ppudump(1)

💖 ppudump(1) — the Free Pascal Unit dump utility 💖

okay bestie, buckle up, because we're about to read the tea that's hiding inside your compiled units. this is the ppudump manual page, section 1, straight from Free Pascal (the utility itself is literally subtitled Free Pascal Unit dump utility). it's giving x-ray vision for .ppu files. let's go 🦋

✨ NAME ✨

ppudump — The FPC Pascal unit dump program. that's it, that's the whole vibe. it dumps units. iconic behavior, no notes. 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

ppudump [-h] [-v[h|i|m|d|s|b|a]] ppu-file1 ppufile2 ...

look at her. short, sweet, absolutely stacked with flags. 😌

✨ Description ✨

so here's the deal, bestie: ppudump writes the contents of a Free Pascal unit file straight to standard output. 🫶

it gives you a listing of all the definitions in the unit file — like, everything the compiler knows and you forgot. and the format of that listing? fully controllable by the options. you're the main character here, you decide how much you wanna see. 👑

✨ Usage ✨

you invoke ppudump with the names of the units you want to dump as arguments. easy. and here's the little gift: you need not specify an extension — by default .ppu is assumed. so you can be lazy and it just works. slay. ✨

the output goes to standard output, so pipe it, redirect it, scroll it, whatever your heart desires. 🌈

✨ Options ✨

ngl, she's lowkey minimal — ppudump has only two options. two. that's it. quality over quantity, periodt. 💅

• -h — shows a short help screen. like a lil "hey bestie here's what I do" moment. 🎀
• -vxxx — controls the level of verbosity. and xxx is any combination of the following letters (yes, you can mix and match, go feral):
  • a — Shows all information stored in the PPU file. everything. the whole closet. 👑
  • b — Shows the browser information in the PPU file (if present). note the if present — sometimes it's just not there, and that's okay. 🙈
  • d — Shows the definitions in the PPU file. the actual lore. 📖
  • h — Shows the header information in the PPU file. the lil intro card before the content. ✨
  • i — Shows only interface information, implementation information is not shown. interface girlies only. 💖
  • m — Shows only implementation information, interface interface is not shown. implementation girlies only. (and yes, the original page really does say "interface interface" twice there — we keep the facts exactly as they are, no cap. 💀)
  • s — Shows the symbols stored in the PPU file. the symbol table, the receipts, the whole ✨ vibe ✨.

lowkey reminder: xxx is any combination of those letters — so -va, -vhd, -vs and so on are all fair game. mix responsibly. 💅

✨ SEE ALSO ✨

• ppc386(1)
• ppumove(1)

go check those out when you're done here, they're part of the same friend group. 🫶

okay that's the whole page bestie, you're officially a ppudump scholar 💖✨

this lil manual comes from Free Pascal, dated 5 June 1999, and it lives on page ppudump(1) — yes, 1999, she's a vintage queen and she still ate. mwah. 💅🎀🦋