Different execution modes of Scilab

Scilab is available in three modes.

GUI

It is the standard Scilab GUI.

Launch:

scilab

NW / Advanced Command Line Interpreter

Scilab is launched as a command line interpreter, with all features available, including functionalities that open a GUI.

Launch:

scilab -nw

On Linux and MacOS, an alias (symbolic link) is similar to this command:

scilab-adv-cli

NWNI / Command Line Interpreter

Scilab is launched as a command line interpreter, with only the core of Scilab available; in particular, all the functionalities that use a GUI are unavailable, namely:

In this mode, the Java Virtual Machine and the Tcl/Tk libraries are not loaded.

Launch:

scilab -nwni

On Linux and MacOS, an alias (symbolic link) is similar to this command:

scilab-cli

Scripting capabilities

Pipe

It is possible to call Scilab as a processing engine through the classical pipes:

 echo "disp(%pi)"|scilab-adv-cli
 echo "disp(%pi)"|scilab-cli
 echo "disp(%pi)"|scilab -nw
 echo "disp(%pi)"|scilab -nwni

Arguments

Some arguments are available in the Scilab binary:

• -e: Provide a Scilab expression (note that Scilab won't exit itself)

scilab-cli  -e "disp(%pi); exit;" -nb

• -f: Provide a Scilab script file

scilab-adv-cli  -f myCustomScript.sci -nb
1

Arguments + pipe

Even when Scilab is used through a pipe, it is possible to use the arguments. Arguments are processed first.

echo "disp(%pi*2)"|./bin/scilab-cli  -e "disp(%pi)"

As a computing engine

Scilab library can be called from C/C++ or other languages (Java, .net, Fortran).
C/C++
Java

More information

See SEP #18.