Ubuntu Manpage: SYNOPSIS

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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.

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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       © 2003-2016 GRASS Development Team, GRASS GIS 7.0.3 Reference Manual

GRASS 7.0.3                                                                                            grass7(1)