NAME

       opencpn - Chartplotter and GPS Navigation Software

SYNOPSIS

       opencpn [options]

DESCRIPTION

       OpenCPN  is  a  chartplotter and navigation GUI program supporting navigation under way as
       well as planning. It supports a wide range of chart formats using a plugin  system.  Other
       plugins  provides  support  for e. g. radar, AIS and weather maps. Program is localized in
       20+ languages and ported to several OS including MacOS, Windows and Linux.

OPTIONS FOR STARTING OPENCPN

       -h, --help
              Show help info.

       -p, --portable
              Run in portable mode.

       -l, --loglevel=<level>
              Set amount of logged information. Level is any  of  trace,  debug,  info,  message,
              warning or error, defaulting to info if not set in environment; see ENVIRONMENT.

       -c, --configdir=<directory>
              Use  alternative  configuration directory instead  of ~/.openpcn on Linux or MacOS.
              -f, --fullscreen Switch to full screen mode on start.

       -G, --no_opengl
              Disable OpenGL video acceleration. This setting will be remembered.

       -g, --rebuild_gl_raster_cache
              Rebuild OpenGL raster cache on start.

       -D, --rebuild_chart_db
              Rescan chart directories and rebuild the chart database

       -P, --parse_all_enc
              Convert all S-57 charts to OpenCPN's internal format on start.

       -u, --unit_test_1:<num>
              Display a slideshow of <num> charts and then exit. Zero or negative <num> specifies
              no limit.

       -s, --safe_mode
              Run  without  plugins, openGL and other possibly problematic features.  It is still
              possible to unintall plugins in this mode.

OPTIONS FOR MANIPULATING RUNNING OPENCPN

       -r, --remote
              Run commands on a running instance instead of starting opencpn.  Exits  with  error
              code if no running opencpn instance is found.

       -R, --raise
              Raise opencpn window to be on top of other windows, requires --remote.  This is the
              default behaviour if opencpn is invoked without options  and  arguments  and  there
              already is a running instance.

       -e, --get_rest_endpoint
              Print   the   url   for   connecting  to  the  local  opencpn  REST  server  e.  g.
              http://localhost:8000. Requires --remote.

       -q, --quit
              Make the remote instance exit. Requires --remote.

PLUGIN LOADING

       Plugin loading depends on that the opencpn main program can locate the plugin object  file
       and that the plugin can locate it's own data.

       On Linux,  the main program searches for plugin .so-files  in two locatiosn.  The first is
       ~/.local/lib/opencpn.

       The second is @install-dir@/../lib/opencpn  where  @install-dir@  is  the  location  where
       opencpn  is  installed.   If  for example opencpn is installed in /usr/bin plugins will be
       loaded from /usr/lib/opencpn.

       On other platforms plugins are also loaded from two different locations, one of which used
       primarely  for  system  plugins  and  requiring administrative privileges.  The other is a
       user-writable locations used by the plugin manager.

       A plugin's data directory is a path ending with opencpn/plugins/<plugin_name>.  On  Linux,
       this  is  by  default searched in ~/.local/share:/usr/local/share:/usr/share.  This search
       path is overridden by XDG_DATA_DIRS as defined by  the  freedesktop  spec.   Only  plugins
       adapted for this (i. e., using GetPluginDataDir()) handles this properly.

       On  other  platforms  plugin  data directories are located in similar locations which also
       must be retrieved in runtime using GetPluginDataDir().

LIBRARY LOADING AND LD_LIBRARY_PATH

       If LD_LIBRARY_PATH exists in the environment opencpn uses it without modifications.

       Otherwise LD_LIBRARY_PATH is set to the same path as from which plugins  are  loaded,  see
       above. This ensures that helper binaries can load possible libraries installed in the same
       directories as the plugin.

ENVIRONMENT

       OPENCPN_PLUGIN_DIRS
              Plugin load path, see PLUGIN LOADING. If existing, overrides all  default  entries.
              The path is ';'-separated on Windows but uses ':' on other platforms.

       OPENCPN_LOGLEVEL
              Default  loglevel  if  not  defined  on  command  line using -l/--loglevel. See the
              --loglevel option for allowed values.

       OPENCPN_FATAL_ERROR
              If defined, displays the message and exits on startup.

FILES

       ~/.opencpn/opencpn.log
              System log file, a useful tool to solve problems.

SEE ALSO

       https://www.opencpn.org
       https://www.freedesktop.org
       https://opencpn-manuals.github.io/main

                                            July 2018                                  Opencpn(1)