Install Now
clisp - ANSI[38] Common Lisp[1] compiler, interpreter and debugger.
Contents
Bugs
When you encounter a bug in CLISP[6] or in its documentation (this manual page or CLISP impnotes), please
report it to the CLISP[6] SourceForgebugtracker[56]. Login, either to your SourceForge[57] account, or
to your OpenID[58] account. Then click the "Create Ticket" link on the left-hand side.
Before submitting a bug report, please take the following basic steps to make the report more useful:
1. Unless your bug is locale-specific, please set your locale to en. You cannot assume that CLISP[6]
maintainers understand a language other than English[59], even though, historically, few CLISP[6]
maintainers spoke English natively.
2. Do a clean build (remove your build directory and build CLISP[6] with ./configure--cbcxbuild or at
least do a makedistclean before make).
3. If you are reporting a “hard crash” (segmentation fault, bus error, core dump etc), please do
./configure--with-debug--cbcxbuild-g;cdbuild-g;gdblisp.run, then load the appropriate linking
set by either base or fullgdb[60] command, and report the backtrace (see also Q: A.1.1.10).
4. If you are using pre-built binaries and experience a hard crash, the problem is likely to be in the
incompatibilities between the platform on which the binary was built and yours; please try compiling
the sources and report the problem if it persists.
When submitting a bug report, please specify the following information:
1. What is your platform (uname-a on a UNIX[42] system)?
2. Please supply the full output (copy and paste) of all the error messages.
3. Please provide detailed instructions on how to reproduce the problem.
4. Where did you get the CLISP[6] sources or binaries? When? (Absolute dates, e.g., “2006-01-17”, are
preferred over the relative ones, e.g., “2 days ago”. If you are using Git[61], please supply the
output of gitrev-list--max-count=1HEAD).
5. If you are reporting a build failure:
1. What is your compiler version?
2. What is your GNU[8] libc[62] version (on GNU[8]/Linux[63])?
3. What is the version of each of the DEPENDENCIES (file in the CLISP sources)?
4. How did you run configure (file in the CLISP sources)? We need the options you used as well as
the values of the environmentvariable[12]s
CCCFLAGSCPPFLAGSLDFLAFSLD_LIBRARY_PATH
.
5. Please attach all build logs.
6. If you have a working CLISP[6], please supply the output of clisp--versionCommand Line User Environment
help
get context-sensitive on-line help, see Chapter 25, Environment chap-25.
(APROPOSname)
list the SYMBOL[41]s matching name.
(DESCRIBEsymbol)
describe the symbol.
(exit)
(quit)
(bye)
quit CLISP[6].
EOF (Control+D on UNIX[42])
leave the current level of the read-eval-printloop[2] (see also Section 1.1, “Special Symbols
sec_1-4-1-3”).
arrow keys
for editing and viewing the input history, using the GNU[8] readline[26] library.
TAB key
Context sensitive:
• If you are in the “function position” (in the first symbol after an opening paren or in the first
symbol after a #'[44]), the completion is limited to the symbols that name functions.
• If you are in the "filename position" (inside a string after #P[45]), the completion is done
across file names, GNU[8] bash[46]-style.
• If you have not typed anything yet, you will get a help message, as if by the help command.
• If you have not started typing the next symbol (i.e., you are at a whitespace), the current
function or macro is DESCRIBEd.
• Otherwise, the symbol you are currently typing is completed.
Copyright
Copyright © 1992-2024 Bruno Haible
Copyright © 1998-2018 Sam Steingold
Description
Invokes the CommonLisp[1] interpreter and compiler.
InteractiveMode
When called without batch arguments, executes the read-eval-printloop[2], in which expressions are in
turn
• READ[3] from the standard input,
• EVAL[4]uated by the lisp interpreter,
• and their results are PRINT[5]ed to the standard output.
Non-Interactive(Batch)Mode
Invoked with -c, compiles the specified lisp files to a platform-independent bytecode which can be
executed more efficiently.
Invoked with -x, executes the specified lisp expressions.
Invoked with lisp-file, runs the specified lisp file.
Batch mode activates the -q option.
Environment
All environmentvariable[12]s that CLISP[6] uses are read at most once.
CLISP_LANGUAGE
specifies the language CLISP[6] uses to communicate with the user. The legal values are identical to
those of the -L option which can be used to override this environmentvariable[12].
LC_CTYPE
specifies the locale which determines the character set in use. The value can be of the form language
or language_country or language_country.charset, where language is a two-letter ISO 639 language code
(lower case), country is a two-letter ISO 3166 country code (upper case). charset is an optional
character set specification, and needs normally not be given because the character set can be
inferred from the language and country. This environmentvariable[12] can be overridden with the
-Edomainencoding option.
LANG
specifies the language CLISP[6] uses to communicate with the user, unless it is already specified
through the environmentvariable[12] CLISP_LANGUAGE or the -L option. It also specifies the locale
determining the character set in use, unless already specified through the environmentvariable[12]
LC_CTYPE. The value may begin with a two-letter ISO 639 language code, for example en, de, fr.
HOMEUSER
used for determining the value of the function USER-HOMEDIR-PATHNAME[34].
SHELLCOMSPEC
is used to find the interactive command interpreter called by EXT:SHELL.
TERM
determines the screen size recognized by the pretty printer.
ORGANIZATION
for SHORT-SITE-NAME[53] and LONG-SITE-NAME[53] in config.lisp.
CLHSROOT
for CUSTOM:CLHS-ROOT in config.lisp.
IMPNOTES
for CUSTOM:IMPNOTES-ROOT in config.lisp.
EDITOR
for editor-name in config.lisp.
LOGICAL_HOST_host_FROMLOGICAL_HOST_host_TOLOGICAL_HOST_host
for CUSTOM:*LOAD-LOGICAL-PATHNAME-TRANSLATIONS-DATABASE*Files
clispclisp.exe
startup driver (an executable or, rarely, a shell script) which remembers the location of the runtime
and starts it with the appropriate arguments
lisp.run
lisp.exe
main executable (runtime) - the part of CLISP[6] implemented in C[52].
lispinit.mem
initial memory image (the part of CLISP[6] implemented in lisp)
config.lisp
site-dependent configuration (should have been customized before CLISP[6] was built); see
Section 31.12, “Customizing CLISP behavior”
*.lisp
lisp source
*.fas
lisp code, compiled by CLISP[6]
*.lib
lisp source library information, generated by COMPILE-FILE, see Section 24.3, “Function REQUIRE”.
*.c
C code, compiled from lisp source by CLISP[6] (see Section 32.3, “The Foreign Function Call
Facility”)
For the CLISP[6] source files, see Chapter 34, The source files of CLISP.
Input And Outut
See Section 21.1.1, “Initialization of Standard Streams”.
Language Reference
The language implemented is ANSI[39][38] CommonLisp[1]. The implementation mostly conforms to the ANSI
Common Lisp standard, see Section 31.10, “Maximum ANSI CL compliance”. [ANSI CL] ANSI CL standard1994.
ANSI[40] INCITS 226-1994 (R1999)
Information Technology - Programming Language - Common Lisp
[formerly ANSI X3.226-1994 (R1999)].
Name
clisp - ANSI[38] CommonLisp[1] compiler, interpreter and debugger.
Notes
1. CommonLisp
https://common-lisp.net
2. read-eval-print loop
[set $man.base.url.for.relative.links]/sec_25-1-1
3. READhttp://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/fun_readcm_re_g-whitespace.html
4. EVALhttp://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/fun_eval.html
5. PRINThttp://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/fun_writecm_p_rintcm_princ.html
6. CLISPhttp://clisp.org
7. LISP-IMPLEMENTATION-VERSIONhttp://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/fun_lisp-impl_tion-version.html
8. GNU
https://www.gnu.org
9. GPL
https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
10. SYMBOL-MACRO
[set $man.base.url.for.relative.links]/mac_define-symbol-macro
11. gziphttp://www.gzip.org/
12. environment variable
[set $man.base.url.for.relative.links]/basedefs/V1_chap08.html
13. *LOAD-VERBOSE*http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/var_stload-pr_ad-verbosest.html
14. *COMPILE-VERBOSE*http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/var_stcompile_le-verbosest.html
15. Thttp://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/convar_t.html
16. NILhttp://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/convar_nil.html
17. continuable
[set $man.base.url.for.relative.links]/clhs/glo
18. ERROR
http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/contyp_error.html
19. WARNING
http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/contyp_warning.html
20. INVOKE-DEBUGGERhttp://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/fun_invoke-debugger.html
21. ABORThttp://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/fun_abortcm_c_cm_use-value.html
22. SIGNALhttp://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/fun_signal.html
23. Emacs
https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/
24. SLIME
https://common-lisp.net/project/slime/
25. ILISP
https://sourceforge.net/projects/ilisp/
26. readline
http://tiswww.case.edu/php/chet/readline/readline.html
27. ASCII
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII
28. *PACKAGE*http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/var_stpackagest.html
29. *PRINT-CASE*http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/var_stprint-casest.html
30. “COMMON-LISP-USER”
[set $man.base.url.for.relative.links]/sec_11-1-2-2
31. LOADhttp://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/fun_load.html
32. COMPILEhttp://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/fun_compile.html
33. “run
control” (RC)
http://www.faqs.org/docs/artu/ch10s03.html
34. USER-HOMEDIR-PATHNAMEhttp://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/fun_user-homedir-pathname.html
35. DISASSEMBLEhttp://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/fun_disassemble.html
36. *STANDARD-OUTPUT*http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/var_stdebug-i_ace-outputst.html
37. LIST
http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/syscla_list.html
38. ANSI
https://www.ansi.org/
39. The American National Standards Institute
40. ANSI
https://webstore.ansi.org
41. SYMBOL
http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/syscla_symbol.html
42. UNIXhttp://www.unix.org/online.html
43. Win32
https://winehq.org/
44. #'
[set $man.base.url.for.relative.links]/sec_2-4-8-2
45. #P
[set $man.base.url.for.relative.links]/sec_2-4-8-14
46. bash
https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/
47. John Foderaro
http://www.franz.com/~jkf/
48. DEFVARhttp://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/mac_defparametercm_defvar.html
49. DEFUNhttp://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/mac_defun.html
50. DEFMACROhttp://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/mac_defmacro.html
51. COMPILE-FILEhttp://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/fun_compile-file.html
52. Chttp://c-faq.com/
53. SHORT-SITE-NAMEhttp://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/fun_short-sit_ng-site-name.html
54. CMUCL
https://www.cons.org/cmucl/
55. SBCLhttp://www.sbcl.org/
56. SourceForge bug tracker
https://sourceforge.net/p/clisp/bugs/
57. SourceForge
https://sourceforge.net
58. OpenID
http://openid.net/
59. English
http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html#skills4
60. gdb
https://www.sourceware.org/gdb/
61. Git
https://git-scm.com/
62. libc
https://www.gnu.org/software/libc/
63. Linux
https://www.kernel.org/
64. VIM
https://www.vim.org
CLISP 2.49.95+ Last modified: 2024-11-09 CLISP(1)
Options
-h--help
Displays a help message on how to invoke CLISP[6].
--version
Displays the CLISP[6] version number, as given by the function LISP-IMPLEMENTATION-VERSION[7], the
value of the variable *FEATURES*, as well some other information.
--license
Displays a summary of the licensing information, the GNU[8] GPL[9].
-help-image
Displays information about the memory image being invoked: whether is it suitable for scripting as
well as the :DOCUMENTATION supplied to EXT:SAVEINITMEM.
-Blisp-lib-dir
Specifies the installation directory. This is the directory containing the linking sets and other
data files. This option is normally not necessary, because the installation directory is already
built-in into the clisp executable. Directory lisp-lib-dir can be changed dynamically using the
SYMBOL-MACRO[10] CUSTOM:*LIB-DIRECTORY*.
-b
Print the installation directory and exit immediately. The namestring of CUSTOM:*LIB-DIRECTORY* is
printed without any quotes. This is mostly useful in module Makefiles, see, e.g.,
modules/syscalls/Makefile.in (file in the CLISP sources).
-Klinking-set
Specifies the linking set to be run. This is a directory (relative to the lisp-lib-dir) containing at
least a main executable (runtime) and an initial memory image. Possible values are
base
the core CLISP[6]
full
core plus all the modules with which this installation was built, see Section 32.2, “External
Modules”.
The default is base.
-Mmem-file
Specifies the initial memory image. This must be a memory dump produced by the EXT:SAVEINITMEM
function by this clisp runtime. It may have been compressed using GNU[8] gzip[11].
-mmemory-size
Sets the amount of memory CLISP[6] tries to grab on startup. The amount may be given as
nnB
measured in bytes
nnW
measured in machine words (4×n on 32-bit platforms, 8×n on 64-bit platforms)
nKnKB
measured in kilobytes
nKW
measured in kilowords
nMnMB
measured in megabytes
nMW
measured in megawords
The default is 3 megabytes. The argument is constrained above 100 KB.
This version of CLISP[6] eventually uses the entire memory-size.
-Llanguage
Specifies the language CLISP[6] uses to communicate with the user. This may be one of english,
german, french, spanish, dutch, russian, danish. Other languages may be specified through the
environmentvariable[12] LANG, provided the corresponding message catalog is installed. The language
may be changed dynamically using the SYMBOL-MACRO[10] CUSTOM:*CURRENT-LANGUAGE*.
-Nlocale-dir
Specifies the base directory of locale files. CLISP[6] will search its message catalogs in
locale-dir/language/LC_MESSAGES/clisp.mo. This directory may be changed dynamically using the
SYMBOL-MACRO[10] CUSTOM:*CURRENT-LANGUAGE*.
-Edomainencoding
Specifies the encoding used for the given domain, overriding the default which depends on the
environmentvariable[12]s LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LANG. domain can be
file
affecting CUSTOM:*DEFAULT-FILE-ENCODING*pathname
affecting CUSTOM:*PATHNAME-ENCODING*terminal
affecting CUSTOM:*TERMINAL-ENCODING*foreign
affecting CUSTOM:*FOREIGN-ENCODING*misc
affecting CUSTOM:*MISC-ENCODING*blank
affecting all of the above.
Warning
Note that the values of these SYMBOL-MACRO[10]s that have been saved in a memory image are
ignored: these SYMBOL-MACRO[10]s are reset based on the OS environment after the memory image is
loaded. You have to use the RC file, CUSTOM:*INIT-HOOKS* or init function to set them on startup,
but it is best to set the aforementioned environmentvariable[12]s appropriately for consistency
with other programs. See Section 31.1, “Customizing CLISP Process Initialization and
Termination”.
-q--quiet--silent-v--verbose
Change verbosity level: by default, CLISP[6] displays a banner at startup and a good-bye message when
quitting, and initializes *LOAD-VERBOSE*[13] and *COMPILE-VERBOSE*[14] to T[15], and *LOAD-PRINT*[13]
and *COMPILE-PRINT*[14] to NIL[16], as per [ANSI CL standard]. The first -q removes the banner and
the good-bye message, the second sets variables *LOAD-VERBOSE*[13], *COMPILE-VERBOSE*[14] and
CUSTOM:*SAVEINITMEM-VERBOSE* to NIL[16]. The first -v sets variables
CUSTOM:*REPORT-ERROR-PRINT-BACKTRACE*, *LOAD-PRINT*[13] and *COMPILE-PRINT*[14] to T[15], the second
sets CUSTOM:*LOAD-ECHO* to T[15]. These settings affect the output produced by -i and -c options.
Note that these settings persist into the read-eval-printloop[2]. Repeated -q and -v cancel each
other, e.g., -q-q-v-v-v is equivalent to -v.
-on-erroraction
Establish global error handlers, depending on action:
appease
continuable[17] ERROR[18]s are turned into WARNING[19]s (with EXT:APPEASE-CERRORS) other
ERROR[18]s are handled in the default way
debug
ERROR[18]s INVOKE-DEBUGGER[20] (the normal read-eval-printloop[2] behavior), disables batch mode
imposed by -c, -x, and lisp-file,
abort
continuable[17] ERROR[18]s are appeased, other ERROR[18]s are ABORT[21]ed with EXT:ABORT-ON-ERROR
exit
continuable[17] ERROR[18]s are appeased, other ERROR[18]s terminate CLISP[6] with
EXT:EXIT-ON-ERROR (the normal batch mode behavior).
See also EXT:SET-GLOBAL-HANDLER.
-repl
Start an interactive read-eval-printloop[2] after processing the -c, -x, and lisp-file options and
on any ERROR[18] SIGNAL[22]ed during that processing.
Disables batch mode.
-w
Wait for a keypress after program termination.
-I
Interact better with Emacs[23] (useful when running CLISP[6] under Emacs[23] using SLIME[24],
ILISP[25] et al). With this option, CLISP[6] interacts in a way that Emacs[23] can deal with:
• unnecessary prompts are not suppressed.
• The GNU[8] readline[26] library treats TAB (see TAB key) as a normal self-inserting character
(see Q: A.4.6).
-disable-readline
Do not use GNU[8] readline[26] even when it has been linked against. This can be used if one wants to
paste non-ASCII[27] characters, or when GNU[8] readline[26] misbehaves due to installation (different
versions on the build and install machines) or setup (bad TERMenvironmentvariable[12] value)
issues.
-ansi
Comply with the [ANSI CL standard] specification even where CLISP[6] has been traditionally different
by setting the SYMBOL-MACRO[10] CUSTOM:*ANSI* to T[15].
-traditional
Traditional: reverses the residual effects of -ansi in the saved memory image.
-modern
Provides a modern view of symbols: at startup the *PACKAGE*[28] variable will be set to the
“CS-COMMON-LISP-USER” package, and the *PRINT-CASE*[29] will be set to :DOWNCASE. This has the effect
that symbol lookup is case-sensitive (except for keywords and old-style packages) and that keywords
and uninterned symbols are printed with lower-case preferrence. See Section 11.5, “Package Case-
Sensitivity”.
-ppackage
At startup the value of the variable *PACKAGE*[28] will be set to the package named package. The
default is the value of *PACKAGE*[28] when the image was saved, normally “COMMON-LISP-USER”[30].
-C
Compile when loading: at startup the value of the variable CUSTOM:*LOAD-COMPILING* will be set to
T[15]. Code being LOAD[31]ed will then be COMPILE[32]d on the fly. This results in slower loading,
but faster execution.
-norc
Normally CLISP[6] loads the user “runcontrol”(RC)[33] file on startup (this happens after the -C
option is processed). The file loaded is .clisprc.lisp or .clisprc.fas in the home directory
USER-HOMEDIR-PATHNAME[34], whichever is newer. This option, -norc, prevents loading of the RC file.
-lpdirectory
Specifies directories to be added to CUSTOM:*LOAD-PATHS* at startup. This is done after loading the
RC file (so that it does not override the command-line option) but before loading the init-files
specified by the -i options (so that the init-files will be searched for in the specified
directories). Several -lp options can be given; all the specified directories will be added.
-iinit-file
Specifies initialization files to be LOAD[31]ed at startup. These should be lisp files (source or
compiled). Several -i options can be given; all the specified files will be loaded in order.
-clisp-file
Compiles the specified lisp-files to bytecode (*.fas). The compiled files can then be LOAD[31]ed
instead of the sources to gain efficiency.
Imposes batch mode.
-ooutputfile
Specifies the output file or directory for the compilation of the last specified lisp-file.
-l
Produce a bytecode DISASSEMBLE[35] listing (*.lis) of the files being compiled. Useful only for
debugging. See Section 24.1, “Function COMPILE-FILE” for details.
-xexpressions
Executes a series of arbitrary expressions instead of a read-eval-printloop[2]. The values of the
expressions will be output to *STANDARD-OUTPUT*[36]. Due to the argument processing done by the
shell, the expressions must be enclosed in double quotes, and double quotes and backslashes must be
escaped with backslashes.
Imposes batch mode.
lisp-file [ argument ... ]
Loads and executes a lisp-file, as described in Section 32.6.2, “Scripting with CLISP”. There will be
no read-eval-printloop[2]. Before lisp-file is loaded, the variable EXT:*ARGS* will be bound to a
list of strings, representing the arguments. The first line of lisp-file may start with #!, thus
permitting CLISP[6] to be used as a script interpreter. If lisp-file is -, the *STANDARD-INPUT*[36]
is used instead of a file.
This option is disabled if the memory image was created by EXT:SAVEINITMEM with NIL[16] :SCRIPT
argument. In that case the LIST[37] EXT:*ARGS* starts with lisp-file.
This option must be the last one.
No RC file will be executed.
Imposes batch mode.
As usual, -- stops option processing and places all remaining command line arguments into EXT:*ARGS*.
Projects
• Enhance the compiler so that it can inline local functions.
• Embed CLISP[6] in VIM[64].
See Also
CLISP impnotes
clisp-link(1)
CMUCL[54] - cmucl(1)
SBCL[55] - sbcl(1)
Emacs[23] - emacs(1)
Synopsis
clisp [[-h] | [--help]] [--version] [--license] [-help-image] [-Blisp-lib-dir] [-b] [-Klinking-set]
[-Mmem-file] [-mmemory-size] [-Llanguage] [-Nlocale-dir] [-Edomainencoding] [[-q] | [--quiet]
| [--silent] | [-v] | [--verbose]] [-on-erroraction] [-repl] [-w] [-I] [-disable-readline]
[[-ansi] | [-traditional]] [-modern] [-ppackage] [-C] [-norc] [-lpdirectory...] [-iinit-file...]
[-c [-l] lisp-file [-ooutput-file]...] [-xexpressions...] [lisp-file [argument...]]
Using And Extending Clisp
CommonLisp[1] is a programmable programming language. —JohnFoderaro[47]
When CLISP[6] is invoked, the runtime loads the initial memory image and outputs the prompt; at which one
can start typing DEFVAR[48]s, DEFUN[49]s and DEFMACRO[50]s.
To avoid having to re-enter the same definitions by hand in every session, one can create a lisp file
with all the variables, functions, macros, etc.; (optionally) compile it with COMPILE-FILE[51]; and
LOAD[31] it either by hand or from the RC file; or save a memory image to avoid the LOAD[31] overhead.
However, sometimes one needs to use some functionality implemented in another language, e.g., call a
C[52] library function. For that one uses the Foreign Function Interface and/or the External Modules
facility. Finally, the truly adventurous ones might delve into Extending the Core.
PNG Icons
