# Copyright (C) 2011-2012, Parrot Foundation.

=pod

=head1 NAME

parrot - Parrot Virtual Machine

=head1 SYNOPSIS

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

=head1 DESCRIPTION

Parrot is a virtual machine designed to efficiently compile and execute
bytecode for dynamic languages. Parrot currently hosts a variety of language
implementations in various stages of completion, including Tcl, Javascript,
Ruby, Lua, Scheme, PHP, Python, Perl 6, APL, and a .NET bytecode translator.
Parrot is not about parrots, but we are rather fond of them, for obvious
reasons.

=head1 OPTIONS

=over 4

=item B<-h>

=item B<--help>         Print the option summary on the command line.

=item B<-V>

=item B<--version>      Print version information and exit.

=item B<-I>

=item B<--include>      Add C<path> to the include search path.

=item B<-L>

=item B<--library>      Add C<path> to the library search path.

=item B<--hash-seed> [hexnum]

Sets the hash seed to the specified value. This option is useful for debugging intermittent
failures, but should I<not> be used in production.  For more information about this option,
I<see> F<docs/dev/profiling.pod>, F<docs/project/hacking_tips.pod>, F<docs/running.pod>,
and F<docs/submissions.pod>.

=back

=over 11

=item B<-X>

=item B<--dynext>       Add C<path> to the dynamic extension search path.

=back

=head2 Run core options

These options select the runcore, which is useful for performance tuning and debugging.  For more
information about these options, I<see> the "About runcores" section in F<docs/running.pod>.

=over 4

=item B<-R>

=item B<--runcore> [CORE]

Select the runcore. The following cores are available in Parrot, but not all
may be available on your system:

  slow, bounds   bounds checking core (default)

  fast           bare-bones core without bounds-checking or 
                 context-updating

  subprof        subroutine-level profiler 
                 (see POD in 'src/runcore/subprof.c') 

  trace          bounds checking core with trace info 
                 (see 'parrot --help-debug')

  profiling      see 'docs/dev/profilling.pod'

  gcdebug        performs a full GC run before every op dispatch
                 (good for debugging GC problems)

=item B<-p>

=item B<--profile>      Run with the slow core and print an execution profile.

=item B<-t>

=item B<--trace>        Run with the slow core and print trace information to B<stderr>.

I<See> C<parrot --help-debug> for available flag bits.

=back

=head2 VM options

=over 4

=item B<-D>

=item B<--parrot-debug>[=HEXFLAGS] 

Turn on interpreter debug flag.  I<See> C<parrot --help-debug> for available flag bits.

=item B<--help-debug>   Print the summary of debugging and tracing flag bits.

=item B<-w>

=item B<--warnings>     Turn on warnings.

I<See> C<parrot --help-debug> for available flag bits.

=item B<-G>

=item B<--no-gc>        Turn off GC.

This may prove useful for finding GC-related bugs.

=over 11

=item Note:

Do not use this option for longer running programs: since memory is no longer recycled, it may
quickly become exhausted.

=back

=item B<-g>

=item B<--gc> [GC-type]

=back

=head3 GC MS2 options

=over 4

=item B<--gc-dynamic-threshold>=percentage

Maximum memory wasted by GC

=item B<--gc-min-threshold>=Kb

=back

=head3 GC GMS options

=over 4

=item B<--gc-nursery-size>=percent of system

Size of gen0 (default 2)

=item B<--gc-debug>     Turn on GC (Garbage Collection) debugging.

This imposes some stress on the GC subsystem and can considerably slow
down execution.

=item B<--leak-test|--destroy-at-end> 

Free all memory of the last interpreter.  This is useful when running leak
checkers.

=item B<-.>

=item B<--wait>         Read a keystroke before starting.

This is useful when you want to attach a debugger on platforms such as Windows.

=item B<--runtime-prefix>

Print the runtime prefix path and exit.

=back

=head2 Compiler options

=over 4

=item B<-E>

=item B<--pre-process-only>

Preprocess source file (expand macros) and print result to C<stdout>:

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

=item B<-o>

=item B<--output>=FILE  Act like an assembler, but do not execute the code, 

unless the B<-r> is supplied as well. If 'outputfile' ends with F<.pbc>,
'parrot' will write a PBC file. If it ends with F<.pasm>, 'parrot' will output
a PASM file, even from PASM input.

=item B<--output-pbc>   Act like an assembler, but always output bytecode, 

even if the output file does not end in F<.pbc>

=item B<-a>

=item B<--pasm>         Assume PASM input on C<stdin>.

=item B<-c>

=item B<--pbc>          Assume PBC file on C<stdin> and execute it.

NOTE: If whitespace separates the B<-d> switch from the argument, the argument
I<must> start with a number, I<i.e.>, a decimal digit.

=item B<-r>

=item B<--run-pbc>      Only useful after C<-o> or C<--output-pbc>.

Execute the program from the compiled in-memory image. If two C<-r> options are
supplied, the F<.pbc> file is read from disc and executed. This is needed,
primarily, for tests.

=item B<-y>

=item B<--yydebug>      Turn on yydebug in F<yacc>/F<bison>.

=back

=head2 <file>

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

If the file ends in F<.pasm>, then it is parsed as PASM code. Otherwise, it is
parsed as PIR code. In both cases, it will then be executed, unless the C<-o>
flag was supplied.

If the C<file> is a single dash, input from C<stdin> is read.

=head2 [arguments ...]

Optional arguments passed to the running program as ARGV. The program is
assumed to know what to do with the arguments.

=head1 ENVIRONMENT

=over 4

=item PARROT_RUNTIME

If this environment variable is set, parrot will use this path as its runtime
prefix instead of the compiled-in path.  This is useful if you want to execute
a version of parrot different from the one on the "compiled-in" path. 

=item PARROT_GC_DEBUG

Turn on the I<--gc-debug> flag.

=back

=head1 SEE ALSO

'docs/running.pod'           Additional information on command line options.

http://www.parrot.org/       The official Parrot web site.

http://docs.parrot.org/      Parrot's official documentation site.

http://parrot.github.com/    An alternative documentation site.

=head1 REPORTING BUGS

For information on how to submit a bug report, I<see> F<docs/submissions.pod>.

=head1 AUTHORS

Parrot is a product of the contributions of a great many people.  For a list of
most of these people, I<see> F<CREDITS>.

=head1 COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2001-2012, Parrot Foundation.

=cut
