(m4.info)Frozen state

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2.4 Command line options for frozen state
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GNU `m4' comes with a feature of freezing internal state (Note: Frozen
files).  This can be used to speed up `m4' execution when reusing a
common initialization script.

`-F FILE'
`--freeze-state=FILE'
     Once execution is finished, write out the frozen state on the
     specified FILE.  It is conventional, but not required, for FILE to
     end in `.m4f'.

`-R FILE'
`--reload-state=FILE'
     Before execution starts, recover the internal state from the
     specified frozen FILE.  The options `-D', `-U', and `-t' take
     effect after state is reloaded, but before the input files are
     read.