1grass6(1) Grass User's Manual grass6(1)
2
6 grass63 - The GRASS startup program
7
9 grass63 [-] [-v] [-h | -help | --help] [-text | -gui | -oldgui]]
10 [[[/]/] ]
11
13 This program is used to start GRASS. It will parse the command line
14 arguments and then initialize GRASS for the user. Since GRASS programs
15 require a specific environment, this program must be called before any
16 other GRASS program can run. The command line arguments are optional
17 and provide the user with a method to indicate the desired user inter‐
18 face, as well as the desired mapset to work on.
19
21 The GRASS program will save both the desired user interface and mapset.
22 Thus, the next time the user runs GRASS, typing grass63 (without any
23 options) will start grass with the previous settings for the user
24 interface and mapset.
25 If you specify a graphical user interface (eg Tcl/Tk) the grass63 pro‐
27 gram will try to verify that the system you specified exists and that
28 you can access it successfully. If any of these checks fail, then
29 grass63 will automatically switch back to the text user interface mode.
30
32 All command line options are optional.
33 Flags:
35 -
36 Tries to start GRASS using location environment variables (see
37 below)
38 -h -help --help
40 Prints a brief usage message
41 -text
43 Indicates that the text based user interface should be used
44 -gui (or -tcltk)
46 Indicates that the Tcl/Tk based graphical user interface should
47 be used
48 -oldgui
50 Indicates that the old graphical user interface should be used
51 (d.m)
52 -v --version
54 Prints the version for GRASS
55 Parameters:
57 GISDBASE
58 Initial database directory which should be a fully qualified
59 path (eg /usr/local/share/grassdata)
60 LOCATION_NAME
62 Initial location directory which is a subdirectory of GISDBASE
63 MAPSET
65 Initial mapset directory which is a subdirectory of LOCA‐
66 TION_NAME
67 Note
69 You must specify one of the following
70 MAPSET
71 LOCATION_NAME/MAPSET
72 GISDBASE/LOCATION_NAME/MAPSET
73
75 User Interface Environment Variable
76 The grass63 program will check for the existence of an environment
77 variable called GRASS_GUI which indicates the type of user interface
78 for GRASS to use. If this variable is not set when grass63 is run, then
79 it will be created and then saved in the $HOME/.grassrc6 file for the
80 next time GRASS is run. In addition to "text" or "tcltk", the GRASS_GUI
81 variable can be set to the name of the GUI to use, for example "gis.m"
82 or "d.m".
83 There is an order of precedence in the way grass63 determines the user
85 interface to use. The following is the hierarchy from highest prece‐
86 dence to lowest.
87 The user may add own environment variable settings to $HOME/.grassrc6
89 file which are used during next startup of GRASS (list of implemented
90 environment variables).
91 Interface precedence
93 Command line argument
94 Environment variable GRASS_GUI
95 Value set in $HOME/.grassrc6
96 Default value - currently gis.m
97 Tcl/Tk Environment Variables
99 If you choose to use the Tcl/Tk graphical user interface, then the fol‐
100 lowing environment variables can be used to override your system
101 default tclsh and wish commands. See the section immediately following
102 the variable descriptions for an example.
103 GRASS_TCLSH
105 Command to use to override tclsh
106 GRASS_WISH
108 Command to use to override wish
109 Example Use of GRASS Tcl/Tk Environment Variables
111 Suppose your system has Tcl/Tk 8.0 installed and you install your per‐
112 sonal version of Tcl/Tk 8.3 binaries installed under $HOME/bin. You can
113 use the above variables to have GRASS use the Tcl/Tk 8.3 binaries
114 instead.
115 GRASS_TCLSH = $HOME/bin/tclsh8.3
117 GRASS_WISH = $HOME/bin/wish8.3
118 Addon path to extra local GRASS modules
120 This environment variables allows to extend the GRASS paths to locally
121 developed/installed modules which are not distributes through the stan‐
122 dard release of GRASS.
123 GRASS_ADDON_PATH=/usr/mytools
125 GRASS_ADDON_PATH=/usr/mytools:/usr/local/othertools
126 In this example above path(s) would be added to the standard GRASS path
128 environment.
129 Location Environment Variables
131 The Synopsis and Options sections above describe options that can be
132 used to set the location and mapset that GRASS will use. These values
133 can also be set with environment variables. However, specifying the
134 location and mapset variables on the command line will override these
135 environment variables. The available variables are as follows:
136 LOCATION
138 A fully qualified path to a mapset (eg /usr/local/share/grass‐
139 data/spearfish60/PERMANENT). This environment variable overrides
140 the GISDBASE, LOCATION_NAME, and MAPSET variables.
141 GISDBASE
143 Initial database directory which should be a fully qualified
144 path (eg /usr/local/share/grassdata)
145 LOCATION_NAME
147 Initial location directory which is a subdirectory of GISDBASE
148 MAPSET
150 Initial mapset directory which is a subdirectory of LOCA‐
151 TION_NAME
152 There are a variety of ways in which these variables can be used to
154 specify the mapset to use. The following are some possible examples.
155 Example 1
157 The environment variables are defined as follows:
158 LOCATION = /usr/local/share/grassdata/spearfish60/PERMANENT
159 GISDBASE = /usr/local/share/grassdata
160 LOCATION_NAME = spearfish60
161 MAPSET = PERMANENT
162 Start GRASS with the following command:
163 grass63 -
164 GRASS will start with the mapset defined by LOCATION since the
165 LOCATION variable overrides the other variables.
166 Example 2
168 The environment variables are defined as follows:
169 GISDBASE = /usr/local/share/grassdata
170 LOCATION_NAME = spearfish60
171 MAPSET = PERMANENT
172 Start GRASS with the following command:
173 grass63 -
174 GRASS will start with the mapset defined by GISDBASE/LOCA‐
175 TION_NAME/MAPSET.
176 Example 3
178 The environment variables are defined as follows:
179 LOCATION = /usr/local/share/grassdata/spearfish60/PERMANENT
180 GISDBASE = /usr/local/share/grassdata
181 LOCATION_NAME = spearfish60
182 MAPSET = PERMANENT
183 Start GRASS with the following command:
184 grass63 /usr/home/grass/data/thailand/forests
185 GRASS will start with the mapset /home/grass/data/thai‐
186 land/forests which overrides the environment variables.
187 Example 4
189 The environment variables are defined as follows:
190 LOCATION = /usr/local/share/grassdata/spearfish60/PERMANENT
191 GISDBASE = /usr/local/share/grassdata
192 LOCATION_NAME = spearfish60
193 MAPSET = PERMANENT
194 Start GRASS with the following command:
195 grass63 swamps
196 GRASS will start with the mapset defined by GISDBASE/LOCA‐
197 TION_NAME/swamps since the command line argument for the mapset
198 overrides the environment variable MAPSET.
199 Example 5
201 The environment variables are defined as follows:
202 LOCATION = /usr/local/share/grassdata/spearfish60/PERMANENT
203 GISDBASE = /usr/local/share/grassdata
204 LOCATION_NAME = spearfish60
205 MAPSET = PERMANENT
206 Start GRASS with the following command:
207 grass63 thailand/forests
208 GRASS will start with the mapset defined by GISDBASE/thai‐
209 land/forests since the command line arguments for the location
210 and mapset overrides the environment variables LOCATION_NAME and
211 MAPSET.
212 Note
214 Note that you will need to set these variables using the appropriate
215 method required for the UNIX shell that you use.
216
218 The following are some examples of how you could start GRASS
219 grass63
221 Start GRASS using the default user interface. The user will be
222 prompted to choose the appropriate location and mapset.
223 grass63 -gui
225 Start GRASS using the Tcl/Tk based user interface. The user
226 will be prompted to choose the appropriate location and mapset.
227 grass63 -text
229 Start GRASS using the text based user interface. The user will
230 be prompted to choose the appropriate location and mapset.
231 grass63 -gui -
233 Start GRASS using the Tcl/Tk based user interface and try to
234 obtain the location and mapset from environment variables.
235 Other examples
237 See the Location Environment Variables section for further
238 examples.
239
241 If you start GRASS using the Tcl/Tk interface you must have a wish com‐
242 mand in your $PATH variable. That is, the command must be named wish
243 and not something like wish8.3. By default, a Tcl/Tk installation does
244 not create a wish command. Thus, the system administrator must create
245 an appropriate link to the actual wish program.
246 For example, suppose Tcl/Tk 8.3 programs are installed in
248 /usr/local/bin. Then the system administrator should go to the
249 /usr/local/bin directory and run the commands ln -s wish8.3 wish and ln
250 -s tclsh8.3 tclsh to properly install Tcl/Tk for use with GRASS.
251 Furthermore, if you have more than one version of Tcl/Tk installed,
253 make sure that the version you want to use with GRASS is the first ver‐
254 sion found in your $PATH variable. GRASS searches your $PATH variable
255 until it finds the first version of wish.
256
258 $UNIX_BIN/grass63 - GRASS startup program
259 $GISBASE/etc/Init.sh - GRASS initialization script called by grass63
260 $GISBASE/etc/gis_set.tcl - Tcl/Tk script to set the location and mapset
261 to use. Called by Init.sh
262
264 List of implemented GRASS environment variables.
265 GRASS Web site
267
269 Justin Hickey
270 Markus Neteler
271 Last changed: $Date: 2006-11-02 07:48:36 +0100 (Thu, 02 Nov 2006) $
273 Help Index
275GRASS 6.3.0 grass6(1)