Command-Line Interface (CLI)

Cartool can be called directly from the command-line, either from Windows batch files, Matlab or Python scripts, and therefor be called as a library within external processing pipe-lines. To finer control its behavior, you can pass it options and sub-commands, which are described in this page.

CLI Syntax

General Options

Help & version
Main window control
Children windows control

Sub-Commands Options

Registration
Reprocess / Export Tracks
Ris to Volume

CLI Syntax

This will not be a full tutorial on the CLI11 Command-Line syntax , but just a few hints to help you get the job done:

Options can be either short, like "-h", or long, like "--help".
Options are all case sensitives.
You'd better be providing files as full path, like "D:\Data\MyFile.eeg" and not as "MyFile.eeg".
Files with spaces in their names must be in double quotes, like "D:\Data\My File with spaces.eeg".
Files are to be specified at the end of the command-line, and prefixed with "--", like "-- D:\Data\MyFile.eeg".
An option showing f.ex. {minimized,maximized,normal} expects only one of these 3 values.
An option showing f.ex. [normal] means this is the default value.
A sub-command, like reprocesstracks, has a set of specific options not available elsewhere.

General Options

General options are used to control the main window and children windows appearance . It can also return a full, up-to-date help syntax message in case you are lost.

Help & version

To get the latest, up-to-date commands and syntax, you can always call:

cartool64.exe --help
 or
cartool64.exe <subcommand> --help

Current version can be retrieved with:

cartool64.exe --version

Main window control

You can control the main window state, size and position with:

cartool64.exe --mainwindow={minimized,maximized,normal} [maximized]
              --mainwindowsize=width,height
              --mainwindowpos=x,y

You can skip the splash-screen with:

cartool64.exe --nosplash

And you can even select which monitor to open Cartool to:

cartool64.exe --monitor=<number>

Note that the monitor index might differ from what the Control Panel shows you, though. This is a Windows thing, sorry about that...

Examples:

Opening Cartool on the top left part of the screen, resized for HD:

cartool64.exe --mainwindowpos=0,0 --mainwindowsize=1920,1080

Fast opening Cartool full screen on a second monitor:

cartool64.exe --mainwindow=maximized --monitor=2 --nosplash

Children windows control

You can control every new child window state, size and position by using any of these options before a given file (note the "--" before the files):

cartool64.exe --childwindow={minimized,maximized,normal} [normal]
              --childwindowsize=width,height
              --childwindowpos=x,y
              -- <files>

Each of these parameters could be repeated for each file with different values. In case some parameters are missing, the last valid ones will be used.

Also note that, for the moment, you can not specify any parameter for the n^th file without specifying the parameters of all previous files!

Examples:

Single file opened maximized:

cartool64.exe --childwindow=maximized -- <file1>

First file opened normally, next one opened minimized:

cartool64.exe --childwindow=normal -- <file1> --childwindow=minimized -- <file2>
 or
cartool64.exe --childwindow=normal minimized -- <file1> <file2>

First file opened normally, 2 successive files opened minimized:

cartool64.exe --childwindow=normal -- <file1> --childwindow=minimized -- <file2> <file3>

First file opened normally, 2 successive files opened minimized, last one opened maximized:

cartool64.exe --childwindow=normal minimized minimized maximized  -- <file1> <file2> <file3> <file4>

Single file opened normally, with overridden size and position:

cartool64.exe --childwindowsize=500,250 --childwindowpos=0,0 -- <file1>

Single file resized and repositionned, then minimized:

cartool64.exe --childwindow=minimized --childwindowsize=500,250 --childwindowpos=0,0 -- <file1>

Two files opened normally, with overridden sizes and positions:

cartool64.exe --childwindowsize=500,250 200,800 --childwindowpos=0,0 500,250 -- <file1> <file2>

Sub-Commands Options

Sub-commands allow to run a specific toolbox or processing of Cartool. Each sub-command has its own set of options, which are therefor not available to other sub-commands. Sub-commands still can use some of the general options, though.

Registration

Registering Cartool to Windows allows for double-click file opening, icons and files associations etc... These associations are silently set for you by the Cartool installer, once and for all. But if anything gets corrupted, like erroneous icons and files associations, it is possible to invoke this registration manually. Still not an everyday manoeuvre, though...

Registration is a sub-command, with only one of these exclusive options :

cartool64.exe register --{yes,no,reset,help}

Also note that upon execution, Cartool will exit straight away. It might be necessary to reboot your machine if things get confusing for Windows, though most of the time, you need not.