SLSH(1)SLSH(1)NAMEslsh - Interpreter for S-Lang scripts
SYNOPSISslsh [ --help ] [ --version ] [ -g ] [ -n ] [ --init file ] [ --no-
readline ] [ -i ] [ -t ] [ -v ] [ -|script-file args... ]
DESCRIPTIONslsh is a simple program for interpreting S-Lang scripts. It supports
dynamic loading of S-Lang modules and includes a readline interface for
interactive use.
OPTIONS--help Show a summary of options
--version
Show slsh version information
-g Compile with debugging code, tracebacks, etc
-n Don't load the personal initialization file
--init file
Use this file instead of ~/.slshrc
--no-readline
Do not use a readline interface for the interactive mode
-i Force interactive mode. Normally slsh will go into interactive
mode if both stdin and stdout are attached to a terminal.
-t Normally, slsh will call slsh_main if it is defined. This
option prevents that from happening making it useful for check‐
ing for syntax error.
-v Show verbose loading messages. This is useful for seeing what
files are being loaded.
INITIALIZATION
Upon startup, the program will try to load slsh.rc as follows. If
either SLSH_CONF_DIR or SLSH_LIB_DIR environment variables exist, then
slsh will look look in the corresponding directories for slsh.rc. Oth‐
erwise it will look in:
$(prefix)/etc/ (as specified in the Makefile)
/usr/local/etc/
/usr/local/etc/slsh/
/etc/
/etc/slsh/
The slsh.rc file may load other files from slsh's library directory in
the manner described below.
Once slsh.rc has been loaded, slsh will load $HOME/.slshrc if present.
Finally, it will load the script specified on the command line. If the
name of the script is -, then it will be read from stdin. If the
script name is not present, slsh will go into interactive mode and read
input from the terminal. If the script is present and defines a func‐
tion called slsh_main, that function will be called.
LOADING FILES
When a script loads a file via the built-in evalfile function or the
require function (autoloaded by slsh.rc), the file is searched for
along the SLSH_PATH as specified in the Makefile. An alternate path
may be specified by the SLSH_PATH environment variable.
The search path may be queried and set during run time via the
get_slang_load_path and set_slang_load_path functions, e.g.,
set_slang_load_path ("/home/bill/lib/slsh:/usr/share/slsh");
INTERACTIVE MODE
When slsh is invoked without a script or is given the -i command line
argument, it will go into into interactive mode. In this mode, the
user will be prompted for input. The program will leave this mode and
exit if it sees an EOF (Ctrl-D) or the user exits by issuing the quit
command.
If an uncaught exception occurs during execution of a command, the
error message will be shown and the user will be prompted for more
input.
Any objects left on the stack after a command will be printed and the
stack cleared. This makes interactive mode useful as a calculator,
e.g.,
slsh> 3*10;
30
slsh> x = [1:20];
slsh> sum (sin(x)-cos(x));
0.458613
slsh> quit;
Note that in this mode, variables are automatically declared.
The interactive mode also supports command logging. Logging is enabled
by the start_log function. The stop_log function will turn off log‐
ging. The default file where logging information will be written is
slsh.log. An alternative may be specified as an optional argument to
the start_log function:
slsh> start_log;
Logging input to slsh.log
.
.
slsh> stop_log;
slsh> start_log("foo.log");
Logging input to foo.log
.
.
slsh> stop_log;
slsh> start_log;
Logging input to foo.log
Similarly, the save_input function may be used to save the previous
input to a specified file:
slsh> save_input;
Input saved to slsh.log
slsh> save_input ("foo.log");
Input saved to foo.log
As the above examples indicate, lines must end in a semicolon. This is
a basic feature of the language and permits commands to span multiple
lines, e.g.,
slsh> x = [
1,2,3,
4,5,6];
slsh> sum(x);
For convenience some users prefer that commands be automatically termi‐
nated with a semicolon. To have a semicolon silently appended to the
end of an input line, put the following in $HOME/.slshrc file:
#ifdef __INTERACTIVE__
slsh_append_semicolon (1);
#endif
The interactive mode also supports shell escapes. To pass a command to
the shell, prefix it with !, e.g.,
slsh> !pwd
/grandpa/d1/src/slang2/slsh
slsh> !cd doc/tm
slsh> !pwd
/grandpa/d1/src/slang2/slsh/doc/tm
Finally, the interactive mode supports a help and apropos function:
slsh> apropos list
apropos list ==>
List_Type
list_append
list_delete
.
.
slsh> help list_append
list_append
SYNOPSIS
Append an object to a list
USAGE
list_append (List_Type, object, Int_Type nth)
.
.
For convenience, the help and apropos functions do not require the syn‐
tactic constraints of the other functions.
MISCELLANEOUS SCRIPTS
Several useful example scripts are located in $pre‐
fix/share/slsh/scripts/, where $prefix represents the slsh installation
prefix (/usr, /usr/local,...). These scripts include:
sldb A script that runs the S-Lang debugger.
jpegsize
Reports the size of a jpeg file.
svnsh A shell for browsing an SVN repository.
AUTHOR
The principal author of slsh is John E. Davis <jed@jedsoft.org>. The
interactive mode was provided by Mike Noble <mnoble@space.mit.edu>.
The S-Lang library upon which slsh is based is primarily the work of
John E. Davis with help from many others.
This manual page was originally written by Rafael Laboissiere
<rafael@debian.org> for the Debian system (but may be used by others).
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Version 2 any later
version published by the Free Software Foundation.
On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public License
can be found in /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL
06 May 2006 SLSH(1)
