NAME
new - A simple template system
SYNOPSIS
new [options] filename [template]
OVERVIEW
New is a template system, especially useful in conjunction with a
simple text editor such as vi. The user maintains templates which may
contain format strings. At run time, new replaces the format strings
in a template with appropriate values to create a new file.
For example, given the following template:
// FILE: %%(FILE)
// AUTHOR: %%(FULLNAME)
// DATE: %%(DATE)
// Copyright (C) 1999 %(FULLNAME) %(EMAIL)
// All rights reserved.
new will create:
// FILE: foo.cpp
// AUTHOR: W. Michael Petullo
// DATE: 11 September 1999
// Copyright (C) 1999 W. Michael Petullo new@flyn.org
// All rights reserved.
on my computer.
The program understands plaintext or gziped template files.
Building new also creates a shared library, libnewtemplate, which
allows the programmer access to new’s functionality.
NASTY DETAILS
New first looks for templates in ~/.new/templates. Second, new looks
for templates in <datadir>/new/template, where datadir is defined by
autoconf. This directory is usually /usr/local/share or /usr/share.
The templates directory contains several subdirectories matching
filename extensions. This may include directories such as html, cpp,
c, and tex. Within each subdirectory are the actual template files.
The template file named default is the default template used for the
filename extension. Other templates can be used by specifying their
filename to new on the command line (see NEW(1)).
Certain types of files generally don’t have extensions. In this case,
new looks for a template directory with the same name as the file being
created. This is useful when using templates to create files with
names such as Makefile and README.
When filling a format pattern, new knows the value for the following
format patterns:
DATE Today’s date.
DAY Today’s day.
MONTH Today’s month.
YEAR Today’s year.
FILE The name of the file being created.
FULLNAME
The user’s full name (from GECOS field).
FIRSTNAME
The user’s first name (from GECOS field).
MIDDLENAME
The user’s middle name (from GECOS field).
LASTNAME
The user’s last name (from GECOS field).
EMPTY_STR
The empty string.
In addition, any environment variable can be used as a format pattern.
An alternate string to be used in the case of an environment variable
being undefined can be specified as follows:
%(UNDEFINED:foo)
This will be replaced with ‘‘foo’’ in the created file if UNDEFINED is
not a part of one’s environment.
The alternative may be a format pattern, too. If FIRSTNAME is defined
a Mike, the following:
%(UNDEFINED:%(before="My name is " FIRSTNAME))
will print ‘‘My name is Mike.’’
A format pattern can also be acted on by a modifier. The following
will print the value of FOO in capital letters:
%(upper FOO)
It makes sense to use some modifiers with a literal, instead of a key
which will be replaced by a value. For example:
%(file FOO)
will insert the text contained in a the file whose path is the value of
the key FOO. But:
%(file "foo")
will insert the contents of the file named foo.
The following modifiers are currently available:
upper Convert to upper case.
lower Convert to lower case.
basename
Convert to the basename of a filename.
before="str"
Append the string str before.
after="str"
Append the string str after.
fn Tag a " ()" on the end.
c_delim
Print enveloped in a C style deliminator, ie: /* == foo == */.
cpp_delim
Print enveloped in a C++ style deliminator, ie: // == foo.
sh_delim
Print enveloped in a shell script style deliminator, ie: # ==
foo.
tex_delim
Print eveloped in a LaTeX style deliminator, ie: % == foo.
newlines
Replaces occurrences of " " in the string with new lines
no_newlines
Replaces occurrences of "0 in the string with ’ ’
remove_underscore
Replaces occurrences of ’_’ in the string with ’-’
file Treats the key as the path to a file, which is included
template
Treats the key as the path to a template, which is filled and
included
# A comment, this will not appear in destination file %(#
Comment.)
Several modifiers can act within one format string as illustrated:
%(basename upper FOO)
Modifiers use a stack to be applied. The first modifier to be applied
is the one farthest to the right. The last to be applied it the one
farthest to the left.
AUTHORS
W. Michael Petullo <mike@flyn.org>
new(1)