3.3.1 Special Command-Line Options

POV-Ray for Windows supports several special command-line options not recognized by other versions.

Hint: Do not confuse the term 'command-line options' in this section with the toolbar command-line. The command-line were are referring to here is the one used to start the POV-Ray for Windows executable file (pvengine.exe). The following special command-line options cannot be used on the toolbar command-line or in the command-line dialog.

• The /DEMO command tells POV-Ray to run its demonstration render. All other options on the command-line are ignored.
• The /EXIT command tells POV-Ray to perform the render given by the other command-line options, combined with previously-set options such as internal command-line settings, INI file, source file, and so forth, and then to exit. By default, if this switch is not present, POV-Ray for Windows will remain running after the render is complete. This switch only applies to renders started by other options on the command-line. It will not affect renders started manually from within POV-Ray for Windows itself.
• The /NR command (same as /NORESTORE) tells POV-Ray for Windows to not attempt to restore any previous edit sessions (i.e. files that were open in the editor). This is handy when you had a large number of files open and you don't want them taking up time loading.
• The /RENDER command tells POV-Ray for Windows to render the file following. Only one /RENDER command is permitted on the command-line. Wildcards are not permitted.
• The /EDIT command causes POV-Ray to load the following file into an editor. You can have multiple /EDIT commands on the command-line (with one file per /EDIT command). The filenames may not contain wildcards.

Note that if you are supplying a filename with spaces in it, you will need to enclose the filename itself within quotes.