2.1.1 Command Line Options
Here is a complete list of the command line options that Octave
accepts.
--debug
-d
- Enter parser debugging mode. Using this option will cause Octave's
parser to print a lot of information about the commands it reads, and is
probably only useful if you are actually trying to debug the parser.
--doc-cache-file
filename- Specify the name of the doc cache file to use. The value of filename
specified on the command line will override any value of
OCTAVE_DOC_CACHE_FILE found in the environment, but not any commands
in the system or user startup files that use the
doc_cache_file
function.
--echo-commands
-x
- Echo commands as they are executed.
--eval
code- Evaluate code and exit when finished unless --persist is also
specified.
--exec-path
path- Specify the path to search for programs to run. The value of path
specified on the command line will override any value of
OCTAVE_EXEC_PATH found in the environment, but not any commands
in the system or user startup files that set the built-in variable
EXEC_PATH.
--help
-h
-?
- Print short help message and exit.
--image-path
path- Add path to the head of the search path for images. The value of
path specified on the command line will override any value of
OCTAVE_IMAGE_PATH found in the environment, but not any commands
in the system or user startup files that set the built-in variable
IMAGE_PATH.
--info-file
filename- Specify the name of the info file to use. The value of filename
specified on the command line will override any value of
OCTAVE_INFO_FILE found in the environment, but not any commands
in the system or user startup files that use the
info_file
function.
--info-program
program- Specify the name of the info program to use. The value of program
specified on the command line will override any value of
OCTAVE_INFO_PROGRAM found in the environment, but not any
commands in the system or user startup files that use the
info_program
function.
--interactive
-i
- Force interactive behavior. This can be useful for running Octave via a
remote shell command or inside an Emacs shell buffer. For another way
to run Octave within Emacs, see Emacs Octave Support.
--line-editing
- Force readline use for command-line editing.
--no-history
-H
- Disable recording of command-line history.
--no-init-file
- Don't read the initialization files ~/.octaverc and .octaverc.
--no-init-path
- Don't initialize the search path for function files to include default
locations.
--no-line-editing
- Disable command-line editing.
--no-site-file
- Don't read the site-wide octaverc initialization files.
--norc
-f
- Don't read any of the system or user initialization files at startup.
This is equivalent to using both of the options --no-init-file
and --no-site-file.
--path
path-p
path- Add path to the head of the search path for function files. The
value of path specified on the command line will override any value
of OCTAVE_PATH found in the environment, but not any commands in the
system or user startup files that set the internal load path through one
of the path functions.
--persist
- Go to interactive mode after --eval or reading from a file
named on the command line.
--silent
--quiet
-q
- Don't print the usual greeting and version message at startup.
--traditional
--braindead
- For compatibility with matlab, set initial values for
user preferences to the following values
PS1 = ">> "
PS2 = ""
allow_noninteger_range_as_index = true
beep_on_error = true
confirm_recursive_rmdir = false
crash_dumps_octave_core = false
default_save_options = "-mat-binary"
do_braindead_shortcircuit_evaluation = true
fixed_point_format = true
history_timestamp_format_string = "%%-- %D %I:%M %p --%%"
page_screen_output = false
print_empty_dimensions = false
and disable the following warnings
Octave:abbreviated-property-match
Octave:fopen-file-in-path
Octave:function-name-clash
Octave:load-file-in-path
--verbose
-V
- Turn on verbose output.
--version
-v
- Print the program version number and exit.
- file
- Execute commands from file. Exit when done unless
--persist is also specified.
Octave also includes several functions which return information
about the command line, including the number of arguments and all of the
options.
— Built-in Function:
argv ()
Return the command line arguments passed to Octave. For example,
if you invoked Octave using the command
octave --no-line-editing --silent
argv
would return a cell array of strings with the elements
--no-line-editing and --silent.
If you write an executable Octave script, argv
will return the
list of arguments passed to the script. See Executable Octave Programs,
for an example of how to create an executable Octave script.
— Built-in Function:
program_name ()
Return the last component of the value returned by
program_invocation_name
.
See also: program_invocation_name.
— Built-in Function:
program_invocation_name ()
Return the name that was typed at the shell prompt to run Octave.
If executing a script from the command line (e.g., octave foo.m
)
or using an executable Octave script, the program name is set to the
name of the script. See Executable Octave Programs, for an example of
how to create an executable Octave script.
See also: program_name.
Here is an example of using these functions to reproduce the command
line which invoked Octave.
printf ("%s", program_name ());
arg_list = argv ();
for i = 1:nargin
printf (" %s", arg_list{i});
endfor
printf ("\n");
See Indexing Cell Arrays, for an explanation of how to retrieve objects
from cell arrays, and Defining Functions, for information about the
variable nargin
.