system facilities

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Loading files:

• autoload, see autoload(Symbol,String) -- arrange for a function to be loaded automatically
• initialization file
• input -- read Macaulay 2 commands and echo
• load -- read Macaulay 2 commands
• needs -- read Macaulay 2 commands if necessary

Echoing characters:

• clearEcho -- turn off echoing
• setEcho -- turn on echoing

Dumping and restoring the state of the system:

• dumpdata -- dump state of the system to a file
• loaddata -- load state of the system from a file
• restart -- restart Macaulay 2
• addStartFunction -- add a startup function
• addEndFunction -- add an ending function

Interface to the operating system:

• top level loop
• alarm -- set an alarm
• currentDirectory -- current working directory
• exec -- execute another program
• exit -- exit the program
• fork -- fork the process
• getenv -- get value of environment variable
• processID -- the process identifier
• path -- list of directories to look in
• quit -- quit the program
• run -- run an external command
• sleep -- sleep for a while
• time -- time a computation
• timing -- time a computation
• wait -- wait for child process

Variables with information about the state of the current process:

• commandLine -- the command line arguments
• environment -- the environment variables
• version -- information about this version of the program

Dealing with the garbage collector:

• collectGarbage -- collect the garbage in memory