LISP(1)

📦 version 21d, in nixpkgs unstable

💖 NAME 💖

okay so this is LISP(1), straight outta the General Commands Manual — and it's giving CMU Common Lisp main character energy ✨

lisp — the CMU Common Lisp programming environment 🫶

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

lisp [input-files] [switch-list]

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

lisp starts up CMU Common Lisp. If switch-list is empty, then Lisp will enter a read-eval-print loop using stdin, stdout and stderr. The optional input-files provide operands for some switches. These switches are defined:

  • -help — prints out the command line options and exits 💅
  • --help — same as -help.
  • -core filename — specifies the suspended Lisp image (or core file) to start up.
  • -lib libpath — a colon-separated list of directories to be used for the library: search-list.
  • -batch — causes Lisp to run in batch mode, where all input is directed from standard-input. A unix return code of 0 is returned upon encountering an EOF, while any unhandled error condition will cause an immediate exit with a return code of 1, instead of entering the debugger.
  • -quiet — causes Lisp to start up silently, disabling printing of the herald, and causing most unnecessary noise, like GC messages, load messages, etc. to be suppressed.
  • -dynamic-space-size — requires an argument that should be the number of megabytes (1048576 bytes) that should be allocated to the heap. If not specified, a platform-specific default is used. The actual maximum allowed heap size is platform-specific.
  • -read-only-space-size — requires an argument that should be the number of megabytes (1048576 bytes) that should be allocated to the read-only space. If not specified, a platform-specific default is used.
  • -static-space-size — requires an argument that should be the number of megabytes (1048576 bytes) that should be allocated to the static-space. If not specified, a platform-specific default is used. The actual maximum allowed heap size is platform-specific.
  • -control-stack-size — requires an argument that should be the number of megabytes (1048576 bytes) that should be allocated for the control stack. If not specified, a platform-specific default is used. The actual maximum allowed heap size is platform-specific.
  • -binding-stack-size — requires an argument that should be the number of megabytes (1048576 bytes) that should be allocated for the binding stack. If not specified, a platform-specific default is used. The actual maximum allowed heap size is platform-specific.
  • -edit — causes Lisp to enter the Hemlock editor. A file to edit may be specified by placing the name of the file between the program name (usually lisp) and the first switch.
  • -eval expression — evaluates the specified Lisp expression during the start up sequence. The value of the form will not be printed unless it is wrapped in a form that does output.
  • -init filename — specifies the name of a file containing user customizations that is to be loaded each time Lisp starts up (default ~/init or ~/.cmucl-init). The loader loads any existing compiled binary, or the .lisp source if none.
  • -hinit filename — similar to -init, but specifies the name of the Hemlock init file (default ~/hemlock-init or ~/.hemlock-init), which is loaded only when Hemlock is started.
  • -noinit — suppresses loading of the init file, and also prevents -edit from loading the Hemlock init file.
  • -nositeinit — suppresses loading of the site-init site specific initialization file.
  • -load filename — loads the specified file into Lisp before entering Lisp's read-eval-print loop.
  • -slave editor-name — specifies that Lisp should start up as a slave Lisp and try to connect to an editor Lisp. The name of the editor to connect to must be specified. To find the editor's name, use the Hemlock Accept Slave Connections command. editor-name is of the form machine-name:socket, where machine-name is the internet host name for the machine and socket is the decimal number of the socket to connect to.
  • -debug-lisp-search — enables printing of messages indicating how CMUCL is searching for its core file. This is useful if CMUCL is not finding its core file for some reason.
  • -fpu fpu-mode — this option is only available on x86 systems. This option takes the values x87, sse2, or auto, with auto being the default. With the default value, CMUCL will check to see if the machine running CMUCL supports SSE2 or not. If so, the SSE2 core file is automatically selected and used. If not, the x87 core file is used. With this option, the user can override the detection and select a core. (Note that you cannot run the SSE2 core on a chip that doesn't not have SSE2. But the x87 core can run on any machine.)
  • -- — if this option is given, CMUCL's argument processing is stopped, and anything after -- is placed in EXT:*COMMAND-LINE-APPLICATION-ARGUMENTS*. This allows the application to do its own processing of any special options.

🦋 ENVIRONMENT 🦋

  • CMUCLLIB — this variable points to the lib/ directory holding lisp.core and other files used by Lisp at run-time. This can be overridden by using the -lib commandline option.
  • CMUCLCORE — this variable holds the path to the lisp.core that should be used. This can be overridden by using the -core commandline option.
  • CMUCL_EMPTYFILE — [SunOS only] If df /tmp shows swap as the filesystem for the /tmp directory, then you have a "tmpfs" filesystem. In this case, you must setenv CMUCL_EMPTYFILE to point into a pathname on a non-TMPFS filesystem that can be used instead of /tmp/empty.
  • XKEYSYMDB — in order to use Motif (and the graphical debugger) with X servers from non-OSF vendors (like Sun) you may need to set the environment variable XKEYSYMDB to point to the file lib/XKeysymDB. Otherwise, you will get many error messages every time a new connection is opened to the CMU CL motifd. This file is read by the X11R5 Xt in order to augment the keysym database with certain OSF vendor keysyms that Motif wants to use.

🎀 CORE FILE SEARCHING 🎀

When no core file is specified (either by the CMUCLCORE environment variable or by the -core option), CMUCL will search in various places to find a possible core file.

When the environment variable CMUCLLIB is set or the -lib option is given, the lisp core file is searched in the places specified therein. This is a colon-separated list of directories, just like PATH. This list of directories is searched in order for a file named lisp.core. The first one found will be the core to be used.

When the CMUCLLIB is not set and -lib is not given, a set of default paths is used to initialize the library: search-list, and this list is also used to search for the core file. Let the lisp C executable be located at <bin>/lisp. Then the following directories are searched for the core file:

  • <bin>
  • <bin>/../lib/cmucl/lib
  • <bin>/../lib
  • /usr/local/lib/cmucl/lib

💅 FILES 💅

The following pathnames are specified relative to the directory where CMU CL is installed, e.g. /usr/local.

  • doc/cmucl/* — various postscript and text documentation files.
  • bin/lisp — the lisp startup program. This directory should be in PATH.
  • lib/cmucl/sample-wrapper — an example shell script that sets up the environment and runs lisp. This is not normally needed unless you want some special configuration.
  • lib/cmucl/lib/lisp.core — the suspended Lisp image. But for x86 machines the suspended core is named lisp-x87.core or lisp-sse2.core, depending on whether the x87 or sse2 core is used.
  • lib/cmucl/lib/site-init.lisp,generic-site.lisp — site specific initialization (see README file.) The generic-site.lisp file is a template that can be used to create site-init.lisp. (Note: installation of CMUCL does not create or destroy any site-init.lisp file.)
  • lib/cmucl/lib/lisp.a — an archive file of all of the C runtime code. This is needed when creating an executable image.
  • lib/cmucl/lib/linker.sh,linker-x86.sh — shell scripts to perform the necessary linking to create an executable image.
  • lib/cmucl/lib/hemlock11.*,lib/cmucl/lib/mh-scan,lib/cmucl/lib/spell-dictionary.bin — Hemlock files.
  • lib/cmucl/lib/fonts/ — X11 fonts for Hemlock.
  • lib/cmucl/lib/locale — this directory contains template files for CMUCL messages. Translations of the CMUCL messages are also stored here.
  • lib/cmucl/lib/XKeysymDB — database of X Keysym names for Motif.
  • lib/cmucl/lib/load-foreign.csh — script used by LOAD-FOREIGN to run ld on some platforms.
  • lib/cmucl/lib/contrib — this directory contains contrib modules, including asdf2 and mk-defsystem.
  • lib/cmucl/lib/ext-formats — this directory contains lisp files that implement the various external formats supported by CMUCL.
  • lib/cmucl/lib/subsystems — this directory contains the subsystems for CMUCL. The subsystems include CLX, CLM, Gray streams, Hemlock, and Simple Streams.
  • ~/init.lisp,~/.cmucl-init.lisp — user customization files loaded at lisp startup; either name is acceptable. Init files can be compiled.
  • ~/hemlock-init.lisp,~/.hemlock-init.lisp — Hemlock initialization file, loaded when Hemlock starts.

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

  • cmucl(1), README
  • the “CMU Common Lisp User's Manual”
  • the “Hemlock User's Manual”
  • the “Hemlock Command Implementor's Manual”

💀 BUGS 💀 (yes bestie, we're being honest now)

Okay so like — bugs happen, it's giving "we're all just doing our best." 🫶 If you need support info (and yes, that includes the actual mechanisms for bug reporting), go consult http://www.cons.org/cmucl/support.html. That's the spot. ✨

And a lil PSA before you go off in the group chat: please, please consult your local CMU CL maintainer or Common Lisp expert — if you even have one — to verify that a problem really is a bug before reporting it. Not every weird thing is a bug, sometimes it's just vibes. 😭

🌸 Known problems with this version 🌸

Lowkey the tea on this build, no cap:

  • Detection of stack overflow is not very graceful. Like, she does not slay this. You get many map failure errors on stderr. Many. Not one. Many. 💀
  • If file descriptors are used up, then Lisp will die. Yep. Run out of them and it's over — no dramatic goodbye, she just dies. 🪦
  • Several proposed ANSI Common Lisp (CLtL II) features are not implemented: specifically, any CLOS features not implemented by PCL, and features added since the first ANSI draft. So if you're looking for those, they're not here, bestie. 🙈
  • The interpreter's pre-processing freezes in the macro definitions in effect at the time an interpreted function is defined. So like — the macros it sees at definition time are the ones it keeps. Frozen. Locked in. Iconic but also a whole thing. 🧊
fr fr, read the known problems before you file anything — the maintainer will love you for it and that's the main character energy we want. 👑

mwah 🫶 that's the whole page! This one's the 7th Edition, dated Nov, 2011, and it lives in section LISP(1) of the manual — so go forth, Lisp bestie, and may your stack never overflow gracefully-ish. 💅✨🎀

📦 where this page comes from