/ 
C-Tokenize-0.13
River stage one • 6 direct dependents • 7 total dependents
/ C::Tokenize

NAME

C::Tokenize - reduce a C file to a series of tokens

SYNOPSIS

# Remove all C preprocessor instructions from a C program:
my $c = <<EOF;
#define X Y
#ifdef X
int X;
#endif
EOF
use C::Tokenize '$cpp_re';
$c =~ s/$cpp_re//g;
print "$c\n";

produces output

int X;

(This example is included as synopsis-cpp.pl in the distribution.)

# Print all the comments in a C program:
my $c = <<EOF;
/* This is the main program. */
int main ()
{
    int i;
    /* Increment i by 1. */
    i++;
    // Now exit with zero status.
    return 0;
}
EOF
use C::Tokenize '$comment_re';
while ($c =~ /($comment_re)/g) {
    print "$1\n";
}

produces output

/* This is the main program. */
/* Increment i by 1. */
// Now exit with zero status.

(This example is included as synopsis-comment.pl in the distribution.)

VERSION

This documents version 0.13 of C::Tokenize corresponding to git commit d887a78537b732d981aa07f72ce248a6c083056a released on Wed Dec 7 14:27:15 2016 +0900.

DESCRIPTION

This module provides a tokenizer, "tokenize", which breaks C source code into its smallest meaningful components, and the regular expressions which match each of these components. For example, the module supplies a regular expression "$comment_re" which matches a C comment line.

It also supplies some extra regular expressions for, for example, local include statements, "$include_local", or C variables, "$cvar_re", as well as extra functions, like "decomment" for removing traditional C comments.

REGULAR EXPRESSIONS

The following regular expressions can be imported from this module using, for example,

use C::Tokenize '$cpp_re'

to import $cpp_re.

Most of the following regular expressions do not do any capturing, except where noted. If you want to capture, add your own parentheses around the regular expression.

Comments

$trad_comment_re

Match /* */ comments.

$cxx_comment_re

Match // comments.

$comment_re

Match both /* */ and // comments.

Preprocessor instructions

$cpp_re

Match all C preprocessor instructions, such as #define, #include, #endif, and so on.

$include_local

Match an include statement which uses double quotes, like #include "some.c".

This captures the entire statement in $1 and the file name in $2.

This was added in version 0.10 of C::Tokenize.

$include

Match any include statement, like #include <stdio.h>.

This captures the entire statement in $1 and the file name in $2.

use C::Tokenize '$include';
my $c = <<EOF;
#include <this.h>
#include "that.h"
EOF
while ($c =~ /$include/g) {
    print "Include statement $1 includes file $2.\n";
}

produces output

Include statement #include <this.h> includes file this.h.
Include statement #include "that.h" includes file that.h.

(This example is included as includes.pl in the distribution.)

This was added in version 0.12 of C::Tokenize.

Values

$octal_re

Match an octal number, a number with digits 0 to 7 only which begins with a leading zero.

$hex_re

Match a hexadecimal number, a number with digits 0 to 9 and letters A to F, case insensitive, with a leading 0x or 0X and an optional trailing L or l for long.

$decimal_re

Match a decimal number, either integer or floating point.

$number_re

Match any number, either integer, floating point, hexadecimal, or octal.

$char_const_re

Match a character constant, such as 'a' or '\-'.

$single_string_re

Match a single C string constant such as "this".

$string_re

Match a full-blown C string constant, including compound strings "like" "this".

Operators, variables, and reserved words

$operator_re

Match an operator such as + or --.

$word_re

Match a word, such as a function or variable name or a keyword of the language. Use "$reserved_re" to match only reserved words.

$grammar_re

Match non-operator syntactic characters such as { or [.

$reserved_re

Match a C reserved word like auto or goto. Use "$word_re" to match non-reserved words.

$cvar_re

Match a C variable, for example anything which may be an lvalue or a function argument. It does not capture the result.

use C::Tokenize '$cvar_re';
my $c = 'func (x->y, & z, ** a, & q);';
while ($c =~ /[,\(]\s*($cvar_re)/g) {
    print "$1 is a C variable.\n";
}

produces output

x->y is a C variable.
& z is a C variable.
** a is a C variable.
& q is a C variable.

(This example is included as cvar.pl in the distribution.)

Because in theory this can contain very complex things, this regex is somewhat heuristic and there are edge cases where it is known to fail. See t/cvar_re.t in the distribution for examples.

This was added in version 0.11 of C::Tokenize.

VARIABLES

@fields

The exported variable @fields contains a list of all the fields which are extracted by "tokenize".

FUNCTIONS

decomment

my $out = decomment ('/* comment */');
# $out = " comment ";

Remove the traditional C comment marks /* and */ from the beginning and end of a string, leaving only the comment contents. The string has to begin and end with comment marks.

tokenize

my $tokens = tokenize ($file);

Convert $file into a series of tokens. The return value is an array reference which contains hash references. Each hash reference corresponds to one token in the C file. Each token contains the following keys:

leading

Any whitespace which comes before the token (called "leading whitespace").

type

The type of the token, which may be

comment

A comment, like

/* This */

or

// this.
cpp

A C preprocessor instruction like

#define THIS 1

or

#include "That.h".
char_const

A character constant, like '\0' or 'a'.

grammar

A piece of C "grammar", like { or ] or ->.

number

A number such as 42,

word

A word, which may be a variable name or a function.

string

A string, like "this", or even "like" "this".

reserved

A C reserved word, like auto or goto.

All of the fields which may be captured are available in the variable "@fields" which can be exported from the module:

use C::Tokenize '@fields';
$name

The value of the type. For example, if $token->{name} equals 'comment', then the value of the type is in , $token->{comment}.

if ($token->{name} eq 'string') {
    my $c_string = $token->{string};
}
line

The line number of the C file where the token occured. For a multi-line comment or preprocessor instruction, the line number refers to the final line.

EXPORTS

Nothing is exported by default.

use C::Tokenize ':all';

exports all the regular expressions and functions from the module, and also "@fields".

SEE ALSO

  • The regular expressions contained in this module are shown at this web page.

  • This example of use of this module demonstrates using C::Tokenize (version 0.12) to remove unnecessary header inclusions from C files.

  • There is a C to HTML converter in the examples subdirectory of the distribution called c2html.pl.

BUGS

No trigraphs

No handling of trigraphs.

Requires Perl 5.10

This module uses named captures in regular expressions, so it requires Perl 5.10 or more.

No line directives

The line numbers provided by "tokenize" do not respect C line directives.

Insufficient tests

The module has been used somewhat, but the included tests do not exercise many of the features of C.

AUTHOR

Ben Bullock, <bkb@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT & LICENCE

This package and associated files are copyright (C) 2012-2016 Ben Bullock.

You can use, copy, modify and redistribute this package and associated files under the Perl Artistic Licence or the GNU General Public Licence.