Provided by: grass-core_7.0.3-1build1_amd64 
GRASS startup program
SYNOPSIS
grass70 [-h | -help | --help] [-v | --version] [-c | -c geofile | -c EPSG:code[:datum_trans]] [-text |
-gtext | -gui] [[[<GISDBASE>/]<LOCATION_NAME>/] <MAPSET>]
Flags:
-h | -help | --help
Prints a brief usage message and exits
-v | --verbose
Prints the version of GRASS and exits
-c
Creates new GRASS unprojected location in specified GISDBASE
-c geofile
Creates new GRASS projected location in specified GISDBASE based on georeferenced file
-c EPSG:code
Creates new GRASS projected location in specified GISDBASE with given EPSG code
-c EPSG:code:datum_trans
Creates new GRASS projected location in specified GISDBASE with given EPSG code and datum transform
parameters
-text
Indicates that Text-based User Interface should be used (skip welcome screen)
-gtext
Indicates that Text-based User Interface should be used (show welcome screen)
-gui
Indicates that Graphical User Interface (wxGUI) should be used
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
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 modules require a specific environment, this program must be called
before any other GRASS module 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.
The startup program will remember both the desired user interface and mapset. Thus, the next time the
user runs GRASS, typing grass70 (without any options) will start GRASS with the previous settings for the
user interface and mapset selected.
If you specify a graphical user interface (-gui) the grass70 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 grass70
will automatically switch back to the text user interface mode.
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/.grass7/rc 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.
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 propagate).
User Interface Environment Variable
The grass70 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 grass70 is run,
then it will be created and then saved in the $HOME/.grass7/rc file for the next time GRASS is run. It
can be set to text, gtext or gui.
There is an order of precedence in the way grass70 determines the user interface to use. The following is
the hierarchy from highest precedence to lowest.
1 Command line argument
2 Environment variable GRASS_GUI
3 Value set in $HOME/.grass7/rc (GUI)
4 Default value - gui
Python Environment Variables
If you choose to use wxGUI interface, then the GRASS_PYTHON environment variable can be used to override
your system default python command.
Suppose for example your system has Python 2.5 installed and you install a personal version of the Python
2.6 binaries under $HOME/bin. You can use the above variables to have GRASS use the Python 2.6 binaries
instead.
GRASS_PYTHON=python2.6
Addon Path to Extra User Scripts
This environment variable allows the user to extend the GRASS program search paths to include locally
developed/installed GRASS modules or user scripts.
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.
Addon Base for Extra Local GRASS Addon Modules
This environment variable allows the user to extend the GRASS program search paths to include locally
installed (see g.extension for details) GRASS Addon modules which are not distributed with the standard
GRASS release.
GRASS_ADDON_BASE=/usr/grass-addons
In this example above path would be added to the standard GRASS path environment.
If not defined by user, this variable is set by GRASS startup program to $HOME/.grass7/addons on
GNU/Linux and $APPDATA\GRASS7\addons on MS Windows.
HTML Browser Variable
The GRASS_HTML_BROWSER environment variable allows the user to set the HTML web browser to use for
displaying help pages.
Location Environment Variables
The Synopsis section above describes 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.
EXAMPLES
The following are some examples of how you could start GRASS
grass70
Start GRASS using the default user interface. The user will be prompted to choose the appropriate
location and mapset.
grass70 -gui
Start GRASS using the graphical user interface. The user will be prompted to choose the appropriate
location and mapset.
grass70 -text
Start GRASS using the text-based user interface. Appropriate location and mapset must be set by
environmental variables (see examples below) otherwise taken from the last GRASS session.
grass70 -gtext
Start GRASS using the text-based user interface. The user will be prompted to choose the appropriate
location and mapset.
grass70 $HOME/grassdata/spearfish60/user1
Start GRASS using the default user interface and automatically launch into the given mapset,
bypassing the mapset selection menu.
grass70 -gui -
Start GRASS using the graphical user interface and try to obtain the location and mapset from
environment variables.
grass70 -c EPSG:4326 $HOME/grassdata/mylocation
Creates new GRASS location with EPSG code 4326 (latitude-longitude, WGS84) in the specified GISDBASE
grass70 -c EPSG:5514:3 $HOME/grassdata/mylocation
Creates new GRASS location with EPSG code 5514 (S-JTSK / Krovak East North - SJTSK) with datum
transformation parameters used in Czech Republic in the specified GISDBASE
grass70 -c myvector.shp $HOME/grassdata/mylocation
Creates new GRASS location based on georeferenced Shapefile
grass70 -c myraster.tif $HOME/grassdata/mylocation
Creates new GRASS location based on georeferenced GeoTIFF file
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:
grass70 -
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:
grass70 -
GRASS will start with the mapset defined by GISDBASE/LOCATION_NAME/MAPSET.
grass70 /usr/home/grass/data/thailand/forests
GRASS will start with the mapset /home/grass/data/thailand/forests which overrides the environment
variables.
grass70 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.
grass70 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 wxGUI interface you must have a python command in your $PATH variable. That
is, the command must be named python and not something like python2.6. Rarely some Python installations
do not create a python command. In these cases you can override python by GRASS_PYTHON environmental
variable.
Furthermore, if you have more than one version of Python installed, make sure that the version you want
to use with GRASS is set by GRASS_PYTHON environmental variable.
SEE ALSO
List of GRASS environment variables
GRASS GIS Web site
GRASS GIS User Wiki
GRASS GIS Bug Tracker
GRASS GIS 7 Programmer’s Manual
AUTHORS (of this page)
Justin Hickey
Markus Neteler
Hamish Bowman
Martin Landa, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic
Last changed: $Date: 2015-12-31 09:19:51 +0100 (Thu, 31 Dec 2015) $
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