clisp - Man Page

ANSI[38] Common Lisp[1] compiler, interpreter and debugger.

Synopsis

clisp [[-h] | [--help]] [--version] [--license] [-help-image] [-B lisp-lib-dir] [-b] [-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] [-disable-readline] [[-ansi] | [-traditional]] [-modern] [-p package] [-C] [-norc] [-lp directory...] [-i init-file...] [-c [-l] lisp-file [-o output-file]...] [-x expressions...] [lisp-file [argument...]]

Description

Invokes the Common Lisp^[1] interpreter and compiler.

Interactive Mode

When called without batch 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.

Non-Interactive (Batch) Mode

Invoked with -c, compiles the specified lisp files to a platform-independent bytecode which can be executed more efficiently.

Invoked with -x, executes the specified lisp expressions.

Invoked with lisp-file, runs the specified lisp file.

Batch mode activates the -q option.

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] CUSTOM:*LIB-DIRECTORY*.

-b

Print the installation directory and exit immediately. The namestring of CUSTOM:*LIB-DIRECTORY* is printed without any quotes. This is mostly useful in module Makefiles, see, e.g., modules/syscalls/Makefile.in (file in the CLISP sources).

-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 32.2, “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

n
nB: measured in bytes
n
nW: measured in machine words (4×n on 32-bit platforms, 8×n on 64-bit platforms)
nK
nKB: measured in kilobytes
nKW: measured in kilowords
nM
nMB: measured in megabytes
nMW: measured in megawords

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

This version of CLISP^[6] eventually uses the entire memory-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 31.1, “Customizing CLISP Process Initialization and Termination”.

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 standard]. The first -q removes the banner and the good-bye message, the second sets variables *LOAD-VERBOSE*^[13], *COMPILE-VERBOSE*^[14] and CUSTOM:*SAVEINITMEM-VERBOSE* 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

Establish global error handlers, 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), disables batch mode imposed by -c, -x, and lisp-file,
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 (the normal batch mode behavior).

Language Reference

The language implemented is ANSI^[39][38] Common Lisp^[1]. The implementation mostly conforms to the ANSI Common Lisp standard, see Section 31.10, “Maximum ANSI CL compliance”. [ANSI CL] ANSI CL standard1994. ANSI^[40] INCITS 226-1994 (R1999)
Information Technology - Programming Language - Common Lisp
[formerly ANSI X3.226-1994 (R1999)].

Command Line User Environment

help

get context-sensitive on-line help, see Chapter 25, Environment chap-25.

(APROPOS name)

list the SYMBOL^[41]s matching name.

(DESCRIBE symbol)

describe the symbol.

(exit)

(quit)

(bye)

quit CLISP^[6].

EOF (Control+D on UNIX^[42])

leave the current level of the read-eval-print loop^[2] (see also Section 1.1, “Special Symbols sec_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 #'^[44]), the completion is limited to the symbols that name functions.
If you are in the "filename position" (inside a string after #P^[45]), the completion is done across file names, GNU^[8] bash^[46]-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 DESCRIBEd.
Otherwise, the symbol you are currently typing is completed.

Using and Extending Clisp

Common Lisp^[1] is a programmable programming language. —John Foderaro^[47]

When CLISP^[6] is invoked, the runtime loads the initial memory image and outputs the prompt; at which one can start typing DEFVAR^[48]s, DEFUN^[49]s and DEFMACRO^[50]s.

To avoid having to re-enter the same definitions by hand in every session, one can create a lisp file with all the variables, functions, macros, etc.; (optionally) compile it with COMPILE-FILE^[51]; and LOAD^[31] it either by hand or from the RC file; or save a memory image to avoid the LOAD^[31] overhead.

However, sometimes one needs to use some functionality implemented in another language, e.g., call a C^[52] library function. For that one uses the Foreign Function Interface and/or the External Modules facility. Finally, the truly adventurous ones might delve into Extending the Core.

Files

clisp
clisp.exe: startup driver (an executable or, rarely, a shell script) which remembers the location of the runtime and starts it with the appropriate arguments
lisp.run
lisp.exe: main executable (runtime) - the part of CLISP^[6] implemented in C^[52].
lispinit.mem: initial memory image (the part of CLISP^[6] implemented in lisp)
config.lisp: site-dependent configuration (should have been customized before CLISP^[6] was built); see Section 31.12, “Customizing CLISP behavior”
*.lisp: lisp source
*.fas: lisp code, compiled by CLISP^[6]
*.lib: lisp source library information, generated by COMPILE-FILE, see Section 24.3, “Function REQUIRE”.
*.c: C code, compiled from lisp source by CLISP^[6] (see Section 32.3, “The Foreign Function Call Facility”)

For the CLISP^[6] source files, see Chapter 34, 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: used for determining the value of the function USER-HOMEDIR-PATHNAME^[34].
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^[53] and LONG-SITE-NAME^[53] 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*

Input and Outut

See Section 21.1.1, “Initialization of Standard Streams”.

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^[56]. Login, either to your SourceForge^[57] account, or to your OpenID^[58] account. Then click the "Create Ticket" link on the left-hand side.

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

Unless your bug is locale-specific, please set your locale to en. You cannot assume that CLISP^[6] maintainers understand a language other than English^[59], even though, historically, few CLISP^[6] maintainers spoke English natively.
Do a clean build (remove your build directory and build CLISP^[6] with ./configure --cbcx build or at least do a make distclean before make).
If you are reporting a “hard crash” (segmentation fault, bus error, core dump etc), please do ./configure --with-debug --cbcx build-g ; cd build-g; gdb lisp.run, then load the appropriate linking set by either base or full gdb^[60] command, and report the backtrace (see also Q: A.1.1.10).
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:

What is your platform (uname -a on a UNIX^[42] system)?
Please supply the full output (copy and paste) of all the error messages.
Please provide detailed instructions on how to reproduce the problem.
Where did you get the CLISP^[6] sources or binaries? When? (Absolute dates, e.g., “2006-01-17”, are preferred over the relative ones, e.g., “2 days ago”. If you are using Git^[61], please supply the output of git rev-list --max-count=1 HEAD).
If you are reporting a build failure:
1. What is your compiler version?
2. What is your GNU^[8] libc^[62] version (on GNU^[8]/Linux^[63])?
3. What is the version of each of the DEPENDENCIES (file in the CLISP sources)?
4. How did you run configure (file in the CLISP sources)? We need the options you used as well as the values of the environment variable^[12]s
  CC
  CFLAGS
  CPPFLAGS
  LDFLAFS
  LD_LIBRARY_PATH
  .
5. Please attach all build logs.
If you have a working CLISP^[6], please supply the output of clisp --version

Projects

Enhance the compiler so that it can inline local functions.
Embed CLISP^[6] in VIM^[64].

Authors

Bruno Haible <http://www.haible.de/bruno/>: The original author and long-time maintainer.
Michael Stoll <http://www.mathe2.uni-bayreuth.de/stoll/>: The original author.
Sam Steingold <http://sds.podval.org/>: Co-maintainer since 1998.
Others: See Copyright (file in the CLISP sources) for the list of other contributors and the license.