Introduction
Anchor can be used from the command-line as follows:
anchor [options] [experimentFile.xml]
If an experimentFile.xml isn’t specified, the default experiment is employed, with default inputs, task, outputs.
Major options
The most important command-line options are:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| -i arg | Changes inputs, where arg = glob or path to an input-directory or path to BeanXML |
| -t arg | Changes the task, where arg = task-name or path to BeanXML |
| -o arg | Changes outputs, where arg = path to an output-directory or path to BeanXML |
| -h | Displays help message with all command-line options. |
Tip: Typing
anchor -h will display available command-line argumentsOutput options
Note:
- tasks produce one or more outputs, with certain outputs enabled by default.
- the file-format used for any given is determined by rules in defaultBeans.xml.
Options useful for influencing outputting:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| -o arg | Changes outputs where arg = path to an output-directory or path to BeanXML |
| -oa | Enables all outputs. |
| -od outputName(s) | Disables specific output(s). Multiple outputs are comma-separated. |
| -oe outputName(s) | Enables specific output(s). Multiple outputs are comma-separated. |
| -of formatExtension | Suggests an output image file format: e.g -of jpg or -of ome.xml |
| -on | Outputs with an incrementing number instead of the input identifier. (useful for creating sequences of images) |
Warning: Non-standard image types (3D, neither monochrome nor RGB etc.) are unsupported by most file formats, so a suggestion with
-of will often be ignored, in favour of a supported format.Task options
Options useful for tasks:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| -t arg | Changes the task, where arg = task-name or path to BeanXML |
| -st | Prints the names of predefined tasks that can be used with -t |
| -ps | Suggests image size (e.g. 1024x768) or a scaling factor (e.g.0.5)- The order of dimensions is always widthxheight- No scaling in the z-dimension is supported. - Some tasks support omitting one dimension to resize to a particular width/height e.g. 200x or x50- Some tasks allow a trailing plus character to preserve aspect ratio e.g. 1000x500+ resizes maximally within these dimensions. |
The options beginning with -p are parameters that are optionally used only by specific tasks.
Debug options
Options useful for debugging:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| -d [string] | Enables debug-mode: runs only the first available input [whose name contains string]. |
| -l path | Logs initial BeanXML errors in greater detail to a file-path |
| -sa | Shows additional argument information, otherwise executes as normal. |
Tip: It’s best to use
-d as the final argument to avoid ambiguity about its optional argument.Application information options
Options to show general application information are:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| -h | Displays help message with all command-line options. |
| -v | Displays version and authorship information. |