ICON(1)

📦
version 9.5.25a · 2 versions
, in debian trixie, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

🎀 NAME 🎀

icon — execute Icon program ✨

💅 SYNOPSIS 💅

icon sourcefile [ arg ... ]
icon -P 'program' [ arg ... ]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so bestie, icon is literally the simplest lil doorway into running programs written in the Icon programming language. 💖 Here's the tea: your source code gets translated and then linked, and then it actually runs — with whatever list of arguments you handed it. That's the whole vibe. 🫶

🌸 no -P, just vibes (and a file)

Without -P, it reads a single source file. and I mean single, okay? one. 🎀 The name has to be given exactly — like, character for character — and no cap, it does not need to end in .icn. She's flexible like that. 💅

But here's the iconic part: if your sourcefile name is just -, then it reads the source code from standard input. feeding it through the pipe, main character energy. 😭✨

💜 with -P, embed that lil program

With -P, you can tuck a small program right inside a bigger shell script. 🐚 The program argument is a complete Icon program — usually you'd hand it over as a multi-line quoted string. it's giving nesting-doll realness. 🎁

🔇 silent but deadly (in a good way)

Translation and linking? silent. progress messages? suppressed, we don't need them, we're busy. 🙈 And undeclared identifiers do get diagnosed — so she'll tell you when something's undeclared. 👑

fr fr, this mirrors exactly what the icont command does when you run it with the -s and -u options. periodt.

🌈 make your source file go zoom (directly executable)

You can make an Icon source file directly executable by:

  1. setting the appropriate permission bits 🔐
  2. beginning it with a shell header 🐚

And if the first line of the file is this exact line:

#!/usr/bin/env icon

then icon gets found on the command search path and gets called to process the program the moment you execute it. she found herself. she's on PATH. slay. ✨👑

⭐ ENVIRONMENT ⭐

The environment variables described over in icont(1) can also be used with the icon command. 💖 Normally though? none of these are needed. lowkey you can just forget they exist.

One thing though — the directory containing sourcefile is searched first for any $include files. 🫶 so keep your includes cozy and nearby, iykyk.

🎀 SEE ALSO 🎀

🫶 and that's the whole page bestie!! this manual page is brought to you by the fine folks at University of Arizona, dated 4 June 2013. go write something iconic in Icon. literally. 💖✨🎀🦋
📦 where this page comes from