GENCCODE(8)

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version 78.3 · 9 versions
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✨ GENCCODE ✨</p> (section 8 of the manual, bestie — ICU 78.3)

okay so bestie, gather round 🫶 this one is genuinely iconic: it's the little tool that turns your ICU data files into actual C code (or assembly, if you're feeling spicy). let's get into it 💅

🌈 NAME 🌈

genccode — generate C or platform specific assembly code from an ICU data file. ✨

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

genccode [ -h, -?, --help ] [ -a, --assembly name ] [ -d, --destdir
destination ] [ -n, --name name ] [ -e, --entrypoint name ] [ -f,
--filename name ] [ filename ...  ]

like… yes, that's a lot of brackets. breathe. it's fine. 💖

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so genccode reads every single filename you hand it, and writes out a C file containing a compilable definition of the data inside that data file. no cap. 🧚

the C file name? it's built by taking the base name of the data filename, replacing dots with underscores, and then adding a .c file extension. that's it, that's the whole vibe. ✨

now — if you use the -a option, you get platform specific assembly code instead of C code. and honestly? most C compilers will happily accept both C and assembly files, so you're not breaking anything. but instead of writing a filename with a .c file extension, you get one with a .s instead. slay. 💅

and if you call genccode with no filename at all? it just terminates gracefully. no drama, no crash, just leaves the group chat quietly. 😌

👑 OPTIONS 👑

  • -h, -?, --help — print help about usage and exit. the classic "what does anything mean" button 🫶
  • -a, --assembly name — output assembly code instead of C code. use -h to see the list of available types of assembly to generate, and to specify for this option. iykyk 🔥
  • -d, --destdir destination — set the destination directory to destination. the default destination directory is the current directory. (yes, wherever you already are. it's giving homebody 🏠)
  • -n, --name name — set the data name to name instead of the default. this name is also used as the base name of the output. the default name is made of the icudt prefix, followed by a two-digit version number corresponding to the current version of the ICU release, and a single letter indicating the endianness of the data — the letter b indicates big endian data, and the letter l indicates little endian ones. endianness lore fr fr 💀
  • -f, --filename name — normally, an ICU data file such as mydata.icu will be turned into mydata_icu.c and mydata_icu.o. however, if this parameter was set to "somedata", the output files will be somedata.o and somedata.c, respectively. main character rename energy 👑
  • -e, --entrypoint name — set the data entry point (used for linking against the data in a shared library form) to name. the default entry point name is made of the data (set by the -n, --name option) followed by an underscore and the type of the data (set by the -t, --type option). 🔗

🦋 VERSION 🦋

78.3

Copyright (C) 2000-2004 IBM, Inc. and others.

heads up bestie: if you're messing with assembly output or entry points, double-check what you're linking against before you ship it — this stuff ends up inside shared libraries and it does not do vibe checks for you. 💀

and that's the whole page!! mwah 💖 this was the GENCCODE(8) page from the ICU MANPAGE, dated 11 March 2004, covering ICU 78.3. go forth and generate, you absolute icon 🎀✨🫶

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