1GP(1) General Commands Manual GP(1)
2
6 gp - The PARI calculator
7
9 gp [-s stacksize] [-p primelimit] [--emacs] [-f|--fast] [-q|--quiet]
10 [-D|--default key=val] [--help] [--test] [--texmacs] [--version]
11 [--version-short] [ file1 file2 ...]
12
15 Invokes the PARI-GP calculator gp; gp is an advanced programmable cal‐
16 culator, specializing in number theory, which computes symbolically as
17 long as possible, numerically where needed, and contains a wealth of
18 arithmetic functions: factorizations, elliptic curves, Galois theory,
19 class field theory, modular forms, etc. Commands, written in the GP
20 scripting language, are input interactively or loaded from files.
21 If present at the end of the command line, files 'file1', 'file2', ...
23 are loaded on startup; they must be written in the GP language.
24
27 Command line options are available in both short form (-f) and POSIX-
28 like (--fast). Numeric arguments can be followed by a modifier k , M or
29 G at the user's convenience; in that case the argument is multiplied by
30 10^3, 10^6, or 10^9 respectively.
31 -f, --fast
34 Fast start (or factory settings). Do not read .gprc (see below)
35 upon startup.
36 -p limit
38 [DEPRECATED] Upon startup, gp computes a table of small primes
39 used in number-theoretic applications. If primelimit is set, the
40 table include primes up to that bound instead of the default (=
41 500000). It is now mostly useless to change this value.
42 -q, --quiet
44 Quiet mode. Do not print headers or history numbers and do not
45 say goodbye.
46 -D, --default key=val
49 performs default(key, val); on startup, overriding values from
50 the gprc preferences file. 'val' must be a constant value and is
51 not allowed to involve any computation (e.g. 1+1 is forbidden).
52 Any number of such default-setting statements may appear on the
53 command line. A key may be set multiple times, the last setting
54 taking precedence
55 -s limit
58 Size of gp internal stack allocated on startup. When gp runs out
59 of space, it interrupts the current computation and raises a
60 stack overflow exception. If this occurs frequently, start with
61 a bigger stack. The stack size can also be increased from within
62 gp, using default(parisize,limit); it is convenient to set pari‐
63 size from your .gprc to that the setting is persistent across
64 sessions; a value of 80MB is sensible. We strongly advise to
65 also set parisizemax to a positive, much larger, value in your
66 .gprc (about what you believe your machine can stand, usually
67 half the available RAM or so): this strives to fit computation
68 in the parisize range but allows it to temporarily go beyond it
69 (up to parisizemax). Note that computations with a smaller
70 stack may be more efficient due to better data locality.
71 Finally, threadsize and threadsizemax play analogous roles in
72 the parallel version of gp.
73 --emacs
76 gp can be run in an Emacs shell (see GP User's manual for
77 details). This flag is then required for smooth interaction with
78 the PariEmacs package (pari.el). It is set automatically by the
79 pari.el package, and will produce display oddities if you set it
80 outside of an Emacs session.
81 --help print a summary of available command-line options.
83 --test run gp in test mode: suppress printing of history numbers and
85 wrap long output lines (to get readable diff output). For
86 benches only.
87 --texmacs
89 gp can be run from a TeXmacs frontend. This flag is set by TeX‐
90 macs, to enable special purpose communication channels. Do not
91 set it yourself.
92 --version
95 output version info (banner) then exit.
96 --version-short
99 output version number then exit.
100
103 ? to get online help.
104 ?? to get extended online help (more precisely, to call the exter‐
106 nal help program, gphelp by default)
107 quit (or \q), or EOF (Ctrl-D) to quit gp.
109 The following works only when gp was linked with GNU readline library:
111 arrow keys
113 for editing and viewing the input history.
114 TAB
116 for automatic completion
117
120 The following material is included in the standard distribution (origi‐
121 nally in TeX format) and can also be downloaded at
122 http://pari.math.u-bordeaux.fr/doc.html
123 or viewed online at
124 http://pari.math.u-bordeaux.fr/dochtml/html/
125 The User's Guide to PARI/GP
128 (users.dvi)
129 The User's Guide to the PARI library
131 (library.dvi)
132 The Developer's Guide to the PARI library
134 (develop.dvi)
135 PARI/GP, a tutorial
137 (tutorial.dvi)
138 PARI/GP reference cards
140 (refcard*.dvi)
141
144 gp main executable
145 $HOME/.gprc
147 (or $GPRC if set) user preference file, read at beginning of
148 execution by each gp shell. A default gprc gprc.dft is provided
149 with the distribution. If this file cannot be found, /etc/gprc
150 is checked instead.
151 <logfile>
154 a file used to log in all commands and results; default:
155 pari.log (you need to set the log default in your gprc or inter‐
156 actively)
157 <psfile>
160 a file used to dump PostScript drawings; default: pari.ps
161 <histfile>
164 a file where gp will keep a history of all input commands (you
165 need to set the histfile default in the gprc file)
166 gphelp default external help program (as above)
169 *.gp GP programs
171
174 $GPRC place to look for the user's preference file (gprc); if the file
175 does not exist, we then check in $HOME/.gprc, /etc/gprc, and
176 finally for a file named 'gprc' in PARI's datadir.
177 $GP_DATA_DIR
180 directory containing data installed by optional PARI packages.
181 For example, the Galois resolvents files in directory galdata/
182 needed by the polgalois function, in degrees 8 to 11; or the
183 modular polynomials in seadata/ used by the ellap function for
184 large base fields. This environment variable overrides PARI's
185 'datadir', defined at Configure time.
186 $GP_POSTSCRIPT_VIEWER
189 an application able to display PostScript files, used by the
190 plotps graphic engine. This engine is a fallback used to output
191 hi-res plots even when no compatible graphical library was
192 available on your platform at Configure time. (Dumps the graph
193 to a temporary file, then open the file.)
194 $GP_SVG_VIEWER
197 an application able to display SVG images files, used by the
198 plotsvg graphic engine. This engine is a fallback used to output
199 hi-res plots even when no compatible graphical library was
200 available on your platform at Configure time. (Dumps the graph
201 to a temporary file, then open the file.)
202 $GPHELP
205 name of the external help program invoked by ?? and ??? short‐
206 cuts.
207 $GPTMPDIR
210 name of the directory where temporary files will be generated.
211
214 PARI's home page resides at
215 http://pari.math.u-bordeaux.fr/
216
219 There are a number of mailing lists devoted to the PARI/GP package, and
220 most feedback should be directed to those. See
221 http://pari.math.u-bordeaux.fr/lists.html
222 for details. The most important ones are:
223 - pari-announce (moderated): for us to announce major version changes.
226 - pari-dev: for everything related to the development of PARI, includ‐
228 ing suggestions, technical questions, bug reports or patch submissions.
229 - pari-users: for discuss about everything else, in particular ask for
232 help.
233 To subscribe, send empty messages with a Subject: containing the word
235 "subscribe" respectively to
236 pari-announce-request@pari.math.u-bordeaux.fr
239 pari-users-request@pari.math.u-bordeaux.fr
241 pari-dev-request@pari.math.u-bordeaux.fr
243
246 Bugs should be submitted online to our Bug Tracking System, available
247 from PARI's home page, or directly from the URL
248 http://pari.math.u-bordeaux.fr/Bugs/
249 Further instructions can be found on that page.
250
253 Despite the leading G, GP has nothing to do with GNU. The first version
254 was originally called GPC, for Great Programmable Calculator. When peo‐
255 ple started calling it "the GPC Calculator", the trailing C was
256 dropped.
257 PARI has nothing to do with the French capital. The name is a pun about
259 the project's early stages when the authors started to implement a
260 library for "Pascal ARIthmetic" in the PASCAL programming language.
261 They quickly switched to C.
262 For the benefit of non-native French speakers, here's a slightly
264 expanded explanation: Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) was a famous French
265 mathematician and philosopher who was one of the founders of probabil‐
266 ity and devised one of the first "arithmetic machines". He once pro‐
267 posed the following "proof" of the existence of God for the unbeliev‐
268 ers: whether He exists or not I lose nothing by believing in Him,
269 whereas if He does and I misbehave... This is the so-called "pari de
270 Pascal" (Pascal's Wager).
271 Note that PARI also means "fairy" in Persian.
273
276 PARI was originally written by Christian Batut, Dominique Bernardi,
277 Henri Cohen, and Michel Olivier in Laboratoire A2X (Universite Bordeaux
278 I, France), and was maintained by Henri Cohen up to version 1.39.15
279 (1995), and by Karim Belabas since then.
280 A great number of people have contributed to the successive improve‐
282 ments which eventually resulted in the present version. See the AUTHORS
283 file in the distribution.
284
287 gap(1), gphelp(1), perl(1), readline(3), sage(1), tex(1), texmacs(1),
288
291 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
292 under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
293 Free Software Foundation.
294 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
296 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MER‐
297 CHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General
298 Public License for more details.
299 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
301 with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
302 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
303 11 September 2017 GP(1)