A via file is a text file containing a sequence of words. Each word in the text file is converted into an argument string and passed to the tool.

Words are separated by whitespace, or the end of a line, except in delimited strings. For example:

--c90 --strict (two words)--c90--strict (one word)

The end of a line is treated as whitespace. For example:

--c90
--strict

is equivalent to:

--c90 --strict

Strings enclosed in quotation marks ("), or apostrophes (') are treated as a single word. Within a quoted word, an apostrophe is treated as an ordinary character. Within an apostrophe delimited word, quote is treated as an ordinary character.

Quotation marks are used to delimit filenames or path names that contain spaces. For example:

-I C:\My Project\includes (three words)-I "C:\My Project\includes" (two words)

Apostrophes can be used to delimit words that contain quotes. For example:

-DNAME='"RealView Compilation Tools"' (one word)

Characters enclosed in parentheses are treated as a single word. For example:

--option(x, y, z) (one word)--option (x, y, z) (two words)

Within quoted or apostrophe delimited strings, you can use a backslash (\) character to escape the quote, apostrophe, and backslash characters.

A word that occurs immediately next to a delimited word is treated as a single word. For example:

-I"C:\Project\includes"

is treated as the single word:

-IC:\Project\includes

Lines beginning with a semicolon (;) or a hash (#) character as the first non-whitespace character are comment lines. If a semicolon or hash character appears anywhere else in a line, it is not treated as the start of a comment. For example:

-o objectname.axf      ;this is not a comment

A comment ends at the end of a line, or at the end of the file. There are no multi-line comments, and there are no part-line comments.

Lines that include the preprocessor option -Dsymbol=”value” must be delimited with a single quote, either as ‘-Dsymbol=”value”’ or as -Dsymbol=’”value”’. For example:

-c -DFOO_VALUE=’”FOO_VALUE”’