Provided by: swi-prolog-core_9.0.4+dfsg-3.1ubuntu4_amd64 bug

NAME

       swipl - SWI-Prolog 9.0.4

SYNOPSIS

       swipl [--help|--version|--arch|--dump-runtime-variables]
       swipl [options] prolog-file ... [--] [arg ...]
       swipl [options] [-o output] -c file ...
       swipl [options] [-o output] -b initfile ...

       The  first version provides information about the system and exits immediately. The second
       version is the primary way to call Prolog on one or more Prolog source file(s) and provide
       arguments  to the application that can be requested using current_prolog_flag(argv, Argv).
       The third version is used to create a saved state while the last version is used for boot-
       compilation of the Prolog parts of the system.

DESCRIPTION

       SWI-Prolog  is  a  comprehensive  and  stable implementation of the Prolog language with a
       large set of libraries. Among its distinguishing features are mature  support  for  multi-
       threading,  a  mature  embedded web-server library, graphical development tools (debugger,
       profiler,  cross-referencer,  editor),  an  embedded  efficient  RDF  store,  support  for
       XML/SGML/HTML  and  Unicode.   More  widely  supported features are support for constraint
       programming, atom garbage collection, interfaces to databases  (ODBC),  C,  C++  and  Java
       (JPL).

       SWI-Prolog implements the ISO core standard. Many of its extensions are largely compatible
       to YAP and SICStus Prolog.

       This manual page only lists the commandline options.  Full documentation is available  on-
       line as well as in HTML and PDF format from the WWW home page at http://www.swi-prolog.org

OPTIONS

       --help Give a summary of the most important options.

       --version
              Display version and architecture information.

       --abi-version
              Display  ABI  version  key.   This  key  indicates  binary compatibility of various
              interfaces.

       --arch Print the architecture identifier.

       --dump-runtime-variables[=format]
              Dump information that is generally  useful  for  installation  scripts  in  a  form
              defined by format.  Defines formats are sh (default, bourne shell) and cmd (Windows
              CMD).  This option is used by swipl-ld (1) to  fetch  necessary  information  about
              Prolog.   It  is  normally  invoked as eval `swipl --dump-runtime-variables`, which
              assigns the following shell variables:

              CC     The C- compiler used to compile SWI-Prolog.

              PLBASE The home directory of SWI-Prolog.  This is the same value as returned by the
                     current_prolog_flag home.

              PLARCH The  architecture  identifier  used.   Together with PLBASE this defines the
                     location of various components.  For example, the library for  embedding  is
                     in $PLBASE/lib/$PLARCH/libswipl.a

              PLBITS Address bits for VM.  Either 32 or 64.

              PLLIB  CC identifier to link to SWI-Prolog.  Typically -lswipl

              PLLIBSWIPL
                     Full path name to the shared object (DLL) that provides the Prolog core.

              PLLIBS Additional libraries needed for linking PLLIB

              PLCFLAGS
                     Flags that need to be passed to the C-compiler to generate compatible code.

              PLLDFLAGS
                     Flags  that  need  to  be  passed  to  the  C-linker  for  linking  embedded
                     executables.

              PLSOEXT
                     Extension used by the hosting operating system for shared objects.  On  most
                     Unix  systems  this  is "so"; on MS-Windows it is "dll".  AIX uses "o", HPUX
                     "sl".

              PLSOPATH
                     Environment variable used by the hosting  operating  system  to  extend  the
                     search  path  for  shared  objects.   For  example,  on  ELF systems this is
                     "LD_LIBRARY_PATH" and on MS-Windows it is "PATH".

              PLVERSION
                     Numeric representation of the SWI-Prolog version.

              PLVERSIONTAG
                     If present, a version tag such as "rc1".

              PLSHARED
                     Has the  value  yes  if  Prolog  supports  linking  shared  libraries  using
                     load_foreign_library/[1,2] and no otherwise.

              PLTHREADS
                     Has  the  value  yes  if  Prolog  was  compiled  for  multi-threading and no
                     otherwise.

       --home=DIR
              Use DIR as home directory.

       --stack-limit=size[bkmg]
              Set the combined stack limit to size bytes.  The suffix  is  case  insensitive  and
              defines the unit as b (bytes), k (Kbytes), m (Mbytes) or g (Gbytes).

       --table-space=size[bkmg]
              Set the table space limit for SLG resolution (tabling) to size bytes.  The suffixes
              are the same as for the --stack-limit option.

       --shared-table-space=size[bkmg]
              Set the table space limit for shared tabling to size bytes.  The suffixes  are  the
              same as for the --stack-limit option.

       -O     Optimised compilation. See set_prolog_flag/2 in the SWI-Prolog Reference Manual.

       -b initfile ... -c file ...
              Boot  compilation.  initfile ...  are compiled by the C written bootstrap compiler,
              file ...  by the normal Prolog compiler into an intermediate code file. This option
              is for system maintenance and is given for reference only.

       -c file ...
              Compile file ...  into an intermediate code file.

       -d level
              Set  debug  level to level.  This option is for system maintenance and is given for
              reference only.

       --packs[=bool]
              Disable attaching extension packs (add-ons).

       --pce[=bool]
              Disable the XPCE GUI subsystem.

       --pldoc[=port]
              Start the PlDoc documentation system on a free network port and launch  the  user's
              browser  on  http://localhost:port.  If port is specified, the server is started at
              the given port but the browser is not launched.

       -f file
              Use file as initialisation file instead of `init.pl'. `-f  none'  stops  SWI-Prolog
              from searching for an initialisation file.

       -F file
              Select startup script from the SWI-Prolog home directory.  file Specifies the base-
              name of the script.  The extension is .rc.  The default script is deduced from  the
              basename  of the executable, taking all leading alphanumerical (letters, digits and
              underscore) from the program name.  Thus if the program is named  swi-2.0  it  will
              try  to  load the file swi.rc from the SWI-Prolog home directory.  If the file does
              not exist, or the user has no read-access to it, the script is silently not loaded.

       -s file
              Load file as a script.  This option may be used from the shell to make Prolog  load
              a  file  before  entering  the  toplevel.   Deprecated  as file names with a Prolog
              extension (.pl or .qlf) are used to load the program.

       -l file
              Load file as a script.  This is a synonym for -s that is  compatible  with  several
              other  Prolog  implementations.   If  multiple -s or -l arguments are provided, all
              specified files are loaded in the order in which they appear on the argument list.

       --quiet[=bool] -q
              Operate silently.  This option suppresses all informational messages.

       --debug[=bool]
              Disable generating code that can be debugged using trace/0, spy/1, etc.

       --debug-on-interrupt[=bool]
              Immediately start handling SIGINT (Control-C) to start the  debugger.   By  default
              this is enabled when the interactive toplevel is entered.

       --on-error=style
              How  to  handle on a (printed) error message.  Default is print which causes errors
              to be printed while execution continues.  Using status execution continues as  with
              print,  but  halt/0  causes  the  process to exit with status 1 and halt causes the
              process to exit with status 1 on the first error.

       --on-warning=style
              Similar to --on-error, but for warning messages.

       -g goal
              Goal is executed just before  entering  the  top  level.  This  option  may  appear
              multiple  times.   Goals  are executed in the order of appearance.  Possible choice
              points are pruned.  If a goal fails an error is printed (depending on the -q  flag)
              and the process stops with exit code 1.  If a goal raises an exception the error is
              printed and the process stops with exit code 2.  In no goal is present version/0 is
              called to write the welcome message.  The welcome message can thus be suppressed by
              giving -g true.  goal can be a complex term. In  this  case,  quotes  are  normally
              needed to protect it from being expanded by the Unix shell.

       -o output
              Used in combination with -b or -c to determine the output file for compilation.

       -p alias=pathlist
              Define  a  path  alias for file_search_path/2.  pathlist is a ":" separated list of
              values for the alias. See file_search_path/2 in the SWI-Prolog Reference Manual.

       -t goal
              Use goal as an interactive top level instead of the default  goal  prolog/0.   goal
              can be a complex term. If the top level goal succeeds, SWI-Prolog exits with status
              0. If it fails, the exit status is 1. This flag also determines the goal started by
              break/0  and abort/0.  If you want to stop the user from entering interactive mode,
              start the application with `-g goal' and give `halt' as the top level.

       -x bootfile
              Start from an intermediate code file resulting from a Prolog compilation using  the
              -b or -c option, or created using qsave_program/[1,2].

       --tty[=bool]
              Switches  tty  control (using ioctl(2)).  Normally tty control is switched on. This
              default depends on the installation. You may wish to switch tty control off if SWI-
              Prolog is used from an editor such as GNU Emacs. If switched off, get_single_char/1
              and the tracer will wait for a carriage return.

       --win-app
              This option is available only in swipl-win.exe.  The Start menu shortcut uses  this
              option  to  change  the  working  directory  to  ...\Documents\Prolog.   The Prolog
              subdirectory will be created if it does not exist.

       --signals[=bool]
              Disable handling of signals.  Often used  if  SWI-Prolog  is  embedded  in  another
              application on Unix systems.

       --sigalert=NUM
              Use  NUM  for  unblocking  system  calls.   Default  is  SIGUSR2.  Using 0 disables
              installing a signal handler, delaying the delivery  of  thread  signals  until  the
              blocking system call completes.

       --threads[=bool]
              Disable  creating  threads  in  the  multi-threaded version.  This notably prevents
              running global garbage collection  on  a  separate  thread  and  may  be  used  for
              situations where multiple threads are not desirable.

       --traditional
              Disable  SWI-Prolog  version  7  extensions  that  are  incompatible  with  earlier
              versions.

       --     Stop scanning for more arguments.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       SWI_HOME_DIR
              Location for finding the startup file  and the libraries.  Normally discovered from
              the  executable  or  configured  default location.  Providing the value through the
              environment may be needed if SWI-Prolog is embedded into another executable.

ON-LINE HELP

       SWI-Prolog has on-line help. This provides a fast lookup and browsing facility to the SWI-
       Prolog  Reference  manual.  The  on-line  manual can show predicate definitions as well as
       entire sections of the manual.

       help   Equivalent to help(help/1).

       help(+What)
              Show a specified part of the manual.  What is one of:

              Name/Arity
                     give help on the specified predicate

              Name   give help on the named predicate with any arity or a  C  interface  function
                     with that name.

              Section
                     display  the  specified section of the SWI-Prolog Reference Manual.  Section
                     numbers are dash separated numbers: e.g.  2-3 refers to section 2.3  of  the
                     manual.

              If  Prolog  is  used  together  with  the  GUI  tool XPCE, these predicates start a
              graphical interface, providing  a  coherent  interface  to  help/1,  apropos/1  and
              explain/1.

FILES

       This   installation   of  SWI-Prolog  has  been  configured  using  the  configure  option
       --prefix=/usr.  If the files listed below are not at the indicated place, the installation
       has probably been moved.  Use

       ?- current_prolog_flag(home, Home).

       to find the local installation directory of SWI-Prolog.

       ~/.config/swi-prolog/init.pl
              Personal  initialisation  files  consulted  by  SWI-Prolog  on  startup.  The exact
              location depends on the OS.

       /usr/lib/swipl-9.0.4/bin//
              Location for the executables.

       /usr/lib/swipl-9.0.4/include/
              Location for the include files.   If  writable,  SWI-Prolog.h  is  also  copied  to
              /usr/include/SWI-Prolog.h.

       /usr/lib/swipl-9.0.4/library/
              SWI-Prolog user libraries.

       /usr/lib/swipl-9.0.4/boot/
              SWI-Prolog  kernel parts written in Prolog.  The startup file /usr/lib/swipl-9.0.4/
              may be recreated using the command from the directory /usr/lib/swipl-9.0.4:

              bin//swipl -O -o  -b boot/init.pl

       /usr/lib/swipl-9.0.4/doc/packages
              HTML and/or PDF documentation on the installed add-ons.

       /usr/lib/swipl-9.0.4/
              Default startup file.  This is a `intermediate code'  file  containing  precompiled
              code  from  the  boot  directory.   The  -xbootfile  option may be used to select a
              different file.

       /usr/lib/swipl-9.0.4/runtime//libpl.a
              SWI-Prolog library for embedding.  See also plld(1).

SEE ALSO

       The SWI-Prolog web-home at http://www.swi-prolog.org

       Jan Wielemaker SWI-Prolog Reference Manual at http://www.swi-prolog.org/pldoc/index.html

       Documentation on the add-on packages in /usr/lib/swipl-9.0.4/boot/doc

       William F. Clocksin &  Christopher S. Mellish,  Programming  in  Prolog,  fourth  edition,
       Springer Verlag, Berlin 1994.

       swipl-ld(1)

WARRANTY

       The  software  is  provided  as  is,  without  warranty  of  any kind, express or implied,
       including but not limited to the warranties of merchantability, fitness for  a  particular
       purpose  and  non infringement. In no event shall the author or his employer be liable for
       any claim, damages or  other  liability,  whether  in  an  action  of  contract,  tort  or
       otherwise,  arising  from,  out  of or in connection with the software or the use or other
       dealings in the software.

LICENSE INFORMATION

       SWI-Prolog is distributed under  the  Simplified  BSD  or  BSD-2  License.   A  particular
       configuration  may  contain  components that are subject to other license conditions.  Use
       license/0 to find components with less permissive license conditions.  See the  SWI-Prolog
       license page at http://www.swi-prolog.org/license.html for details.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (c) 1986-2020 University of Amsterdam, VU University Amsterdam

AUTHOR

       Jan Wielemaker