Please note that the recommended version of Scilab is 2025.0.0. This page might be outdated.
See the recommended documentation of this function
scilab
Main script to start Scilab and miscellaneous tools (GNU/Linux, Unix and Mac OS X)
Calling Sequence
scilab <Options> scilab-adv-cli <Options> scilab-cli <Options>
Description
- -args Arguments
If this option is present, arguments are passed to Scilab. They can then be got by sciargs function. For multi arguments passing use a quoted, blank separated sequence of words like:
scilab -args 'foo1 foo2'
.Without this option, unknown arguments will not be accepted.- -display Display
For use under Xwindow systems only to set a specific X server display. Default display is unix:0.0.
-display
can be abbreviated by-d
.- -debug
Start Scilab under the debugger gdb (Unix/Linux/Mac OS X only).
Define the variable
SCILAB_GDB_OPT
to add custom options to gdb.Advise: use this option on a Scilab source tree.
- -debug-kdbg
Start Scilab under kdbg (Unix/Linux/Mac OS X only).
Advise: use this option on a Scilab source tree.
- -profiling
Start Scilab under valgrind (Unix/Linux/Mac OS X only).
Define the variable SCILAB_VALGRIND_OPT to add custom options to valgrind (and override the existing valgrind options).
Advise: use this option on a Scilab source tree.
- -profiling-visu
Start Scilab under callgrind (Unix/Linux/Mac OS X only).
Define the variable SCILAB_VALGRIND_OPT to add custom options to callgrind (and override the existing callgrind options).
Advise: use this option on a Scilab source tree.
- -electric-fence
Start Scilab with the Electric Fence (Unix/Linux/Mac OS X only).
Advise: use this option on a Scilab source tree.
- -e Instruction
If this option is present then Scilab instruction
Instruction
is executed first (just after startup file execution) into Scilab.-e
and-f
options are mutually exclusive.Note that several instructions can be used in with
-e
.scilab-cli -e "a=1+%i; aPlusPi=a+%pi; disp(aPlusPi);exit;" -nb
- -f file
If this option is present then Scilab script
file
is executed first (just after startup file execution) into Scilab.-e
and-f
options are mutually exclusive.A file with .xcos extension will be opened by Xcos.
- -l lang
If this option is present it fixes the user language. lang can be: ca_ES de_DE en_US es_ES fr_FR ja_JP pt_BR ru_RU zh_CN zh_TW (from Scilab 5.2).
Other possible
lang
values are'fr'
for french and'en'
for English for compatibility reasons. The default language is English. This default value is fixed thescilab.start
file.On some systems, locales must be compiled to render correctly UTF-8 fonts.
Scilab can be also called the following way:
LANG=ja_JP scilab # equivalent to scilab -l ja_JP
- -mem N
Set the initial
stacksize
, for use with-ns
option. Without-ns
option the initialstacksize
is set byscilab.start
script.- -nb
If this option is present then the Scilab loading message not displayed.
- -ns
If this option is present the startup file
SCI/etc/scilab.start
and the user startup filesSCIHOME/.scilab
,SCIHOME/scilab.ini
are not executed.This option will disable many features in Scilab (Only use if you know what you are doing).
- -nouserstartup
If this option is present the user startup files
SCIHOME/.scilab
,SCIHOME/scilab.ini
are not executed.- -noatomsautoload
If this option is present the ATOMS modules previously installed are not loaded for this session.
- -nw
If this option is present, Scilab is started as command line with advanced features still available (graphics, export, xcos, scinotes, help browser, ...).
This option may be used with
-f
or-e
options.From Scilab 5.2:
Scilab distribution also provides a dedicated binary which is doing the same as
-nw
:scilab-adv-cli
(Scilab Advanced Command Line Interpreter).pipes are enabled for all operating systems (see the examples for further details).
- -nwni / -nogui
If this option is present, Scilab is started as command line without advanced features (graphics, export, xcos, scinotes, help browser, ...).
This option may be used with
-f
or-e
options.From Scilab 5.2:
Scilab distribution also provides a dedicated binary which is doing the same as
-nwni
:scilab-cli
(Scilab Command Line Interpreter).
pipes are enabled for all operating systems (see the examples for further details).
This mode does not load the Java Virtual Machine (faster to start and uses less memory).
- --texmacs
This option is reserved for TeXMacs.
Please install ATOMS module:
atomsInstall('texmacs')
- -version
This option prints product version and exits.
Description of environment variables
- SCIVERBOSE
If this variable is present, Scilab startup script will show a startup debug information. Mainly used for bug report and debugging purposes.
- JAVA_HOME
Specify which Java to use. For example,
JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk/ scilab
will start Scilab with Java 7.- SCI_DISABLE_TK
Disable Tk (but not Tcl) features.
- SCI_JAVA_ENABLE_HEADLESS
Enable Java Headless VM (i.e. without GUI features).
Java Virtual Machine options
Starting from Scilab 5.0, the graphical user interface (GUI) and the build documentation are based on Java features. In some cases, it can be important to edit the JVM options (Java Virtual Machine).
These options are available in the jvm_options.xml file.
In version 5.0.X and 5.1.X, this file is stored as SCI/modules/jvm/etc/jvm_options.xml.
In version >= 5.2.0, the file is available in etc/jvm_options.xml.
By default, the three following options are easily accessible in the configuration file:
- -XmxXXXm
This option set the amount of memory available by the Java Virtual Machine. By default, 256M are allocated. If you change this value, check that the value does not exceed the memory available on the system.
Since Scilab 5.4.0, this value can be changed in the preferences menu.
- -Djava.compiler=JIT
This option with the argument JIT enables the Java Just In Time compiler. It is activated by default. NONE disables the JIT and decreases dramatically performances.
- -verbose:jni / -Xcheck:jni
These options enable more checks and output from the JNI calls. These options are useful in case of debugging and are disabled by default since they decreases performances.
Many more options are available. They can improve the performances, change look and feel, change memory managements... See: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/tech/vmoptions-jsp-140102.html.
Examples
# Let's start Scilab in profiling mode without attaching a gdb once a SIGSEGV is met. # We are under Bash shell export SCILAB_VALGRIND_OPT="--db-attach=no --log-file=myfile.txt" scilab -profiling # Let's start Scilab in debug mode without stopping after each SIGSEGV # First, we write a small command file echo "handle SIGSEGV nostop" &> debug.txt # Now set the custom option # We are under Bash shell export SCILAB_GDB_OPT="--command=debug.txt" # Start Scilab in debug mode scilab -debug
History
Version | Description |
5.4.0 | -noatomsautoload added. |
5.4.1 | scinotes and xcos individual scripts introduced. See SEP #87. |
Report an issue | ||
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