1variables(1) Grass User's Manual variables(1)
2
6 There are two types of variables:
7 · shell environment variables,
9 · GRASS gisenv variables.
11 There are a number of shell environment variable groups:
12 · variables for rendering
14 · variables for internal use
16 Note: Any setting which needs to be modifiable by a GRASS module (e.g.
17 MONITOR by d.mon) has to be a GRASS gisenv variable.
18
20 Setting shell environment variables depends on the shell being used:
21 Bash:
22 export VARIABLE=value
23 Csh:
24 setenv VARIABLE value
25 Cmd.exe (Windows):
26 set VARIABLE=value
27 To set up shell environment variables permanently:
28 · To get personal BASH shell definitions (aliases, color listing
30 option, ...) into GRASS, store them in:
31 $HOME/.grass7/bashrc
32 · To get personal CSH shell definitions (aliases, color listing
34 option, ...) into GRASS, store them in:
35 $HOME/.grass7/cshrc
36
38 Use g.gisenv within GRASS. This permanently predefines GRASS variables
39 in the .grass7/rc file.
40 Usage:
41 g.gisenv set="VARIABLE=VALUE"
42 It looks unusual with two equals signs, but g.gisenv serves dual duty
43 for getting and setting GRASS variables.
44 If the user just specifies a variable name, it defaults to get mode.
46 For example:
47 g.gisenv MAPSET
48 PERMANENT
49
51 [ To be set from the terminal shell or startup scripts ]
52 GISBASE
54 directory where GRASS lives. This is set automatically by the
55 startup script.
56 GISRC
58 name of .grass7/rc file. Defines the system wide value while in a
59 GRASS session.
60 GRASS_ADDON_PATH
62 [grass startup script, g.extension]
63 specifies additional path(s) containing local and/or custom GRASS
64 modules extra to the standard distribution.
65 GRASS_ADDON_BASE
67 [grass startup script]
68 allows specifying additional GISBASE for local GRASS modules (nor‐
69 mally installed as GRASS Addons by g.extension module) extra to
70 standard distribution. The default on GNU/Linux is
71 $HOME/.grass7/addons, on MS Windows $APPDATA\GRASS7\addons.
72 GRASS_ADDON_ETC
74 [libgis, g.findetc]
75 specify paths where support files (etc/) may be found external to
76 standard distribution.
77 GRASS_BATCH_JOB
79 defines the name (path) of a shell script to be processed as batch
80 job.
81 GRASS_COMPRESSOR
83 [libraster]
84 the compression method for new raster maps can be set with the
85 environment variable GRASS_COMPRESSOR. Supported methods are RLE,
86 ZLIB, LZ4, BZIP2, and ZSTD. The default is ZLIB which can be
87 changed with e.g. GRASS_COMPRESSOR=ZSTD
88 GRASS_DB_ENCODING
90 [various modules, wxGUI]
91 encoding for vector attribute data (utf-8, ascii, iso8859-1,
92 koi8-r)
93 GIS_ERROR_LOG
95 If set, GIS_ERROR_LOG should be the absolute path to the log file
96 (a relative path will be interpreted relative to the process’ cwd,
97 not the cwd at the point the user set the variable). If not set,
98 $HOME/GIS_ERROR_LOG is used instead. The file will only be used if
99 it already exists.
100 GRASS_ERROR_MAIL
102 set to any value to send user mail on an error or warning that hap‐
103 pens while stderr is being redirected.
104 GRASS_FONT
106 [display drivers]
107 specifies the font as either the name of a font from $GIS‐
108 BASE/etc/fontcap (or alternative fontcap file specified by
109 GRASS_FONT_CAP), or alternatively the full path to a FreeType font
110 file.
111 GRASS_ENCODING
113 [display drivers]
114 the encoding to be assumed for text which is drawn using a freetype
115 font; may be any encoding know to iconv.
116 GRASS_FONT_CAP
118 [g.mkfontcap, d.font, display drivers]
119 specifies an alternative location (to $GISBASE/etc/fontcap) for the
120 font configuration file.
121 GRASS_FULL_OPTION_NAMES
123 [parser]
124 Generates a warning if GRASS_FULL_OPTION_NAMES is set (to anything)
125 and a found string is not an exact match for the given string.
126 GRASS_GUI
128 either text (text user interface), gtext (text user interface with
129 GUI welcome screen), or gui (graphical user interface) to define
130 non-/graphical startup. Can also specify the name of the GUI to
131 use, e.g. wxpython (wxGUI). Also exists as a GRASS gisenv variable
132 (see below). If this shell variable exists at GRASS startup, it
133 will determine the GUI used. If it is not defined startup will
134 default to the last GUI used.
135 GRASS_HTML_BROWSER
137 [init.sh, wxgui]
138 defines name of HTML browser. For most platforms this should be an
139 executable in your PATH, or the full path to an executable.
140 Mac OS X runs applications differently from the CLI. Therefore,
141 GRASS_HTML_BROWSER should be the application’s signature, which is
142 a domain-like name, just reversed, i.e. com.apple.Safari. To find
143 an application’s signature, type the following in a Terminal (fill
144 in the path to the application you are interested in, for example:
145 /Applications/Safari.app):
146 grep -A 1 "CFBundleIdentifier" /path/to/application.app/Con‐
147 tents/Info.plist
148 The signature is the <string> following the <key>, without the
149 bracketing <string> tags.
150 GRASS_INT_ZLIB
152 [libraster]
153 if the environment variable GRASS_INT_ZLIB exists and has the value
154 0, new compressed integer (CELL type) raster maps will be com‐
155 pressed using RLE compression.
156 If the variable doesn’t exist, or the value is non-zero, zlib com‐
157 pression will be used instead. Such rasters will have a compressed
158 value of 2 in the cellhd file.
159 Obviously, decompression is controlled by the raster’s compressed
160 value, not the environment variable.
161 GRASS_ZLIB_LEVEL
163 [libgis]
164 if the environment variable GRASS_ZLIB_LEVEL exists and its value
165 can be parsed as an integer, it determines the compression level
166 used when new compressed raster maps are compressed using zlib com‐
167 pression. This applies to all raster map types (CELL, FCELL,
168 DCELL).
169 Valid zlib compression levels are -1 to 9. The GRASS_ZLIB_LEVEL=-1
170 corresponds to the zlib default value (equivalent to
171 GRASS_ZLIB_LEVEL=6). Often GRASS_ZLIB_LEVEL=1 gives the best com‐
172 promise between speed and compression.
173 If the variable doesn’t exist, or the value cannot be parsed as an
174 integer, zlib’s default compression level 6 will be used.
175 GRASS_MESSAGE_FORMAT
177 [various modules, wxGUI]
178 it may be set to either
179 · standard - sets percentage output and message formatting style
181 to standard formatting,
182 · gui - sets percentage output and message formatting style to
184 GUI formatting,
185 · silent - disables percentage output and error messages,
187 · plain - sets percentage output and message formatting style to
189 ASCII output without rewinding control characters.
190 GRASS_MOUSE_BUTTON
192 [various modules]
193 swaps mouse buttons for two-button or left-handed mice. Its value
194 has three digits 1, 2, and 3, which represent default left, middle,
195 and right buttons respectively. Setting to 132 will swap middle and
196 right buttons. Note that this variable should be set before a dis‐
197 play driver is initialized (e.g., d.mon x0).
198 GRASS_PAGER
200 [various modules]
201 it may be set to either less, more, or cat.
202 GRASS_PERL
204 [used during install process for generating man pages]
205 set Perl with path.
206 GRASS_SKIP_MAPSET_OWNER_CHECK
208 By default it is not possible to work with MAPSETs that are not
209 owned by current user. Setting this variable to any non-empty value
210 allows the check to be skipped.
211 GRASS_SH
213 [shell scripts on Windows]
214 path to bourne shell interpreter used to run shell scripts.
215 GRASS_SIGSEGV_ON_ERROR
217 Raise SIGSEGV if an error occurs]
218 This variable can be set for debugging purpose. The call of
219 G_fatal_error() will end in a segmentation violation. GDB can be
220 used to trace the source of the error.
221 GRASS_PYTHON
223 [wxGUI, Python Ctypes]
224 set to override Python executable.
225 On Mac OS X this should be the pythonw executable for the wxGUI to
226 work.
227 GRASS_VECTOR_LOWMEM
229 [vectorlib]
230 If the environment variable GRASS_VECTOR_LOWMEM exists, memory con‐
231 sumption will be reduced when building vector topology support
232 structures. Recommended for creating large vectors.
233 GRASS_VECTOR_OGR
235 [vectorlib, v.external.out]
236 If the environment variable GRASS_VECTOR_OGR exists and vector out‐
237 put format defined by v.external.out is PostgreSQL, vector data is
238 written by OGR data provider even the native PostGIS data provider
239 is available.
240 GRASS_VECTOR_EXTERNAL_IMMEDIATE
242 [vectorlib, v.external.out]
243 If the environment variable GRASS_VECTOR_EXTERNAL_IMMEDIATE exists
244 and vector output format defined by v.external.out is non-native,
245 vector features are written to output external datasource immedi‐
246 ately. By default, the vector library writes output data to a tem‐
247 porary vector map in native format and when closing the map, the
248 features are transferred to output external datasource. Note: if
249 output vector format is topological PostGIS format, then the vector
250 library writes features immediately to output database (in this
251 case GRASS_VECTOR_EXTERNAL_IMMEDIATE is ignored).
252 GRASS_VECTOR_EXTERNAL_IGNORE
254 [vectorlib]
255 If the environment variable GRASS_VECTOR_EXTERNAL_IGNORE exists,
256 output vector format defined by v.external.out is ignored. The for‐
257 mat is always native.
258 GRASS_VECTOR_TEMPORARY
260 [vectorlib]
261 If the environment variable GRASS_VECTOR_TEMPORARY exists, GRASS
262 vector library will operate on temporary vector maps. New vector
263 maps will be created in temporary directory (see GRASS_VEC‐
264 TOR_TMPDIR_MAPSET variable), existing vector maps will be read (if
265 found) also from this directory. It may be set to either:
266 · keep - the temporary vector map is not deleted when closing the
268 map.
269 · move - the temporary vector map is moved to the current mapset
271 when closing the map.
272 · delete - the temporary vector map is deleted when closing the
274 map.
275 Default value is keep. Note that temporary vector maps are not visible
276 to the user via g.list or wxGUI. They are used internally by the GRASS
277 modules and deleted automatically when GRASS session is quited.
278 GRASS_VECTOR_TMPDIR_MAPSET
280 [vectorlib]
281 By default GRASS temporary directory is located in $LOCA‐
282 TION/$MAPSET/.tmp/$HOSTNAME. If GRASS_VECTOR_TMPDIR_MAPSET is set
283 to ’0’, the temporary directory is located in TMPDIR (environmental
284 variable defined by the user or GRASS initialization script if not
285 given).
286 Important note: This variable is currently used only in vector
287 library. In other words the variable is ignored by raster or
288 raster3d library.
289 GRASS_VECTOR_TOPO_DEBUG
291 [vectorlib, v.generalize]
292 If the environment variable GRASS_VECTOR_TOPO_DEBUG exists, v.gen‐
293 eralize runs in extremely slow debug mode.
294 GRASS_WXBUNDLED
296 [wxGUI]
297 set to tell wxGUI that a bundled wxPython will be used.
298 When set, the wxGUI will not check the wxPython version, as this
299 function is incompatible with a bundled wxPython. It is up to the
300 packager to make sure that a compatible wxPython version is bun‐
301 dled.
302 GRASS_WXVERSION
304 [wxGUI]
305 set to tell wxGUI which version of wxPython to use.
306 When set, the wxGUI will select the given wxPython version. It’s
307 useful when multiple versions of wxPython are installed and the
308 user wants to run wxGUI with non-default wxPython version.
309 GRASS_XTERM
311 [lib/init/grass-xterm-wrapper, lib/init/grass-xterm-mac]
312 set to any value (e.g. rxvt, aterm, gnome-terminal, konsole) to
313 substitute ’x-terminal-emulator’ or ’xterm’. The Mac OS X app
314 startup defaults to an internal ’$GISBASE/etc/grass-xterm-mac’,
315 which emulates the necessary xterm functionality in Terminal.app.
316 GRASS_UI_TERM
318 set to any value to use the terminal based parser.
319 GRASS_VERSION
321 reports the current version number (used by R-stats interface etc);
322 should not be changed by user.
323 GRASS_NO_GLX_PBUFFERS
325 [nviz]
326 set to any value to disable the use of GLX Pbuffers.
327 GRASS_NO_GLX_PIXMAPS
329 [nviz]
330 Set to any value to disable the use of GLX Pixmaps.
331 OMP_NUM_THREADS
333 [OpenMP]
334 If OpenMP support is enabled this limits the number of threads.
335 The default is set to the number of CPUs on the system. Setting to
336 ’1’ effectively disables parallel processing.
337 TMPDIR, TEMP, TMP
339 [Various GRASS GIS commands and wxGUI]
340 The default wxGUI temporary directory is chosen from a plat‐
341 form-dependent list, but the user can control the selection of this
342 directory by setting one of the TMPDIR, TEMP or TMP environment
343 variables Hence the wxGUI uses $TMPDIR if it is set, then $TEMP,
344 otherwise /tmp.
345 List of selected GRASS environment variables for rendering
347 [ In addition to those which are understood by specific GRASS display
348 drivers, the following variables affect rendering. ]
349 GRASS_RENDER_IMMEDIATE
351 tells the display library which driver to use; possible values:
352 cairo, png, ps, html or default
353 Default display driver is cairo (if available) otherwise png.
354 GRASS_RENDER_WIDTH
356 defines the width of output image (default is 640).
357 GRASS_RENDER_HEIGHT
359 defines the height of output image (default is 480).
360 GRASS_RENDER_FILE
362 the name of the resulting image file.
363 GRASS_RENDER_FRAME
365 contains 4 coordinates, top,bottom,left,right (pixel values) with
366 respect to the top left corner of the output image, defining the
367 initial frame.
368 GRASS_RENDER_LINE_WIDTH
370 defines default line width.
371 GRASS_RENDER_TEXT_SIZE
373 defines default text size.
374 GRASS_RENDER_COMMAND
376 external command called by display library to render data (see
377 example in display drivers page for details).
378 Currently only Python scripts are supported. For specific
379 driver-related variables see:
380 · Cairo display driver
382 · PNG display driver
384 · PS (Postscript) display driver
386 · HTML display driver
388 List of selected internal GRASS environment variables
390 [ These variables are intended for internal use only by the GRASS soft‐
391 ware to facilitate communication between the GIS engine, GRASS scripts,
392 and the GUI. The user should not set these in a GRASS session. They
393 are meant to be set locally for specific commands. ]
394 GRASS_OVERWRITE
396 [all modules]
397 toggles map overwrite.
398 · 0 - maps are protected (default),
400 · 1 - maps with identical names will be overwritten.
402 This variable is automatically created by g.parser so that the --over‐
403 write option will be inherited by dependent modules as the script runs.
404 Setting either the GRASS_OVERWRITE environment variable or the OVER‐
405 WRITE gisenv variable detailed below will cause maps with identical
406 names to be overwritten.
407 GRASS_VERBOSE
409 [all modules]
410 toggles verbosity level
411 · -1 - complete silence (also errors and warnings are discarded)
413 · 0 - only errors and warnings are printed
415 · 1 - progress and important messages are printed (percent com‐
417 plete)
418 · 2 - all module messages are printed
420 · 3 - additional verbose messages are printed
422 This variable is automatically created by g.parser so that the --ver‐
423 bose or --quiet flags will be inherited by dependent modules as the
424 script runs.
425 GRASS_REGION
427 [libgis]
428 override region settings, separate parameters with a ";". Format is
429 the same as in the WIND region settings file. Otherwise use is the
430 same as WIND_OVERRIDE.
431 WIND_OVERRIDE
433 [libgis]
434 it causes programs to use the specified named region (created with
435 e.g. g.region save=...) to be used as the current region, instead
436 of the region from the WIND file.
437 This allows programs such as the GUI to run external commands on an
438 alternate region without having to modify the WIND file then change
439 it back afterwards.
440
442 [ Use g.gisenv to get/set/unset/change them ]
443 DEBUG
445 [entire GRASS]
446 sets level of debug message output (0: no debug messages)
447 g.gisenv set=DEBUG=0
448 WX_DEBUG
450 [wxGUI]
451 sets level of debug message output for wxGUI (0: no debug messages,
452 1-5 debug levels)
453 GISDBASE
455 initial database
456 GIS_LOCK
458 lock ID to prevent parallel GRASS use,
459 process id of the start-up shell script
460 GUI
462 See GRASS_GUI environmental variable for details.
463 LOCATION
465 full path to location directory
466 LOCATION_NAME
468 initial location name
469 MAPSET
471 initial mapset
472 OVERWRITE
474 [all modules]
475 toggles map overwrite.
476 · 0 - maps are protected (default),
478 · 1 - maps with identical names will be overwritten.
480 This variable is automatically created by g.parser so that the --over‐
481 write option will be inherited by dependent modules as the script runs.
482 Setting either the GRASS_OVERWRITE environment variable or the OVER‐
483 WRITE gisenv variable detailed below will cause maps with identical
484 names to be overwritten.
485
487 $HOME/.grass7/rc
488 stores the GRASS gisenv variables (not shell environment variables)
489 $HOME/.grass7/bashrc
491 stores the shell environment variables (Bash only)
492 $HOME/.grass7/env.bat
494 stores the shell environment variables (MS Windows only)
495 $HOME/.grass7/login
497 stores the DBMI passwords in this hidden file. Only the file owner
498 can access this file.
499 $HOME/GIS_ERROR_LOG
501 if this file exists then all GRASS error and warning messages are
502 logged here. Applies to current user. To generate the file, use:
503 touch $HOME/GIS_ERROR_LOG
504 See also GIS_ERROR_LOG variable. Note: On MS Windows the files are
505 stored in %APPDATA%.
506
508 g.gisenv, g.parser
509 Last changed: $Date: 2018-06-07 16:45:42 +0200 (Thu, 07 Jun 2018) $
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514 © 2003-2019 GRASS Development Team, GRASS GIS 7.6.0 Reference Manual
516GRASS 7.6.0 variables(1)