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3. General issues

3.1 Command line interface

A consistent interface is used. 

program [flags]
        [input-file | input-arguments]
        [output-file | output-file-prefix]
        [other arguments]

where 

 flags
are optional flags used to direct the program to deviate from the default behaviour, 

 input-file
is the name of the input file, 

 input-arguments
are other arguments that are input for the program but are not specified using a file, 

 output-file
is the name of the output file; if omitted and there is no requirement for multiple output files, then stdout will be used for output, 

 output-file-prefix
is the prefix used for the output file when multiple output-files are generated.

In general, an attempt will be made to be able to specify the output file in an optional manner (i.e., explicit vs. redirection to stdout). Similarly, if there is only one input argument, an attempt will be made to read from stdin. All errors and informational messages will be sent to stderr.

Reading multiple input files is not possible unless a single output file is generated for the entire set of input files, or when multiple output files are generated for a single input file.

Typing the name of the program without any arguments or with an excess number of arguments (in cases where input files are read in via stdin) will give you the usage information, including the set of parametres used during compilation. This can be disabled by turning off the VERBOSE flag in rambin/src/common/defines.h and re-compiling the entire suite.

3.2 Directory structure 

rambin/bin/scripts           - architecture-independent executables
rambin/bin/architecture      - architecture dependent executables; four
                               architectures are supported: linux_alpha,
                               linux_ix86, irix_mips, and osf1_alpha.
rambin/doc                   - documentation
rambin/src                   - source
rambin/src/obsolete          - obsolete source; this directory contains
                               code for stuff that is incomplete, being
                               worked on, or ideas that didn't pan out.

3.3 Environment variables 

RAMBIN_ROOT      - top level directory for the RAMBIN source/executable directory tree
BINDIR_EXTENSION - architecture dependent binary directory names.
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