4.1 Input Files¶
In this section we explain what an input file is and file:input why you would want to know about it. We discuss where FriCAS looks for input files and how you can direct it to look elsewhere. We also show how to read the contents of an input file into the workspace and how to use the history facility to generate an input file from the statements you have entered directly into the workspace.
An input file contains FriCAS expressions and system commands. Anything that you can enter directly to FriCAS can be put into an input file. This is how you save input functions and expressions that you wish to read into FriCAS more than one time.
To read an input file into FriCAS, use the )read system command. read For example, you can read a file in a particular directory by issuing
)read /spad/src/input/matrix.input
The .input is optional; this also works:
)read /spad/src/input/matrix
What happens if you just enter )read matrix.input or even )read matrix? FriCAS looks in your current working directory for input files that are not qualified by a directory name. Typically, this directory is the directory from which you invoked FriCAS.
To change the current working directory, use the )cd system command. The command )cd by itself shows the current working directory:default for searching directory. cd To change it to file:input:where found the src/input subdirectory for user babar, issue
)cd /u/babar/src/input
FriCAS looks first in this directory for an input file. If it is not found, it looks in the system’s directories, assuming you meant some input file that was provided with FriCAS.
If you have the FriCAS history facility turned on (which it is by default), you can save all the lines you have entered into the workspace by entering
)history )write
history )write
file is in your home directory or in the directory you specified with cd )cd.
In ugLangBlocks we discuss using indentation in input files to group statements into blocks.