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ftnchek local help file

To use ftnchek, a path to
/usr/local/bin
must be added to the set path statement in the .tcshrc file. Most users will already have this in thier paths.
Ftnchek was originally known as forchek but its name was changed to distinguish it from another, similar product of the same name.

Some links:

Ftnchek Home Web Page - has links for latest version of DOS executable & source code.
Ftnchek source code (gzipped tar file) - UK mirror site for netlib
Ftnchek Manual (version 2.9) - PostScript format
Local page on Ftnchek

Ftnchek is a "Fortran lint", that is, it performs many checks on a FORTRAN 77 program that most compilers do not do. For example, it checks that routines are called with the correct number and type of arguments.

I most strongly recommend the use of ftnchek. I find it invaluable for debugging the problem programs users bring to me at the HelpDesk. There are few commercial products that are its equal. I know of two only: NAG Fortran Toolchest and IBM's FORTVS2 compiler.

A most useful feature of Ftnchek is its ability to create and use project files.

Another, recently added, feature is the ability to produce call-graph output in vcg format.

A useful new option which came in with version 2.8 was the -wordsize=num option. With this option programs that have to be compiled with the -r8 option can be checked without lots of irrelevant messages.

Yet another - possibly valuable - new feature is the option to:

"Prepare a neatly-formatted file of declarations of variables, common blocks, and namelist lists, for possible merging into the source code."

I have yet to try this out.

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