Ubuntu Manpage: swipl - SWI-Prolog 8.4.2

Provided by: swi-prolog-core_8.4.2+dfsg-2ubuntu1_amd64

NAME

       swipl - SWI-Prolog 8.4.2

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

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-8.4.2/bin//
Location for the executables.

/usr/lib/swipl-8.4.2/include/
Location for the include files. If writable, SWI-Prolog.h is also copied to
/usr/include/SWI-Prolog.h.

/usr/lib/swipl-8.4.2/library/
SWI-Prolog user libraries.

/usr/lib/swipl-8.4.2/boot/
SWI-Prolog kernel parts written in Prolog. The startup file /usr/lib/swipl-8.4.2/
may be recreated using the command from the directory /usr/lib/swipl-8.4.2:

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

/usr/lib/swipl-8.4.2/doc/packages
HTML and/or PDF documentation on the installed add-ons.

/usr/lib/swipl-8.4.2/
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-8.4.2/runtime//libpl.a
SWI-Prolog library for embedding. See also plld(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