Command-Line Reference — vamps(1)

This page is derived from the vamps.1 man page.

Name

vamps — a model of Vegetation-AtMosPhere-Soil water flow

Synopsis

vamps [--help] [--Header] [--copyright] [--license]
      [--verbose] [--showdef] [--fit] [--noinputdump]
      [--Comment commentchar]
      [--Output setname]
      [--Determine variable]
      [--output filename]
      [--Logfile filename]
      [--Setvar section name value]
      [--spEed speed]
      [--interFace]
      filename

Description

vamps is a one-dimensional model for describing the flow of water through a forested ecosystem. VAMPS has been designed to be flexible and fast.

Flexibility allows users to adapt the programme by changing parameters in the input file or by hooking Python scripts into the run via the [vamps] xtrapy configuration key.

Note

In version 1.0 the S-Lang scripting engine present in earlier versions has been replaced by embedded CPython. S-Lang intrinsics and the interactive S-Lang interface are no longer available. User scripting is now done in Python 3 (see Python Scripting).

A Python package vampspy is provided for driving VAMPS entirely from Python with no subprocess invocation. It supports single-column runs and parallel 2-D grid runs. See vampspy Python API for the API reference.

Input is read from filename or from standard input if filename is -. Output is written to stdout, or to filename if the -o option is used.

VAMPS intercepts some signals (like keyboard interrupts) and ignores them MAXSIG times (usually 5). To stop VAMPS you must send the interrupt MAXSIG times.

Options

Options may be given as standard one-letter options or GNU-style long options (prefixed with --). Long options may be truncated to any unambiguous abbreviation. The short form is the first letter of the long option, or the first capitalised letter if one exists (e.g. -H for --Header, -E for --spEed).

--Header (-H): Omit the headers in output.
--copyright (-c): Show copyright information and exit.
--license (-l): Print license information and exit.
--help (-h): Print help text and exit.
--verbose (-v): Enter verbose mode; programme progress is displayed on stderr. Default is silent.
--noinputdump (-n): By default the contents of the input file is included in the output. Use this option to suppress that.
--Output setname (-O setname): Dump the specified setname to a separate file in ts(5) format. See Configuration File Reference — vamps(5) for a list of allowed set names.
--Determine variable (-D variable): Determine variable (single variable or time series). This is normally set in the input file. Multiple --Determine options are allowed.
--Logfile filename (-L filename): Log this session to filename.
--Setvar section name value (-S section name value): Set the value of variable name in section section to value. Overrides the input file setting.
--Comment commentchar (-C commentchar): Set the comment character. Do not change this without a good reason.
--showdef (-s): Send programme defaults to stdout. Useful for creating a default file from scratch.
--output filename (-o filename): Send output to filename instead of stdout.
--spEed speed (-E speed): Set calculation speed (1 = slow/accurate, 6 = fastest/least accurate). See the speed variable in Configuration File Reference — vamps(5) for details.
--fit (-f): Fit data to settings in the [fit] section.
--interFace (-F): Start the interactive interface. This option must be the last option on the command line (before filename if any).
filename: Read input from filename. Use - to read from standard input.

Usage

If --verbose is set (via the command line or the input file), VAMPS shows progress on stderr.

On UNIX systems with X11 and gnuplot installed, progress can also be displayed graphically. Set showgraph = 1 and graphcommand to the gnuplot executable in the [vamps] section. Note that this slows calculations.

Python scripting

VAMPS embeds a CPython interpreter. Python hooks are loaded at startup via the xtrapy variable in the [vamps] section:

[vamps]
xtrapy = myscript.py

The script may define at_start(), each_step(), and at_end() functions. Import the vamps module to access simulation state.

See Python Scripting for full details.

Files

$VAMPSLIB/vamps_startup.py: Python startup script auto-loaded before every user script.
$HOME/.vampsrc (UNIX) or vamps.rc (Windows): User defaults file. Syntax is identical to the input file.
$VAMPSLIB/: Directory containing Python library modules. Set via the VAMPSLIB environment variable.

Environment

VAMPSLIB: Path to the VAMPS library directory. Must contain vamps_startup.py and the share modules.
VAMPS_BINARY: Path to the vamps executable (used by the vampspy fallback mode).