What causes an “unexpected token” error when running rtiddsgen on an IDL?

Note: Applies to RTI Connext 4.5c and above.

This solution applies if you are seeing errors during rtiddsgen code-generation which look like the following (rtiddsgen used with –language java for this example):

javax.xml.transform.TransformerException: org.xml.sax.SAXException: /p8core/interface/framework/msg-spec/../temp.idl:706:61:unexpected token: port
at org.apache.xalan.transformer.TransformerIdentityImpl.transform(TransformerIdentityImpl.java:502)
at com.rti.ndds.nddsgen.transformation.IDLTransformer.obtainRawXMLFromIDL(IDLTransformer.java:451)
at com.rti.ndds.nddsgen.Main.generateSourceCodeFiles(Main.java:1683)
at com.rti.ndds.nddsgen.Main.main(Main.java:1090)
Caused by: org.xml.sax.SAXException: /p8core/interface/framework/msg-spec/../temp.idl:706:61:unexpected token: port
at com.rti.ndds.nddsgen.idlparser.IDLSAXParser.parse(IDLSAXParser.java:148)
at com.rti.ndds.nddsgen.idlparser.IDLSAXParser.parse(IDLSAXParser.java:101)
at org.apache.xalan.transformer.TransformerIdentityImpl.transform(TransformerIdentityImpl.java:485)

As of version 4.5, RTI Connext uses IDL3+ (the new IDL grammar). In IDL3+, port is a reserved word. So if you want to continue using the word "port" in the generated code, add an underscore ('_') before "port" ( _port) in the IDL; then use the rtiddsgen command-line option, -enableEscapeChar. This option allows you to use '_' as an escape character in IDL identifiers.

Note: The -enableEscapeChar option strips the '_' character out of your IDL. So if you have other variables which use '_', they will be affected as well.

IDL3+ adds the following new keywords:

• alias
• connector
• mirrorport
• port
• porttype
• typename

The OMG DDS4CCM specification can be found at http://www.omg.org/spec/dds4ccm/1.0/Beta2/.

For more information on rtiddsgen's -enableEscapeChar option, see Section 3.3.5 in the RTI Connext Core Libraries and Utilities User's Manual.