1swipl(1) General Commands Manual swipl(1)
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6 swipl - SWI-Prolog 8.0.3
7
9 swipl [--help|--version|--arch|--dump-runtime-variables]
10 swipl [options] prolog-file ... [--] [arg ...]
11 swipl [options] [-o output] -c file ...
12 swipl [options] [-o output] -b initfile ...
13 The first version provides information about the system and exits imme‐
15 diately. The second version is the primary way to call Prolog on one or
16 more Prolog source file(s) and provide arguments to the application
17 that can be requested using current_prolog_flag(argv, Argv). The third
18 version is used to create a saved state while the last version is used
19 for boot-compilation of the Prolog parts of the system.
20
23 SWI-Prolog is a comprehensive and stable implementation of the Prolog
24 language with a large set of libraries. Among its distinguishing fea‐
25 tures are mature support for multi-threading, a mature embedded web-
26 server library, graphical development tools (debugger, profiler, cross-
27 referencer, editor), an embedded efficient RDF store, support for
28 XML/SGML/HTML and Unicode. More widely supported features are support
29 for constraint programming, atom garbage collection, interfaces to
30 databases (ODBC), C, C++ and Java (JPL).
31 SWI-Prolog implements the ISO core standard. Many of its extensions are
33 largely compatible to YAP and SICStus Prolog.
34 This manual page only lists the commandline options. Full documenta‐
36 tion is available on-line as well as in HTML and PDF format from the
37 WWW home page at http://www.swi-prolog.org
38
41 SWI-Prolog is distributed under the Simplified BSD or BSD-2 License. A
42 particular configuration may contain components that are subject to
43 other license conditions. Use license/0 to find components with less
44 permissive license conditions. See the SWI-Prolog home page at
45 http://www.swi-prolog.org for details.
46
49 --help Gives a summary of the most important options.
50 --version
52 Displays version and architecture information.
53 --arch Prints the architecture identifier.
55 --dump-runtime-variables[=format]
57 Dump information that is generally useful for installation
58 scripts in a form defined by format. Defines formats are sh
59 (default, bourne shell) and cmd (Windows CMD). This option is
60 used by swipl-ld (1) to fetch necessary information about Pro‐
61 log. It is normally invoked as eval `swipl -dump-runtime-vari‐
62 ables`, which assigns the following shell variables:
63 CC The C- compiler used to compile SWI-Prolog.
65 PLBASE The home directory of SWI-Prolog. This is the same value
67 as returned by the current_prolog_flag home.
68 PLARCH The architecture identifier used. Together with PLBASE
70 this defines the location of various components. For
71 example, the library for embedding is in
72 $PLBASE/lib/$PLARCH/libswipl.a
73 PLBITS Address bits for VM. Either 32 or 64.
75 PLLIB CC identifier to link to SWI-Prolog. Typically -lswipl
77 PLLIBS Additional libraries needed for linking PLLIB
79 PLCFLAGS
81 Flags that need to be passed to the C-compiler to gener‐
82 ate compatible code.
83 PLLDFLAGS
85 Flags that need to be passed to the C-linker for linking
86 embedded executables.
87 PLSOEXT
89 Extension used by the hosting operating system for shared
90 objects. On most Unix systems this is "so"; on MS-Windows
91 it is "dll". AIX uses "o", HPUX "sl".
92 PLSOPATH
94 Environment variable used by the hosting operating system
95 to extend the search path for shared objects. For exam‐
96 ple, on ELF systems this is "LD_LIBRARY_PATH" and on MS-
97 Windows it is "PATH".
98 PLVERSION
100 Numeric representation of the SWI-Prolog version.
101 PLVERSIONTAG
103 If present, a version tag such as "rc1".
104 PLSHARED
106 Has the value yes if Prolog supports linking shared
107 libraries using load_foreign_library/[1,2] and no other‐
108 wise.
109 PLTHREADS
111 Has the value yes if Prolog was compiled for multi-
112 threading and no otherwise.
113 --stack_limit=size[bkmg]
115 Sets the combined stack limit to size bytes. The suffix is case
116 insensitive and defines the unit as b (bytes), k (Kbytes), m
117 (Mbytes) or g (Gbytes).
118 --table_space=size[bkmg]
120 Sets the space limit for tables use for SLG resolution (tabling)
121 to size bytes. The suffixes are the same as for the
122 --stack_limit option.
123 -O Optimised compilation. See set_prolog_flag/2 in the SWI-Prolog
125 Reference Manual.
126 -b initfile ... -c file ...
128 Boot compilation. initfile ... are compiled by the C written
129 bootstrap compiler, file ... by the normal Prolog compiler into
130 an intermediate code file. This option is for system maintenance
131 and is given for reference only.
132 -c file ...
134 Compiles file ... into an intermediate code file.
135 -d level
137 Set debug level to level. This option is for system maintenance
138 and is given for reference only.
139 -f file
141 Use file as initialisation file instead of `.swiplrc'. `-f none'
142 stops SWI-Prolog from searching for an initialisation file.
143 -F file
145 Select startup script from the SWI-Prolog home directory. file
146 Specifies the base-name of the script. The extension is .rc.
147 The default script is deduced from the basename of the exe‐
148 cutable, taking all leading alphanumerical (letters, digits and
149 underscore) from the program name. Thus if the program is named
150 swi-2.0 it will try to load the file swi.rc from the SWI-Prolog
151 home directory. If the file does not exist, or the user has no
152 read-access to it, the script is silently not loaded.
153 -s file
155 Load file as a script. This option may be used from the shell
156 to make Prolog load a file before entering the toplevel. Depre‐
157 cated as file names with a Prolog extension (.pl or .qlf) are
158 used to load the program.
159 -l file
161 Load file as a script. This is a synonym for -s that is compat‐
162 ible with several other Prolog implementations. If multiple -s
163 or -l arguments are provided, all specified files are loaded in
164 the order in which they appear on the argument list.
165 --quiet[=bool] -q
167 Operate silently. This option suppresses all informational mes‐
168 sages.
169 -g goal
171 Goal is executed just before entering the top level. This option
172 may appear multiple times. Goals are executed in the order of
173 appearance. Possible choice points are pruned. If a goal fails
174 an error is printed (depending on the -q flag) and the process
175 stops with exit code 1. If a goal raises an exception the error
176 is printed and the process stops with exit code 2. In no goal
177 is present version/0 is called to write the welcome message.
178 The welcome message can thus be suppressed by giving -g true.
179 goal can be a complex term. In this case, quotes are normally
180 needed to protect it from being expanded by the Unix shell.
181 -o output
183 Used in combination with -b or -c to determine the output file
184 for compilation.
185 -p alias=pathlist
187 Define a path alias for file_search_path/2. pathlist is a ":"
188 separated list of values for the alias. See file_search_path/2
189 in the SWI-Prolog Reference Manual.
190 -t goal
192 Use goal as an interactive top level instead of the default goal
193 prolog/0. goal can be a complex term. If the top level goal
194 succeeds, SWI-Prolog exits with status 0. If it fails, the exit
195 status is 1. This flag also determines the goal started by
196 break/0 and abort/0. If you want to stop the user from entering
197 interactive mode, start the application with `-g goal' and give
198 `halt' as the top level.
199 -x bootfile
201 Start from an intermediate code file resulting from a Prolog
202 compilation using the -b or -c option, or created using
203 qsave_program/[1,2].
204 --tty[=bool]
206 Switches tty control (using ioctl(2)). Normally tty control is
207 switched on. This default depends on the installation. You may
208 wish to switch tty control off if SWI-Prolog is used from an
209 editor such as GNU Emacs. If switched off, get_single_char/1 and
210 the tracer will wait for a carriage return.
211 --signals[=bool]
213 Disable handling of signals. Often used if SWI-Prolog is embed‐
214 ded in another application on Unix systems.
215 --sigalert=NUM
217 Use NUM for unblocking system calls. Default is SIGUSR2. Using
218 0 disables installing a signal handler, delaying the delivery of
219 thread signals until the blocking system call completes.
220 --threads[=bool]
222 Disable creating threads in the multi-threaded version. This
223 notably prevents running global garbage collection on a separate
224 thread and may be used for situations where multiple threads are
225 not desirable.
226 -- Stops scanning for more arguments.
228
230 SWI_HOME_DIR
231 Location for finding the startup file and the libraries. Nor‐
232 mally discovered from the executable or configured default loca‐
233 tion. Providing the value through the environment may be needed
234 if SWI-Prolog is embedded into another executable.
235
237 SWI-Prolog has on-line help. This provides a fast lookup and browsing
238 facility to the SWI-Prolog Reference manual. The on-line manual can
239 show predicate definitions as well as entire sections of the manual.
240 help Equivalent to help(help/1).
242 help(+What)
244 Show a specified part of the manual. What is one of:
245 Name/Arity
247 give help on the specified predicate
248 Name give help on the named predicate with any arity or a C
250 interface function with that name.
251 Section
253 display the specified section of the SWI-Prolog Reference
254 Manual. Section numbers are dash separated numbers: e.g.
255 2-3 refers to section 2.3 of the manual.
256 If Prolog is used together with the GUI tool XPCE, these predi‐
258 cates start a graphical interface, providing a coherent inter‐
259 face to help/1, apropos/1 and explain/1.
260
262 This installation of SWI-Prolog has been configured using the configure
263 option --prefix=/usr. If the files listed below are not at the indi‐
264 cated place, the installation has probably been moved. Use
265 ?- current_prolog_flag(home, Home).
267 to find the local installation directory of SWI-Prolog.
269 ~/.swiplrc
271 Personal initialisation files consulted by SWI-Prolog on
272 startup. If both exist .swiplrc is used.
273
275 The SWI-Prolog web-home at http://www.swi-prolog.org
276 Jan Wielemaker SWI-Prolog Reference Manual at http://www.swi-pro‐
278 log.org/pldoc/index.html
279 William F. Clocksin & Christopher S. Mellish, Programming in Prolog,
281 fourth edition, Springer Verlag, Berlin 1994.
282 swipl-ld(1)
284
286 The software is provided as is, without warranty of any kind, express
287 or implied, including but not limited to the warranties of mer‐
288 chantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non infringement. In
289 no event shall the author or his employer be liable for any claim, dam‐
290 ages or other liability, whether in an action of contract, tort or oth‐
291 erwise, arising from, out of or in connection with the software or the
292 use or other dealings in the software.
293
295 SWI-Prolog is distributed under the LGPL (GNU Lesser General Public
296 License). The license terms are in the file COPYING or on the GNU web‐
297 site at http://www.gnu.org.
298
300 Copyright (c) 1986-2015 University of Amsterdam, VU University Amster‐
301 dam
302
304 Jan Wielemaker
305SWI-Prolog 7 Apr 10, 2015 swipl(1)