Project: Robot Logging Suite

Summary: You will write a "robot logger" program robot-command.c that can log actions to a file and also read and perform actions from a file.

Details

You should use command-line input flags to specify whether the robot is in "read" mode (reading actions from a file), "write" mode (logging actions onto a file), or both "read" and "write" mode. When no files or flags are specified, I/O should happen through the terminal.

In particular:

• If the user specifies a command-line flag -w, then
  • if the following command-line argument does not start with a hyphen (indicating it is a flag), then that argument should be used as the name of the file for writing. However, if no file name is given, the program should ask the user for a file name.
  • the program should perform the given commands, and
  • the program should log the commands in the specified file.
• If the user specifies a command-line flag -r, then
  • if the following command-line argument does not start with a hyphen (indicating it is a flag), then that argument should be used as the name of the file for reading. However, if no file name is given, the program should ask the user for a file name.
  • the program should read commands from the specified file, and
  • the program should perform the commands.
• If the user does not specify the command-line flag -r, then
  • the program should read commands from the user via standard input, and
  • the program should perform those commands.
• it should be possible for a user to utilize both -w and -r mode.
• the program should not print a prompt for robot commands; instead
• if the user specifies a command-line flag -h, then the program should list the possible actions (i.e., the command file or input format) and exit

This program should support at least 10 different actions (following the Project 3 command requirements). As with that project, each action (except, perhaps, quit) must be implemented as a separate procedure.

Examples

The following examples are based on a program robot-command that supports this project. Although this table shows several possibilities, the table is not complete. For example, various combinations of -r and -w are possible, with and without file names, and the -r and -w flags could be in either order.

Command line	Interpretation
./robot-command	no command-line arguments, so reads from stdin and writes to stdout (facilitates shell redirection)
./robot-command -r infile.dat	reads commands from file infile.dat; writes to stdout
./robot-command -r	reads from a file; because no filename is given on the command line, program must ask user what file to use; program writes to stdout
./robot-command -w logfile.dat	reads from stdin; writes commands with parameters to file logfile.dat
./robot-command -w	reads from stdin; writes commands with parameters to a file; because no file name is given on command line, program must ask what file to use
./robot-command -w logfile.dat -r infile.dat OR ./robot-command -r infile.dat -w logfile.dat	reads commands from infile.dat, writes commands with parameters to logfile.dat
./robot-command -r infile.dat -w	reads commands from infile.dat; writes comands with parameters to a file; because no log file name is specified, user must be asked for the filename

Notes

• Global variables may not be used in this project; use of any global variable will result in a grade of zero. Instead, use parameters to pass values into functions.
• You are encouraged to use Project 3 or your command-robot.c program from the Command-Line Arguments lab as the basis for the command input. (You must clearly identify which code is original to a different work and who the authors are.)
• You may omit the action counter from Project 3.
• Remember that stdin and stdout are themselves FILE* variables and can be passed to functions that expect a variable of that type.
• Output logs should be usable as input commands. Thus, when invoked as follows:

  ./robot-command -r example1.txt -w log.txt

  you should be able to verify that the resulting log is identical with the terminal diff utility:

  diff example1.txt log.txt

  Since diff reports the differences between files, we expect no output from this invocation.

Grading

In addition to the general grading guidelines for evaluation, the project is worth 25 points.

• [1 point] Program lists possible actions with -h flag
• [4 points] Program can write actions to a file
• [2 points] Program can acquire output file from flag or user input
• [4 points] Program can read and perform actions from a file
• [2 points] Program can acquire input file from flag or user input
• [5 points] Program offers at least ten distinct commands
• [3 points] Program verifies input
• [3 points] Program handles errors appropriately
• [1 points] Example command files example1.txt and example2.txt that together cover all commands are given
• Comments on Program Format, Comments, Readability, Testing, etc.
  (Points not given, but points can be deducted.)

A five point penalty will apply to any submission that includes personally identifying information anywhere other than the references/honesty file.