GP(1) General Commands Manual GP(1)
NAME
gp - The PARI calculator
SYNOPSIS
gp [-s stacksize] [-p primelimit] [--emacs] [-f|--fast] [-q|--quiet]
[-D|--default key=val] [--help] [--test] [--texmacs] [--version]
[--version-short] [ file1 file2 ...]
DESCRIPTION
Invokes the PARI-GP calculator gp; gp is an advanced programmable cal-
culator, specializing in number theory, which computes symbolically as
long as possible, numerically where needed, and contains a wealth of
arithmetic functions: factorizations, elliptic curves, Galois theory,
class field theory, modular forms, etc. Commands, written in the GP
scripting language, are input interactively or loaded from files.
If present at the end of the command line, files 'file1', 'file2', ...
are loaded on startup; they must be written in the GP language.
OPTIONS
Command line options are available in both short form (-f) and POSIX-
like (--fast). Numeric arguments can be followed by a modifier k , M or
G at the user's convenience; in that case the argument is multiplied by
10^3, 10^6, or 10^9 respectively.
-f, --fast
Fast start (or factory settings). Do not read .gprc (see below)
upon startup.
-p limit
[DEPRECATED] Upon startup, gp computes a table of small primes
used in number-theoretic applications. If primelimit is set, the
table include primes up to that bound instead of the default (=
500000). It is now mostly useless to change this value.
-q, --quiet
Quiet mode. Do not print headers or history numbers and do not
say goodbye.
-D, --default key=val
performs default(key, val); on startup, overriding values from
the gprc preferences file. 'val' must be a constant value and is
not allowed to involve any computation (e.g. 1+1 is forbidden).
Any number of such default-setting statements may appear on the
command line. A key may be set multiple times, the last setting
taking precedence
-s limit
Size of gp internal stack allocated on startup. When gp runs out
of space, it interrupts the current computation and raises a
stack overflow exception. If this occurs frequently, start with
a bigger stack. The stack size can also be increased from within
gp, using default(parisize,limit); it is convenient to set pari-
size from your .gprc to that the setting is persistent across
sessions; a value of 80MB is sensible. We strongly advise to
also set parisizemax to a positive, much larger, value in your
.gprc (about what you believe your machine can stand, usually
half the available RAM or so): this strives to fit computation
in the parisize range but allows it to temporarily go beyond it
(up to parisizemax). Note that computations with a smaller
stack may be more efficient due to better data locality. Fi-
nally, threadsize and threadsizemax play analogous roles in the
parallel version of gp.
--emacs
gp can be run in an Emacs shell (see GP User's manual for de-
tails). This flag is then required for smooth interaction with
the PariEmacs package (pari.el). It is set automatically by the
pari.el package, and will produce display oddities if you set it
outside of an Emacs session.
--help print a summary of available command-line options.
--test run gp in test mode: suppress printing of history numbers and
wrap long output lines (to get readable diff output). For
benches only.
--texmacs
gp can be run from a TeXmacs frontend. This flag is set by TeX-
macs, to enable special purpose communication channels. Do not
set it yourself.
--version
output version info (banner) then exit.
--version-short
output version number then exit.
USE
? to get online help.
?? to get extended online help (more precisely, to call the exter-
nal help program, gphelp by default)
quit (or \q), or EOF (Ctrl-D) to quit gp.
The following works only when gp was linked with GNU readline library:
arrow keys
for editing and viewing the input history.
TAB
for automatic completion
MANUALS
The following material is included in the standard distribution (origi-
nally in TeX format) and can also be downloaded at
http://pari.math.u-bordeaux.fr/doc.html
or viewed online at
http://pari.math.u-bordeaux.fr/dochtml/html/
The User's Guide to PARI/GP
(users.dvi)
The User's Guide to the PARI library
(library.dvi)
The Developer's Guide to the PARI library
(develop.dvi)
PARI/GP, a tutorial
(tutorial.dvi)
PARI/GP reference cards
(refcard*.dvi)
FILES
gp main executable
$HOME/.gprc
(or $GPRC if set) user preference file, read at beginning of ex-
ecution by each gp shell. A default gprc gprc.dft is provided
with the distribution. If this file cannot be found, /etc/gprc
is checked instead.
<logfile>
a file used to log in all commands and results; default:
pari.log (you need to set the log default in your gprc or inter-
actively)
<psfile>
a file used to dump PostScript drawings; default: pari.ps
<histfile>
a file where gp will keep a history of all input commands (you
need to set the histfile default in the gprc file)
gphelp default external help program (as above)
*.gp GP programs
ENVIRONMENT
$GPRC place to look for the user's preference file (gprc); if the file
does not exist, we then check in $HOME/.gprc, /etc/gprc, and fi-
nally for a file named 'gprc' in PARI's datadir.
$GP_DATA_DIR
directory containing data installed by optional PARI packages.
For example, the Galois resolvents files in directory galdata/
needed by the polgalois function, in degrees 8 to 11; or the
modular polynomials in seadata/ used by the ellap function for
large base fields. This environment variable overrides PARI's
'datadir', defined at Configure time.
$GP_POSTSCRIPT_VIEWER
an application able to display PostScript files, used by the
plotps graphic engine. This engine is a fallback used to output
hi-res plots even when no compatible graphical library was
available on your platform at Configure time. (Dumps the graph
to a temporary file, then open the file.)
$GP_SVG_VIEWER
an application able to display SVG images files, used by the
plotsvg graphic engine. This engine is a fallback used to output
hi-res plots even when no compatible graphical library was
available on your platform at Configure time. (Dumps the graph
to a temporary file, then open the file.)
$GPHELP
name of the external help program invoked by ?? and ??? short-
cuts.
$GPTMPDIR
name of the directory where temporary files will be generated.
HOME PAGE
PARI's home page resides at
http://pari.math.u-bordeaux.fr/
MAILING LISTS
There are a number of mailing lists devoted to the PARI/GP package, and
most feedback should be directed to those. See
http://pari.math.u-bordeaux.fr/lists.html
for details. The most important ones are:
- pari-announce (moderated): for us to announce major version changes.
- pari-dev: for everything related to the development of PARI, includ-
ing suggestions, technical questions, bug reports or patch submissions.
- pari-users: for discuss about everything else, in particular ask for
help.
To subscribe, send empty messages with a Subject: containing the word
"subscribe" respectively to
pari-announce-request@pari.math.u-bordeaux.fr
pari-users-request@pari.math.u-bordeaux.fr
pari-dev-request@pari.math.u-bordeaux.fr
BUG REPORTS
Bugs should be submitted online to our Bug Tracking System, available
from PARI's home page, or directly from the URL
http://pari.math.u-bordeaux.fr/Bugs/
Further instructions can be found on that page.
TRIVIA
Despite the leading G, GP has nothing to do with GNU. The first version
was originally called GPC, for Great Programmable Calculator. When peo-
ple started calling it "the GPC Calculator", the trailing C was
dropped.
PARI has nothing to do with the French capital. The name is a pun about
the project's early stages when the authors started to implement a li-
brary for "Pascal ARIthmetic" in the PASCAL programming language. They
quickly switched to C.
For the benefit of non-native French speakers, here's a slightly ex-
panded explanation: Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) was a famous French math-
ematician and philosopher who was one of the founders of probability
and devised one of the first "arithmetic machines". He once proposed
the following "proof" of the existence of God for the unbelievers:
whether He exists or not I lose nothing by believing in Him, whereas if
He does and I misbehave... This is the so-called "pari de Pascal" (Pas-
cal's Wager).
Note that PARI also means "fairy" in Persian.
AUTHORS
PARI was originally written by Christian Batut, Dominique Bernardi,
Henri Cohen, and Michel Olivier in Laboratoire A2X (Universite Bordeaux
I, France), and was maintained by Henri Cohen up to version 1.39.15
(1995), and by Karim Belabas since then.
A great number of people have contributed to the successive improve-
ments which eventually resulted in the present version. See the AUTHORS
file in the distribution.
SEE ALSO
gap(1), gphelp(1), perl(1), readline(3), sage(1), tex(1), texmacs(1),
COPYING
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
Free Software Foundation.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MER-
CHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General
Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
11 September 2017 GP(1)
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