## Command line options

When you run the Chi software from the command line, the interactive dialog as shown in Software operation is not shown (at least not by default), and everything has to be specified at the command line instead.

The Chi simulator software takes one input file, which is a filename with a `.chi`, `.chix` or `.cchi` file extension.

Below is a list of the available options of such a command line. Most of them are for advanced uses only, and not of interest to most users.

### Simulator options

- `--instance=<instance>`, `-i <instance>`

  Instantiate the model of the file as given by instance. Default is instantiation of a model without parameters.

### General application options

- `--help, -h`

  Prints the help text of the application to the console.

- `--option-dialog=<bool>`

  Whether to show the option dialog after the command line options have been processed. Default is `off`.

- `--output-mode=<outmode>`, `-m <outmode>`

  The output mode. Specify `error` for errors only; `warning` for errors and warnings only; `normal` (default) for errors, warnings, and normal output; or `debug` for errors, warnings, normal, and debug output.

- `--show-license`

  Prints the license text of the application to the console.

- `--devmode=<bool>`

  Whether exceptional situations return limited user friendly information (`--devmode=off`), or extended developer oriented information (`--devmode=on`). Default is user friendly information.

### Compiler options

- `--emf=<bool>`, `-e <bool>`

  Whether or not to write the generated EMF model after type checking (default is `off`).

- `--directory=<dir>`, `-d <dir>`

  Output directory for generated Java files. Output is not written when the option is empty or not provided.

- `--java-compile=<bool>`, `-c <bool>`

  Whether or not to perform compilation of the generated Java code (default is `on`).

- `--jar=<bool>`, `-j <bool>`

  Whether or not to write the compiled Java simulator classes (default is `off`).