The commandline syntax for elegant is of the form
elegant {inputfile|-pipe=in} [-rpnDefns=filename] [-configuration=filename] [-macro=tag1=value1[,tag2=value2...]
inputfile is the name of the command input file, which is a series of namelist commands directing the calculations. Alternatively, one may give the -pipe=in option, allowing elegant to be fed a stream of commands by another program or script. The -rpnDefns option allows providing the name of the RPN definitions file as an alternative to defining the RPN_DEFNS environment variable. The -configuration option allows providing the name of an input file to be read prior to inputfile; this can be used for configuring elegant using, e.g., the global_settings command; this is an alternative to using the ELEGANT_CONFIGURATION environment variable. The -macro option allows performing text substitutions in the command stream. Multiple -macro options may be given. Usage is described in more detail below.