KAWA(1)
π KAWA(1) β bestie's guide to kawa π
okay so real talk, this is the quick synopsis version of the man page for kawa, living in your friendly neighborhood General Commands Manual. the full tea is in the kawa manual (see SEE ALSO, i got u π«Ά).
β¨ NAME β¨
kawa β a Scheme language implemented using on a Java VM π
π SYNOPSIS π
kawa [options]
java kawa.repl [options]
π¦ DESCRIPTION π¦
so this page is a brief rundown of the kawa package, which is a Scheme dialect written completely in the Java language. and the way that it works? Scheme forms get compiled into Java bytecodes, because efficiency is the vibe. periodt. β
Scheme is a high-level, non-pure functional language in the Lisp family, with lexical scoping and dynamic typing. (yes bestie, both, it's giving range.) the Kawa dialect of Scheme also has hooks to access and control Java objects, so it's not just pretty, it's powerful π
using the kawa script is literally equivalent to invoking an interpreter of the Java language on the kawa.repl class. same thing, different outfit. π
this manual page is just a quick synopsis β for the real, full lore, read the kawa manual, it's linked below π
β¨ OPTIONS β¨
-eexpression β evaluate the expression. just, like, do the thing. π₯-cexpression β evaluate the expression, but it does not cause the start-up file~/.kawarc.scmto be read. so it's the "don't touch my config" mode π-ffilename β read and evaluate Scheme commands from filename. feed it a file, it eats π-sβ enter an interactive read-evaluate-print command loop. the classic REPL experience, we love her π-wβ enter an interactive read-evaluate-print in a new top-level window. REPL but make it a whole new window β¨-Cfilename β compile filename to one or more Java class files. see the Kawa manual for the details, i'm not gatekeeping but that's where the deets live π
if you specify no options at all, it's equivalent to -s. and GNU readline(3) can normally be used to edit commands, so your arrow keys and history are safe π«Ά
πΈ FILES πΈ
/usr/bin/kawaβ the kawa executable, which starts a java interpreter. the main character π~/.kawarc.scmβ commands that are executed when kawa is started. your lil startup ritual π
π AUTHOR π
Per Bothner <per@bothner.com>. legend behavior, no cap.
π SEE ALSO π
info kawaβ the complete Kawa manual. the full unhinged lore drop πhttp://www.gnu.org/software/kawa/β the kawa home page, based on the same Kawa manual.qexo(1)β an implementation of XQuery using the same engine. sibling energy π§
okay that's the whole page bestie, mwah π this was the KAWA(1) page from the General Commands Manual, page 1 of 1, and that's a wrap β¨π
π¦ where this page comes from
- fedora 43: kawa 1:3.1.1-24.fc43 Β· MIT
- fedora 44: kawa 1:3.1.1-25.fc44 Β· MIT
- nixos 26.05: kawa 3.1.1
- nixpkgs unstable: kawa 3.1.1
- π girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash on : a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms