NAME

       opencpn - Chartplotter and GPS Navigation Software

SYNOPSIS

       opencpn [options]

DESCRIPTION

       OpenCPN is a chartplotter and navigation GUI program supporting navigation under way as well as planning.
       It supports a wide range of chart formats using a plugin system. Other plugins provides support for e. g.
       radar,  AIS  and  weather  maps. Program is localized in 20+ languages and ported to several OS including
       MacOS, Windows and Linux.

OPTIONS FOR STARTING OPENCPN

       -h, --help
              Show help info.

       -p, --portable
              Run in portable mode.

       -l, --loglevel=<level>
              Set amount of logged information. Level is any of trace, debug, info, message, warning  or  error,
              defaulting to info if not set in environment; see ENVIRONMENT.

       -c, --configdir=<directory>
              Use   alternative  configuration  directory  instead   of  ~/.openpcn  on  Linux  or  MacOS.   -f,
              --fullscreen Switch to full screen mode on start.

       -G, --no_opengl
              Disable OpenGL video acceleration. This setting will be remembered.

       -g, --rebuild_gl_raster_cache
              Rebuild OpenGL raster cache on start.

       -D, --rebuild_chart_db
              Rescan chart directories and rebuild the chart database

       -P, --parse_all_enc
              Convert all S-57 charts to OpenCPN's internal format on start.

       -u, --unit_test_1:<num>
              Display a slideshow of <num> charts and then exit. Zero or negative <num> specifies no limit.

       -s, --safe_mode
              Run without plugins, openGL and other possibly problematic features.   It  is  still  possible  to
              unintall plugins in this mode.

OPTIONS FOR MANIPULATING RUNNING OPENCPN

       -r, --remote
              Run  commands  on  a  running  instance  instead  of starting opencpn. Exits with error code if no
              running opencpn instance is found.

       -R, --raise
              Raise opencpn window to be on top of other  windows,  requires  --remote.   This  is  the  default
              behaviour  if  opencpn  is  invoked  without  options and arguments and there already is a running
              instance.

       -e, --get_rest_endpoint
              Print the url for connecting to the  local  opencpn  REST  server  e.  g.   http://localhost:8000.
              Requires --remote.

       -q, --quit
              Make the remote instance exit. Requires --remote.

PLUGIN LOADING

       Plugin  loading  depends  on that the opencpn main program can locate the plugin object file and that the
       plugin can locate it's own data.

       On  Linux,   the  main  program  searches  for  plugin  .so-files   in  two  locatiosn.   The  first   is
       ~/.local/lib/opencpn.

       The  second  is  @install-dir@/../lib/opencpn  where  @install-dir@  is  the  location  where  opencpn is
       installed.  If for example opencpn is installed in /usr/bin plugins will be loaded from /usr/lib/opencpn.

       On other platforms plugins are also loaded from two different locations, one of which used primarely  for
       system  plugins  and requiring administrative privileges.  The other is a user-writable locations used by
       the plugin manager.

       A plugin's data directory is a path ending with opencpn/plugins/<plugin_name>.   On  Linux,  this  is  by
       default  searched  in  ~/.local/share:/usr/local/share:/usr/share.   This  search  path  is overridden by
       XDG_DATA_DIRS as defined by  the  freedesktop  spec.   Only  plugins  adapted  for  this  (i.  e.,  using
       GetPluginDataDir()) handles this properly.

       On  other platforms plugin data directories are located in similar locations which also must be retrieved
       in runtime using GetPluginDataDir().

LIBRARY LOADING AND LD_LIBRARY_PATH

       If LD_LIBRARY_PATH exists in the environment opencpn uses it without modifications.

       Otherwise LD_LIBRARY_PATH is set to the same path as from which  plugins  are  loaded,  see  above.  This
       ensures that helper binaries can load possible libraries installed in the same directories as the plugin.

ENVIRONMENT

       OPENCPN_PLUGIN_DIRS
              Plugin  load  path,  see  PLUGIN LOADING. If existing, overrides all default entries.  The path is
              ';'-separated on Windows but uses ':' on other platforms.

       OPENCPN_LOGLEVEL
              Default loglevel if not defined on command line using -l/--loglevel. See the --loglevel option for
              allowed values.

       OPENCPN_FATAL_ERROR
              If defined, displays the message and exits on startup.

FILES

       ~/.opencpn/opencpn.log
              System log file, a useful tool to solve problems.

SEE ALSO

       https://www.opencpn.org
       https://www.freedesktop.org
       https://opencpn-manuals.github.io/main

                                                    July 2018                                         Opencpn(1)