The purpose of gpr is to display the contents of grades files in readable form. The options give control over format and inclusion of statistics, comments, names, etc., so that you can adapt it to many purposes.
Several other printing programs are derived from gpr: garchive, gdisplay, gpubreport, greport and gstats. Some are useful very often, some less so (especially with today's improved privacy rules), but they are all described below.
Usage
gpr [-?] [-CEFHLMNSTX] [-W colwidth] [selection options] [sort options] [files]
garchive [-?] [-W colwidth] [files]
gdisplay [-?] [-W colwidth] [selection options] [files]
gpubreport [-?] [-W colwidth] [selection options] [sort options] [files]
greport [-?] [-W colwidth] [selection options] [sort options] [files]
gstats [-?] [-W colwidth] [selection options] [files]
Beware of imitations
One imitation, that is.
You may run into trouble with another program called "gpr",
which used to be /local/bin/gpr on CDF
and has also appeared on other systems.
You've run into this doppelganger
if you see an error message something like this when you
try to start gpr:
Usage: gpr : gpr [-o <ofile>] ([-f <prog>] | 'prog') [files] -c - use source graph for output -f <pfile> - find program in file <pfile> …
To avoid the problem, find out where the graphing gpr is on your system, and make sure that your search path includes the directory for the grading programs ahead of the directory for that other program.
Details
Gpr "prints" — or really, sends to its standard output — a more readable representation of the marks contents of one or more grades files. In the default format, each student record is printed on a single line, with further lines only if there are comments on separate lines. Blank lines are artistically inserted, the columns are labelled, and a statistical summary output is appended.
Sometimes it is helpful to have a less terse display of a student's record, and the -L option specifies "long-form" output instead of the standard short-form. Some uses for long-form output are mentioned in the discussion of gpubreport and greport.
And now, the printing options accepted by gpr:
-H |
Omit the header — the list of mark definitions. |
-S |
Omit the student records. |
-T |
Omit the statistics. |
-L |
Produce long-form output, with several lines per student. |
-N |
Omit student names. |
-F |
Omit drop indicators and flag characters. |
-C |
Omit comments from student information. |
-M |
In short-form output, omit titles and blank lines. Ignored in long-form output. |
-E |
In long-form output, omit marks with no value. Ignored in short-form output. |
-X |
Do not standardize (or "normalize") student names. |
-W colwidth |
In short-form output, display marks in columns that are colwidth characters wide. Ignored in long-form output. |
If no files are specified, input is taken from the standard input.
A little more about the -X option:
by default, the grading programs display names with
capitalization fixed in a way that works for nearly all
names, with double spaces between where it thinks the
family names end and the given names begin, and so on.
It is not always right, but it is pretty good; however,
you might prefer not to have your own careful typing
overridden, and this option lets you do that.
Currently, the -X option does not require an
argument, but that may change.
It is conceivable that future users may request options
that might be specialized in ways reminiscent of
name-standardization avoidance, and those might best be
handled by having several -X options specified
by option arguments. For now, however, you are safe.
The other printing programs are really versions of gpr that have pre-specified sets of the printing options. They all accept the -W option (though that's a little silly in the case of gpubreport and greport) but no others. Some accept selection and sorting options.
Garchive tries to provide a complete record that you or someone else could use to reconstruct a student's grade when you've completely forgotten the course. It includes all identifying information, the drop indicator, the flag character, and all comments. No student records are omitted and the records are sorted by name, so you can neither select nor sort the students.
Garchive is equivalent to
"gpr -k=".
The only additional information you can supply is the -W option
and the names of files.
Gdisplay omits the name, the drop indicator, the flag character, and all comments; it is intended for public posting so that your students can check their marks. Gdisplay sorts the student records by student number, since names are omitted.
Gdisplay is equivalent to
"gpr -k# -N -F -C".
You can give the -W option, selection options,
and the names of files.
It is probably appropriate to call gdisplay with the -d option, so that students who seem to have dropped the course are omitted. It is probably even more appropriate not to use gdisplay at all, since even though student names are omitted there is a noticeable threat to privacy. Perhaps you might use it to print (on paper) a list suitable for brief viewing in class.
Gpubreport prints in long form all available information except the name, the drop indicator, the flag character, and all comments. It is intended for public posting so that your students can check their marks. If you do that, you should ensure that you have a mechanism for ensuring students can see only their own marks.
Gpubreport is equivalent to
"gpr -L -H -N -F -C".
You can give
selection options, sorting options,
and the names of files.
Greport prints all available information in long form. This can be overwhelming when you are viewing an entire class, but is useful when you are dealing with the record of just one student. Very often, the process of ensuring you are working with the right student consists of trying different selection criteria until greport shows only the intended record.
The output from greport is designed also to be useful when a student petitions and you are asked how they are doing in your course.
Greport is equivalent to
"gpr -L -H".
You can give
selection options, sorting options,
and the names of files.
Gstats prints just the statistics for grades files. It is very handy when you've just given a test, or when you are preparing your marks for submission at the end of the course.
Gstats is equivalent to
"gpr -H -S".
You can give the -W option, selection options,
and the names of files.