How to Run Tools

All tools run from the command line in a shell with the following syntax:

java tool.XXX [options] files

Tools all live in the file Multivalent.jar, and that file is made visible to Java by adding its path to your CLASSPATH environment variable. For example, for UNIX (including Mac OS X and Linux), depending on your shell, setenv CLASSPATH $CLASSPATH:/path/to/Multivalent.jar or export CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH:/path/to/Multivalent.jar. Alternatively, you can set the classpath explicitly as an option, as in

A third way is to put Multivalent.jar in Java's lib/ext directory.

If a tools stops with an OutOfMemoryError, it might have a perversely large object (such as an 8500x8500 pixel image -- 1000ppi!), so try boosting memory, as in:

java -Xmx192m tool.XXX [options] files

Common Options

In the documentation for each command, the set of options is described in a bullet list. In addition to tool-specific options, all tools support the following:

Other options and concepts are popular:


The lengthy syntax can be reduced to look like other commands by using your shell's aliasing capability. For instance, for UNIX shell tcsh the following command

alias lsearch 'java -classpath /path/to/Multivalent.jar tool.lucene.Search -index /path/to/index '
makes full-text search available with the short
lsearch words