gperf

Allow user to provide a string containing delimiters used to separate keywords from their attributes. Default is ",".

Allows the user to include a structured type declaration for generated code. Any text before %% is considered part of the type declaration. Key words and additional fields may follow this, one group of fields per line.

Consider upper and lower case ASCII characters as equivalent. Note that locale dependent case mappings are ignored.

Language for the output code:

Generates code in the specified language. Languages handled are currently C++, ANSI-C, C, and KR-C. The default is C.

Details in the output code:

Select name of the keyword component in the keyword structure.

Initializers for additional components in the keyword structure.

Specify name of generated hash function. Default is 'hash'.

Specify name of generated lookup function. Default name is 'in_word_set'.

Specify name of generated C++ class. Default name is 'Perfect_Hash'.

Assume 7-bit characters.

Compare key lengths before trying a string comparison. This is necessary if the keywords contain NUL bytes. It also helps cut down on the number of string comparisons made during the lookup.

Generate comparison code using strncmp rather than strcmp.

Make the contents of generated lookup tables constant, i.e., readonly.

Define constant values using an enum local to the lookup function rather than with defines.

Include the necessary system include file <string.h> at the beginning of the code.

Generate the static table of keywords as a static global variable, rather than hiding it inside of the lookup function (which is the default behavior).

Optimize the generated table for inclusion in shared libraries. This reduces the startup time of programs using a shared library containing the generated code.

Specify name of string pool generated by option --pic. Default name is 'stringpool'.

Use NULL strings instead of empty strings for empty keyword table entries.

Specify name of word list array. Default name is 'wordlist'.

Specify name of length table array. Default name is 'lengthtable'.

Causes the generated C code to use a switch statement scheme, rather than an array lookup table. This can lead to a reduction in both time and space requirements for some keyfiles. The COUNT argument determines how many switch statements are generated. A value of 1 generates 1 switch containing all the elements, a value of 2 generates 2 tables with 1/2 the elements in each table, etc. If COUNT is very large, say 1000000, the generated C code does a binary search.

Prevents the transfer of the type declaration to the output file. Use this option if the type is already defined elsewhere.

Algorithm employed by gperf:

Select the key positions used in the hash function. The allowable choices range between 1-255, inclusive. The positions are separated by commas, ranges may be used, and key positions may occur in any order. Also, the meta-character '*' causes the generated hash function to consider ALL key positions, and $ indicates the "final character" of a key, e.g., $,1,2,4,6-10.

Handle keywords that hash to duplicate values. This is useful for certain highly redundant keyword sets.

Perform multiple choices of the -i and -j values, and choose the best results. This increases the running time by a factor of ITERATIONS but does a good job minimizing the generated table size.

Provide an initial value for the associate values array. Default is 0. Setting this value larger helps inflate the size of the final table.

Affects the "jump value", i.e., how far to advance the associated character value upon collisions. Must be an odd number, default is 5.

Do not include the length of the keyword when computing the hash function.

Utilizes randomness to initialize the associated values table.

Affects the size of the generated hash table. The numeric argument N indicates "how many times larger or smaller" the associated value range should be, in relationship to the number of keys, e.g. a value of 3 means "allow the maximum associated value to be about 3 times larger than the number of input keys". Conversely, a value of 1/3 means "make the maximum associated value about 3 times smaller than the number of input keys". A larger table should decrease the time required for an unsuccessful search, at the expense of extra table space. Default value is 1.

Informative output:

Print this message.

Print the gperf version number.

Enables the debugging option (produces verbose output to the standard error).