Running EPICURE in batch mode

While EPICURE is often run as an interactive program, it is also possible to run the program in a batch mode. This is done by providing script file name on the command line together with one or more command line switches that control how the program is run. By default, when a script file name is specified on the command line, the program opens but does not run the command file. However, the –i switch instructs to open and immediately execute the command file. Normally the extension of the command file is used to determine the EPICURE module to be run; .amf for AMFIT (Poisson regression); .gbo or .pcn for GMBO/PECAN (binomial and conditional or unconditional logistic regression); .pnt for PEANUTS (semi-parametric partial-likelihood analysis of individual cohort or case-cohort survival data); or .dtb for DATAB (for creating rate/person-year tables or of event-count tables). If the script file does not use one of the above extensions or to override the default extension-module associations, you can use the following command line switches:

-a    AMFIT
-g    GMBO/PECAN
-p    PEANUTS
-d    DATAB

Normally if one opens EPICURE with a session script file name the program opens with the script file in the session window but does not immediately run the script. If you include the –i switch on the command line the script will be opened and execution will be begin immediately.

For batch execution, you can either open a Windows command window by typing the command epicure args in the Search Program and Files box on Windows menu where args includes a script file name and, optionally, one or more of the switches mentioned above. If the epicure executable is not found, you will need to explicitly specify the full path for the program file. This path is C:\Program Files (X86)\RSIEpicure\Epicure) for standard installation. Here are two examples of illustrating how to start EPICURE in batch mode:

a) Start and run an AMFIT session with a script called basicmods.amf

epicure –i basicmods.amf

b) Start and run a DATAB session with a script called basicpy.epi