GVPR(1)

NAME
gvpr - graph pattern scanning and processing language
( previously known as gpr )

SYNOPSIS
gvpr [-icV?] [ -o outfile ] [ -a args ] [ 'prog' | -f progfile ] [ files ]

DESCRIPTION
gvpr is a graph stream editor inspired by awk. It copies input graphs to its output, possibly transforming their structure and attributes, creating new graphs, or printing arbitrary information. The graph model is that provided by libagraph(3). In particular, gvpr reads and writes graphs using the dot language.

Basically, gvpr traverses each input graph, denoted by $G, visiting each node and edge, matching it with the predicate-action rules supplied in the input program. The rules are evaluated in order. For each predicate evaluating to true, the corresponding action is performed. During the traversal, the current node or edge being visited is denoted by $.

For each input graph, there is a target subgraph, denoted by $T, initially empty and used to accumulate chosen entities, and an output graph, $O, used for final processing and then written to output. By default, the output graph is the target graph. The output graph can be set in the program or, in a limited sense, on the command line.

OPTIONS
The following options are supported:

-a args
    The string args is split into whitespace-separated tokens, with the individual tokens available as strings in the gvpr program as ARGV[0],...,ARGV[ARGC-1]. Whitespace characters within single or double quoted substrings, or preceded by a backslash, are ignored as separators. In general, backslash character turns off any special meaning of the following character.

-c  Use the source graph as the output graph.

-i  Derive the node-induced subgraph extension of the output graph in the context of its root graph.

-o outfile
    Causes the output stream to be written to the specified file; by default, output is written to stdout.

-f progfile
    Use the contents of the specified file as the program to execute on the input. If progfile contains a slash character, the name is taken as the pathname of the file. Otherwise, gvpr will use the directories specified in the environment variable GPRPATH to look for the file. If -f is not given, gvpr will use the first non-option argument as the program.

-V  Causes the program to print version information and exit.

-?  Causes the program to print usage information and exit.

OPERANDS
The following operand is supported:

files
    Names of files containing 1 or more graphs in the dot language. If no -f option is given, the first name is removed from the list and used as the input program. If the list of files is empty, stdin will be used.

PROGRAMS
A gvpr program consists of a list of predicate-action clauses, having one of the forms:

    BEGIN { action }

    BEG_G { action }

    N [ predicate ] { action }

    E [ predicate ] { action }

    END_G { action }

    END { action }

A program can contain at most one of each of the BEGIN, BEG_G, END_G and END clauses. There can be any number of N and E statements, the first applied to nodes, the second to edges. The top-level semantics of a gvpr program are:
    Evaluate the BEGIN clause, if any.
    For each input graph G {
        Set G as the current graph and current object.
        Evaluate the BEG_G clause, if any.
        For each node and edge in G {
          Set the node or edge as the current object.
          Evaluate the N or E clauses, as appropriate.
        }
        Set G as the current object.
        Evaluate the END_G clause, if any.
    }
    Evaluate the END clause, if any.
The actions of the BEGIN, BEG_G, END_G and END clauses are performed when the clauses are evaluated. For N or E clauses, either the predicate or action may be omitted. If there is no predicate with an action, the action is performed on every node or edge, as appropriate. If there is no action and the predicate evaluates to true, the associated node or edge is added to the target graph.

Predicates and actions are sequences of statements in the C dialect supported by the libexpr(3) library. The only difference between predicates and actions is that the former must have a type that may interpreted as either true or false. Here the usual C convention is followed, in which a non-zero value is considered true. This would include non-empty strings and non-empty references to nodes, edges, etc. However, if a string can be converted to an integer, this value is used.

In addition to the usual C base types (void, int, char, float, long, unsigned and double), gvpr provides string as a synonym for char*, and the graph-based types node_t, edge_t, graph_t and obj_t. The obj_t type can be viewed as a supertype of the other 3 concrete types; the correct base type is maintained dynamically. Besides these base types, the only other supported type expressions are (associative) arrays.

Constants follow C syntax, but strings may be quoted with either "..." or '...'. In certain contexts, string values are interpreted as patterns for the purpose of regular expression matching. Patterns use ksh(1) file match pattern syntax. gvpr uses C++ comments.

A statement can be a declaration of a function, a variable or an array, or an executable statement. For declarations, there is a single scope. Array declarations have the form:

     type array [ var ]

where the var is optional. As in C, variables and arrays must be declared. In particular, an undeclared variable will be interpreted as the name of an attribute of a node, edge or graph, depending on the context.

Executable statements can be one of the following:
    { [ statement ... ] }
    expression	// commonly var = expression
    if( expression ) statement [ else statement ]
    for( expression ; expression ; expression ) statement
    for( array [ var ]) statement
    while( expression ) statement
    switch( expression ) case statements
    break [ expression ]
    continue [ expression ]
    return [ expression ]

In the second form of the for statement, the variable var is set to each value used as an index in the specified array and then the associated statement is evaluated. Function definitions can only appear in the BEGIN clause.

Expressions include the usual C expressions. String comparisons using == and != treat the right hand operand as a pattern. gvpr will attempt to use an expression as a string or numeric value as appropriate.

Expressions of graphical type (i.e., graph_t, node_t, edge_t, obj_t) may be followed by a field reference in the form of .name. The resulting value is the value of the attribute named name of the given object. In addition, in certain contexts an undeclared, unmodified identifier is taken to be an attribute name. Specifically, such identifiers denote attributes of the current node or edge, respectively, in N and E clauses, and the current graph in BEG_G and END_G clauses.

As usual in the libagraph(3) model, attributes are string-valued. In addition, gvpr supports certain pseudo-attributes of graph objects, not necessarily string-valued. These reflect intrinsic properties of the graph objects and cannot be set by the user.

head : node_t
    the head of an edge.

tail : node_t
    the tail of an edge.

name : string
    the name of an edge, node or graph. The name of an edge has the form "<tail-name><edge-op><head-name>[<key>]", where <edge-op> is "->" or "--" depending on whether the graph is directed or not. The bracket part [<key>] only appears if the edge has a non-trivial key.

indegree : int
    the indegree of a node.

outdegree : int
    the outdegree of a node.

degree : int
    the degree of a node.

root : graph_t
    the root graph of an object. The root of a root graph is itself.

parent : graph_t
    the parent graph of a subgraph. The parent of a root graph is NULL

n_edges : int
    the number of edges in the graph

n_nodes : int
    the number of nodes in the graph

directed : int
    true (non-zero) if the graph is directed

strict : int
    true (non-zero) if the graph is strict

BUILT-IN FUNCTIONS

The following functions are built into gvpr. Those functions returning references to graph objects return NULL in case of failure.

  Graphs and subgraph

graph(s : string, t : string) : graph_t
    creates a graph whose name is s and whose type is specified by the string t. Ignoring case, the characters U, D, S, N have the interpretation undirected, directed, strict, and non-strict, respectively. If t is empty, a directed, non-strict graph is generated.

subg(g : graph_t, s : string) : graph_t
    creates a subgraph in graph g with name s. If the subgraph already exists, it is returned.

isSubg(g : graph_t, s : string) : graph_t
    returns the subgraph in graph g with name s, if it exists, or NULL otherwise.

fstsubg(g : graph_t) : graph_t
    returns the first subgraph in graph g, or NULL if none exists.

nxtsubg(sg : graph_t) : graph_t
    returns the next subgraph after sg, or NULL.

isDirect(g : graph_t) : int
    returns true if and only if g is directed.

isStrict(g : graph_t) : int
    returns true if and only if g is strict.

nNodes(g : graph_t) : int
    returns the number of nodes in g.

nEdges(g : graph_t) : int
    returns the number of edges in g.

  Nodes

node(sg : graph_t, s : string) : node_t
    creates a node in graph g of name s. If such a node already exists, it is returned.

subnode(sg : graph_t, n : node_t) : node_t
    inserts the node n into the subgraph g. Returns the node.

fstnode(g : graph_t) : node_t
    returns the first node in graph g, or NULL if none exists.

nxtnode(n : node_t) : node_t
    returns the next node after n, or NULL.

isNode(sg : graph_t, s : string) : node_t
    looks for a node in graph g of name s. If such a node exists, it is returned. Otherwise, NULL is returned.

  Edges

edge(t : node_t, h : node_t, s : string) : edge_t
    creates an edge with tail node t, head node h and name s. If the graph is undirected, the distinction between head and tail nodes is unimportant. If such an edge already exists, it is returned.

subedge(g : graph_t, e : edge_t) : edge_t
    inserts the edge e into the subgraph g. Returns the edge.

isEdge(t : node_t, h : node_t, s : string) : edge_t
    looks for an edge with tail node t, head node h and name s. If the graph is undirected, the distinction between head and tail nodes is unimportant. If such an edge exists, it is returned. Otherwise, NULL is returned.

fstout(n : node_t) : edge_t
    returns the first out edge of node n.

nxtout(e : edge_t) : edge_t
    returns the next out edge after e.

fstin(n : node_t) : edge_t
    returns the first in edge of node n.

nxtin(e : edge_t) : edge_t
    returns the next in edge after e.

fstedge(n : node_t) : edge_t
    returns the first edge of node n.

nxtedge(e : edge_t, node_t) : edge_t
    returns the next edge after e.

  Graph I/O

write(g : graph_t) : void
    prints g in dot format onto the output stream.

writeG(g : graph_t, fname : string) : void
    prints g in dot format into the file fname.

fwriteG(g : graph_t, fd : int) : void
    prints g in dot format onto the open stream denoted by the integer fd.

readG(fname : string) : graph_t
    returns a graph read from the file fname. The graph should be in dot format. If no graph can be read, NULL is returned.

freadG(fd : int) : graph_t
    returns the next graph read from the open stream fd. Returns NULL at end of file.

  Graph miscellany

delete(g : graph_t, x : obj_t) : void
    deletes object x from graph g. If g is NULL, the function uses the root graph of x. If x is a graph or subgraph, it is closed unless x is locked.

isIn(g : graph_t, x : obj_t) : int
    returns true if x is in subgraph g. If x is a graph, this indicates that g is the immediate parent graph of x.

clone(g : graph_t, x : obj_t) : obj_t
    creates a clone of object x in graph g. In particular, the new object has the same name/value attributes and structure as the original object. If an object with the same key as x already exists, its attributes are overlaid by those of x and the object is returned. If an edge is cloned, both endpoints are implicitly cloned. If a graph is cloned, all nodes, edges and subgraphs are implicitly cloned. If x is a graph, g may be NULL, in which case the cloned object will be a new root graph.

copy(g : graph_t, x : obj_t) : obj_t
    creates a copy of object x in graph g, where the new object has the same name/value attributes as the original object. If an object with the same key as x already exists, its attributes are overlaid by those of x and the object is returned. Note that this is a shallow copy. If x is a graph, none of its nodes, edges or subgraphs are copied into the new graph. If x is an edge, the endpoints are created if necessary, but they are not cloned. If x is a graph, g may be NULL, in which case the cloned object will be a new root graph.

copyA(src : obj_t, tgt : obj_t) : int
    copies the attributes of object src to object tgt, overwriting any attribute values tgt may initially have.

induce(g : graph_t) : void
    extends g to its node-induced subgraph extension in its root graph.

aget(src : obj_t, name : string) : string
    returns the value of attribute name in object src. This is useful for those cases when name conflicts with one of the keywords such as "head" or "root".

aset(src : obj_t, name : string, value : string) : int
    sets the value of attribute name in object src to value. Returns 0 on success, non-zero on failure. See aget above.

compOf(g : graph_t, n : node_t) : graph_t
    returns the connected component of the graph g containing node n, as a subgraph of g. The subgraph only contains the nodes. One can use induce to add the edges. The function fails and returns NULL if n is not in g. Connectivity is based on the underlying undirected graph of g.

lock(g : graph_t, v : int) : int
    implements graph locking on root graphs. If the integer v is positive, the graph is set so that future calls to delete have no immediate effect. If v is zero, the graph is unlocked. If there has been a call to delete the graph while it was locked, the graph is closed. If v is negative, nothing is done. In all cases, the previous lock value is returned.

  Strings

sprintf(fmt : string, ...) : string
    returns the string resulting from formatting the values of the expressions occurring after fmt according to the printf(3) format fmt

gsub(str : string, pat : string) : string

gsub(str : string, pat : string, repl : string) : string
    returns str with all substrings matching pat deleted or replaced by repl, respectively.

sub(str : string, pat : string) : string

sub(str : string, pat : string, repl : string) : string
    returns str with the leftmost substring matching pat deleted or replaced by repl, respectively. The characters '^' and '$' may be used at the beginning and end, respectively, of pat to anchor the pattern to the beginning or end of str.

substr(str : string, idx : int) : string

substr(str : string, idx : int, len : int) : string
    returns the substring of str starting at position idx to the end of the string or of length len, respectively. Indexing starts at 0. If idx is negative or idx is greater than the length of str, a fatal error occurs. Similarly, in the second case, if len is negative or idx + len is greater than the length of str, a fatal error occurs.

length(s : string) : int
    returns the length of the string s.

index(s : string, t : string) : int
    returns the index of the character in string s where the leftmost copy of string t can be found, or -1 if t is not a substring of s.

match(s : string, p : string) : int
    returns the index of the character in string s where the leftmost match of pattern p can be found, or -1 if no substring of s matches p.

canon(s : string) : string
    returns a version of s appropriate to be used as an identifier in a dot file.

xOf(s : string) : string
    returns the string "x" if s has the form "x,y", where both x and y are numeric.

yOf(s : string) : string
    returns the string "y" if s has the form "x,y", where both x and y are numeric.

llOf(s : string) : string
    returns the string "llx,lly" if s has the form "llx,lly,urx,ury", where all of llx, lly, urx, and ury are numeric.

urOf(s)
    urOf(s : string) : string returns the string "urx,ury" if s has the form "llx,lly,urx,ury", where all of llx, lly, urx, and ury are numeric.

sscanf(s : string, fmt : string, ...) : int
    scans the string s, extracting values according to the sscanf(3) format fmt. The values are stored in the addresses following fmt, addresses having the form &v, where v is some declared variable of the correct type. Returns the number of items successfully scanned.

  I/O

print(...) : void
    print( expr, ... ) prints a string representation of each argument in turn onto stdout, followed by a newline.

printf(fmt : string, ...) : int

printf(fd : int, fmt : string, ...) : int
    prints the string resulting from formatting the values of the expressions following fmt according to the printf(3) format fmt. Returns 0 on success. By default, it prints on stdout. If the optional integer fd is given, output is written on the open stream associated with fd.

scanf(fmt : string, ...) : int

scanf(fd : int, fmt : string, ...) : int
    scans in values from an input stream according to the scanf(3) format fmt. The values are stored in the addresses following fmt, addresses having the form &v, where v is some declared variable of the correct type. By default, it reads from stdin. If the optional integer fd is given, input is read from the open stream associated with fd. Returns the number of items successfully scanned.

openF(s : string, t : string) : int
    opens the file s as an I/O stream. The string argument t specifies how the file is opened. The arguments are the same as for the C function fopen(3). It returns an integer denoting the stream, or -1 on error.

    As usual, streams 0, 1 and 2 are already open as stdin, stdout, and stderr, respectively. Since gvpr may use stdin to read the input graphs, the user should avoid using this stream.

closeF(fd : int) : int
    closes the open stream denoted by the integer fd. Streams 0, 1 and 2 cannot be closed. Returns 0 on success.

readL(fd : int) : string
    returns the next line read from the input stream fd. It returns the empty string "" on end of file. Note that the newline character is left in the returned string.

  Math

exp(d : double) : double
    returns e to the dth power.

log(d : double) : double
    returns the natural log of d.

sqrt(d : double) : double
    returns the square root of the double d.

pow(d : double, x : double) : double
    returns d raised to the xth power.

cos(d : double) : double
    returns the cosine of d.

sin(d : double) : double
    returns the sine of d.

atan2(y : double, x : double) : double
    returns the arctangent of y/x in the range -pi to pi.

  Miscellaneous

exit() : void

exit(v : int) : void
    causes gvpr to exit with the exit code v. v defaults to 0 if omitted.

rand() : double
    returns a pseudo-random double between 0 and 1.

srand() : int

srand(v : int) : int
    sets a seed for the random number generator. The optional argument gives the seed; if it is omitted, the current time is used. The previous seed value is returned. srand should be called before any calls to rand.

BUILT-IN VARIABLES

gvpr provides certain special, built-in variables, whose values are set automatically by gvpr depending on the context. Except as noted, the user cannot modify their values.

$ : obj_t
    denotes the current object (node, edge, graph) depending on the context. It is not available in BEGIN or END clauses.

$F : string
    is the name of the current input file.

$G : graph_t
    denotes the current graph being processed. It is not available in BEGIN or END clauses.

$O : graph_t
    denotes the output graph. Before graph traversal, it is initialized to the target graph. After traversal and any END_G actions, if it refers to a non-empty graph, that graph is printed onto the output stream. It is only valid in N, E and END_G clauses. The output graph may be set by the user.

$T : graph_t
    denotes the current target graph. It is a subgraph of $G and is available only in N, E and END_G clauses.

$tgtname : string
    denotes the name of the target graph. By default, it is set to "gvpr_result". If used multiple times during the execution of gvpr, the name will be appended with an integer. This variable may be set by the user.

$tvroot : node_t
    indicates the starting node for a (directed or undirected) depth-first traversal of the graph (cf. $tvtype below). The default value is NULL for each input graph.

$tvtype : tvtype_t
    indicates how gvpr traverses a graph. At present, it can only take one of six values: TV_flat, TV_dfs, TV_fwd, TV_ref, TV_bfs, TV_ne, and TV_en. TV_flat is the default. The meaning of these values is discussed below.

ARGC : int
    denotes the number of arguments specified by the -a args command-line argument.

ARGV : string array
    denotes the array of arguments specified by the -a args command-line argument. The ith argument is given by ARGV[i].

BUILT-IN CONSTANTS

There are several symbolic constants defined by gvpr.

NULL : obj_t
    a null object reference, equivalent to 0.

TV_flat : tvtype_t
    a simple, flat traversal, with graph objects visited in seemingly arbitrary order.

TV_ne : tvtype_t
    a traversal which first visits all of the nodes, then all of the edges.

TV_en : tvtype_t
    a traversal which first visits all of the edges, then all of the nodes.

TV_dfs : tvtype_t
    a traversal of the graph using a depth-first search on the underlying undirected graph. To do the traversal, gvpr will check the value of $tvroot. If this has the same value that it had previously (at the start, the previous value is initialized to NULL.), gvpr will simply look for some unvisited node and traverse its connected component. On the other hand, if $tvroot has changed, its connected component will be toured, assuming it has not been previously visited or, if $tvroot is NULL, the traversal will stop. Note that using TV_dfs and $tvroot, it is possible to create an infinite loop.

TV_fwd : tvtype_t
    a traversal of the graph using a depth-first search on the graph following only forward arcs. In

TV_bfs : tvtype_t
    a traversal of the graph using a bread-first search on the graph ignoring edge directions. See the item on TV_dfs above for the role of $tvroot. libagraph(3), edges in undirected graphs are given an arbitrary direction, which is used for this traversal. The choice of roots for the traversal is the same as described for TV_dfs above.

TV_rev : tvtype_t
    a traversal of the graph using a depth-first search on the graph following only reverse arcs. In libagraph(3), edges in undirected graphs are given an arbitrary direction, which is used for this traversal. The choice of roots for the traversal is the same as described for TV_dfs above.

EXAMPLES
    gvpr -i 'N[color=="blue"]' file.dot
Generate the node-induced subgraph of all nodes with color blue.
    gvpr -c 'N[color=="blue"]{color = "red"}' file.dot
Make all blue nodes red.
    BEGIN { int n, e; int tot_n = 0; int tot_e = 0; }
    BEG_G {
      n = nNodes($G);
      e = nEdges($G);
      printf ("%d nodes %d edges %s, n, e, $G.name);
      tot_n += n;
      tot_e += e;
    }
    END { printf ("%d nodes %d edges total, tot_n, tot_e) }
Version of the program gc.
    gvpr -c ""
Equivalent to nop.
    BEG_G { graph_t g = graph ("merge", "S"); }
    E {
      node_t h = clone(g,$.head);
      node_t t = clone(g,$.tail);
      edge_t e = edge(t,h,"");
      e.weight = e.weight + 1;
    }
    END_G { $O = g; }
Produces a strict version of the input graph, where the weight attribute of an edge indicates how many edges from the input graph the edge represents.
    BEGIN {node_t n; int deg[]}
    E{deg[head]++; deg[tail]++; }
    END_G {
      for (deg[n]) {
        printf ("deg[%s] = %d, n.name, deg[n]);
      }
    }
Computes the degrees of nodes with edges.

ENVIRONMENT

GPRPATH
    Colon-separated list of directories to be searched to find the file specified by the -f option.

BUGS
When the program is given as a command line argument, the usual shell interpretation takes place, which may affect some of the special names in gvpr. To avoid this, it is best to wrap the program in single quotes.

The constants TV_flat, TV_dfs, TV_fwd, and TV_rev

There is a single global scope, except for formal function parameters, and even these can interfere with the type system. Also, the extent of all variables is the entire life of the program. It might be preferable for scope to reflect the natural nesting of the clauses, or for the program to at least reset locally declared variables. For now, it is advisable to use distinct names for all variables.

If a function ends with a complex statement, such as an IF statement, with each branch doing a return, type checking may fail. Functions should use a return at the end.

The expr library does not support string values of (char*)0. This means we can't distinguish between "" and (char*)0 edge keys. For the purposes of looking up and creating edges, we translate "" to be (char*)0, since this latter value is necessary in order to look up any edge with a matching head and tail.

The language inherits the usual C problems such as dangling references and the confusion between '=' and '=='.

AUTHOR
Emden R. Gansner <erg@research.att.com>

SEE ALSO

awk(1), gc(1), dot(1), nop(1), libexpr(3), libagraph(3)