EVOLVER-OGL-D(1)

💖 EVOLVER-OGL-D 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because today we're talking about evolver-ogl-d — that's The Surface Evolver program, the one with the OpenGL/GLUT display and double precision floating point format. it's in section 1 of the manual, iykyk 🫶

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

evolver-ogl-d [-a][-d][-e][-i][-m][-q][-w][-x][-y][-h][-V] [-f FILE]
[-pN] [DATAFILE]

like, that's the whole vibe right there. flags go brrr 💅

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so the Surface Evolver is this interactive program for modelling liquid surfaces that get shaped by all sorts of forces and constraints. and when I say "basically", I mean — the Surface Evolver minimizes the energy of triangulated surfaces according to whatever energies and constraints you designate. it's giving physics but make it cozy. literally just vibing until the energy is as low as it can go. 🔥

this man page? mainly documenting the command line options and environment variables. the rest of the lore lives elsewhere, no cap.

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• -a — autoconvert to named quantities when needed (default is on). wanna turn it off? use -a- to deactivate autoconversion. periodt.
• -d — start with parser debugging on (same energy as the debug runtime command). beware of copious output, bestie, it will not shut up 😭
• -e — echo stdin to stdout. mainly for testing piped input, fr fr.
• -f FILE — after loading DATAFILE, read commands from file, then hit the command line prompt. very main character.
• -i — preserve DATAFILE numbers for element id's instead of renumbering. the way it just keeps them 🥹
• -m — begin with memory debugging on (equivalent to the memdebug runtime command). again — beware of copious output, it's a lot.
• -pN — run with N concurrent processes. parallel slay.
• -q — convert to named quantities at start (equivalent to the convert_to_quantities runtime command).
• -w — exit immediately after any warning or error message. meant for batch runs. if it complains, it's out. 🙈
• -x — exit immediately after any error message. meant for batch runs. (warnings get a pass, errors do not 💀)
• -y — break to user prompt after any warning message. it just wants to check in on you.
• -h — display this help, then exit. iconic.
• -V — display the version and the banner, then exit. our fave.

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🌈 AVAILABILITY 🌈

the latest version of the Surface Evolver, up-to-date documentation, and more are available on-line from:

http://www.susqu.edu/brakke/evolver

link in bio energy ⭐

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👑 BANNER 👑

Surface Evolver Version 2.70a (Debian 2.70+ds-10), August 27, 2013, 64-bit. Compiled for double, 15 digits precision. Built with Geomview support. Built with OpenGL/GLUT display.

look at that résumé. ate and left no crumbs 🎀

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🦋 ENVIRONMENT 🦋

• EVOLVERPATH — a colon-separated list of paths that get automatically searched for datafiles, included files, or on-line help documentation. by default, the paths /usr/share/doc/evolver/html and /usr/share/doc/evolver/examples are appended (in that order). and if you want to cancel that default behaviour? just append at least three consecutive colons (":::") at its end. yes really. three colons. that's the whole trick ✨

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💜 FILES 💜

• ~/.evolver_history — the per-user command history file. it remembers everything. gaslight gatekeep girlboss.
• /usr/share/doc/evolver/manual.pdf — the (complete) Surface Evolver Manual in PDF format. the whole novel 💖
• /usr/share/doc/evolver/EvolverDoc.html — the HTML version of the Surface Evolver Manual, containing what the PDF manual has, modulo some advanced material. the more portable sibling.
• /usr/share/doc/evolver/examples/ — this folder has sample material, mainly datafiles and command-files, for the Surface Evolver. go play, bestie 🌸

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🧚 AUTHOR 🧚

Ken Brakke <brakke@susqu.edu> wrote the core part of the Surface Evolver and currently maintains it. and this man page was written for Debian by Jerome Benoit <calculus@rezozer.net>. two legends, honestly 🫶

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🙈 REPORTING BUGS 🙈

found a bug? report bugs to Ken Brakke <brakke@susqu.edu>. be nice, be specific, be brave.

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⭐ COPYRIGHT ⭐

Copyright © 1989-2016 Ken Brakke <brakke@susqu.edu>

give credit where it's due, always 💅

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💀 SEE ALSO 💀

the complete manual for the Surface Evolver is available in PDF format in the documentation folder as /usr/share/doc/evolver/manual.pdf.

also go say hi to: geomview(1), polymerge(1), anytooff(1), oogl(5), readline(3)

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! 💖 this one's a Debian joint, dated August 2025, and it's the Debian build of the EVOLVER-OGL-D page. go minimize some energy, you've got this 🦋✨🎀