Ubuntu Manpage: Msc-generator - draws signalling charts from textual descriptions

NAME

       Msc-generator - draws signalling charts from textual descriptions

SYNOPSIS

       msc-gen [OPTIONS] [infile]   or: msc-gen -l
       msc-gen --help
       msc-gen --version

DESCRIPTION

Msc-generator draws signalling charts from textual descriptions.

Generic options:
--tei-mode
Using this option puts msc-generator into text editor integration mode. In this mode msc-gen can
produce color syntax highlighting, quick error, text indent and hinting/autocomplete information.
Input file(s) are read from standard input, output is written to standard output, thus no input or
output filename can be specified and options -i and -o are invalid. Same with option -T option,
but -S is mandatory. Option --tei-mode implies -Pno, as well. See the documentation for details.

--gui Using this mode pops up a GUI for interactive editing of a chart.

-T <type>
Specifies the output file type, which maybe one of 'png', 'eps', 'pdf', 'svg' or 'emf' (if
supported on your system). Default is 'png'. The token 'ismap' produces an NCSA formatted ismap
file. The token 'lmap' is accepted and results a text file listing (the first line of) all labels
and their page number and coordinates.

-e If output type is PNG, specifying this will embed the chart text into the PNG file as an iTXt
chunk. In case of multiple pages (and multiple output files) all will have it embedded. Results
in a warning if the output type is not PNG.

-o <file>
Write output to the named file. If omitted, the input filename will be appended by an extension
suitable for the output format. If neither input nor output file is given, msc-gen_out.* will be
used. Specifying '-' will result in the out be written to standard output.

<infile>
The file from which to read input. If omitted or specified as '-', input will be read from stdin.
The extension determines what type of chart the input file contains.

-i <infile> To retain compatibility with mscgen, this is an alternate way to

specify the input file.

-S <lang>
Forces Msc-generator to interpret the input file as a specific type of chart. This overrides the
guess from the filename extension. Current chart types are 'signalling' for Signalling Charts and
'graph' for Graphviz graphs.

--utf16
Forces the input file to be interpreted as UTF-16, even if it looks like UTF-8 or ASCII.

--utf8 Forces the input file to be interpreted as UTF-8, even if it does not look like it.

-p[=<page size]

Full-page output. (PDF only now.) In this case the chart is drawn on fixed-size pages (following
pagination) with one pixel equalling to 1/72 inches. If a chart page is larger than a physcal page
it is simply cropped with a warning. Setting the scale with the -s option enables zooming. Page
size can be set to ISO sizes from A0 to A6, and to US sizes, such as letter, legal, ledger and
tabloid. Append a 'p' or an 'l' for portrait and landscape, respectively (except for 'tabloid' and
'ledger', which are by definition portrait and landscape, resp.). E.g., use 'A4p', 'A2l' or
'letter_l'. Default is 'A4p'.

-m{lrud}=<margin>

Useful only for full-page output, specifies the margin. A separate option is needed to specify
the left, right, upwards and downwards margins, denoted by the second letter of the option.
Margins are to be specified in inches (number only) or in centimeters, if appended with 'cm' (no
spaces). The default margin is half inches everywhere.

-va=<center|up|down>

-ha=<center|left|right>

Set the vertical and horizontal alignment within a page for fullpage output.

-a[h] Automatic pagination. Used only with full-page output. If specified, scale cannot be 'auto'.
Specifying -ah will insert a heading after automatically inserted page breaks.

-Wno No warnings displayed.

-TI Additional Technical Info is printed about compilation.

-Pno No progress indicator displayed.

-q No progress indicator displayed.

--nopaths
Only the filename will be printed in error messages without its path

-x=<width>
Specifies chart width (in pixels). Only for bitmap output.

-y=<height> Specifies chart height (in pixels). If only one of -x or -y

is specified, the aspect ratio is kept. Only for bitmap output.

-s=<scale>
Can be used to scale chart size up or down. Default is 1.0. Cannot be used together with any of
-x or -y. Only for bitmap or full-page output (-p). For full-page output, you can set <scale> to
'width' which results in the chart width being set to the page width, or 'auto', which scales such
that all pages fits. For full-page output, you can specify multiple -s options, which makes
msc-gen to try them in the order specified until one is found for which no pages need to be
cropped. If none is such, the last one will be used and a warning will be given.

-F <font>
Use specified font. This must be a font name available in the local system, and overrides the
MSCGEN_FONT environment variable if that is also set. (On Linux\Unix try fontconfig.)

--no-designs

If you specify this no design files will be loaded (except the ones you specify with -D). This is
useful to increase performance when you do not use them anyway.

-D <design_file>

Load file containing additional chart design definitions. You can have multiple of this option to
load several design files, after the default ones. These files are loaded even if --no-designs is
specified.

--<chart_option>=<value>

These options will be evaluated before the input file. Any value here will be overwritten by a
conflicting option in the file.

--<chart_design>

Any chart design can be specified here, taking precedence over the design specified in the input
file.

-l Display program licence and exit.

-h Display this help and exit.

--help Display this help and exit.

--version
Display version information and exit.

--no-pedantic

--pedantic
Set or unset the pedantic chart option (defaults to what is set in the design lib or false if not
defined).

Signalling chart specific options:

--force-mscgen

Forces the chart to be interpreted in mscgen mode. Note that many Msc-generator attributes,
commands and keywords are still recognized. This setting makes conflicting syntax be intrepreted
as mscgen would do. Without this switch Msc-generator uses the mscgen mode only if the chart
starts with the text 'msc {'.

--prevent-mscgen

Prevents the chart to be interpreted in mscgen mode. Note that some mscgen attributes and symbols
are still recognized. This setting makes conflicting syntax be intrepreted as Msc-generator would
do. Without this switch Msc-generator uses the mscgen mode if the chart starts with the text 'msc
{'.

-Wno-mscgen Disables warnings for deprecated constructs kept only for

backwards compatibility with mscgen. Has no effect with --force-mscgen, in that case no such
warnings are emitted.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright © 2008-2021 Zoltan Turanyi Msc-generator comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
       This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; type `msc-gen -l'
       for details.

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

COPYRIGHT

SEE ALSO