Executing scripts

July 4, 2026 · View on GitHub

   

Run a script

foo> java -jar venice-1.13.9.jar -script "(+ 1 1)"
=> 2

   

Load the script from a file and run it

File "script.venice":

(do
  (defn circle-area [radius]
    (* math/PI radius radius))
    
  (println (circle-area 2.5)))

run:

foo> java -jar venice-1.13.9.jar -file script.venice
=> 19.634954084936208

   

Using command line arguments

Venice passes the command line args as ARGV vector.

File "script.venice":

(+ 1 (long (first *ARGV*)))

run:

foo> java -jar venice-1.13.9.jar -file script.venice 3
=> 4

Note: the command line args are only available when executing a script in the ways shown above. The command line args are not available in the REPL and for security reasons they are not available with embedding Venice in Java!

Passing a load-path

Venice scripts often uses the function load-file to load a file with Venice functions. load-file loads the files by default from the current working directory. The command line option "-loadpath" defines a set of semi-colon separated paths files are searched for.

File "/users/foo/venice/test.venice":

(do
  (defn circle-area [radius]
    (* math/PI radius radius)))

File "/users/foo/venice/script.venice":

(do
  (load-file "test.venice")

  (println (circle-area 2.5))

Files:

/users/foo/venice
├── script.venice
├── libs
│   └── venice-1.13.9.jar
└── scripts
    └── test.venice

Run:

foo> cd /users/foo/venice
foo> java -jar libs/venice-1.13.9.jar -file script.venice -loadpath "/users/foo/venice/scripts"

The script loads "test.venice" from "/users/foo/venice/scripts/test.venice".

Create an executable Venice JAR

The auto-run-jar command turns any standalone Venice script into an executable Venice JAR.

The auto-run-jar command takes a Venice JAR and copies it to a new JAR with a modified JAR manifest that executes the script when running the JAR with: java -jar xxx.jar

The JAR name will be created as: {path-to-jar}/{script-name}.jar

The command line parameters will be available as *ARGV* list in the script.

Run these examples from a REPL:

Example 1

   ;; create the executable JAR
   (let [script         """(println "sum:" (+ 1 2))"""
         script-name    "example"
         script-version "1.0"
         path-to-jar    "." ] 
     (auto-run-jar script-name script-version script path-to-jar))

From a shell run: java -jar {path-to-jar}/example.jar

Example 2

   ;; create the executable JAR
   (let [script         """
                        (println "sum:" (+ (long (first *ARGV*)) 
                                           (long (second *ARGV*)))) 
                        """ 
         script-name    "example"
         script-version "1.0" 
         path-to-jar    "." ]
     (auto-run-jar script-name script-version script path-to-jar))

From a shell run: java -jar {path-to-jar}/example.jar 1 2

Example 3

   ;; create the executable JAR from a Venice script file:
   ;; (io/spit "./example.venice" """(println "sum:" (+ 1 2))""" :encoding :utf-8)
   (let [script         (io/slurp "./example.venice" :encoding :utf-8) 
         script-name    "example"
         script-version "1.0" 
         path-to-jar    "." ]
     (auto-run-jar script-name script-version script path-to-jar))

From a shell run: java -jar {path-to-jar}/example.jar

Unix Shebang Scripts

Venice scripts can be run as a Unix Shebang scripts.

See the details and examples here