CLISP(1)

NAME
clisp - ANSI Common Lisp compiler, interpreter and debugger.

SYNOPSIS

clisp [[-h] | [--help]] [--version] [--license] [-help-image] [-B lisp-lib-dir] [-K linking-set] [-M mem-file] [-m memory-size] [-L language] [-N locale-dir] [-Edomain encoding] [[-q] | [--quiet] | [--silent] | [-v] | [--verbose]] [-on-error action] [-repl] [-w] [-I] [[-ansi] | [-traditional]] [-modern] [-p package] [-C] [-norc] [-i init-file...] [-c [-l] lisp-file [-o output-file]...] [-x expressions...] [lisp-file [argument...]]

DESCRIPTION

Invokes the Common Lisp[1] interpreter and compiler. When called without arguments, executes the read-eval-print loop[2], in which expressions are in turn READ[3] from the standard input, EVAL[4]uated by the lisp interpreter, and their results are PRINT[5]ed to the standard output. Invoked with -c, compiles the specified lisp files to a platform-independent bytecode which can be executed more efficiently.

OPTIONS

-h
--help
    Displays a help message on how to invoke CLISP[6].

--version
    Displays the CLISP[6] version number, as given by the function LISP-IMPLEMENTATION-VERSION[7], the value of the variable *FEATURES*, as well some other information.

--license
    Displays a summary of the licensing information, the GNU[8] GPL[9].

-help-image
    Displays information about the memory image being invoked: whether is it suitable for scripting as well as the :DOCUMENTATION supplied to EXT:SAVEINITMEM.

-B lisp-lib-dir
    Specifies the installation directory. This is the directory containing the linking sets and other data files. This option is normally not necessary, because the installation directory is already built-in into the clisp executable. Directory lisp-lib-dir can be changed dynamically using the SYMBOL-MACRO[10] *LIB-DIRECTORY*.

-K linking-set
    Specifies the linking set to be run. This is a directory (relative to the lisp-lib-dir) containing at least a main executable (runtime) and an initial memory image. Possible values are

        base
            the core CLISP[6]

        full
            core plus all the modules with which this installation was built, see Section 31.2, “External Modules”.

        The default is base.

-M mem-file
    Specifies the initial memory image. This must be a memory dump produced by the EXT:SAVEINITMEM function by this clisp runtime. It may have been compressed using GNU[8] gzip[11].

-m memory-size
    Sets the amount of memory CLISP[6] tries to grab on startup. The amount may be given as

        nnnnnnn
            measured in bytes

        nnnnK
        nnnnKB
            measured in kilobytes

        nM
        nMB
            measured in megabytes

        The default is 3 megabytes. The argument is constrained above 100 KB.

        This version of CLISP[6] allocates memory dynamically. memory-size is essentially ignored (except that it determines the Lisp STACK size).

-L language
    Specifies the language CLISP[6] uses to communicate with the user. This may be one of english, german, french, spanish, dutch, russian, danish. Other languages may be specified through the environment variable[12] LANG, provided the corresponding message catalog is installed. The language may be changed dynamically using the SYMBOL-MACRO[10] CUSTOM:*CURRENT-LANGUAGE*.

-N locale-dir
    Specifies the base directory of locale files. CLISP[6] will search its message catalogs in locale-dir/language/LC_MESSAGES/clisp.mo. This directory may be changed dynamically using the SYMBOL-MACRO[10] CUSTOM:*CURRENT-LANGUAGE*.

-Edomain encoding
    Specifies the encoding used for the given domain, overriding the default which depends on the environment variable[12]s LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LANG. domain can be

        file
            affecting CUSTOM:*DEFAULT-FILE-ENCODING*

        pathname
            affecting CUSTOM:*PATHNAME-ENCODING*

        terminal
            affecting CUSTOM:*TERMINAL-ENCODING*

        foreign
            affecting CUSTOM:*FOREIGN-ENCODING*

        misc
            affecting CUSTOM:*MISC-ENCODING*

        blank
            affecting all of the above.

        Warning Note that the values of these SYMBOL-MACRO[10]s that have been saved in a memory image are ignored: these SYMBOL-MACRO[10]s are reset based on the OS environment after the memory image is loaded. You have to use the RC file, CUSTOM:*INIT-HOOKS* or init function to set them on startup, but it is best to set the aforementioned environment variable[12]s appropriately for consistency with other programs. See Section 30.1, “Customizing CLISP Process Initialization and Termination”.

-q
--quiet
--silent
-v
--verbose
    Change verbosity level: by default, CLISP[6] displays a banner at startup and a good-bye message when quitting, and initializes *LOAD-VERBOSE*[13] and *COMPILE-VERBOSE*[14] to T[15], and *LOAD-PRINT*[13] and *COMPILE-PRINT*[14] to NIL[16], as per [ANSI CL]. The first -q removes the banner and the good-bye message, the second sets variables *LOAD-VERBOSE*[13] and *COMPILE-VERBOSE*[14] to NIL[16]. The first -v sets variables CUSTOM:*REPORT-ERROR-PRINT-BACKTRACE*, *LOAD-PRINT*[13] and *COMPILE-PRINT*[14] to T[15], the second sets CUSTOM:*LOAD-ECHO* to T[15]. These settings affect the output produced by -i and -c options. Note that these settings persist into the read-eval-print loop[2]. Repeated -q and -v cancel each other, e.g., -q -q -v -v -v is equivalent to -v.

-on-error action
    Override (or force) the batch mode imposed by -c, -x, and lisp-file, depending on action:

        appease
            continuable[17] ERROR[18]s are turned into WARNING[19]s (with EXT:APPEASE-CERRORS) other ERROR[18]s are handled in the default way

        debug
            ERROR[18]s INVOKE-DEBUGGER[20] (the normal read-eval-print loop[2] behavior)

        abort
            continuable[17] ERROR[18]s are appeased, other ERROR[18]s are ABORT[21]ed with EXT:ABORT-ON-ERROR

        exit
            continuable[17] ERROR[18]s are appeased, other ERROR[18]s terminate CLISP[6] with EXT:EXIT-ON-ERROR

        See also EXT:SET-GLOBAL-HANDLER.

-repl
    Start an interactive read-eval-print loop[2] after processing the -c, -x, and lisp-file options and on any ERROR[18] SIGNAL[22]ed during that processing.

-w
    Wait for a keypress after program termination.

-I
    Interact better with Emacs[23] (useful when running CLISP[6] under Emacs[23] using SLIME[24], ILISP[25] et al). With this option, CLISP[6] interacts in a way that Emacs[23] can deal with:

        •   unnecessary prompts are not suppressed.

        •   The GNU[8] readline[26] library treats TAB (see TAB key) as a normal self-inserting character (see Q: A.4.5).

-ansi
    Comply with the [ANSI CL] specification even where CLISP[6] has been traditionally different. It sets the SYMBOL-MACRO[10] CUSTOM:*ANSI* to T[15].

-traditional
    Traditional: reverses the residual effects of -ansi in the saved memory image.

-modern
    Provides a modern view of symbols: at startup the *PACKAGE*[27] variable will be set to the “CS-COMMON-LISP-USER” package, and the *PRINT-BASE*[28] will be set to :DOWNCASE. This has the effect that symbol lookup is case-sensitive (except for keywords and old-style packages) and that keywords and uninterned symbols are printed with lower-case preferrence. See Section 11.4, “Package Case-Sensitivity”.

-p package
    At startup the value of the variable *PACKAGE*[27] will be set to the package named package. The default is the value of *PACKAGE*[27] when the image was saved, normally “COMMON-LISP-USER”[29].

-C
    Compile when loading: at startup the value of the variable CUSTOM:*LOAD-COMPILING* will be set to T[15]. Code being LOAD[30]ed will then be COMPILE[31]d on the fly. This results in slower loading, but faster execution.

-norc
    Normally CLISP[6] loads the user “run control” (RC)[32] file on startup (this happens after the -C option is processed). The file loaded is .clisprc.lisp or .clisprc.fas in the home directory USER-HOMEDIR-PATHNAME[33], whichever is newer. This option, -norc, prevents loading of the RC file.

-i init-file
    Specifies initialization files to be LOAD[30]ed at startup. These should be lisp files (source or compiled). Several -i options can be given; all the specified files will be loaded in order.

-c lisp-file
    Compiles the specified lisp-files to bytecode (*.fas). The compiled files can then be LOAD[30]ed instead of the sources to gain efficiency.

-o outputfile
    Specifies the output file or directory for the compilation of the last specified lisp-file.

-l
    Produce a bytecode DISASSEMBLE[34] listing (*.lis) of the files being compiled. Useful only for debugging. See Section 24.1.1, “Function COMPILE-FILE” for details.

-x expressions
    Executes a series of arbitrary expressions instead of a read-eval-print loop[2]. The values of the expressions will be output to *STANDARD-OUTPUT*[35]. Due to the argument processing done by the shell, the expressions must be enclosed in double quotes, and double quotes and backslashes must be escaped with backslashes.

lisp-file [ argument ... ]
    Loads and executes a lisp-file, as described in Script execution. There will be no read-eval-print loop[2]. Before lisp-file is loaded, the variable EXT:*ARGS* will be bound to a list of strings, representing the arguments. The first line of lisp-file may start with #!, thus permitting CLISP[6] to be used as a script interpreter. If lisp-file is -, the *STANDARD-INPUT*[35] is used instead of a file.

    This option is disabled if the memory image was created by EXT:SAVEINITMEM with NIL[16] :SCRIPT argument. In that case the LIST[36] EXT:*ARGS* starts with lisp-file.

    This option must be the last one.

    No RC file will be executed.

As usual, -- stops option processing and places all remaining command line arguments into EXT:*ARGS*.

LANGUAGE REFERENCE

The language implemented is [ANSI CL]. The implementation mostly conforms to the ANSI Common Lisp standard, see Section 30.10, “Maximum ANSI CL compliance”. [ANSI CL] ANSI CL standard1994. ANSI Common Lisp standard X3.226-1994 -
       Information
       Technology - Programming Language - Common Lisp[37]. .SH "USAGE"

help
    get context-sensitive on-line help, see Chapter 25, Environment [CLHS-25].

(APROPOS[38] name)
    list the symbols matching to name.

(exit)
(quit)
(bye)
    quit CLISP[6].

EOF (Control-D on UNIX[39])
    leave the current level of the read-eval-print loop[2] (see also Section 1.1, “Special Symbols [CLHS-1.4.1.3]”).

arrow keys
    for editing and viewing the input history, using the GNU[8] readline[26] library.

TAB key
    Context sensitive:

        •   If you are in the “function position” (in the first symbol after an opening paren or in the first symbol after a #'[41]), the completion is limited to the symbols that name functions.

        •   If you are in the "filename position" (inside a string after #P[42]), the completion is done across file names, bash[43]-style.

        •   If you have not typed anything yet, you will get a help message, as if by the Help command.

        •   If you have not started typing the next symbol (i.e., you are at a whitespace), the current function or macro is DESCRIBE[44]d.

        •   Otherwise, the symbol you are currently typing is completed.

FILES

clisp
    startup driver (a script or an executable)

lisp.run
lisp.exe
    main executable (runtime)

lispinit.mem
    initial memory image

config.lisp
    site-dependent configuration (should have been customized before CLISP[6] was built); see Section 30.12, “Customizing CLISP behavior”

*.lisp
    lisp source

*.fas
    lisp code, compiled by CLISP[6]

*.lib
    lisp source library information, generated by COMPILE-FILE, see Section 24.1.3, “Function REQUIRE”.

*.c
    C code, compiled from lisp source by CLISP[6] (see Section 31.3, “The Foreign Function Call Facility”)

For the CLISP[6] source files, see Chapter 33, The source files of CLISP.

ENVIRONMENT

All environment variable[12]s that CLISP[6] uses are read at most once.

CLISP_LANGUAGE
    specifies the language CLISP[6] uses to communicate with the user. The legal values are identical to those of the -L option which can be used to override this environment variable[12].

LC_CTYPE
    specifies the locale which determines the character set in use. The value can be of the form language or language_country or language_country.charset, where language is a two-letter ISO 639 language code (lower case), country is a two-letter ISO 3166 country code (upper case). charset is an optional character set specification, and needs normally not be given because the character set can be inferred from the language and country. This environment variable[12] can be overridden with the -Edomain encoding option.

LANG
    specifies the language CLISP[6] uses to communicate with the user, unless it is already specified through the environment variable[12] CLISP_LANGUAGE or the -L option. It also specifies the locale determining the character set in use, unless already specified through the environment variable[12] LC_CTYPE. The value may begin with a two-letter ISO 639 language code, for example en, de, fr.

HOME
USER
    are used for determining the value of the function USER-HOMEDIR-PATHNAME[33].

SHELL
COMSPEC
    is used to find the interactive command interpreter called by EXT:SHELL.

TERM
    determines the screen size recognized by the pretty printer.

ORGANIZATION
    for SHORT-SITE-NAME[45] and LONG-SITE-NAME[45] in config.lisp.

CLHSROOT
    for CUSTOM:CLHS-ROOT in config.lisp.

IMPNOTES
    for CUSTOM:IMPNOTES-ROOT in config.lisp.

EDITOR
    for editor-name in config.lisp.

LOGICAL_HOST_host_FROM
LOGICAL_HOST_host_TO
LOGICAL_HOST_host
    for CUSTOM:*LOAD-LOGICAL-PATHNAME-TRANSLATIONS-DATABASE*

SEE ALSO

CLISP impnotes, CMU CL[46] - cmucl(1), Emacs[23] - emacs(1), XEmacs[47] - xemacs(1).

BUGS

When you encounter a bug in CLISP[6] or in its documentation (this manual page or CLISP impnotes), please report it to the CLISP[6] SourceForge bug tracker[48].

Before submitting a bug report, please take the following basic steps to make the report more useful:

1.  Please do a clean build (remove your build directory and build CLISP[6] with ./configure --build build or at least do a make distclean before make).

2.  If you are reporting a “hard crash” (segmentation fault, bus error, core dump etc), please do ./configure --with-debug --build build-g ; cd build-g; gdb lisp.run, then load the appropriate linking set by either base or full gdb[49] command, and report the backtrace (see also Q: A.1.1.9).

3.  If you are using pre-built binaries and experience a hard crash, the problem is likely to be in the incompatibilities between the platform on which the binary was built and yours; please try compiling the sources and report the problem if it persists.

When submitting a bug report, please specify the following information:

1.  What is your platform (uname -a on a UNIX[39] system)? Compiler version? GNU[8] libc[50] version (on GNU[8]/Linux[51])?

2.  Where did you get the sources or binaries? When? (Absolute dates - like “2006-01-17” - are preferred over the relative ones - like “2 days ago”).

3.  How did you build CLISP[6]? (What command, options &c.)

4.  What is the output of clisp --version?

5.  Please supply the full output (copy and paste) of all the error messages, as well as detailed instructions on how to reproduce them.

Known bugs, some of which may be platform-dependent, include:

•   The memory management scheme is not very flexible.

•   EXT:*KEYBOARD-INPUT* does not recognize Control-S and Control-Q.

•   No on-line documentation beyond APROPOS[38] and DESCRIBE[44] is available.

PROJECTS

•   Write on-line documentation.

•   Enhance the compiler so that it can inline local functions.

•   Specify a portable set of window and graphics operations.

•   Add Multi-Threading capabilities, via OS threads.

CLISP AUTHORS

The CLISP[6] project was started in late 1980-ies by Bruno Haible and Michael Stoll, both in Germany.

See COPYRIGHT (file in the CLISP sources) for the list of other contributors and the license.

AUTHORS

Bruno Haible <http://www.haible.de/bruno/>

    Author.

Michael Stoll <http://www.faculty.iu-bremen.de/mstoll/>

    Author.

Sam Steingold <http://www.podval.org/~sds/>

    Author.

See COPYRIGHT (file in the CLISP sources) for the list of other contributors.

COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 1992-2006 Bruno Haible
Copyright © 1998-2006 Sam Steingold

REFERENCES

1.  Common Lisp
    http://www.lisp.org

2.  read-eval-print loop
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/sec_25-1-1.html

3.  READ
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/fun_readcm_re_g-whitespace.html

4.  EVAL
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/fun_eval.html

5.  PRINT
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/fun_writecm_p_rintcm_princ.html

6.  CLISP
    http://clisp.cons.org

7.  LISP-IMPLEMENTATION-VERSION
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/fun_lisp-impl_tion-version.html

8.  GNU
    http://www.gnu.org

9.  GPL
    http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

10. SYMBOL-MACRO
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/mac_define-symbol-macro.html

11. gzip
    http://www.gzip.org/

12. environment variable
    basedefs/xbd_chap08.html

13. *LOAD-VERBOSE*
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/var_stload-pr_ad-verbosest.html

14. *COMPILE-VERBOSE*
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/var_stcompile_le-verbosest.html

15. T
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/convar_t.html

16. NIL
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/convar_nil.html

17. continuable
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/glo_c.html#continuable

18. ERROR
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/contyp_error.html

19. WARNING
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/contyp_warning.html

20. INVOKE-DEBUGGER
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/fun_invoke-debugger.html

21. ABORT
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/fun_abortcm_c_cm_use-value.html

22. SIGNAL
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/fun_signal.html

23. Emacs
    http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/

24. SLIME
    http://common-lisp.net/project/slime/

25. ILISP
    http://sourceforge.net/projects/ilisp/

26. readline
    http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/readline/rltop.html

27. *PACKAGE*
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/var_stpackagest.html

28. *PRINT-BASE*
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/var_stprint-b_rint-radixst.html

29. “COMMON-LISP-USER”
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/sec_11-1-2-2.html

30. LOAD
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/fun_load.html

31. COMPILE
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/fun_compile.html

32. “run control” (RC)
    http://www.faqs.org/docs/artu/ch10s03.html

33. USER-HOMEDIR-PATHNAME
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/fun_user-homedir-pathname.html

34. DISASSEMBLE
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/fun_disassemble.html

35. *STANDARD-OUTPUT*
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/var_stdebug-i_ace-outputst.html

36. LIST
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/syscla_list.html

37. Information Technology - Programming Language - Common Lisp
    http://www.ncits.org/tc_home/j13sd4.htm

38. APROPOS
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/fun_aproposcm_apropos-list.html

39. UNIX
    http://www.UNIX-systems.org/online.html

40. Win32
    http://winehq.com/

41. #'
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/sec_2-4-8-2

42. #P
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/sec_2-4-8-14

43. bash
    http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/

44. DESCRIBE
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/fun_describe.html

45. SHORT-SITE-NAME
    http://www.lisp.org/HyperSpec/Body/fun_short-sit_ng-site-name.html

46. CMU CL
    http://www.cons.org/cmucl/

47. XEmacs
    http://www.xemacs.org

48. SourceForge bug tracker
    http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=add&group_id=1355&atid=101355

49. gdb
    http://sources.redhat.com/gdb/

50. libc
    http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/

51. Linux
    http://www.linux.org/