(octave.info)Command Line Options

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2.1.1 Command Line Options
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Here is a complete list of the command line options that Octave accepts.

‘--built-in-docstrings-file FILENAME’
     Specify the name of the file containing documentation strings for
     the built-in functions of Octave.  This value is normally correct
     and should only need to specified in extraordinary situations.

‘--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.

‘--debug-jit’
     Enable JIT compiler debugging and tracing.

‘--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’.

‘--gui’
     Start the graphical user interface (GUI).

‘--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.

‘--jit-compiler’
     Enable the JIT compiler used for accelerating loops.

‘--line-editing’
     Force readline use for command-line editing.

‘--no-gui’
     Disable the graphical user interface (GUI) and use the command line
     interface (CLI) instead.  This is the default behavior, but this
     option may be useful to override a previous ‘--gui’.

‘--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.

‘--no-window-system’
‘-W’
     Disable use of a windowing system including graphics.  This forces
     a strictly terminal-only environment.

‘--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.

‘--texi-macros-file FILENAME’
     Specify the name of the file containing Texinfo macros for use by
     makeinfo.

‘--traditional’
‘--braindead’
     For compatibility with MATLAB, set initial values for user
     preferences to the following values

          PS1                             = ">> "
          PS2                             = ""
          beep_on_error                   = true
          confirm_recursive_rmdir         = false
          crash_dumps_octave_core         = false
          disable_diagonal_matrix         = true
          disable_permutation_matrix      = true
          disable_range                   = true
          fixed_point_format              = true
          history_timestamp_format_string = "%%-- %D %I:%M %p --%%"
          print_empty_dimensions          = false
          save_default_options            = "-mat-binary"
          struct_levels_to_print          = 0

     and disable the following warnings

          Octave:abbreviated-property-match
          Octave:data-file-in-path
          Octave:function-name-clash
          Octave:possible-matlab-short-circuit-operator

     Note that this does not enable the ‘Octave:language-extension’
     warning, which you might want if you want to be told about writing
     code that works in Octave but not MATLAB (*note warning:
     XREFwarning, Note: warning_ids.).

‘--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.

 -- : 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.  Note: Executable Octave
     Programs, for an example of how to create an executable Octave
     script.

 -- : program_name ()
     Return the last component of the value returned by
     ‘program_invocation_name’.

     See also: *note program_invocation_name:
     XREFprogram_invocation_name.

 -- : 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.  Note: Executable Octave Programs, for an
     example of how to create an executable Octave script.

     See also: Note: 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");

Note: Indexing Cell Arrays, for an explanation of how to retrieve
objects from cell arrays, and Note: Defining Functions, for
information about the variable ‘nargin’.