This topic describes how to run ENVITasks in command-line environments. The envitaskengine executable is at the core of this capability. It allows you to plug ENVI analytics into applications in different programming languages or environments that share information. The environments must be able to handle standard streams (stdin, stdout, and stderr). The envitaskengine executable works as follows:

• All input and output is in the form of a JSON string.
• IDL and ENVI data types are represented by JSON objects. The envitaskengine executable converts the JSON representation into the data type that is required for each task.
• Any temporary output required to run IDL and ENVI (including preferences) is written to the current directory from where the envitaskengine was executed. This allows for multiple ENVI analytics to run simultaneously with no effect on each other. You can direct the output of ENVITasks to separate locations, if desired. If you do not set optional output parameters, the output is written to the current working directory.

For more information on ENVITasks, see Data Processing using ENVITasks. Also see Custom Tasks for details on writing your own ENVITasks. Once you deploy a custom task to ENVI, it is also available to the envitaskengine executable in a command-line environment.

See the following topics to learn more about running ENVI analytics at the command line:

• Command Line Input and Output
• ENVITaskEngine Examples
• Bash Shell Script Example
• Windows Batch Script Example
• Supported Data Types