Provided by: grass-core_6.4.3-3_amd64 bug

NAME

       grass64  - The GRASS startup program

SYNOPSIS

       grass64  [-]  [-v]  [-h | -help | --help] [-text | -gui | -tcltk | -oldtcltk | -wxpython |
       -wx]] [[[/]/] ]

DESCRIPTION

       This command is used to launch GRASS GIS. It will parse the  command  line  arguments  and
       then  initialize  GRASS for the user. Since GRASS programs require a specific environment,
       this program must be called before any other GRASS  program  can  run.  The  command  line
       arguments  are  optional  and  provide the user with a method to indicate the desired user
       interface, as well as the desired mapset to work on.

FEATURES

       The grass64 startup program will remember both the  desired  user  interface  and  mapset.
       Thus,  the  next time the user runs GRASS, typing grass64 (without any options) will start
       GRASS with the previous settings for the user interface and mapset selected.

       If you specify a graphical user interface (Tcl/Tk or wxPython) the  grass64  program  will
       try  to  verify  that  the  system  you  specified  exists  and  that  you  can  access it
       successfully. If any of these checks fail then grass64 will automatically switch  back  to
       the text user interface mode.

OPTIONS

       All command line options are optional.

   Flags:
       -
               Tries to start GRASS using location environment variables (see below)

       -h -help --help
               Prints a brief usage message

       -text
               Indicates that the text based user interface should be used

       -gui (or -tcltk)
               Indicates that the old Tcl/Tk based graphical user interface should be used

       -oldtcltk
               Indicates that the even older Tcl/Tk based graphical user interface should be used

       -wxpython (or -wx)
               Indicates that the new Python based graphical user interface should be used

       -v --version
               Prints the version of GRASS and exits

   Parameters:
       GISDBASE
               Initial  database  directory  which  should  be  a  fully  qualified  path  (e.g.,
              /usr/local/share/grassdata)

       LOCATION_NAME
               Initial location directory which is a subdirectory of GISDBASE

       MAPSET
               Initial mapset directory which is a subdirectory of LOCATION_NAME

       Note- These parameters must be specified in one of the following ways:
       MAPSET
       LOCATION_NAME/MAPSET
       GISDBASE/LOCATION_NAME/MAPSET

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       A number of environment variables are available at GRASS startup to assist with automation
       and customization. Most users will not need to bother with these.

       In  addition  to  these  shell  environment  variables  GRASS  maintains  a  number of GIS
       environment variables in the $HOME/.grassrc6 file. User changes to this file will be  read
       during  the  next startup of GRASS. If this file becomes corrupted the user may edit it by
       hand or remove it to start afresh.  See the list of implemented GRASS variables  for  more
       information.  The rest of this help page will only consider shell environment variables.

   User Interface Environment Variable
       The  grass64  program  will  check  for  the  existence  of an environment variable called
       GRASS_GUI which indicates the type of user interface for GRASS to use. If this variable is
       not set when grass64 is run, then it will be created and then saved in the $HOME/.grassrc6
       file for the next time GRASS is run. In addition to "text",  "tcltk"  or  "wxpython",  the
       GRASS_GUI variable can be set to the name of the Tcl/Tk GUI to use, for example "gis.m" or
       "d.m".

       There is an order of precedence in the way grass64 determines the user interface  to  use.
       The following is the hierarchy from highest precedence to lowest.

       Interface precedence
              • Command line argument
              • Environment variable GRASS_GUI
              • Value set in $HOME/.grassrc6
              • Default value - currently gis.m

   Tcl/Tk and Python Environment Variables
       If  you  choose to use the Tcl/Tk graphical user interface, then the following environment
       variables can be used to override your system default tclsh and wish commands.

       GRASS_TCLSH
               Command to use to override tclsh

       GRASS_WISH
               Command to use to override wish

       GRASS_PYTHON
               Command to use to override python

   Example Use of GRASS Tcl/Tk Environment Variables
       Suppose your system has Tcl/Tk 8.3 installed and you install a  personal  version  of  the
       Tcl/Tk 8.5 binaries under $HOME/bin. You can use the above variables to have GRASS use the
       Tcl/Tk 8.5 binaries instead.

          GRASS_TCLSH = $HOME/bin/tclsh8.5
          GRASS_WISH  = $HOME/bin/wish8.5

   Example Use of the GRASS Python Environment Variable

          GRASS_PYTHON=python2.5

   Addon path to extra local GRASS modules
       This environment variable allows the user to extend the  GRASS  program  search  paths  to
       include  locally  developed/installed  addon  modules  which  are not distributed with the
       standard GRASS release.

          GRASS_ADDON_PATH=/usr/mytools
          GRASS_ADDON_PATH=/usr/mytools:/usr/local/othertools

       In this example above path(s) would be added to the standard GRASS path environment.

   HTML browser variable
       The GRASS_HTML_BROWSER environment variable allows the user to set the HTML web browser to
       use for dispalying help pages.

   Location Environment Variables
       The  Synopsis  and  Options  sections  above  describe options that can be used to set the
       location and mapset that GRASS will use. These values can also  be  set  with  environment
       variables.  However, specifying the location and mapset variables on the command line will
       override these environment variables. The available variables are as follows:

       LOCATION
               A       fully       qualified       path       to       a        mapset        (eg
              /usr/local/share/grassdata/spearfish60/PERMANENT).    This   environment   variable
              overrides the GISDBASE, LOCATION_NAME, and MAPSET variables.

       GISDBASE
               Initial  database  directory  which  should  be  a  fully   qualified   path   (eg
              /usr/local/share/grassdata)

       LOCATION_NAME
               Initial location directory which is a subdirectory of GISDBASE

       MAPSET
               Initial mapset directory which is a subdirectory of LOCATION_NAME

   Running non-interactive batch jobs
       If  the  GRASS_BATCH_JOB  environment  variable  is set to the full path and filename of a
       shell script then GRASS will be launched in a non-interactive way and the script  will  be
       run.  The  script  itself can be interactive if that is what the user requires. When it is
       finished GRASS will automatically exit using the exit-success code given  by  the  script.
       The script file must have its executable bit set.

   Note
       Note  that  you will need to set these variables using the appropriate method required for
       the UNIX shell that you use. (e.g. in a Bash shell you must  "export"  the  variables  for
       them to propogate)

EXAMPLES

       The following are some examples of how you could start GRASS

       grass64
               Start  GRASS using the default user interface. The user will be prompted to choose
              the appropriate location and mapset.

       grass64 -gui
               Start GRASS using the Tcl/Tk based user interface. The user will  be  prompted  to
              choose the appropriate location and mapset.

       grass64 -text
               Start  GRASS  using  the  text  based user interface. The user will be prompted to
              choose the appropriate location and mapset.

       grass64 ~/grassdata/spearfish60/user1
               Start GRASS using the default user interface and  automatically  launch  into  the
              given mapset, bypassing the mapset selection menu.

       grass64 -gui -
               Start  GRASS  using the Tcl/Tk based user interface and try to obtain the location
              and mapset from environment variables.

   Other examples
       There are a variety of ways in which the location environment variables (see above) can be
       used to specify the mapset to use.  The following are some possible examples.

       Example 1
               The environment variables are defined as follows:
              LOCATION = /usr/local/share/grassdata/spearfish60/PERMANENT
              GISDBASE = /usr/local/share/grassdata
              LOCATION_NAME = spearfish60
              MAPSET = PERMANENT
              Start GRASS with the following command:
              grass64 -
              GRASS  will  start  with the mapset defined by LOCATION since the LOCATION variable
              overrides the other variables.

       Example 2
               The environment variables are defined as follows:
              GISDBASE = /usr/local/share/grassdata
              LOCATION_NAME = spearfish60
              MAPSET = PERMANENT
              Start GRASS with the following command:
              grass64 -
              GRASS will start with the mapset defined by GISDBASE/LOCATION_NAME/MAPSET.

       Example 3
               The environment variables are defined as follows:
              LOCATION = /usr/local/share/grassdata/spearfish60/PERMANENT
              GISDBASE = /usr/local/share/grassdata
              LOCATION_NAME = spearfish60
              MAPSET = PERMANENT
              Start GRASS with the following command:
              grass64 /usr/home/grass/data/thailand/forests
              GRASS will start with the mapset /home/grass/data/thailand/forests which  overrides
              the environment variables.

       Example 4
               The environment variables are defined as follows:
              LOCATION = /usr/local/share/grassdata/spearfish60/PERMANENT
              GISDBASE = /usr/local/share/grassdata
              LOCATION_NAME = spearfish60
              MAPSET = PERMANENT
              Start GRASS with the following command:
              grass64 swamps
              GRASS will start with the mapset defined by GISDBASE/LOCATION_NAME/swamps since the
              command line argument for the mapset overrides the environment variable MAPSET.

       Example 5
               The environment variables are defined as follows:
              LOCATION = /usr/local/share/grassdata/spearfish60/PERMANENT
              GISDBASE = /usr/local/share/grassdata
              LOCATION_NAME = spearfish60
              MAPSET = PERMANENT
              Start GRASS with the following command:
              grass64 thailand/forests
              GRASS will start with the mapset defined  by  GISDBASE/thailand/forests  since  the
              command  line  arguments  for  the  location  and  mapset overrides the environment
              variables LOCATION_NAME and MAPSET.

CAVEAT

       If you start GRASS using the Tcl/Tk interface you must have a wish command in  your  $PATH
       variable.  That  is,  the  command  must  be named wish and not something like wish8.3. By
       default, some Tcl/Tk installations do not create a wish command. In these cases the system
       administrator must create an appropriate link to the actual wish program.

       For  example, suppose Tcl/Tk 8.3 programs are installed in /usr/local/bin. Then the system
       administrator should go to the /usr/local/bin  directory  and  run  the  commands  "ln  -s
       wish8.3 wish" and "ln -s tclsh8.3 tclsh" to properly install Tcl/Tk for use with GRASS.

       Furthermore,  if  you  have  more than one version of Tcl/Tk installed, make sure that the
       version you want to use with GRASS is the first version  found  in  your  $PATH  variable.
       GRASS searches your $PATH variable until it finds the first version of wish.

FILES

       $UNIX_BIN/grass64 - GRASS startup program (Linux, MacOSX etc.)
       $WINDOWS_BIN/grass64.bat - GRASS startup program (MS-Windows)
       $GISBASE/etc/Init.sh - GRASS initialization script called by grass64
       $GISBASE/etc/gis_set.tcl  - Tcl/Tk script to set the location and mapset to use. Called by
       Init.sh

SEE ALSO

       List of implemented GRASS GIS environment variables.

       GRASS GIS Web site

       GRASS GIS 6 Programmer's Manual

AUTHORS (of this page)

       Justin Hickey
       Markus Neteler
       Hamish Bowman

       Last changed: $Date: 2012-08-30 23:09:43 -0700 (Thu, 30 Aug 2012) $

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