# Julia flags for startup - is there a list? **URL:** \ **Category:** General Usage\ **Created:** [July 2, 2019, 5:01pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-flags-for-startup-is-there-a-list/25932 "2019-07-02T17:01:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1

**Author:** ![holger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ed8c4c/32.png) [@holger](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/holger)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2019, 5:01pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-flags-for-startup-is-there-a-list/25932/1 "2019-07-02T17:01:36Z")

I’m having trouble understanding the different startup flags, e.g. `julia -e`. Is there a list in the documentation? ---

**Author:** ![Henrique\_Becker](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/henrique_becker/32/15443_2.png) [@Henrique\_Becker](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Henrique_Becker)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2019, 5:17pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-flags-for-startup-is-there-a-list/25932/2 "2019-07-02T17:17:55Z")

What do you mean? Do you want a more complete documentation than the one provided by `julia -h`? ---

**Author:** ![holger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ed8c4c/32.png) [@holger](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/holger)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2019, 5:24pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-flags-for-startup-is-there-a-list/25932/3 "2019-07-02T17:24:47Z")

Thank you. That was helpful. I was not aware of `julia -h`. It may be nice to find a link to that when one searches for `flag` or related things in the julia documentation. Is it possible to get the same information as `julia -h` from the REPL too? ---

**Author:** ![holger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ed8c4c/32.png) [@holger](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/holger)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2019, 5:27pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-flags-for-startup-is-there-a-list/25932/4 "2019-07-02T17:27:32Z")

Additionally, I searched for `julia -e` in the documentation and could not find anything, that may be nice too. My specific application is that I am trying to understand the sample scripts provided in coverage.jl, why some have -e and some don’t, and I could not figure this out through the documentation. ---

**Author:** ![Henrique\_Becker](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/henrique_becker/32/15443_2.png) [@Henrique\_Becker](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Henrique_Becker)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2019, 5:39pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-flags-for-startup-is-there-a-list/25932/5 "2019-07-02T17:39:57Z")

uhhh, I suppose you have no experience with linux, or any command line. The `-h` (or `--help`) flag is a widely adopted convention. I mean, just try passing it to any command (specially in the long form `--help`), all of `ls`, `firefox`, `julia`, `gcc`, etc…, answer to it. I also do not believe such flags fit the language documentation as they are a specificity of the default interpreter/compiler, someone could implement another interpreter/compiler and define their own flags. ---

**Author:** ![holger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ed8c4c/32.png) [@holger](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/holger)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2019, 5:54pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-flags-for-startup-is-there-a-list/25932/6 "2019-07-02T17:54:38Z")

Great, thank you for the explanation. I’ve actually worked quite a bit in the linux command line, so I’m sure I’m not the only one wondering about this. I think it would be nice to have something concerning this somewhere in the documentation, and may it be just a link to `julia -h` with some searchable keywords in the documentation. Anyways, really like the julia language and it’s community, so thanks for your help! ---

**Author:** ![dellison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@dellison](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/dellison)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2019, 7:02pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-flags-for-startup-is-there-a-list/25932/7 "2019-07-02T19:02:41Z")

> I think it would be nice to have something concerning this somewhere in the documentation I think what you’re looking for is in the “Getting Started” section of the documentation [here](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/manual/getting-started/) ---

**Author:** ![ffevotte](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ffevotte/32/6587_2.png) [@ffevotte](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ffevotte)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 2:36pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-flags-for-startup-is-there-a-list/25932/8 "2019-07-03T14:36:05Z")

> [@dellison](#): > > I think what you’re looking for is in the “Getting Started” section of the documentation [here](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/manual/getting-started/) I just noticed that `--compile={min|all|...}` is neither listed in this page nor in the output of `julia -h`. Is there a reason for this, or has this switch merely been forgotten? ---

**Author:** ![StefanKarpinski](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stefankarpinski/32/24_2.png) [@StefanKarpinski](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/StefanKarpinski)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 2:51pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-flags-for-startup-is-there-a-list/25932/9 "2019-07-03T14:51:34Z")

```julia julia --help-hidden ``` ---

**Author:** ![francesco.alemanno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e8c25b/32.png) [@francesco.alemanno](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/francesco.alemanno)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 2:57pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-flags-for-startup-is-there-a-list/25932/10 "2019-07-03T14:57:06Z")

@StefanKarpinski awesome, i just found the experimental option “–produce-binary-executable=yes”