[pulseview.git] / manual / cli.txt

== Command-line Interface

Even though PulseView has a graphical user interface, there is also a command-line interface that
you can make use of. It is meant to provide functions for convenience and debug purposes, not to
replace the user interface itself.

Running 

	pulseview -h

gives you a list of these functions.

Since PulseView can't automatically scan for devices connected to a COM port (ttySx on Linux) or
Ethernet, you can tell it to look for a specific device using the -d or --driver parameter. Its
usage is the same as for sigrok-cli. For example:

	pulseview -d lecroy-xstream:conn=vxi/192.168.178.20/111

Also, just as with sigrok-cli, you can specify -i / --input-file and -I / --input-format to open
a file on startup. Without -I, it is assumed that the file is in the native sigrok format (.sr).
You can also specify more than one file but they are all expected to be in the same format then.
Example:

	pulseview -i data.csv -I csv:samplerate=3000000

If you previously saved a PulseView session setup alongside your input file, PulseView will
automatically load those settings so long as the setup file (.pvs) has the same base name
as your input file.
You can also manually specify a PulseView session setup file to load with -s / --settings.
Example:

	pulseview -s settings.pvs data.sr

The remaining parameters are mostly for debug purposes:

	-V / --version		Shows the release version
	-l / --loglevel		Sets the libsigrok/libsigrokdecode log level (max is 5)
	-D / --dont-scan	Don't auto-scan for devices
	-c / --clean		Don't restore previous sessions on startup

Of these, -D / --dont-scan can be useful when PulseView gets stuck during the startup device scan.
No such scan will be performed then, allowing the program to start up but you'll have to scan for
your acquisition device(s) manually before you can use them.

Another potentially useful option is -c / --clean, which can be used when PulseView doesn't start
up and you don't know what could cause this.

Thus, the combination of both parameters can be seen as some kind of "safe mode" for PulseView:

	pulseview -c -D
Commit	Line	Data
1894027b SA	1	== Command-line Interface
	2
	3	Even though PulseView has a graphical user interface, there is also a command-line interface that
	4	you can make use of. It is meant to provide functions for convenience and debug purposes, not to
	5	replace the user interface itself.
	6
	7	Running
	8
	9	pulseview -h
	10
	11	gives you a list of these functions.
	12
	13	Since PulseView can't automatically scan for devices connected to a COM port (ttySx on Linux) or
	14	Ethernet, you can tell it to look for a specific device using the -d or --driver parameter. Its
	15	usage is the same as for sigrok-cli. For example:
	16
	17	pulseview -d lecroy-xstream:conn=vxi/192.168.178.20/111
	18
	19	Also, just as with sigrok-cli, you can specify -i / --input-file and -I / --input-format to open
	20	a file on startup. Without -I, it is assumed that the file is in the native sigrok format (.sr).
	21	You can also specify more than one file but they are all expected to be in the same format then.
	22	Example:
	23
0e96068d	24	pulseview -i data.csv -I csv:samplerate=3000000
1894027b	25
611c8625 DL	26	If you previously saved a PulseView session setup alongside your input file, PulseView will
	27	automatically load those settings so long as the setup file (.pvs) has the same base name
	28	as your input file.
	29	You can also manually specify a PulseView session setup file to load with -s / --settings.
	30	Example:
	31
	32	pulseview -s settings.pvs data.sr
	33
1894027b SA	34	The remaining parameters are mostly for debug purposes:
	35
	36	-V / --version Shows the release version
	37	-l / --loglevel Sets the libsigrok/libsigrokdecode log level (max is 5)
0e96068d	38	-D / --dont-scan Don't auto-scan for devices
1894027b SA	39	-c / --clean Don't restore previous sessions on startup
1894027b SA	40
0e96068d SA	41	Of these, -D / --dont-scan can be useful when PulseView gets stuck during the startup device scan.
	42	No such scan will be performed then, allowing the program to start up but you'll have to scan for
	43	your acquisition device(s) manually before you can use them.
1894027b	44
0e96068d SA	45	Another potentially useful option is -c / --clean, which can be used when PulseView doesn't start
0e96068d SA	46	up and you don't know what could cause this.
1894027b SA	47
	48	Thus, the combination of both parameters can be seen as some kind of "safe mode" for PulseView:
	49
0e96068d	50	pulseview -c -D