It is clear that one can use the
#!/usr/bin/perl
shebang notation in the very first line of a script to define the interpreter. However, this presupposes an interpreter that ignores hashmark-starting lines as comments. How can one use an interpreter that does not have this feature?
With a wrapper that removes the first line and calls the real interpreter with the remainder of the file. It could look like this:
#!/bin/sh
# set your "real" interpreter here, or use cat for debugging
REALINTERP="cat"
tail -n +2 $1 | $REALINTERP
Other than that: In some cases ignoring the error message about that first line could be an option.
Last resort: code support for the comment char of your interpreter into the kernel.
I think the first line is interpreted by the operating system. The interpreter will be started and the name of the script is handed down to the script as its first parameter. The following script 'first.myint' calls the interpreter 'myinterpreter' which is the executable from the C program below.
#!/usr/local/bin/myinterpreter
% 1 #########
2 xxxxxxxxxxx
333
444
% the last comment
The sketch of the personal interpreter:
#include <errno.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#define BUFFERSIZE 256 /* input buffer size */
int
main ( int argc, char *argv[] )
{
char comment_leader = '%'; /* define the coment leader */
char *line = NULL;
size_t len = 0;
ssize_t read;
// char buffer[BUFFERSIZE];
// argv[0] : the name of this executable
// argv[1] : the name the script calling this executable via shebang
FILE *input; /* input-file pointer */
char *input_file_name = argv[1]; /* the script name */
input = fopen( input_file_name, "r" );
if ( input == NULL ) {
fprintf ( stderr, "couldn't open file '%s'; %s\n",
input_file_name, strerror(errno) );
exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
}
while ((read = getline(&line, &len, input)) != -1) {
if ( line[0] != comment_leader ) {
printf( "%s", line ); /* print line as a test */
}
else {
printf ( "Skipped a comment!\n" );
}
}
free(line);
if( fclose(input) == EOF ) { /* close input file */
fprintf ( stderr, "couldn't close file '%s'; %s\n",
input_file_name, strerror(errno) );
exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
}
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
} /* ---------- end of function main ---------- */
Now call the script (made executable before) and see the output:
...~> ./first.myint
#!/usr/local/bin/myinterpreter
Skipped a comment!
2 xxxxxxxxxxx
333
444
Skipped a comment!
I made it work. I especially thank holgero for his tail opion trick
tail -n +2 $1 | $REALINTERP
That, and finding this answer on Stack overflow made it possible:
"The solution that fully meets my needs would be SHC - a free tool"
SHC is a shell to C translator, see here:
http://www.datsi.fi.upm.es/~frosal/
So I wrote polyscript.sh:
$ cat polyscript.sh
#!/bin/bash
tail -n +2 $1 | poly
I compiled this with shc and in turn with gcc:
$ shc-3.8.9/shc -f polyscript.sh
$ gcc -Wall polyscript.sh.x.c -o polyscript
Now, I was able to create a first script written in ML:
$ cat smlscript
#!/home/gergoe/projects/shebang/polyscript $0
print "Hello World!"
and, I was able to run it:
$ chmod u+x smlscript
$ ./smlscript
Poly/ML 5.4.1 Release
> > # Hello World!val it = (): unit
Poly does not have an option to suppress compiler output, but that's not an issue here. It might be interesting to write polyscript directly in C as fgm suggested, but probably that wouldn't make it faster.
So, this is how simple it is. I welcome any comments.
#as a comment character do sometimes make an exception just for this case, on the first line only. Try your implementation; it might just work.#!/bin/catto the top of a text file,chmod +xthe file, and execute it. It will print the contents of the file, including the shebang. BTW, thepolycommand doesn't appear to let you specify a script name as an argument, though it can read commands fromstdin. That could make it difficult to use with a shebang, even ignoring the#issue.