gretl (under MS Windows, gretlw32.exe)[1]
— Opens the program and waits for user input.
gretl datafile
— Starts the program with the specified datafile in its workspace. The data file may be in native gretl format, CSV format, or BOX1 format (see Chapter 4 above). The program will try to detect the format of the file and treat it appropriately. See also the Section called Path searching below for path-searching behavior.
gretl --help (or gretl -h)
— Print a brief summary of usage and exit.
gretl --version (or gretl -v)
— Print version identification for the program and exit
gretl --run scriptfile (or gretl -r scriptfile)
— Start the program and open a window displaying the specified script file, ready to run. See the Section called Path searching below for path-searching behavior.
gretl --db database (or gretl -d database)
— Start the program and open a window displaying the specified database. If the database files (the .bin file and its accompanying .idx file — see the Section called Binary databases in Chapter 4) is not in the default system database directory, you must specify the full path.
Various things in gretl are configurable under the "File, Preferences" menu.
The base directory for gretl's shared files.
The user's base directory for gretl-related files.
The command to launch gnuplot.
The command to launch GNU R (see Appendix D).
The command with which to view TeX DVI files.
The directory in which to start looking for native gretl databases.
The directory in which to start looking for RATS 4 databases.
The IP number of the gretl database server to access.
The IP number and port number of the HTTP proxy server to use when contacting the database server, if applicable (if you're behind a firewall).
The calculator and editor programs to launch from the toolbar.
The monospaced font to be used in gretl screen output.
The font to be used for menus and other messages. (Note: this item is not present when gretl is compiled for the gnome desktop, since the choice of fonts is handled centrally by gnome.)
There are also some check boxes. Checking the "expert" box quells some warnings that are otherwise issued. Checking "Tell me about gretl updates" makes gretl attempt to query the update server at start-up. Unchecking "Show gretl toolbar" turns the icon toolbar off. If your native language setting is not English and the local decimal point character is not the period ("."), unchecking "Use locale setting for decimal point" will make gretl use the period regardless.
Finally, there are some binary choices: Under the "Open/Save path" tab you can set where gretl looks by default when you go to open or save a file — either the gretl user directory or the current working directory. Under the "Data files" tab you can set the default filename suffix for data files. The standard suffix is .gdt but if you wish you can set this to .dat, which was standard in earlier versions of the program. If you set the default to .dat then data files will be saved in the "traditional" format (see Chapter 4). Also under the "Data files" tab you can select the action for the little folder icon on the toolbar: whether it should open a listing of the data files associated with Ramanathan's textbook, or those associated with Wooldridge's text.
Settings chosen in this way are handled differently depending on the context. Under MS Windows they are stored in the Windows registry. Under the gnome desktop they are stored in .gnome/gretl in the user's home directory. Otherwise they are stored in a file named .gretlrc in the user's home directory.
[1] | On Linux, a "wrapper" script named gretl is installed. This script checks whether the DISPLAY environment variable is set; if so, it launches the GUI program, gretl_x11, and if not it launches the command-line program, gretlcli. |