Xic Environment Variables

The following paragraphs describe the environment variables which are relevant to Xic.

FORCE_XICII
If this variable is set when Xic starts, the program will run as XicII. XicII was a reduced feature set (layout editor only) version of Xic available at lower cost. Operating in this mode may simplify things for some users. One can create an ``xicii'' program with the following shell script:

#! /bin/sh

FORCE_XICII=1 xic $*

FORCE_XIV
If this variable is set when Xic starts, the program will run as Xiv. Xiv was a reduced feature set (layout viewer only) version of Xic available at lower cost. Operating in this mode may simplify things for some users. One can create an ``xiv'' program with the following shell script:

#! /bin/sh

FORCE_XIV=1 xic $*

XIC_HOME
This environment variable applies only to the Xic program. If found in the environment when Xic starts, it is expected to contain a path to the Xic installation area or equivalent, which defaults to ``/usr/local/xictools/xic''. This overrides XT_PREFIX if that environment variable is also found.

There is an important subtlety when using this variable. Although it allows Xic to find its startup files anywhere, only the directory structure implied by XT_PREFIX, that is, for Xic,

$XT_PREFIX/xictools/xic

is compatible with the program installation script. The variable is perhaps useful for pointing Xic toward a secondary set of startup files, perhaps heavily customized by the user, which may reside in an arbitrary location.

XIC_GEOMETRY
This can be set to an X-style geometry string, to specify the default size and position of the Xic main window.

If the geometry has been specified, Xic will use it to position and size the main window (if the window manager permits this). The geometry specification, used to define window size and position, is a string in the form

widthxheight+ xoff+ yoff

where width, height, xoff, and yoff are numbers representing screen pixels. The ``x'' or ``X'' between the width and height is literal. A plus sign `+ ' or minus sign `- ' must appear ahead of xoff and yoff.

+ xoff
The left edge of the window is to be placed xoff pixels in from the left edge of the screen.

- xoff
The right edge of the window is to be placed xoff pixels in from the right edge of the screen.

+ yoff
The top edge of the window is to be yoff pixels below the top edge of the screen.

- yoff
The bottom edge of the window is to be yoff pixels above the bottom edge of the screen.

XIC_TECH_DIR
The value is a path to a directory. If given, the directory is searched for the technology file, if not found in the current directory, and before other locations are checked.

XIC_TMP_DIR, TMPDIR
By default, Xic uses the directory /tmp for temporary files. In some installations, this directory may be too small to accommodate the large files needed by Xic, for example when producing hard copy plots. An alternative directory for temporary files can be specified with the XIC_TMP_DIR environment variable (which has precedence) or with the TMPDIR variable, which is a Unix standard. One of these should be set to a path to a directory to use for temporary files, if necessary.

XIC_LOGDIR
The variable XIC_LOGDIR can be set to a path to a directory which will be used to store certain log files produced while Xic is running. The location used for the log files is the first defined of XIC_LOGDIR, XIC_TMP_DIR, TMPDIR, or /tmp if none of these variables is defined. The log files are removed on normal exit.

XIC_MENU_RIGHT
If the variable XIC_MENU_RIGHT is defined in the environment, Xic will place the side menu and layer table to the right of the main window. The default to to place the menu at the left.

XIC_HORIZ_BUTTONS
If this variable is set in the environment when Xic starts, the buttons in the side menu will be arrayed horizontally across the top of the main window instead.

XIC_PLUGIN_DBG
If this variable is set in the environment when Xic starts, error messages concerning plug-in loading will be printed in the console window. Without this set, Xic will simply silently not load a plug-in if an error occurs. These diagnostic messages can help identify why the plug-in is not being loaded, and are instrumental in tracking down problems when the user expects success.

This variable is deprecated. Under Windows, it is interpreted in the same manner as XT_HOMEDIR.

XIC_EXIT_CMD
If the environment variable XIC_EXIT_CMD is set to a command string, that command will be executed when Xic exits. If the command string contains spaces, the command should be quoted. For example, using

setenv XIC_EXIT_CMD "/usr/games/fortune -o"

may print a rude limerick on some installations. This feature may have less frivolous uses, however.

XIC_SYM_PATH, XIC_LIB_PATH, XIC_HLP_PATH, XIC_SCR_PATH
There are four additional environment variables used to specify locations where Xic is to look for certain types of files. These variables are XIC_SYM_PATH, XIC_LIB_PATH, XIC_HLP_PATH, and XIC_SCR_PATH. These variables are described in the next section.

The internal default values for the paths assume that the installation location is the standard place under /usr/local, or if the XT_PREFIX variable is set, that value will be taken instead of ``/usr/local''.

XIC_DOCS_DIR
The environment variable XIC_DOCS_DIR can be set to an alternate location for the archive of release notes. This location is searched in the Release Notes command in the Help Menu. The default location is /usr/local/xictools/xic/docs, or, if XT_PREFIX is set, its value will replace /usr/local.

XIC_OASO_PATH
Plugins are normally found in the plugins directory in the installation area, which by default is

/usr/local/xictools/xic/plugins

This variable can be set to the full path to the OpenAccess plug-in, which Xic will attempt to load on program startup instead of looking in the default location.

XIC_PYSO_PATH
Plugins are normally found in the plugins directory in the installation area, which by default is

/usr/local/xictools/xic/plugins

This variable can be set to the full path to the Python plug-in, which Xic will attempt to load on program startup instead of looking in the default location.

XIC_TCLSO_PATH
Plugins are normally found in the plugins directory in the installation area, which by default is

/usr/local/xictools/xic/plugins

This variable can be set to the full path to the TclTk or Tcl-only plug-in, which Xic will attempt to load on program startup instead of looking in the default location.

XIC_LIBRARY_PATH
This applies to Linux and macOS only. If set, the value will be prepended to the LD_LIBRARY_PATH in the Xic wrapper script. This can be used to point to installed libraries needed for plugins, for example the OpenAccess libraries, without having to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH in the environment.

#3681#>environment!XIC_NO_MAC_MENU}

XIC_NO_MAC_MENU
(Qt macOS only) By default, Xic will use the Apple menu in the upper left of the screen. This has no tooltips and can not be selected programmatically. It this variable is set, Xic will use Linux-style menus in the main window which behave as they do in Linux, enabling access to macros.

XICNOMAIL
If the variable XICNOMAIL is set, no mail will be sent during a crash. If a fatal error is encountered, a file named ``gdbout'' is created in the current directory, which contains a stack backtrace from the stack frame of the error. Despite the name, the file is generated internally on all platforms, and no longer makes use of the gdb program.

By default, this file will be emailed to Whiteley Research for analysis. However, the emailing can be suppressed by setting this variable in the environment. The gdbout file is produced in any case, and would be very useful to Whiteley Research for fixing program bugs.

XTNOMAIL
This has the same effect as XICNOMAIL but also prevents email from the WRspice program.

SPICE_HOST, SPICE_EXEC_DIR, SPICE_EXEC_NAME
When connecting to SPICE in the run command, the SPICE_HOST variable is used to set the name of a remote SPICE host which provides SPICE service. The name can optionally be followed by a colon and a port number, if a non-default port is used by the SPICE server. The SPICE_EXEC_DIR environment variable provides the directory which contains the wrspice executable, which may need to be identified to Xic if it is other than /usr/local/bin. The SPICE_EXEC_NAME environment variable can be used to provide an alternate name for the wrspice executable, if it has been changed. The default is, of course, ``wrspice''. Each or these environment variables can be overridden by a corresponding internal variable, which can be set with the !set command.

IMSAVE_PATH
The printing interface includes a driver for generating image files in various formats. A few formats are handled internally, however vastly more are available through other software that may be available on the system. The driver can usually locate these programs by looking in standard places, however, if the programs exist but can't be located, this variable can be set to a colon-separated list of directories to search for the executables. This applies to Unix/Linux/macOS only. See the description of the Image print driver in 8.6.2 for more information.