
    size_t len;
    const char *tok;
    const char *def;
} define_t;

static void *xmalloc(size_t size) {
    void *p = malloc(size);
    if (!p) {
        fprintf(stderr, "pcpp: cannot allocate memory\n");
        exit(1);
    }
    return p;
}

static void add_define(define_t **defsp, const char *str) {
    define_t *dp = xmalloc(sizeof(*dp));
    size_t len = strcspn(str, "=");
    const char *def = str[len] ? str + len + 1 : "1";
    dp->len = len;
    dp->tok = str;
    dp->def = def;
    dp->next = *defsp;
    *defsp = dp;
}

struct context {
    FILE *fp;
    int lineno;
    size_t size, pos;
    char *buf;
};

static int append_char(struct context *ctx, int ch) {
    if (ctx->pos == ctx->size) {
        size_t new_size = ctx->size + ctx->size / 2 + 32;
        char *new_buf = xmalloc(new_size);
        memcpy(new_buf, ctx->buf, ctx->size);
        free(ctx->buf);
        ctx->buf = new_buf;
        ctx->size = new_size;
    }
    ctx->buf[ctx->pos++] = (char)ch;
    return ch;
}

static void flush_context(struct context *ctx, FILE *ft) {
    if (ctx->pos) {
        fwrite(ctx->buf, ctx->pos, 1, ft);
        ctx->pos = 0;
    }
}

/* read the next byte from the C source file, handing escaped newlines */
static int getcpp(struct context *ctx) {
    int ch;
    while ((ch = getc(ctx->fp)) == '\\') {
        append_char(ctx, ch);
        if ((ch = getc(ctx->fp)) != '\n') {
            ungetc(ch, ctx->fp);
            return '\\';
        }
        append_char(ctx, ch);
        ctx->lineno += 1;
    }
    if (ch != EOF)
        append_char(ctx, ch);
    if (ch == '\n')
        ctx->lineno += 1;
    return ch;
}

static void ungetcpp(struct context *ctx, int ch) {
    if (ch != EOF && ctx->pos > 0) {
        ungetc(ch, ctx->fp);
        ctx->pos--;
    }
}

static int preprocess(const char *filename, FILE *fp, const char *outname, define_t *defs) {
    FILE *ft = stdout;
    int ch;
    struct context ctx[1] = {{ fp, 1, 0, 0, NULL }};
    if (outname) {
        if ((ft = fopen(outname, "w")) == NULL) {
            fprintf(stderr, "pcpp: cannot open output file %s: %s\n",
                    outname, strerror(errno));
            return 1;
        }
    }
    while ((ch = getcpp(ctx)) != EOF) {
        int startline = ctx->lineno;
        if (ch == '/') {
            if ((ch = getcpp(ctx)) == '/') {
                /* single-line comment */
                while ((ch = getcpp(ctx)) != EOF && ch != '\n')
                    continue;
                if (ch == EOF) {
                    fprintf(stderr, "%s:%d: unterminated single line comment\n",
                            filename, startline);
                    //break;
                }
                //putc('\n', ft);  /* replace comment with newline */
                flush_context(ctx, ft);
                continue;
            }
            if (ch == '*') {
                /* multi-line comment */
                int lastc = 0;
                while ((ch = getcpp(ctx)) != EOF) {
                    if (ch == '/' && lastc == '*') {
                        break;
                    }
                    lastc = ch;
                }
                if (ch == EOF) {
                    fprintf(stderr, "%s:%d: unterminated comment\n",
                            filename, startline);
                    //break;
                }
                //putc(' ', ft);  /* replace comment with single space */
                flush_context(ctx, ft);
                continue;
            }
            if (ch != '=') {
                ungetcpp(ctx, ch);
            }
            flush_context(ctx, ft);
            continue;
        }
        if (ch == '\'' || ch == '"') {
            int sep = ch;
            const char *const_type = (ch == '"') ? "string" : "character";

            while ((ch = getcpp(ctx)) != EOF) {
                if (ch == sep)
                    break;;
                if (ch == '\\') {
                    if ((ch = getcpp(ctx)) == EOF)
                        break;
                }
                if (ch == '\n') {
                    fprintf(stderr, "%s:%d: unescaped newline in %s constant\n",
                            filename, ctx->lineno - 1, const_type);
                    /* This is a syntax error but keep going as if constant was terminated */
                    break;
                }
            }
            if (ch == EOF) {
                fprintf(stderr, "%s:%d: unterminated %s constant\n",
                        filename, startline, const_type);
            }
            flush_context(ctx, ft);
            continue;
        }
        if (ch == '_' || isalpha(ch)) {
            /* identifier or keyword */
            define_t *dp;
            while (isalnum(ch = getcpp(ctx)) || ch == '_')
                continue;
            ungetcpp(ctx, ch);
            for (dp = defs; dp; dp = dp->next) {
                if (dp->len == ctx->pos && !memcmp(dp->tok, ctx->buf, ctx->pos)) {
                    /* matching symbol */
                    fputs(dp->def, ft);
                    ctx->pos = 0;
                    break;
                }
            }
            flush_context(ctx, ft);
            continue;
        }
        if (ch == '.' || isdigit(ch)) {
            /* preprocessing number: should parse precise syntax */
            while (isalnum(ch = getcpp(ctx)) || ch == '.')
                continue;
            ungetcpp(ctx, ch);
            flush_context(ctx, ft);
            continue;
        }
        flush_context(ctx, ft);
    }
    if (outname) {
        fclose(ft);
    }
    free(ctx->buf);
    return 0;
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
    char *filename = NULL;
    char *outname = NULL;
    define_t *defs = NULL;
    FILE *fp;
    int i;

    for (i = 1; i < argc; i++) {
        char *arg = argv[i];
        if (*arg == '-') {
            if (arg[1] == 'h' || arg[1] == '?' || !strcmp(arg, "--help")) {
                printf("usage: pcpp [-o FILENAME] [-Dname[=value]] ... [FILE] ...\n");
                return 2;
            } else
            if (arg[1] == 'o') {
                if (arg[2]) {
                    outname = arg + 2;
                } else
                if (i + 1 < argc) {
                    outname = argv[++i];
                } else {
                    fprintf(stderr, "pcpp: missing filename for -o\n");
                    return 1;
                }
            } else
            if (arg[1] == 'D') {
                if (arg[2]) {
                    add_define(&defs, arg + 2);
                } else
                if (i + 1 < argc) {
                    add_define(&defs, argv[++i]);
                } else {
                    fprintf(stderr, "pcpp: missing definition for -D\n");
                    return 1;
                }
            } else {
                fprintf(stderr, "pcpp: bad option: %s\n", arg);
                return 1;
            }
        } else
        if (strchr(arg, '=')) {
            add_define(&defs, arg);
        } else {
            filename = arg;
            if ((fp = fopen(filename, "r")) == NULL) {
                fprintf(stderr, "pcpp: cannot open input file %s: %s\n",
                        filename, strerror(errno));
                return 1;
            }
            preprocess(filename, fp, outname, defs);
            fclose(fp);
        }
    }
    if (!filename) {
        preprocess("<stdin>", stdin, outname, defs);
    }
    return 0;
}

Answer 2

Read about autoconf https://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/

and maybe even about automaker (if you want to generate makefiles) https://www.gnu.org/software/automake/.

Answer 3

EDIT: This is a non maintainable solution - but it works. Don't use this if you expect your project to grow into several versions over time.

My attempt makes use of preprocessor conditional code and string concatenation (the fact that in C you can do "abc" "def"and it will be trated as "abcdef".

#include <stdio.h>

#ifdef V1
#define VERSION "1"
#define VALUE 99
#else
#define VERSION "2"
#define VALUE 66
#endif


int main(void) {
    printf("This file is in version " VERSION " and contains value %d\n", VALUE);
    return 0;
}

which prints

>> ~/playground/so$ gcc -DV1 q1.c 
>> ~/playground/so$ ./a.out 
This file is in version 1 and contains value 99
>> ~/playground/so$ gcc -DV2 q1.c 
>> ~/playground/so$ ./a.out 
This file is in version 2 and contains value 66