REDCSL(1)REDCSL(1)NAMEredcsl - Run REDUCE under CSL
Synopsisredcsl [ command-line switches ] [ file ... ]
DESCRIPTIONredcsl runs REDUCE based on the CSL Lisp system.
REDCSL Options
file read input from file.
After all other options have been processed, the files given on
the rest of the command line are read in and processed. A file‐
name of - can be used to designate standard input.
-b [OIP]
tells the system to avoid any attempt to recolour prompts and
input text. It will mainly be needed on X terminals that have
been set up so that they use colours that make the defaults here
unhelpful, like white-on-black.
This option can be followed by colour specifications to make
things yet more specific. It is supposed to be the idea that
three colours can be specified after it for output, input and
prompts, with the letters KRGYbMCW standing for blacK, Red,
Green, Yellow, blue, Magenta, Cyan and White.
This may not fully work yet!
-d symbol[=value]
defines Lisp symbol symbol at system start, with value value
-g enables debugging mode. It sets a lisp variable !*backtrace and
arranges that all backtraces are displayed notwithstanding use
of errorset.
-i imagefile, -i-
CSL and Reduce use image files to keep both initial heap images
and fasl loadable modules. By default if the executable launched
has some name, say xxx, then an image file xxx.img is used. But
to support greater generality -i introduces a new image, -i-
indicates the default one and a sequence of such directives list
image files that are searched in the order given. These are
read-only. The similar option -o equally introduces image files
that are scanned for input, but that can also be used for out‐
put. Normally there would only be one -o directive.
-j dumpfile
dumps a record of all the files read during the Lisp run into
dumpfile with a view that it can be included in a Makefile to
document dependencies.
-k nnn[/ss]
sets the size of the heap to be used. If -knnn is given then
that much memory will be allocated and the heap will never
expand. Without this option a default amount is used, and (on
many machines) it will grow if space seems tight.
If this options is given as -k nnn/ss then ss is the number of
CSL pages to be allocated to the Lisp stack. The default value
(which is 1) should suffice for almost all users, and it should
be noted that the C stack is separate from and independent of
this one and it too could overflow.
A suffix K, M or G on the number indicates units of kilobytes,
megabytes or gigabytes, with megabytes being the default. so
-k200M might represent typical usage.
-l logfile
sends a copy of the standard output to logfile. It is very much
as if the Lisp function (spool logfile) had been invoked at the
start of the run.
-n ignore startup function.
Normally when the system is started it will run a restart func‐
tion as indicated in its heap image. There can be cases where a
heap image has been created in a bad way such that the saved
restart function always fails abruptly, and hence working out
what was wrong becomes hard. In such cases it may be useful to
give the -n options that forces CSL to ignore any startup func‐
tion and merely begin in a minimal Lisp-style read-eval-print
loop.
-o see -i
-q quiet run: sets !*echo to nil and switches off garbage collector
messages.
-r nnn[,mmm]
seed random number generator.
The random-number generator in CSL is normally initialised to a
value based on the time of day and is hence not reproducible
from run to run. In many cases that behavious is desirable, but
for debugging it can be useful to force a seed. The directive -r
nnn[,mmm] sets the seed to up to 64 bits taken from the values
nnn and mmm. THe second value is optional, and specifying -r0
explicitly asks for the non-reproducible behaviour (I hope).
Note that the main Reduce-level random number source is coded at
a higher level and does not get reset this way - this is the
lower level CSL generator.
-s sets the Lisp variable !*plap and hence the compiler generates
an assembly listing.
-t name
reports the time-stamp on the named module, and then exits. This
is for use in perl scripts and the like, and is needed because
the stamps on modules within an image or library file are not
otherwise instantly available.
Note that especially on windowed systems it may be necessary to
use this with -- filename since the information generated here
goes to the default output, which in some cases is just the
screen.
-u symbol
forcibly undefine a Lisp symbol. There are probably very very
few cases where it is useful since I do not have a large number
of system-specific predefined names.
-v An option to make things mildly more verbose. It displays more
of a banner at startup and switches garbage collection messages
on.
-w force console mode.
On a typical system if the system is launched it creates a new
window and uses its own windowed intarface in that. If it is run
such that at startup the standard input or output are associated
with a file or pipe, or under X the variable DISPLAY is not set
it will try to start up in console mode. The flag -w indicates
that the system should run in console more regadless, while -w+
attempts a window even if that seems doomed to failure. When
running the system to obey a script it will often make sense to
use the -w option. Note that on Windows the system is provided
as two separate (but almost identical) binaries. For example the
file csl.exe is linked in windows mode. A result is that if
launched from the command line it detaches from its console, and
if launched by double-clicking it does not create a console. It
is in fact very ugly when double clicking on an application
causes an unwanted console window to appear. In contrast csl.com
is a console mode version of just the same program, so when
launched from a command line it can communicate with the console
in the ordinary expected manner.
-z start without image.
When bootstrapping it is necessary to start up the system for
one initial time without the benefit of any image file at all.
This option makes this happen, so when it is specified the sys‐
tem starts up with a minimal environment and only those capabil‐
ities that are present in the CSL kernel. It will normally make
sense to start loading some basic Lisp definitions rather
rapidly. The files compat.lsp , extras.lsp and compiler.lsp have
Lisp source for the main things I use, and once they are loaded
the Lisp compiler can be used to compile itself.
--help It is probably obvious what this option does! But in particular
it displays an explanation of the --dump-source option, and
hence should count as a prominent and easy-to-find way of alert‐
ing people to their rights and obligations. Note that on Windows
of the application was linked as a windows binary it carefully
creates a console to display the help text in, and organizes a
delay to give people a chance to read it.
-- filename
If the application is run in console mode then its standard out‐
put could be redirected to a file using shell facilities. But
the -- directive (followed by a file name) redirects output
within the Lisp rather than outside it. If this is done a very
limited capability for sending progress or status reports to
stderr (or the title-bar when running in windowed mode) remains
via the report!-right function.
The -w option may frequently make sense in such cases, but if
that is not used and the system tries to run in a window it will
create it starting off minimised.
redcsl 2010 October 10 REDCSL(1)
