---
name: "chicken-csi"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "chicken"
version: "6.0.0-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/chicken-csi"
---

# chicken-csi(1)

The CHICKEN Scheme interpreter

## NAME

**csi** – The CHICKEN Scheme interpreter

## SYNOPSIS

**csi** \[*OPTION* *...*\] \[*FILENAME* *...*\]

## DESCRIPTION

**csi** is an interpreter for the programming language Scheme supporting most of the features as described in the Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme. **csi** is implemented as a program compiled with the CHICKEN compiler.

*FILENAME* is a Scheme source file name with optional extension. *OPTION* may be  one of the following:

- **-h**, **-help**

  Display usage and exit.

- **-version**

  Display version and exit.

- **-release**

  Print release number and exit.

- **-i**, **-case-insensitive**

  Enable case-insensitive reading.

- **-e** *EXPRESSION*, **-eval** *EXPRESSION*

  Evaluate the given expression.

- **-p** *EXPRESSION*, **-print** *EXPRESSION*

  Evaluate and print the result(s) of the given expression.

- **-P** *EXPRESSION*, **-pretty-print** *EXPRESSION*

  Evaluate and print result(s) prettily.

- **-D** *SYMBOL*, **-feature** *SYMBOL*

  Register feature identifier.

- **-no-feature** *SYMBOL*

  Disable built-in feature identifier.

- **-q**, **-quiet**

  Do not print banner.

- **-n**, **-no-init**

  Do not load initialization file. ‘.csirc’

- **-b**, **-batch**

  Terminate after command-line processing.

- **-w**, **-no-warnings**

  Disable all warnings.

- **-K** *STYLE*, **-keyword-style** *STYLE*

  Enable alternative keyword-syntax (prefix, suffix or none)

- **-no-parentheses-synonyms**

  Disable list delimiter synonyms.

- **-r7rs-syntax**

  Disable the CHICKEN extensions to R7RS syntax.

- **-s** *PATHNAME*, **-script** *PATHNAME*

  Use interpreter for shell scripts.

- **-ss** *PATHNAME*

  Run a script with a ‘main’ procedure

- **-sx** *PATHNAME*

  Same as **-s**, but print each expression as it is evaluated.

- **-setup-mode**

  Prefer the current directory when locating extensions.

- **-R** *NAME*, **-require-extension** *NAME*

  Import extension before executing code.

- **-I** *PATHNAME*, **-include-path** *PATHNAME*

  Add *PATHNAME* to the include path.

- **--**

  Ignore all following options.

## ENVIRONMENT

The following environment variables change the behaviour of **csi**:

- CSI\_OPTIONS

  When set to a string of command-line options, then the options are passed implicitly to every direct or indirect invocation of. **Note** **that** **runtime** **options** **of** **the** **form** ‘-:⟨OPTIONS⟩’ cannot be passed using this method.

- CHICKEN\_INCLUDE\_PATH

  Contains one or more pathnames where the interpreter should also look for include files, separated by ‘;’ characters.

## FILES

- *$XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/chicken/csirc*

  Scheme file loaded on startup. ( $XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME defaults to *$HOME/.config* )

- *$HOME/.csirc*

  Scheme file loaded on startup if the previous one doesn’t exists.

## EXIT STATUS

The **csi** utility exits 0 on success, and \>0 if an error occurs.

## SEE ALSO

[chicken(1)](/chicken/1.md), [csc(1)](/csc/1.md)

More information can be found in the *CHICKEN User's Manual:* **http://wiki.call-cc.org/manual/index**.

## AUTHORS

The CHICKEN Team

## BUGS

Submit bug reports by e-mail to *chicken-janitors@nongnu.org*