If you want compile a standalone diesel executable interpreter, you can do it writing at linux prompt: # cc -DTESTPROG -g diesel.c -o diesel Then you can interpret a diesel script and see output calling... # diesel <script or... # cat script |diesel If you want set some vars before interpret script you can do... # echo '@! @(setvar,a,5) @(setvar,B,HELLO)'| cat - script |diesel Or you can put all @(setvar...) sentences in a separated file an call... # cat setvar.file script |diesel