Startup scripting

Sources

1. --script <PATH>
2. --script -
3. piped stdin
4. repeated --command / -c

Order: scripts first, then stdin, then inline commands.

Startup scripts use the same command parser as the minibuffer. That includes:

• navigation commands
• view and focus commands
• attribute commands
• heatmap range commands
• multichart commands
• press <keys> sequences

Heatmap can be scripted with generic movement commands, heatmap range ... commands, and press for zoom, reset, clear selection, and viewport pan.

press uses the effective keymaps after config load, so startup scripts follow any configured key remaps.

Validation mode

Use --script-test or -ct to validate a script without launching the UI:

h5v file.h5 --script-test --script setup.h5v

Bundled example script

h5v examples/h5v-example.h5 --script examples/h5v-example.h5v

Regenerate the example file if needed:

python scripts/generate_example_h5.py

Script format

• newline-separated commands
• semicolon-separated commands
• blank lines
• comment lines beginning with #

Examples:

h5v file.h5 -c "focus content" -c "mode matrix"
h5v file.h5 --script setup.h5v
printf 'toggle-tree; mode preview\nreload\n' | h5v file.h5

Example setup.h5v:

# open with a clean content layout
toggle-tree
focus content
mode preview
mchart add !/group/dataset[..,0]

Example heatmap script fragment:

focus content
mode heatmap
heatmap range add 5% 80% "5-80%"
page-down
press z
press L
press v

Bundled examples/h5v-example.h5v:

goto /signals/sine_wave
focus content
mchart add
goto /signals/cosine_wave
mchart add
mchart open
mchart select prev
mchart visible
mchart select next
mchart prompt
mchart expr "$1 - $2"
mchart zoom in 20

See Command reference for the full command surface.