1grass6(1) Grass User's Manual grass6(1)
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6 grass62 - The GRASS startup program
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9 grass62 [-] [-v] [-h | -help | --help] [-text | -tcltk | -gui] [[[/]/]
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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.
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21 The GRASS program will save both the desired user interface and mapset.
22 Thus, the next time the user runs GRASS, typing grass62 (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 grass62 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 grass62 will automatically switch back to the text user interface mode.
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32 All command line options are optional.
33 Flags:
35 - Tries to start GRASS using location environment variables (see
36 below)
37 -h -help --help
39 Prints a brief usage message
40 -text Indicates that the text based user interface should be used
42 -gui (or -tcltk)
44 Indicates that the Tcl/Tk based graphical user interface should
45 be used
46 -v --version
48 Prints the version for GRASS
49 Parameters:
51 GISDBASE
52 Initial database directory which should be a fully qualified
53 path (eg /usr/local/share/grassdata)
54 LOCATION_NAME
56 Initial location directory which is a subdirectory of GISDBASE
57 MAPSET Initial mapset directory which is a subdirectory of LOCA‐
59 TION_NAME
60 Note You must specify one of the following
62 MAPSET
63 LOCATION_NAME/MAPSET
64 GISDBASE/LOCATION_NAME/MAPSET
65
67 User Interface Environment Variable
68 The grass62 program will check for the existence of an environment
69 variable called GRASS_GUI which indicates the type of user interface
70 for GRASS to use. If this variable is not set when grass62 is run, then
71 it will be created and then saved in the $HOME/.grassrc6 file for the
72 next time GRASS is run.
73 There is an order of precedence in the way grass62 determines the user
75 interface to use. The following is the hierarchy from highest prece‐
76 dence to lowest.
77 The user may add own environment variable settings to $HOME/.grassrc6
79 file which are used during next startup of GRASS (list of implemented
80 environment variables).
81 Interface precedence
83 Command line argument
84 Environment variable GRASS_GUI
85 Value set in $HOME/.grassrc6
86 Default value - currently tcltk
87 Tcl/Tk Environment Variables
89 If you choose to use the Tcl/Tk graphical user interface, then the fol‐
90 lowing environment variables can be used to override your system
91 default tclsh and wish commands. See the section immediately following
92 the variable descriptions for an example.
93 GRASS_TCLSH
95 Command to use to override tclsh
96 GRASS_WISH
98 Command to use to override wish
99 Example Use of GRASS Tcl/Tk Environment Variables
101 Suppose your system has Tcl/Tk 8.0 installed and you install your per‐
102 sonal version of Tcl/Tk 8.3 binaries installed under $HOME/bin. You can
103 use the above variables to have GRASS use the Tcl/Tk 8.3 binaries
104 instead.
105 GRASS_TCLSH = $HOME/bin/tclsh8.3
107 GRASS_WISH = $HOME/bin/wish8.3
108 Addon path to extra local GRASS modules
110 This environment variables allows to extend the GRASS paths to locally
111 developed/installed modules which are not distributes through the stan‐
112 dard release of GRASS.
113 GRASS_ADDON_PATH=/usr/mytools
115 GRASS_ADDON_PATH=/usr/mytools:/usr/local/othertools
116 In this example above path(s) would be added to the standard GRASS path
118 environment.
119 Location Environment Variables
121 The Synopsis and Options sections above describe options that can be
122 used to set the location and mapset that GRASS will use. These values
123 can also be set with environment variables. However, specifying the
124 location and mapset variables on the command line will override these
125 environment variables. The available variables are as follows:
126 LOCATION
128 A fully qualified path to a mapset (eg /usr/local/share/grass‐
129 data/spearfish60/PERMANENT). This environment variable overrides
130 the GISDBASE, LOCATION_NAME, and MAPSET variables.
131 GISDBASE
133 Initial database directory which should be a fully qualified
134 path (eg /usr/local/share/grassdata)
135 LOCATION_NAME
137 Initial location directory which is a subdirectory of GISDBASE
138 MAPSET Initial mapset directory which is a subdirectory of LOCA‐
140 TION_NAME
141 There are a variety of ways in which these variables can be used to
143 specify the mapset to use. The following are some possible examples.
144 Example 1
146 The environment variables are defined as follows:
147 LOCATION = /usr/local/share/grassdata/spearfish60/PERMANENT
148 GISDBASE = /usr/local/share/grassdata
149 LOCATION_NAME = spearfish60
150 MAPSET = PERMANENT
151 Start GRASS with the following command:
152 grass62 -
153 GRASS will start with the mapset defined by LOCATION since the
154 LOCATION variable overrides the other variables.
155 Example 2
157 The environment variables are defined as follows:
158 GISDBASE = /usr/local/share/grassdata
159 LOCATION_NAME = spearfish60
160 MAPSET = PERMANENT
161 Start GRASS with the following command:
162 grass62 -
163 GRASS will start with the mapset defined by GISDBASE/LOCA‐
164 TION_NAME/MAPSET.
165 Example 3
167 The environment variables are defined as follows:
168 LOCATION = /usr/local/share/grassdata/spearfish60/PERMANENT
169 GISDBASE = /usr/local/share/grassdata
170 LOCATION_NAME = spearfish60
171 MAPSET = PERMANENT
172 Start GRASS with the following command:
173 grass62 /usr/home/grass/data/thailand/forests
174 GRASS will start with the mapset /home/grass/data/thai‐
175 land/forests which overrides the environment variables.
176 Example 4
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 grass62 swamps
185 GRASS will start with the mapset defined by GISDBASE/LOCA‐
186 TION_NAME/swamps since the command line argument for the mapset
187 overrides the environment variable MAPSET.
188 Example 5
190 The environment variables are defined as follows:
191 LOCATION = /usr/local/share/grassdata/spearfish60/PERMANENT
192 GISDBASE = /usr/local/share/grassdata
193 LOCATION_NAME = spearfish60
194 MAPSET = PERMANENT
195 Start GRASS with the following command:
196 grass62 thailand/forests
197 GRASS will start with the mapset defined by GISDBASE/thai‐
198 land/forests since the command line arguments for the location
199 and mapset overrides the environment variables LOCATION_NAME and
200 MAPSET.
201 Note
203 Note that you will need to set these variables using the appropriate
204 method required for the UNIX shell that you use.
205
207 The following are some examples of how you could start GRASS
208 grass62
210 Start GRASS using the default user interface. The user will be
211 prompted to choose the appropriate location and mapset.
212 grass62 -tcltk
214 Start GRASS using the Tcl/Tk based user interface. The user will
215 be prompted to choose the appropriate location and mapset.
216 grass62 -text
218 Start GRASS using the text based user interface. The user will
219 be prompted to choose the appropriate location and mapset.
220 grass62 -tcltk -
222 Start GRASS using the Tcl/Tk based user interface and try to
223 obtain the location and mapset from environment variables.
224 Other examples
226 See the Location Environment Variables section for further exam‐
227 ples.
228
230 If you start GRASS using the Tcl/Tk interface you must have a wish com‐
231 mand in your $PATH variable. That is, the command must be named wish
232 and not something like wish8.3. By default, a Tcl/Tk installation does
233 not create a wish command. Thus, the system administrator must create
234 an appropriate link to the actual wish program.
235 For example, suppose Tcl/Tk 8.3 programs are installed in
237 /usr/local/bin. Then the system administrator should go to the
238 /usr/local/bin directory and run the commands ln -s wish8.3 wish and ln
239 -s tclsh8.3 tclsh to properly install Tcl/Tk for use with GRASS.
240 Furthermore, if you have more than one version of Tcl/Tk installed,
242 make sure that the version you want to use with GRASS is the first ver‐
243 sion found in your $PATH variable. GRASS searches your $PATH variable
244 until it finds the first version of wish.
245
247 $UNIX_BIN/grass62 - GRASS startup program
248 $GISBASE/etc/Init.sh - GRASS initialization script called by grass62
249 $GISBASE/etc/gis_set.tcl - Tcl/Tk script to set the location and mapset
250 to use. Called by Init.sh
251
253 List of implemented GRASS environment variables.
254 GRASS Web site
256
258 Justin Hickey
259 Markus Neteler
260 Last changed: $Date: 2006/11/02 06:50:49 $
262 Help Index
264GRASS 6.2.2 grass6(1)