CLI Usage

This page shows the practical command-line workflow. Use Workflow for the phase layout and CLI Reference for full command lookup.

The CLI is self-discoverable:

lst-tools --help
lst-tools -V
lst-tools setup parsing --help

Initialization and Meanflow Preparation

Create the starting config file:

lst-tools init --geometry cone

Add --flow flow_conditions.dat when flow conditions are already available. Add --merge to preserve existing values when refreshing an lst.cfg scaffold.

Prepare meanflow.bin for lst.x:

lst-tools lastrac

lst-tools --debug lastrac writes conversion diagnostics and a Tecplot debug snapshot to ./debug/.

Inspect meanflow.bin when needed:

lst-tools info meanflow.bin

Add --profiles-out profiles.dat to write all station profiles as Tecplot ASCII.

Extract Wall-Normal Profiles

When the baseflow data is a CFD mesh file (Tecplot FE-quad format), extract wall-normal profiles before running lst.x:

lst-tools extract mesh.dat --station 0.10 --station 0.20 --station 0.30

At least one station is required. Station locations can also be set in lst.cfg under [extract] stations or with the complete x_s, x_e, and d_x range. Set [extract] eta_max, eta_distribution, eta_stretch, and eta_wall_spacing to control the wall-normal sampling grid. The default is a tanh distribution with a stretching factor of 2.0. Set eta_distribution = "geometric" and provide eta_wall_spacing to prescribe the first off-wall interval. Freestream metadata is written directly from [flow_conditions] into the HDF5 output.

Setup Runs

Prepare the broad sweep input deck:

lst-tools setup parsing --auto-fill

--auto-fill fills sweep bounds or index ranges when they are unset in lst.cfg.

Prepare tracking cases from the parsing solution:

lst-tools setup tracking --auto-fill

Prepare spectra cases when the fixed-station spectra branch is needed:

lst-tools setup spectra

lst-tools prepares input decks and scripts; run lst.x separately.

When an HPC scheduler is configured, the setup phase also writes scheduler scripts for generated decks and case directories. lst-tools hpc regenerates the run script for the current directory when needed.

Postprocessing and Cleanup

After the tracking solves finish, process the results:

lst-tools process tracking --interpolate
lst-tools visualize tracking

Repeat --dir to process selected kc_* directories only.

Render parsing preview PNGs after parsing when needed:

lst-tools visualize parsing

visualize renders quick contour PNGs on the remote machine. --out writes the PNGs to a specific directory.

Post-process spectra output when needed:

lst-tools process spectra

Clean generated artifacts when they are no longer needed:

lst-tools clean parsing --force
lst-tools clean tracking --force
lst-tools clean spectra --force