(command-file-standard)=
# Command file standard

It is possible to predefine all SHOP [commands](command-table-ref) to be executed in a single text file. This is most useful when running SHOP as a [standalone program](standalone-program-interaction), since commands also can be specified directly in [](pyshop) or as part of the [JSON](json-standard) and [YAML](yaml-standard) files.

The command file is a plain text file where commands can be specified in sequence on each new line. Commands are written in the format:

`command /option1 /option2 ... value1 value2 ...`

As in the [ASCII](ascii-data) files, the `#` symbol at the start of a line in the command file is interpreted as a comment. The example below reads in some input data files, performs an optimization, dumps results to YAML, and exits:

    # Read in data
    read model my_model.ascii
    add model more_data.ascii
    read yaml even_more_data.yaml

    # Run the optimization
    start sim 3
    set code /incremental
    start sim 3

    # Dump results to YAML
    print yaml /output_only /compress_txy results.yaml
    
    # Exit SHOP
    quit

The [](quit) command is only used when running SHOP as a standalone program. 

It is also possible to read in the command file in pyshop with the function `run_command_file`. This function also accepts optional arguments to stop executing commands when the first [](start_sim) command is encountered, and to skip commands that read in ASCII and YAML input model files.