Command Line Arguments

Endless Sky Command Line Arguments

Endless Sky Delta and its upstream have a wide range of command line arguments available to assist people in extracting information from the game. While all these arguments are available internally via the "help" section or by looking at the source within the "PrintData.cpp" file, I think it may improve the visibility and usefulness of these arguments if they are available from the wiki in a somewhat more readable format.

The following is an excerpt from PrintData.cpp's help function, with extraneous output related code omitted. Code aligned to the left are the basic arguments, with the indented lines following them being modifiers to them. Note that order is important. -s --sales is not the same thing as --sales -s, based on the explanations provided in the code.

It should be noted that this just asks Endless Sky to output the specified data, it does not specify where the data should go. If it is not given any further instructions, it will simply output it to your command line window.

On windows, this data can be redirected to a file using the > symbol at the end. For more information on redirects, see this Microsoft article.

By default, the file will be created in the current working director or the directory that Endless Sky is running from, depending on how the command is run. The command can be used to specify an alternate directory if desired by specifying the full file path.

Table of Command Line Arguments:

-s, --ships: prints a table of ship stats (just the base stats, not considering any stored outfits)."
        --sales: prints a table of ships with every 'shipyard' each appears in."
        --loaded: prints a table of ship stats accounting for installed outfits. Does not include variants."
        --list: prints a list of all ship names."
    Use the modifier `--variants` with loaded and list include variants."

-w, --weapons: prints a table of weapon stats."
-e, --engines: prints a table of engine stats."
--power: prints a table of power outfit stats."

-o, --outfits: prints a list of outfits."
        --sales: prints a list of outfits and every 'outfitter' each appears in."
        -a, --all: prints a table of outfits and all attributes used by any outfits present."

--sales: prints a list of all shipyards and outfitters, and the ships or outfits they each contain."
        -s, --ships: prints a list of shipyards and the ships they each contain."
        -o, --outfits: prints a list of outfitters and the outfits they each contain."

--planets: prints a list of all planets."
        --descriptions: prints a table of all planets and their descriptions."
        --attributes: prints a table of all planets and their attributes."
            --reverse: prints a table of all planet attributes and which planets have them."

--systems: prints a list of all systems."
        --attributes: prints a list of all systems and their attributes."
            --reverse: prints a list of all system attributes and which systems have them."

--matches: prints a list of all planets and systems matching a location filter passed in STDIN."
        The first node of the location filter should be `location`."

Example Usage

For a list of all base ships and only their built-in stats, use the following:

"Endless Sky.exe" -s > ships-base-stats.csv

For a list of all ships, including variants, and taking their outfits into account, then use the following:

"Endless Sky.exe" -s --loaded --variants > ships-all-with-outfits.csv

For a list of all engines, then use the following:

"Endless Sky.exe" -e > ESD-engines.csv

For a list of all engines being created on the desktop in Windows (remember to specify your user name in the following):

"Endless Sky.exe" -e> "C:\Users\MyUserNameHere\Desktop\ESD-engines.csv"

Please note that the file name (everything after the > ) can be set to anything. The above are merely ones that I use.