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gperf
The perfect hash function generator gperf reads a set of
"keywords" from a keyfile (or from the standard input by
default). It attempts to derive a perfect hashing function that
recognizes a member of the static keyword set with at most a
single probe into the lookup table. If gperf succeeds in
generating such a function it produces a pair of C source code routines
that perform hashing and table lookup recognition. All generated C code
is directed to the standard output. Command-line options described
below allow you to modify the input and output format to gperf.
By default, gperf attempts to produce time-efficient code, with
less emphasis on efficient space utilization. However, several options
exist that permit trading-off execution time for storage space and vice
versa. In particular, expanding the generated table size produces a
sparse search structure, generally yielding faster searches.
Conversely, you can direct gperf to utilize a C switch
statement scheme that minimizes data space storage size. Furthermore,
using a C switch may actually speed up the keyword retrieval time
somewhat. Actual results depend on your C compiler, of course.
In general, gperf assigns values to the characters it is using
for hashing until some set of values gives each keyword a unique value.
A helpful heuristic is that the larger the hash value range, the easier
it is for gperf to find and generate a perfect hash function.
Experimentation is the key to getting the most from gperf.
gperf
You can control the input keyfile format by varying certain command-line
arguments, in particular the `-t' option. The input's appearance
is similar to GNU utilities flex and bison (or UNIX
utilities lex and yacc). Here's an outline of the general
format:
declarations %% keywords %% functions
Unlike flex or bison, all sections of gperf's input
are optional. The following sections describe the input format for each
section.
struct Declarations and C Code Inclusion
The keyword input file optionally contains a section for including
arbitrary C declarations and definitions, as well as provisions for
providing a user-supplied struct. If the `-t' option
is enabled, you must provide a C struct as the last
component in the declaration section from the keyfile file. The first
field in this struct must be a char * identifier called "name,"
although it is possible to modify this field's name with the `-K'
option described below.
Here is simple example, using months of the year and their attributes as input:
struct months { char *name; int number; int days; int leap_days; };
%%
january, 1, 31, 31
february, 2, 28, 29
march, 3, 31, 31
april, 4, 30, 30
may, 5, 31, 31
june, 6, 30, 30
july, 7, 31, 31
august, 8, 31, 31
september, 9, 30, 30
october, 10, 31, 31
november, 11, 30, 30
december, 12, 31, 31
Separating the struct declaration from the list of key words and
other fields are a pair of consecutive percent signs, %%,
appearing left justified in the first column, as in the UNIX utility
lex.
Using a syntax similar to GNU utilities flex and bison, it
is possible to directly include C source text and comments verbatim into
the generated output file. This is accomplished by enclosing the region
inside left-justified surrounding %{, %} pairs. Here is
an input fragment based on the previous example that illustrates this
feature:
%{
#include <assert.h>
/* This section of code is inserted directly into the output. */
int return_month_days (struct months *months, int is_leap_year);
%}
struct months { char *name; int number; int days; int leap_days; };
%%
january, 1, 31, 31
february, 2, 28, 29
march, 3, 31, 31
...
It is possible to omit the declaration section entirely. In this case the keyfile begins directly with the first keyword line, e.g.:
january, 1, 31, 31 february, 2, 28, 29 march, 3, 31, 31 april, 4, 30, 30 ...
The second keyfile format section contains lines of keywords and any associated attributes you might supply. A line beginning with `#' in the first column is considered a comment. Everything following the `#' is ignored, up to and including the following newline.
The first field of each non-comment line is always the key itself. It should be given as a simple name, i.e., without surrounding string quotation marks, and be left-justified flush against the first column. In this context, a "field" is considered to extend up to, but not include, the first blank, comma, or newline. Here is a simple example taken from a partial list of C reserved words:
# These are a few C reserved words, see the c.gperf file
# for a complete list of ANSI C reserved words.
unsigned
sizeof
switch
signed
if
default
for
while
return
Note that unlike flex or bison the first %% marker
may be elided if the declaration section is empty.
Additional fields may optionally follow the leading keyword. Fields
should be separated by commas, and terminate at the end of line. What
these fields mean is entirely up to you; they are used to initialize the
elements of the user-defined struct provided by you in the
declaration section. If the `-t' option is not enabled
these fields are simply ignored. All previous examples except the last
one contain keyword attributes.
The optional third section also corresponds closely with conventions
found in flex and bison. All text in this section,
starting at the final %% and extending to the end of the input
file, is included verbatim into the generated output file. Naturally,
it is your responsibility to ensure that the code contained in this
section is valid C.
gperf
Several options control how the generated C code appears on the standard
output. Two C function are generated. They are called hash and
in_word_set, although you may modify the name for
in_word_set with a command-line option. Both functions require
two arguments, a string, char * str, and a length
parameter, int len. Their default function prototypes are
as follows:
static int hash (char *str, int len); int in_word_set (char *str, int len);
By default, the generated hash function returns an integer value
created by adding len to several user-specified str key
positions indexed into an associated values table stored in a
local static array. The associated values table is constructed
internally by gperf and later output as a static local C array called
hash_table; its meaning and properties are described below.
See section Implementation Details of GNU gperf. The relevant key positions are specified via the
`-k' option when running gperf, as detailed in the Options
section below. See section Options to the gperf Utility.
Two options, `-g' (assume you are compiling with GNU C and its
inline feature) and `-a' (assume ANSI C-style function
prototypes), alter the content of both the generated hash and
in_word_set routines. However, function in_word_set may
be modified more extensively, in response to your option settings. The
options that affect the in_word_set structure are:
in_word_set return a pointer rather than a boolean.
struct.
switch statement rather than use a large,
(and potentially sparse) static array. Although the exact time and
space savings of this approach vary according to your C compiler's
degree of optimization, this method often results in smaller and faster
code.
If the `-t', `-S', and `-p' options are omitted the
default action is to generate a char * array containing the keys,
together with additional null strings used for padding the array. By
experimenting with the various input and output options, and timing the
resulting C code, you can determine the best option choices for
different keyword set characteristics.
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