ECL(1)							      General Commands Manual							    ECL(1)

NAME

       ecl - Embeddable Common LISP

SYNOPSIS

       ecl [-dir dir] [-load file] [-eval expr]
	   [-compile file
	       [-o ofile] [-c [cfile]] [-h [hfile]] [-data [datafile]] [-s] [-q]]

DESCRIPTION

       ECL  stands  for Embeddable Common-Lisp.  The ECL project is an effort to modernize Giuseppe Attardi's ECL environment to produce an imple-
       mentation of the Common-Lisp language which complies to the ANSI X3J13 definition of the language.

       The current ECL implementation features:

       o      A bytecodes compiler and interpreter.

       o      A translator to C.

       o      An interface to foreign functions.

       o      A dynamic loader.

       o      The possibility to build standalone executables.

       o      The Common-Lisp Object System (CLOS).

       o      Conditions and restarts for handling errors.

       o      Sockets as ordinary streams.

       o      The Gnu Multiprecision library for fast bignum operations.

       o      A simple conservative mark & sweep garbage collector.

       o      The Boehm-Weiser garbage collector.

       ecl without any argument gives you the interactive lisp.

OPTIONS

       -shell file
		 Executes the given file and exits, without providing a read-eval-print loop.  If you want to use lisp as  a  scripting  language,
		 you  can  write  #!${exec_prefix}/bin/ecl -shell on the first line of the file to be executed, and then ECL will be automatically
		 invoked.

       -norc	 Do not try to load the file ~/.eclrc at startup.

       -dir	 Use dir as system directory.

       -load file
		 Loads file before entering the read-eval-print loop.

       -eval expr
		 Evaluates expr before entering the read-eval-print loop.

       -compile file
		 Translates file to C and invokes the local C compiler to produce a shared library with .fas as extension per default.

       -o ofile  When compiling file name the resulting shared library ofile.

       -c cfile  When compiling name the intermediary C file cfile and do not delete it afterwards.

       -h hfile  When compiling name the intermediary C header hfile and do not delete it afterwards.

       -data [datafile]
		 Dumps compiler data into datafile or, if not supplied, into a file named after the source file, but with .data as extension.

       -s	 Produce a linkable object file. It cannot be loaded with load, but it can be used to build  libraries	or  standalone	executable
		 programs.

       -q	 Produce less notes when compiling.

       The options -load, -shell, and -eval may appear any number of times, and they are combined and processed from left to right.

AUTHORS

       The  original  version  was  developed  by  Giuseppe Attardi starting from the Kyoto Common Lisp implementation by Taiichi Yuasa and Masami
       Hagiya.	The current maintainer of ECL is Juan Jose Garcia Ripoll, who can be reached at the ECL mailing list.

FILES

       ~/.ecl, ~/.eclrc
	      Default initialization files loaded at startup unless the option -norc is provided.  (if they exist).

SEE ALSO

	      ANSI Common Lisp standard X3.226-1994

	      The Common Lisp HyperSpec

BUGS

       Probably some. Report them!

4th Berkeley Distribution					     03/10/03								    ECL(1)