Starting from a command line

To start your product from the command line, change to the directory where your image--the abt.icx file--is located. To start VA Smalltalk, type abt.

To prevent your product from hanging a UNIX command session, you can type abt& instead. The above commands use the image file named abt.icx by default.

Command line arguments

You can specify a number of command line arguments that change the behavior of the product. These arguments are entered on the command line following one of the starting commands, and separated by a space. The following list explains the command line arguments:

Argument

Result

-iIMAGENAME

This option causes the image named IMAGENAME to start, instead of the default image named abt.icx.

-lCON or -l con

This option redirects output to the console.

-lFILENAME

On Windows, this option causes terminal (TTY) output to be logged to the file FILENAME. The default is not to log TTY output. If -l is entered without a file name, the output goes to the file ESVMLOG.

On UNIX systems, use redirection of stdout and stderr instead of –l. For example, use > ESVMLOG 2>&1 to log to file ESVMLOG.

-ini:FILENAME

This option specifies the .ini file to be used with the image or executable, overriding the usual search mechanism for finding the .ini file associated with the image or executable.

-maiXXXX

This option sets the initial adaptive tenure age of objects. This will fluctuate (i.e. adapt) based on allocation rates during runtime. Valid values are between 1 and 14. The default adaptive tenure age is 10.

-mahXXXX

Upper limit of newspace, as a percentage, required for adaptive tenure age decreases. This encourages tenuring if the newspace remains relatively full after each scavenge. Valid values are between 0 and 100. The default upper limit is 30

-malXXXX

Lower limit of newspace, as a percentage, required for adaptive tenure age increases. This discourages early tenuring if the newspace is relatively empty after each scavenge. Valid values are between 0 and 100. The default lower limit is 10

-mcXXXX

This option sets the size (in bytes) of the dynamic translation code cache. Use -mcd to disable dynamic translation for the session. Any size less than 262144 will also disable dynamic translation. The default code cache size is 2000000. This option applies only to the current session; the -mc value is not saved in the image.

-mexp

This option disables the VA Smalltalk exception handlers. All signals or exceptions are passed to the next handler. This option is intended for debugging use only. In some situations, using this option will cause your operating system to generate a core or dump file which can be useful for debugging certain types of problems.

-mfXXXX

This option sets the size of fixed space to be XXXX bytes in size. The default is the size of the fixed space in the image when it was saved. In a newly packaged image, the default size is the actual byte size required by the image, plus a small amount.

-miXXXX

This option sets the segment increment for allocation from the operating system to be XXXX bytes in size. When the executable is out of memory, a new segment of XXXX bytes is allocated from the operating system. The default allocation size is 2048K.

-mlXXXX

This option sets the minimum size of free memory after a global garbage collection to be XXXX bytes in size. The garbage collector uses this value to determine if it needs to allocate additional memory or return memory to the operating system. You use this option to specify a minimum amount of oldspace to remain free after a global garbage collection, and thus defer a garbage collection. The default minimum size is 500K.

-mnXXXX

This option sets the size of new space to be XXXX bytes in size. The default is the size of the new space in the image when it was saved. In a newly packaged image, the default size is 256K.

-msd

This option disables memory sharing in ICs. The memory footprint will be larger when running multiple images using ICs, but any problems associated with shared memory will be bypassed.

-moXXXX

This option sets the size of the largest old space to be XXXX bytes in size. The default is the size of the old space in the image when it was saved. In a newly packaged image, the default size is the actual byte size required by the image.

-mxXXXX

This option sets the maximum memory that can be allocated by the executable for object memory. The default is unlimited. If you set this option, the executable will stop requesting more memory from the operating system when memory allocation exceeds XXXX bytes. To completely disable dynamic memory allocation, you can specify -mx1.

-no_break

For Windows and UNIX systems, a User Break button is placed on the screen to provide the Ctrl+Break feature. This feature uses a process that signals Smalltalk when a break occurs. This dual process architecture may result in difficulty debugging applications using low-level debuggers such as adb or dbx. Using the -no_break option will cancel the process creation and allow normal debugging. If you disable the User Break button, you can still stop the product by using Ctrl+C from the xterm window that started the product.

-nosplash

This option keeps the splash screen from displaying when you start up an image on Windows.

-r

This option provides support for certain runtime optimizations. Specifying -r alone is the same as specifying -ra, -rc, -rf, and -rm. These 4 options are generally used in combination with the -seFILENAME option when creating a runtime executable file from ICs.

-ra

Discard application and category information

-rc

Discard category information

-rd

Create a fatalerr.img file containing the image contents on all fatal errors except EsPrimErrExitDueToStackDump, EsPrimErrGPF, EsPrimErrGPFInvalidRead, EsPrimErrGPFInvalidWrite, and EsPrimErrGPFInvalidInstruction

-rf

Discard filepointer information

-rm

Discard method class and selector information

-singleinstance

On Windows, the -singleinstance option specifies that only a single instance of the associated executable can be running at the same time. Thus, specifying this option when you start the VA Smalltalk product executable abt.exe runs one instance of abt.exe and prevents you from running another instance of abt.exe at the same time.

-v

This option may produce more verbose output in the log file or on the console when a startup error occurs.

-wc:wsistart.cfg

This option provides a way to rename the abt.ini file which is used to initialize the image during startup. The items in the ini file have the same structure as the abt.ini file

For a discussion of the terms new space, old space, and fixed space, see Types of memory space that you can monitor.