There are three ways to run SALOME:

Using the "salome" command

A simply SALOME application is defined by :

a set of modules (GEOM, SMESH, YACS, ...)
a profile: set of informatic resources (images, documentation, tests...) binding the modules together
"salome" command is a launcher as a python script that creates a context (set of environment variables usable by the SALOME modules) and runs an instance of SALOME, for more details see salome command.

How to generation of a profile of an application ?

The user can generate a default profile for its application using the following command:

python ${KERNEL_ROOT_DIR}/bin/salome/app-quickstart.py --prefix=<generation directory> --name=<application's name> --modules=<list,of,modules>

Likely, the user would like to personalize its application's profile. Then, the profile can be compiled using the standard cmake procedure:

cmake
make
make install

This profile can be used within a python launcher - like the salome command - by setting context variable SalomeAppConfig to the path where the profile is installed.

Using Salome Application Concept approach

For more details see Salome Application Concept.

Using "runSalome" script supplied with SALOME KERNEL module distribution

To launch SALOME using runSalome script, you have first to set-up proper environment for SALOME. If you installed SALOME using SALOME Installation Wizard (Linux), you can use salome.sh or salome.csh script (that is located in the KERNEL_<version> directory of your SALOME installation), for example:

cd /home/user/salome_6.5.0/KERNEL_6.5.0

source salome.csh

Launch SALOME session using the runSalome script located in the SALOME/KERNEL/bin/salome directory:

runSalome [options] [STUDY_FILE] [PYTHON_FILE [PYTHON_FILE ...]]

Optionally, you can specify in the command line:

Study (document) file to be opened in SALOME session passing;
One or more Python scripts to be executed after SALOME start-up. Python scripts will be executed in the new or opened study in the order they appear in the command line.

The runSalome script supports large set of options that allow specifying the way to launch SALOME session. Complete description of all options can be obtained using –help or -h option:

runSalome --help

Here below is a description of most important options:

–help or -h

Print detail help information on the runSalome script.

–version

Print version of SALOME platform.

–gui or -g

Launch SALOME sesssion in GUI mode (with GUI desktop).

–terminal or -t

Launch SALOME session in terminal mode (without GUI).

–resources=<file> or -r <file>

Parse application settings from the <file> instead of default resource file. Default resource file is situated in user's home directory; for example, for SALOME version 6.5.0, the file is ${HOME}/.config/salome/.SalomeApprc.6.5.0

–modules=module1,module2,... or -m=module1,module2,...

Specify the list of modules which will be used in the SALOME session being launched. Note, that list of modules is separated be comma symbols, with no any spaces.

–xterm or -x

The servers open in separate terminal window and log messages are displayed in this window.

–embedded=registry,study,moduleCatalog,cppContainer/ or -e=registry,study,moduleCatalog,cppContainer

Run listed SALOME servers in the GUI embedded mode (default value is registry,study,moduleCatalog,cppContainer). Note that logger server cannot be embedded to GUI. Note, that this option implies running SALOME in GUI mode (-g option); in terminal mode all servers are running in standalone mode.

–standalone=registry,study,moduleCatalog,cppContainerr or -s=registry,study,moduleCatalog,cppContainer

Standalone CORBA servers (default: none).

–portkill or -p

Kill SALOME session launched with the current port.

–killall or -k

Kill (stop) all running SALOME sessions before launching new session.

–splash=<1/0> or -z <1/0>

Use 1 to display splash screen [default] at start-up, 0 to disable splash screen. This option is ignored in the terminal mode.

–pinter

Launch with interactive Python console.

–interp=n or -i=n

Number of additional Python interpreters to open, with session environment propely set-up.