/ 
parrot-0.0.13
/ Parrot

NAME

Parrot - running

VERSION

0.0.1 initial
0.0.9.10 changed run options
0.0.9.12 changed debug options
0.0.10.0 imcc is parrot
0.0.10.1 add -E switch
0.0.11 added runtime options

OVERVIEW

This document describes parrot's command line options.

SYNOPSIS

parrot [-options] <file> [arguments ...]

OPTIONS

Assembler options

-a, --pasm

Assume PASM input on stdin.

-c, --pbc

Assume PBC file on stdin, run it.

-d, --debug [hexbits]

The -d switch takes an optional argument which is considered to hold a hex value of debug bits. Without a value, debug is set to 1.

The individual bits are:

DEBUG_PARROT         0001
DEBUG_LEXER          0002
DEBUG_PARSER         0004
DEBUG_IMC            0008
DEBUG_CFG            0010
DEBUG_OPT1           0020
DEBUG_OPT2           0040
DEBUG_PBC            1000
DEBUG_PBC_CONST      2000
DEBUG_PBC_FIXUP      4000

To produce really huge output on stderr run "imcc -d 0ffff ...". Note: if the argument is separated by whitespace from the -d switch, it has to start with a number.

-h, --help
-o outputfile, --output=outputfile

Act like assembler. Don't run code, unless -r is given too. If the outputfile ends with .pbc, a PBC file is written. If it ends with .pasm, a PASM output is generated, even from PASM input. This can be handy to check various optimizations, including -Op.

--output-pbc

Act like assembler, but always output a bytecode even though the outputfile does not end in .pbc

-r, --run-pbc

Only useful after -o or --output-pbc. Run the program from the compiled in-memory image. If two -r options are given, the .pbc file is read from disc and run. This is mainly needed for tests.

-v, --verbose

One -v shows which files are worked on and prints a summary over register usage and optimization stats per compilation unit. With two -v switches, IMCC prints a line per individual processing step too.

-y, --yydebug

Turn on yydebug in yacc/bison.

-V, --version
-Ox

Optimize

-O0 no optimization (default)
-O1 optimizations w/o life info (e.g. branches)
-O  same
-O2 optimizations with life info
-Op rewrite I and N PASM registers most used first
-Ot select fastest run core (default with -O1 and -O2)

This will probably change.

-E, --pre-process-only

Preprocess source file (i.e. expand macros) and print result to stdout. E.g.

$ parrot -E t/op/macro_10.pasm
$ parrot -E t/op/macro_10.pasm | parrot -- -

Run Core Options

-b, --bounds-checks, --slow-core

Select the bounds-checking slow clore.

-C, --CGP-core

Select the CGP (CGoto Predereferenced) core.

-f, --fast-core

Select the fast (or function) core.

-g, --computed-goto-core

Select the CGoto core.

-j, --jit-core

Run with the JIT subsystem.

-p, --profile

Run with the slow core and do print an execution profile.

-P, --predereferenced-core

Prederefernce opcode function arguments on the fly.

-t, --trace

Run with the slow core and do print trace information to stderr.

VM Options

-w, --warnings

Turn on warnings.

--gc-debug

Turn on GC (Garbage Collection) debugging. This imposes some stress on the GC subsystem and can slow down execution considerably.

-G, --no-gc

This turns of DOD (Dead Object Detection) and GC. This may be useful to find GC related bugs. DOn't use this option for longer running programs, this will exhaust memory quickly, as it isn't recycled.

--leak-test, --destroy-at-end

Free all memory of the last interpreter, so that leak checkers can be run.

-., --wait

Read a keystroke before starting.

<file>

If the file ends in .pbc it will be interpreted immediately.

If the file ends in .pasm, then it is parsed as PASM code. Otherwise, it is parsed as PIR code. In both cases, it will then be run, unless the -o flag was given. If the file is a single dash, input from stdin is read.

Generated files

If debugging is enabled these files are generated:

file.stabs.s ... stabsfile for the program
file.o ... object file with debug information
EVAL_n ... source of B<compile> op nr. I<n>
EVAL_n.stabs.s ... stabsfile for this block
EVAL_n.o ... object file with debug information

[arguments ...]

Optional arguments passed to the running program as ARGV, only useful for running the program.

Operation table

Command line		Action		Output
---------------------------------------------
parrot x.imc		run
parrot x.pasm		run
parrot x.pbc		run
-o x.pasm x.imc	ass		x.pasm
-o x.pasm y.pasm	ass		x.pasm
-o x.pbc  x.imc	ass		x.pbc
-o x.pbc  x.pasm	ass		x.pbc
-o x.pbc -r x.pasm	ass/run pasm	x.pbc
-o x.pbc -r -r x.pasm	ass/run pbc	x.pbc
-o x.o    x.pbc        obj

Actions above are:

run ... yes run the program
ass ... assemble sourcefile
obj ..  produce native (ELF) object file for the EXEC subsystem

BUGS

Yes.

FILES

main.c

AUTHOR

Leopold Toetsch <lt@toetsch.at>