Calling a Preprocessor Without the Compiler

Every preprocessor can be called as a separate application, without the ACUCOBOL-GT compiler, by a command line of one of the following forms (the second example is used with a preprocessor written in ACUCOBOL-GT):

preproc-1 -placePo output-file [options] input-file

run-time preproc-2.ACU -placePo output-file [options] input-file

These command lines are very similar to the one used with the -Pg option, but there are some important differences:

The preprocessor executable, or the ACUCOBOL-GT runtime if the preprocessor is an ACUCOBOL_GT program, will be located according to the procedures used by the operating system for locating executables.
The input and output files must be specified as shown.
The option list must include any compiler options that the compiler would normally pass through to the preprocessor. See Compiler Options Forwarded to Preprocessors for more information.
Options that might be passed to the compiler in combined form must be separated for the preprocessor. For example, the compiler accepts -Six for include/exclude, while a preprocessor requires: -Si for include and -Sx for exclude.

For diagnostic purposes, a preprocessor also accepts either of the following two options:

`-help`	do not preprocess; show command-line help on standard output device
`-v`	do not preprocess; show preprocessor version information on standard output device

When either of these options is used, the input and output files need not be specified.

Note: The -help and -v options are not acceptable when the preprocessor is called by the compiler.

Some preprocessors may allow other combinations of options and files when called without the compiler.

The input and output files should be files, not devices, because the preprocessor may not read or write them in strictly sequential order.

A preprocessor returns an exit value 0 (zero) if the preprocessing was successful and the value 1 (one) if there were errors.