Difference between revisions of "Ptx"

Latest revision as of 02:00, 26 April 2007

ptx is a command-line utility to produce a permuted index of file contents similar to a KWIC (keywords in their context). It is part of the GNU textutils (a sub-category of the GNU coreutils).

Usage

Usage: ptx [OPTION]... [INPUT]...   (without -G)
  or:  ptx -G [OPTION]... [INPUT [OUTPUT]]
Output a permuted index, including context, of the words in the input files.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
  -A, --auto-reference           output automatically generated references
  -G, --traditional              behave more like System V `ptx'
  -F, --flag-truncation=STRING   use STRING for flagging line truncations
  -M, --macro-name=STRING        macro name to use instead of `xx'
  -O, --format=roff              generate output as roff directives
  -R, --right-side-refs          put references at right, not counted in -w
  -S, --sentence-regexp=REGEXP   for end of lines or end of sentences
  -T, --format=tex               generate output as TeX directives
  -W, --word-regexp=REGEXP       use REGEXP to match each keyword
  -b, --break-file=FILE          word break characters in this FILE
  -f, --ignore-case              fold lower case to upper case for sorting
  -g, --gap-size=NUMBER          gap size in columns between output fields
  -i, --ignore-file=FILE         read ignore word list from FILE
  -o, --only-file=FILE           read only word list from this FILE
  -r, --references               first field of each line is a reference
  -t, --typeset-mode               - not implemented -
  -w, --width=NUMBER             output width in columns, reference excluded
      --help     display this help and exit
      --version  output version information and exit

With no FILE or if FILE is -, read Standard Input.  `-F /' by default.

General options

`-C'
`--copyright'
     Prints a short note about the Copyright and copying conditions,
     then exit without further processing.

`-G'
`--traditional'
     As already explained, this option disables all GNU extensions to
     `ptx' and switch to traditional mode.

`--help'
     Prints a short help on standard output, then exit without further
     processing.

`--version'
     Prints the program verison on standard output, then exit without
     further processing.

Charset selection

As it is setup now, the program assumes that the input file is coded
using 8-bit ISO 8859-1 code, also known as Latin-1 character set,
_unless_ if it is compiled for MS-DOS, in which case it uses the
character set of the IBM-PC.  (GNU `ptx' is not known to work on
smaller MS-DOS machines anymore.)  Compared to 7-bit ASCII, the set of
characters which are letters is then different, this fact alters the
behaviour of regular expression matching.  Thus, the default regular
expression for a keyword allows foreign or diacriticized letters.
Keyword sorting, however, is still crude; it obeys the underlying
character set ordering quite blindly.

`-f'
`--ignore-case'
     Fold lower case letters to upper case for sorting.

Word selection

`-b FILE'

`--break-file=FILE'
     This option is an alternative way to option `-W' for describing
     which characters make up words.  This option introduces the name
     of a file which contains a list of characters which can_not_ be
     part of one word, this file is called the "Break file".  Any
     character which is not part of the Break file is a word
     constituent.  If both options `-b' and `-W' are specified, then
     `-W' has precedence and `-b' is ignored.

     When GNU extensions are enabled, the only way to avoid newline as a
     break character is to write all the break characters in the file
     with no newline at all, not even at the end of the file.  When GNU
     extensions are disabled, spaces, tabs and newlines are always
     considered as break characters even if not included in the Break
     file.

`-i FILE'
`--ignore-file=FILE'
     The file associated with this option contains a list of words
     which will never be taken as keywords in concordance output.  It
     is called the "Ignore file".  The file contains exactly one word
     in each line; the end of line separation of words is not subject
     to the value of the `-S' option.

     There is a default Ignore file used by `ptx' when this option is
     not specified, usually found in `/usr/local/lib/eign' if this has
     not been changed at installation time.  If you want to deactivate
     the default Ignore file, specify `/dev/null' instead.

`-o FILE'
`--only-file=FILE'
     The file associated with this option contains a list of words
     which will be retained in concordance output, any word not
     mentioned in this file is ignored.  The file is called the "Only
     file".  The file contains exactly one word in each line; the end
     of line separation of words is not subject to the value of the
     `-S' option.

     There is no default for the Only file.  In the case there are both
     an Only file and an Ignore file, a word will be subject to be a
     keyword only if it is given in the Only file and not given in the
     Ignore file.

`-r'
`--references'
     On each input line, the leading sequence of non white characters
     will be taken to be a reference that has the purpose of
     identifying this input line on the produced permuted index.  See
     *Note Output formatting:: for more information about reference
     production.  Using this option change the default value for option
     `-S'.

     Using this option, the program does not try very hard to remove
     references from contexts in output, but it succeeds in doing so
     _when_ the context ends exactly at the newline.  If option `-r' is
     used with `-S' default value, or when GNU extensions are disabled,
     this condition is always met and references are completely
     excluded from the output contexts.

`-S REGEXP'
`--sentence-regexp=REGEXP'
     This option selects which regular expression will describe the end
     of a line or the end of a sentence.  In fact, there is other
     distinction between end of lines or end of sentences than the
     effect of this regular expression, and input line boundaries have
     no special significance outside this option.  By default, when GNU
     extensions are enabled and if `-r' option is not used, end of
     sentences are used.  In this case, the precise REGEX is imported
     from GNU emacs:

          [.?!][]\"')}]*\\($\\|\t\\|  \\)[ \t\n]*

     Whenever GNU extensions are disabled or if `-r' option is used, end
     of lines are used; in this case, the default REGEXP is just:

          \n

     Using an empty REGEXP is equivalent to completely disabling end of
     line or end of sentence recognition.  In this case, the whole file
     is considered to be a single big line or sentence.  The user might
     want to disallow all truncation flag generation as well, through
     option `-F ""'.  *Note Syntax of Regular Expressions:
     (emacs)Regexps.

     When the keywords happen to be near the beginning of the input
     line or sentence, this often creates an unused area at the
     beginning of the output context line; when the keywords happen to
     be near the end of the input line or sentence, this often creates
     an unused area at the end of the output context line.  The program
     tries to fill those unused areas by wrapping around context in
     them; the tail of the input line or sentence is used to fill the
     unused area on the left of the output line; the head of the input
     line or sentence is used to fill the unused area on the right of
     the output line.

     As a matter of convenience to the user, many usual backslashed
     escape sequences, as found in the C language, are recognized and
     converted to the corresponding characters by `ptx' itself.

`-W REGEXP'
`--word-regexp=REGEXP'
     This option selects which regular expression will describe each
     keyword.  By default, if GNU extensions are enabled, a word is a
     sequence of letters; the REGEXP used is `\w+'.  When GNU
     extensions are disabled, a word is by default anything which ends
     with a space, a tab or a newline; the REGEXP used is `[^ \t\n]+'.

     An empty REGEXP is equivalent to not using this option, letting the
     default dive in.  *Note Syntax of Regular Expressions:
     (emacs)Regexps.

     As a matter of convenience to the user, many usual backslashed
     escape sequences, as found in the C language, are recognized and
     converted to the corresponding characters by `ptx' itself.

Output formatting

Output format is mainly controlled by `-O' and `-T' options, described
in the table below.  When neither `-O' nor `-T' is selected, and if GNU
extensions are enabled, the program choose an output format suited for
a dumb terminal.  Each keyword occurrence is output to the center of
one line, surrounded by its left and right contexts.  Each field is
properly justified, so the concordance output could readily be
observed.  As a special feature, if automatic references are selected
by option `-A' and are output before the left context, that is, if
option `-R' is _not_ selected, then a colon is added after the
reference; this nicely interfaces with GNU Emacs `next-error'
processing.  In this default output format, each white space character,
like newline and tab, is merely changed to exactly one space, with no
special attempt to compress consecutive spaces.  This might change in
the future.  Except for those white space characters, every other
character of the underlying set of 256 characters is transmitted
verbatim.

   Output format is further controlled by the following options.

`-g NUMBER'
`--gap-size=NUMBER'
     Select the size of the minimum white gap between the fields on the
     output line.

`-w NUMBER'
`--width=NUMBER'
     Select the output maximum width of each final line.  If references
     are used, they are included or excluded from the output maximum
     width depending on the value of option `-R'.  If this option is not
     selected, that is, when references are output before the left
     context, the output maximum width takes into account the maximum
     length of all references.  If this options is selected, that is,
     when references are output after the right context, the output
     maximum width does not take into account the space taken by
     references, nor the gap that precedes them.

`-A'
`--auto-reference'
     Select automatic references.  Each input line will have an
     automatic reference made up of the file name and the line ordinal,
     with a single colon between them.  However, the file name will be
     empty when standard input is being read.  If both `-A' and `-r'
     are selected, then the input reference is still read and skipped,
     but the automatic reference is used at output time, overriding the
     input reference.

`-R'
`--right-side-refs'
     In default output format, when option `-R' is not used, any
     reference produced by the effect of options `-r' or `-A' are given
     to the far right of output lines, after the right context.  In
     default output format, when option `-R' is specified, references
     are rather given to the beginning of each output line, before the
     left context.  For any other output format, option `-R' is almost
     ignored, except for the fact that the width of references is _not_
     taken into account in total output width given by `-w' whenever
     `-R' is selected.

     This option is automatically selected whenever GNU extensions are
     disabled.

`-F STRING'
`--flac-truncation=STRING'
     This option will request that any truncation in the output be
     reported using the string STRING.  Most output fields
     theoretically extend towards the beginning or the end of the
     current line, or current sentence, as selected with option `-S'.
     But there is a maximum allowed output line width, changeable
     through option `-w', which is further divided into space for
     various output fields.  When a field has to be truncated because
     cannot extend until the beginning or the end of the current line
     to fit in the, then a truncation occurs.  By default, the string
     used is a single slash, as in `-F /'.

     STRING may have more than one character, as in `-F ...'.  Also, in
     the particular case STRING is empty (`-F ""'), truncation flagging
     is disabled, and no truncation marks are appended in this case.

     As a matter of convenience to the user, many usual backslashed
     escape sequences, as found in the C language, are recognized and
     converted to the corresponding characters by `ptx' itself.

`-M STRING'
`--macro-name=STRING'
     Select another STRING to be used instead of `xx', while generating
     output suitable for `nroff', `troff' or TeX.

`-O'
`--format=roff'
     Choose an output format suitable for `nroff' or `troff'
     processing.  Each output line will look like:

          .xx "TAIL" "BEFORE" "KEYWORD_AND_AFTER" "HEAD" "REF"

     so it will be possible to write an `.xx' roff macro to take care of
     the output typesetting.  This is the default output format when GNU
     extensions are disabled.  Option `-M' might be used to change `xx'
     to another macro name.

     In this output format, each non-graphical character, like newline
     and tab, is merely changed to exactly one space, with no special
     attempt to compress consecutive spaces.  Each quote character: `"'
     is doubled so it will be correctly processed by `nroff' or `troff'.

`-T'
`--format=tex'
     Choose an output format suitable for TeX processing.  Each output
     line will look like:

          \xx {TAIL}{BEFORE}{KEYWORD}{AFTER}{HEAD}{REF}

     so it will be possible to write write a `\xx' definition to take
     care of the output typesetting.  Note that when references are not
     being produced, that is, neither option `-A' nor option `-r' is
     selected, the last parameter of each `\xx' call is inhibited.
     Option `-M' might be used to change `xx' to another macro name.

     In this output format, some special characters, like `$', `%',
     `&', `#' and `_' are automatically protected with a backslash.
     Curly brackets `{', `}' are also protected with a backslash, but
     also enclosed in a pair of dollar signs to force mathematical
     mode.  The backslash itself produces the sequence `\backslash{}'.
     Circumflex and tilde diacritics produce the sequence `^\{ }' and
     `~\{ }' respectively.  Other diacriticized characters of the
     underlying character set produce an appropriate TeX sequence as
     far as possible.  The other non-graphical characters, like newline
     and tab, and all others characters which are not part of ASCII,
     are merely changed to exactly one space, with no special attempt
     to compress consecutive spaces.  Let me know how to improve this
     special character processing for TeX.

External links

• ptx