CLISP(1)

NAME
clisp - Common Lisp language interpreter and compiler

SYNOPSIS
clisp [ -h | --help ] [ --version ] [ --license ] [ -B lisplibdir ] #ifdef UNIX [ -K linking-set ] #endif [ -M memfile ] [ -m memsize ] #ifndef NO_SP_MALLOC [ -s stacksize ] #endif #ifdef MULTIMAP_MEMORY_VIA_FILE [ -t tempdir ] #endif [ -L language ] [ -N localedir ] [ -Edomain encoding ] [ -q | --quiet | --silent ] [ -w ] [ -I ] [ -a ] [ -p packagename ] [ -C ] [ -norc ] [ -i initfile ... ] [ -c [ -l ] lispfile [ -o outputfile ] ... ] [ -x expression ] [ lispfile [ argument ] ]

DESCRIPTION
Invokes the common lisp interpreter and compiler. Invoked without arguments, executes a read-eval-print loop, in which expressions are in turn read from standard input, evaluated by the lisp interpreter, and their results output to standard output. Invoked with -c, the specified lisp files are compiled to a bytecode that can be executed more efficiently.

OPTIONS

-h, --help
    Displays a help message on how to use clisp.

--version
    Displays the clisp version number, as given by the function call (lisp-implementation-version).

--license
    Displays a summary of the licensing information, the GNU GPL.

-B lisplibdir
    Specifies the installation directory. This is the directory containing the linking sets and other data files. #ifdef UNIX This option is normally not necessary, because the installation directory is already built-in in the clisp executable. #endif #ifdef UNIX

-K linking-set
    Specifies the linking set to be run. This is a directory containing at least a main executable and an initial memory image. Possible values are base, full. The default is base. #endif

-M memfile
    Specifies the initial memory image. This must be a memory dump produced by the saveinitmem function. #ifdef UNIX It may have been compressed using GNU gzip. #endif

-m memsize
    Sets the amount of memory clisp tries to grab on startup. The amount may be given as nnnnnnn (measured in bytes), nnnnK or nnnnKB (measured in kilobytes) or nM or nMB (measured in megabytes). #ifdef WIDE Default is 4 megabytes. #else Default is 2 megabytes. #endif #if (oint_addr_len+addr_shift==24) The argument is constrained between 100 KB and 16 MB. #elif (oint_addr_len+addr_shift==26) The argument is constrained between 100 KB and 64 MB. #elif (oint_addr_len+addr_shift==28) The argument is constrained between 100 KB and 256 MB. #else The argument is constrained above 100 KB. #endif -- This version of clisp #if defined(SPVW_MIXED) && defined(SPVW_BLOCKS) #ifdef GENERATIONAL_GC is not likely to actually use the entire memsize since garbage collection will periodically reduce the amount of used memory. It is therefore common to specify 10 MB even if only 2 MB are going to be used. #else eventually uses the entire memsize. #endif #else allocates memory dynamically. memsize is essentially ignored. #endif #ifndef NO_SP_MALLOC

-s stacksize
    Sets the size of the stack clisp allocates for itself. The syntax is the same as for memsize. Default is one eighth of memsize. The argument is constrained between 40 KB and 8 MB. #endif #ifdef MULTIMAP_MEMORY_VIA_FILE

-t tempdir
    Specifies the directory where the temporary core file is to be held. This option takes precedence over the environment variable TMPDIR. #endif

-L language
    Specifies the language clisp uses to communicate with the user. This may be #ifndef GNU_GETTEXT english. #endif #ifdef GNU_GETTEXT english, deutsch, francais, espanol. Other languages may be specified through the environment variable LANG, provided the corresponding message catalog is installed. #endif

-N localedir
    Specifies the base directory of locale files. clisp will search its message catalogs in localedir/language/LC_MESSAGES/clisp.mo.

-Edomain encoding
    Specifies the encoding used for a given domain, overriding the default which depends on the environment variables LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LANG. domain can be file, affecting *default-file-encoding*, or pathname, affecting *pathname-encoding*, or terminal, affecting *terminal-encoding*, or foreign, affecting *foreign-encoding*, or misc, affecting *misc-encoding*.

-q, --quiet, --silent
    Quiet: clisp displays no banner at startup and no good-bye message when quitting.

-w  Wait for keypress after program termination.

-I  Be ILISP friendly. ILISP is an alternative Emacs interface to Common Lisp systems. With this option, clisp interacts in a way that ILISP can deal with. Currently the only effect of this is that unnecessary prompts are not suppressed. #ifdef GNU_READLINE Furthermore, the GNU readline library treats Tab as a normal self-inserting character. #endif

-a  ANSI CL compliant: Comply with the ANSI CL specification even on those issues where ANSI CL is broken. This option is provided for maximum portability of Lisp programs, and is not useful for actual everyday work. It sets the variable *package* to COMMON-LISP-USER, and the symbol macro *ansi* to t. See impnotes.html, section "Maximum ANSI CL compliance", for details.

-p packagename
    At startup the value of the variable *package* will be set to the package named packagename. The default is the package which was active when the image was saved, normally USER, or COMMON-LISP-USER if the option -a was specified.

-C  Compile when load: At startup the value of the variable *load-compiling* will be set to t. Code being loaded will then be compiled on the fly. This results in slower loading, but faster execution.

-norc
    Normally clisp loads a user run control (RC) file on startup (this happens after the -C option is processed). The file loaded is #if defined(PATHNAME_MSDOS) || defined(PATHNAME_OS2) || defined(PATHNAME_WIN32) || defined(PATHNAME_RISCOS) _clisprc.lisp or _clisprc.fas in the home directory (user-homedir-pathname), #endif #if defined(PATHNAME_AMIGAOS) .clisprc.lisp or .clisprc.fas in the home directory (user-homedir-pathname), #endif #if defined(PATHNAME_UNIX) ${HOME}/.clisprc.lisp or ${HOME}/.clisprc.fas, #endif whichever is newest. This option, -norc, prevents loading of the RC file.

-i initfile ...
    Specifies initialization files to be loaded at startup. These should be lisp files (source or compiled). Several -i options can be given; all the specified files will be loaded in order.

-c lispfile ...
    Compiles the specified lispfiles to bytecode (*.fas). The compiled files can then be loaded instead of the sources to gain efficiency.

-o outputfile
    Specifies the output file or directory for the compilation of the last specified lispfile.

-l  A bytecode listing (*.lis) of the files being compiled will be produced. Useful only for debugging purposes. See the documentation of compile-file for details.

-x expressions
    Executes a series of arbitrary expressions instead of a read-eval-print loop. The values of the expressions will be output to standard output. Due to the argument processing done by the shell, the expressions must be enclosed in double quotes, and double quotes and backslashes must be preceded by backslashes.

lispfile [argument ...]
    Loads and executes a lispfile. There will be no read-eval-print loop. Before lispfile is loaded, the variable *args* will be bound to a list of strings, representing the arguments. #ifdef UNIX The first line of lispfile may start with #!, thus permitting clisp to be used as a script interpreter. #endif If lispfile is -, the standard input is used instead of a file. This option must be the last one. No RC file will be executed. #ifdef EMUNIX

@optionfile
    substitutes the contents of optionfile as arguments. Each line of optionfile is treated as a separate argument to clisp. #endif #ifdef AMIGAOS

WORKBENCH
Two kinds of tooltypes are supported:

WINDOW= windowspec
    clisp will communicate with the console window or pipe specified by windowspec.

ARGS= arguments
    Specifies the command line arguments for clisp. Within arguments the token `*' may be used to denote the project's filename. arguments defaults to `-i *' which means that the file will be loaded (see above). #endif

REFERENCE
The language implemented mostly conforms to
          ANSI Common Lisp standard X3.226-1994
          http://www.x3.org/tc_home/j13sd4.htm
available online as the
          Common Lisp HyperSpec
          http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/
          ("CLHS" for short)
which supersedes the earlier specifications
          Guy L. Steele Jr.: Common Lisp - The Language.
          Digital Press. 2nd edition 1990, 1032 pages.
          http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/project/ai-repository/ai/html/cltl/cltl2.html
          ("CLtL2" for short)
and
          Guy L. Steele Jr.: Common Lisp - The Language.
          Digital Press. 1st edition 1984, 465 pages.
          ("CLtL1" for short)

USE

help
    to get some on-line help.

(apropos name)
    lists the symbols relating to name.

(exit) or (quit) or (bye)
    to quit clisp. #if defined(UNIX) || defined(MSDOS) || defined(AMIGAOS) || defined(RISCOS)

#if (defined(UNIX) && !defined(UNIX_CYGWIN32)) || defined(RISCOS)
    EOF (Ctrl-D) #endif #if defined(MSDOS) || defined(UNIX_CYGWIN32) EOF (Ctrl-Z) #endif #ifdef AMIGAOS EOF (Ctrl-\) #endif to leave the current read-eval-print loop. #endif #ifdef GNU_READLINE

arrow keys
    for editing and viewing the input history.

Tab key
    to complete the symbol's name you are just typing. #endif

FILES
#ifdef UNIX

clisp
    startup script #endif

#if defined(UNIX)
    lisp.run #endif #if defined(MSDOS) lisp.exe #endif #if defined(AMIGAOS) lisp.run #endif #if defined(RISCOS) lisp #endif main executable

lispinit.mem
    initial memory image

config.lisp
    site-dependent configuration

*.lisp
    lisp source

*.fas
    lisp code, compiled by clisp

*.lib
    lisp source library information, generated and used by the clisp compiler

*.c C code, compiled from lisp source by clisp #ifdef HAVE_ENVIRONMENT

ENVIRONMENT

CLISP_LANGUAGE
    specifies the language clisp uses to communicate with the user. The value may be english, deutsch, francais and defaults to english. The -L option can be used to override this environment variable. #ifdef AMIGAOS

Language
    specifies the language clisp uses to communicate with the user, unless it is already specified through the environment variable CLISP_LANGUAGE or the -L option. The value may be as above. #endif #ifdef UNICODE

LC_CTYPE
    specifies the locale which determines the character set in use. The value can be of the form language or language_country or language_country.charset, where language is a two-letter ISO 639 language code (lower case), and country is a two-letter ISO 3166 country code (upper case). charset is an optional character set specification, and needs normally not be given because the character set can be inferred from the language and country. #endif

LANG
    specifies the language clisp uses to communicate with the user, unless it is already specified through the environment variable CLISP_LANGUAGE or the -L option. #ifdef UNICODE It also specifies the locale determining the character set in use, unless already specified through the environment variable LC_CTYPE. #endif The value may begin with a two-letter ISO 639 language code, for example en, de, fr. #ifdef UNIX

HOME and USER
    are used for determining the value of the function user-homedir-pathname. (Unix implementation only.) #endif #if defined(UNIX) || defined(MSDOS)

#ifdef UNIX
    SHELL (Unix implementation only) is used to find the interactive command interpreter called by (shell). #endif #ifdef MSDOS COMSPEC (DOS, OS/2 implementations only) is used to find the command interpreter called by the function shell. #endif #endif #ifdef UNIX

TERM
    determines the screen size recognized by the pretty printer. This environment variable is also mandatory for the built-in screen editor. #endif #ifdef EMUNIX_PORTABEL

TERM
    specifies the terminal emulation clisp relies on. If you have ANSI.SYS loaded, possible values are ansi, ansi-color-2, ansi-color-3 and mono.

TERMCAP
    should be set to the slashified file name of the terminal capabilities database termcap.dat. #endif #ifdef MULTIMAP_MEMORY_VIA_FILE

TMPDIR (Sparc implementation only)
    specifies the directory where the temporary core file is to be held. #endif #endif

SEE ALSO
impnotes.html, cmucl(1), #ifdef UNIX xemacs(1). #else emacs(1). #endif

BUGS
#ifdef SPVW_MIXED_BLOCKS

The memory management scheme is not very flexible. #endif

Not all extensions from CLtL2 are supported.

No on-line documentation beyond apropos and describe is available. #ifdef EMUNIX

Stack overflow aborts the program ungracefully, with a register dump.

Pressing Control-C may not interrupt clisp in every situation.

Calling the function execute on batch files crashes the machine. #endif #ifdef UNIX_COHERENT

*keyboard-input* does not recognize Ctrl-S and Ctrl-Q. #endif

PROJECTS

Writing on-line documentation.

Enhance the compiler such that it can inline local functions.

Specify a portable set of window and graphics operations.

AUTHORS
Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> and Michael Stoll.