stubgen 1.11

A member funtion stub generator for C++
(The perl script formerly known as expandC)

This page is being maintained for historical reasons only. Version 2, the lex/yacc edition, is preferred to stubgen 1.

I don't like C++, in part because of the repetition between header files and the actual code. But I use C++. So I wrote stubgen.

Back in '95, when I was coding some of those C++ projects for cs032, I realized I needed the C++ equivalent of EdsScript (written by the infamous Ed Bielawa). The result of my efforts is a perl script (residing in /cs/bin/stubgen). While you're here, you can peek at the source.

stubgen was formerly known as expandC, but I didn't like that capital "C" at the end, so I changed the name when I made it a cs project.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with what EdsScript for OOPas did, stubgen takes a C++ header (.H or .h) file, finds member function prototypes, and expands those prototypes into member function definiton stubs to a code (.C or .cc) file of the same name. stubgen isn't as bug-free as EdsScript was, but it works well enough to be usable.

I make no guarantees. It seems to work rather well for me, and I've found it useful for C++ projects of any size, so I figured I'd make it available. It appends to whatever code file you have around, so you won't accidentally clobber your existing code files.

WHAT IT DOES AND DOESN'T DO

This is still considered "beta", so here's what it does, although not always perfectly:

recognizes constructors and destructors
recognizes operator overloading
ignores already-inlined functions and pure virtuals
puts debugging cerrs in if you want
only expands functions that haven't been expanded already

Features I hope to add:

handle nested classes
recognize multi-line member functions better
handle template definitions (like template<class T>)
complete rewrite with lex/yacc

PLEASE NOTE

Because of the limitations of my implementation in perl, member function prototypes work best when entirely contained all on one long line. This means that if you have a function declaration that has lots of parameters and you break it up over more than one line, stubgen probably won't find it. I plan to fix this by rewriting stubgen in lex/yacc.

USAGE AND OPTIONS

usage: stubgen [-hqlxricdvVfsjpn] infiles
  GENERAL OPTIONS
    -h        Display usage information.
    -q        Quiet mode, no status information while generating code.
    -l        Generate source files with a lowercase (.cc) extension.
    -x        Generate source files with a .cxx extension.
    -r        Make RCS-style file headers
    -i        Don't put the #include "my_file.H" directive in my_file.C
 
  DEBUGGING OUTPUT OPTIONS (prints "class::function" in body of function)
    -c        Use cerrs and iostream.h
    -d        Use cs169-style dprintf's and Debug.H
 
  METHOD HEADER STYLES
    -v        Verbose method headers, similar style to the cs032
              method headers you get from the emacs mode.  (default)
    -V        Really verbose method headers, true cs032 style because
              each line both begins and ends the comment.  Code by dp.
    -f        Full method headers, a cross between -p and -v.
    -s        Simple method headers.
    -j        Java-style method headers.
    -p        Plain headers, just the name of the function.
    -n        No method headers.

Examples

For example, let's suppose I have the file Foo.H.

I'd run this command:

% stubgen Foo.H

and the file Foo.C would be produced.

Using the -c option for cerr debugging

% stubgen -c Foo.H

produces functions that look like this:

/*************************************************************************
 * Function Name: Foo::toto
 * Parameters: double &d, int i
 * Returns: double 
 * Effects: 
 *************************************************************************/
double 
Foo::toto(double &d, int i)
{
    cerr << "Foo::toto" << endl;
}

Using the -d option for cs169-style dprintf debugging (relies on both Debug.H and Debug.C)

% stubgen -d Foo.H

produces functions that look like this:

/*************************************************************************
 * Function Name: Foo::toto
 * Parameters: double &d, int i
 * Returns: double 
 * Effects: 
 *************************************************************************/
double 
Foo::toto(double &d, int i)
{
    dprintf(("Foo::toto\n"));
}

Using the -r option gives you RCS-style file headers

% stubgen -r Foo.H

produces file headers that look like this:

/*
 *  FILE: Foo.C
 *  AUTH: Michael John Radwin <mjr>
 *
 *  DESC: 
 *
 *  DATE: Thu Apr 18 14:23:30 1996
 *  $Id$ 
 *
 *  Modification history: 
 *  $Log$ 
 *
 */

You can even combine options, like: plain method headers and cerr debugging

% stubgen -cp Foo.H

produces functions that look like this:

/*
 * Foo::toto
 */
double 
Foo::toto(double &d, int i)
{
    cerr << "Foo::toto" << endl;
}

Revision Log

stubgen revisions

----------------------------
revision 1.8
date: 1997/02/07 00:48:16;  author: mjr;  state: Exp;  lines: +7 -4
-x option
----------------------------
revision 1.7
date: 1996/06/12 17:31:18;  author: mjr;  state: Exp;  lines: +2 -2
fixed the defined() paren mismatch
----------------------------
revision 1.6
date: 1996/06/06 17:22:00;  author: mjr;  state: Exp;  lines: +19 -7
revised comments at the top
----------------------------
revision 1.5
date: 1996/05/02 15:44:40;  author: mjr;  state: Exp;  lines: +9 -7
added STUBGEN_DOM environment variable check to append
to the author's email address.
Cleaned up the -V option so it has the same width as -v
Put the Returns: void line back in
----------------------------
revision 1.4
date: 1996/04/22 17:51:12;  author: mjr;  state: Exp;  lines: +7 -8
cleaned up nest handling a little and also checks for
undefined NAME and USER variables instead of just '' values
----------------------------
revision 1.3
date: 1996/04/19 17:08:48;  author: mjr;  state: Exp;  lines: +4 -3
added -i option to not #include "file.H" in file.C
per request of djh
----------------------------
revision 1.2
date: 1996/04/17 00:23:09;  author: mjr;  state: Exp;  lines: +7 -6
function(s) based on # expanded -- cosmetic
----------------------------
revision 1.1
date: 1996/04/16 23:25:42;  author: mjr;  state: Exp;
Initial revision

expandC revisions

----------------------------
revision 1.19
date: 1996/04/15 15:19:18;  author: mjr;  state: Exp;  lines: +1 -1
made constructors and destructors print the blank line again
so that the signature matching isn't broken anymore
----------------------------
revision 1.18
date: 1996/04/15 13:49:25;  author: mjr;  state: Exp;  lines: +33 -8
-r for rcs-style file headers
added USER lookup in case the environment var is not set
----------------------------
revision 1.17
date: 1996/04/15 05:41:33;  author: mjr;  state: Exp;  lines: +14 -5
added -f for full headers (per request of knr)
don't print ret_type if it's blank (i.e. constructors, destructors)
----------------------------
revision 1.16
date: 1996/04/15 01:26:10;  author: mjr;  state: Exp;  lines: +41 -29
added -q, cleaned up status output with inform_user
doesn't restrict input files to .[hH]
new usage format
----------------------------
revision 1.15
date: 1996/04/12 05:40:57;  author: mjr;  state: Exp;  lines: +24 -13
checks for existence of .cc or .C to override -l flag
if one or the other exists already.
----------------------------
revision 1.14
date: 1996/04/12 02:43:48;  author: mjr;  state: Exp;  lines: +4 -2
revised some output messages
----------------------------
revision 1.13
date: 1996/04/12 00:12:41;  author: mjr;  state: Exp;  lines: +5 -3
added -l option for lowercase (.cc) extensions for files
----------------------------
revision 1.12
date: 1996/04/11 05:39:49;  author: mjr;  state: Exp;  lines: +3 -2
fixed the regexp for previous-op-overload
----------------------------
revision 1.11
date: 1996/04/11 05:20:16;  author: mjr;  state: Exp;  lines: +2 -0
added operator-overloading to the previous_sigs function
----------------------------
revision 1.10
date: 1996/04/11 03:39:04;  author: mjr;  state: Exp;  lines: +61 -5
added signature matching so you can run it multiple times
----------------------------
revision 1.9
date: 1996/04/10 02:28:33;  author: mjr;  state: Exp;  lines: +2 -0
fixed the fwd decl prob
----------------------------
Wed Feb 28 13:34:24 EST 1996
    cleaned up the ENV{'NAME'} lookup a little
Sat Feb 24 22:35:06 EST 1996
    doesn't create a .C file if it finds no member functions
Wed Feb 21 22:29:36 EST 1996
    added pw-lookup for ENV{'NAME'} in case it's not set
Tue Feb 20 14:07:39 EST 1996
    switched to getopts.pl, added java-style comments, made comment
    styles a little more uniform, added dprintf support
Sun Oct 22 23:33:23 EDT 1995
    fixed what apparently broke with $class:: to $class\:\:
Tue May  2 12:39:22 EDT 1995
    now ignores nested classes, structs, enums and unions
Mon May  1 15:05:23 EDT 1995
    really cleaned up the general function rule, which allowed the
    elimination of the extra rule for templates.  Much smarter.
    also added parameter lists to limit the use of globals.
    also cleaned up usage info and command-line options.
    outFile writes to current directory, not full path of infile
Tue Apr 25 16:41:57 EDT 1995
    added cerr support, allows comments following functions
Tue Apr  4 18:43:55 EDT 1995 
    moved usage message after commandline stuff
Mon Apr  3 16:44:00 EDT 1995 
    added support for **&, etc; sub PrintMethod introduced to handle
    the various command line options 
Mon Mar 13 20:30:18 EST 1995 
    cleaned it up a lot, functional but limited

Michael J. Radwin

Last modified: Mon Nov 4 19:19:14 EST 2002

stubgen 1.11

A member funtion stub generator for C++ (The perl script formerly known as expandC)

WHAT IT DOES AND DOESN'T DO

PLEASE NOTE

USAGE AND OPTIONS

Examples

Revision Log

stubgen revisions

expandC revisions

A member funtion stub generator for C++
(The perl script formerly known as expandC)