scilab

Main script to start Scilab and miscellaneous tools (GNU/Linux, Unix and Mac OS X)

Calling Sequence

scilab <Options>
scilab-adv-cli <Options>
scilab-cli <Options>

Description

:-args Arguments If this option is present, arguments are passed to
Scilab. They can then be got by `sciargs`_ function. For multi arguments passing use a quoted, blank separated sequence of words like: scilab -args ‘foo1 foo2’ .Without this option, unknown arguments will not be accepted.
: :-display Display For use under Xwindow systems only to set a
specific X server display. Default display is unix:0.0. -display can be abbreviated by -d.
: :-debug Start Scilab under the debugguer gdb (Unix/Linux/Mac OS X
only). Define the variable SCILAB_GDB_OPT to add custom options to gdb. Advise: use this option on a Scilab source tree.
: :-debug-kdbg Start Scilab under kdbg (Unix/Linux/Mac OS X only).
Advise: use this option on a Scilab source tree.
: :-profiling Start Scilab under valgrind (Unix/Linux/Mac OS X only).
Define the variable SCILAB_VALGRIND_OPT to add custom options to valgrind (and override the existing valgrind options). Advise: use this option on a Scilab source tree.
: :-profiling-visu Start Scilab under callgrind (Unix/Linux/Mac OS X
only). Define the variable SCILAB_VALGRIND_OPT to add custom options to callgrind (and override the existing callgrind options). Advise: use this option on a Scilab source tree.
: :-electric-fence Start Scilab with the Electric Fence
(Unix/Linux/Mac OS X only). Advise: use this option on a Scilab source tree.

: :-e Instruction If this option is present then Scilab instruction Instruction is executed first (just after startup file execution) into Scilab. -e and -f options are mutually exclusive. Note that several instructions can be used in with -e.

scilab-cli -e  "a=1+%i; aPlusPi=a+%pi; disp(aPlusPi);exit;" -nb
: :-f file If this option is present then Scilab script file is
executed first (just after startup file execution) into Scilab. -e and -f options are mutually exclusive. A file with .xcos extension will be opened by Xcos.

: :-l lang If this option is present it fixes the user language. lang can be: ca_ES de_DE en_US es_ES fr_FR ja_JP pt_BR ru_RU zh_CN zh_TW (from Scilab 5.2). Other possible lang values are ‘fr’ for french and ‘en’ for english for compatibility reasons. The default language is english. This default value is fixed the scilab.start file. On some systems, locales must be compiled to render correctly UTF-8 fonts. Scilab can be also called the following way:

LANG=ja_JP scilab
            # equivalent to
            scilab -l ja_JP
: :-mem N Set the initial stacksize, for use with -ns option.
Without -ns option the initial stacksize is set by scilab.start script.
: :-nb If this option is present then the scilab welcome banner is not
displayed.
: :-ns If this option is present the startup file
SCI/etc/scilab.start and the user startup files SCIHOME/.scilab, SCIHOME/scilab.ini are not executed. This option will disable many features in Scilab (Only use if you know what you are doing).
: :-nouserstartup If this option is present the user startup files
SCIHOME/.scilab, SCIHOME/scilab.ini are not executed.
: :-noatomsautoload If this option is present the ATOMS modules
previously installed are not loaded for this session.

: :-nw If this option is present, Scilab is started as command line with advanced features still available (graphics, export, xcos, scinotes, help browser, ...). This option may be used with -f or -e options. From Scilab 5.2:

  • Scilab distribution also provides a dedicated binary which is doing the same as -nw: scilab-adv-cli (Scilab Advanced Command Line Interpreter).
  • pipes are enabled for all operating systems (see the examples for further details).

: :-nwni / -nogui If this option is present, Scilab is started as command line without advanced features (graphics, export, xcos, scinotes, help browser, ...). This option may be used with -f or -e options. From Scilab 5.2:

  • Scilab distribution also provides a dedicated binary which is doing the same as -nwni: scilab-cli (Scilab Command Line Interpreter).
  • pipes are enabled for all operating systems (see the examples for further details).
This mode does not load the Java Virtual Machine (faster to start and
uses less memory).

: :–texmacs This option is reserved for TeXMacs. Please install ATOMS module:

`atomsInstall`_('texmacs')

: :-version This option prints product version and exits. :

Description of environment variables

:SCIVERBOSE If this variable is present, Scilab startup script will
show a startup debug information. Mainly used for bug report and debugging purposes.
: :JAVA_HOME Specify which Java to use. For example,
JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk/ scilab will start Scilab with Java 7.

: :SCI_DISABLE_TK Disable Tk (but not Tcl) features. : :SCI_JAVA_ENABLE_HEADLESS Enable Java Headless VM (i.e. without GUI

features).

:

Java Virtual Machine options

Starting from Scilab 5.0, the graphical user interface (GUI) and the build documentation are based on Java features. In some cases, it can be important to edit the JVM options (Java Virtual Machine).

These options are available in the jvm_options.xml file.

In version 5.0.X and 5.1.X, this file is stored as SCI/modules/jvm/etc/jvm_options.xml.

In version >= 5.2.0, the file is available in etc/jvm_options.xml.

By default, the three following options are easily accessible in the configuration file:

:-XmxXXXm This option set the amount of memory available by the Java
Virtual Machine. By default, 256M are allocated. If you change this value, check that the value does not exceed the memory available on the system. Since Scilab 5.4.0, this value can be changed in the preferences menu.
: :-Djava.compiler=JIT This option with the argument JIT enables the
Java Just In Time compiler. It is activated by default. NONE disables the JIT and decreases dramatically performances.
: :-verbose:jni / -Xcheck:jni These options enable more checks and
output from the JNI calls. These options are useful in case of debugging and are disabled by default since they decreases performances.

:

Many more options are available. They can improve the performances, change look and feel, change memory managements... See: `http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/tech/vmoptions- jsp-140102.html`_.

Examples

# Let's start Scilab in profiling `mode`_ without attaching a gdb once a SIGSEGV is met.
# We are under Bash shell
export SCILAB_VALGRIND_OPT="--db-attach=no --log-file=myfile.txt"
scilab -profiling

# Let's start Scilab in `debug`_ mode without stopping after each SIGSEGV
# First, we `write`_ a small command file
echo "handle SIGSEGV nostop" &> `debug`_.txt
# Now `set`_ the custom option
# We are under Bash shell
export SCILAB_GDB_OPT="--command=debug.txt"
# Start Scilab in `debug`_ mode
scilab -`debug`_
# Under GNU/Linux, Mac OS X `or`_ Unix:
$ echo "disp(%pi)"|scilab-cli
`or`_
$ echo "disp(%pi)"|scilab -nwni

# Only open the Scilab `help`_ window:
$ scilab-adv-cli -e "help()"
`or`_
$ scilab -nw -e "help()"

# Scilab can be used for scripting aspects:
echo "if 1<>2 then exit(99) end"|scilab-cli
echo $?

See Also

History

Version Description 5.4.0 -noatomsautoload added. .. _exit: exit.html .. _http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/tech/vmoptions-jsp-140102.html: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/tech/vmoptions-jsp-140102.html .. _sciargs: sciargs.html .. _startup: startup.html

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