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3.6 Options for Programs that Scan Source Files

mkid and xtokid walk file trees, select source files by name, and extract tokens from source files. They accept the following options:

‘-m mapfile’
‘--lang-map=mapfile’
mapfile contains rules for determining the source languages from file names See Language map.
‘-i languages’
‘--include=languages’
The ‘--include’ option names languages whose source files should be scanned and incorporated into the ID database. By default, all languages known to the ID utilities are enabled.
‘-x languages’
‘--exclude=languages’
The ‘--exclude’ option names languages whose source files should not be scanned. The default list of excluded languages is empty. Note that only one of ‘--include’ or ‘--exclude’ may be specified on the command line for a single run.
‘-l language:options’
‘--lang-option=language:options’
Language-specific scanners also accept options. Language denotes the desired scanner, and option is the command-line option that should be passed through to it. For example, to pass the -x foo –coke-bottle options to the scanner for the language swizzle, use one of the next two forms, or a mixture of both: 
          $ mkid -l swizzle:"-x foo" -l swizzle:--coke-bottle
          $ mkid --lang-option=swizzle:"-x foo" --lang-option=swizzle:--coke-bottle

Note the use of quotes when passing an option with arguments. Quoting is optional for options without arguments.

Use the ‘--help’ option to see the command-line option summary for each language.

To determine which tokens to extract from a file and store in the database, mkid calls a scanner; we say a scanner recognizes a particular language. Scanners for several languages are built-in to mkid; you can add your own scanners as well, as explained in Defining scanners.

The ID utilities determine which scanner to use for a particular file by consulting the language-map file. Scanners for several are already built-in to the ID utilities. You can see which languages have built-in scanners, and examine their language-specific options by invoking ‘mkid --help’ or ‘xtokid --help’.