3. Dynare invocation

In order to give instructions to Dynare, the user has to write a model file whose filename extension must be ‘.mod’. This file contains the description of the model and the computing tasks required by the user. Its contents is described in The Model file.

Once the model file is written, Dynare is invoked using the dynare command at the MATLAB or Octave prompt (with the filename of the ‘.mod’ given as argument).

In practice, the handling of the model file is done in two steps: in the first one, the model and the processing instructions written by the user in a model file are interpreted and the proper MATLAB or GNU Octave instructions are generated; in the second step, the program actually runs the computations. Boths steps are triggered automatically by the dynare command.

MATLAB/Octave command: dynare FILENAME[.mod] [OPTIONS…]

Description

This command launches Dynare and executes the instructions included in ‘FILENAME.mod’. This user-supplied file contains the model and the processing instructions, as described in The Model file.

dynare begins by launching the preprocessor on the ‘.mod’ file. By default (unless use_dll option has been given to model), the preprocessor creates three intermediary files:

‘FILENAME.m’: Contains variable declarations, and computing tasks
‘FILENAME_dynamic.m’: Contains the dynamic model equations
‘FILENAME_static.m’: Contains the long run static model equations

These files may be looked at to understand errors reported at the simulation stage.

dynare will then run the computing tasks by executing ‘FILENAME.m’.

Options

noclearall: By default, dynare will issue a clear all command to MATLAB or Octave, thereby deleting all workspace variables; this options instructs dynare not to clear the workspace
debug: Instructs the preprocessor to write some debugging information about the scanning and parsing of the ‘.mod’ file
notmpterms: Instructs the preprocessor to omit temporary terms in the static and dynamic files; this generally decreases performance, but is used for debugging purposes since it makes the static and dynamic files more readable
savemacro[=FILENAME]: Instructs dynare to save the intermediary file which is obtained after macro-processing (see section Macro-processing language); the saved output will go in the file specified, or if no file is specified in ‘FILENAME-macroexp.mod’
onlymacro: Instructs the preprocessor to only perform the macro-processing step, and stop just after. Mainly useful for debugging purposes or for using the macro-processor independently of the rest of Dynare toolbox.
nolinemacro: Instructs the macro-preprocessor to omit line numbering information in the intermediary ‘.mod’ file created after the maco-processing step. Useful in conjunction with savemacro when one wants that to reuse the intermediary ‘.mod’ file, without having it cluttered by line numbering directives.
warn_uninit: Display a warning for each variable or parameter which is not initialized. See section Parameter initialization, or load_params_and_steady_state for initialization of parameters. See section Initial and terminal conditions, or load_params_and_steady_state for initialization of endogenous and exogenous variables.
console: Activate console mode: Dynare will not use graphical waitbars for long computations. Note that this option is only useful under MATLAB, since Octave does not provide graphical waitbar capabilities.
cygwin: Tells Dynare that your MATLAB is configured for compiling MEX files with Cygwin (see section Software requirements). This option is only available under Windows, and is used in conjunction with use_dll.
msvc: Tells Dynare that your MATLAB is configured for compiling MEX files with Microsoft Visual C++ (see section Software requirements). This option is only available under Windows, and is used in conjunction with use_dll.
parallel[=CLUSTER_NAME]: Tells Dynare to perform computations in parallel. If CLUSTER_NAME is passed, Dynare will use the specified cluster to perform parallel computations. Otherwise, Dynare will use the first cluster specified in the configuration file. See section The Configuration File, for more information about the configuration file.
conffile=FILENAME: Specifies the location of the configuration file if it differs from the default. See section The Configuration File, for more information about the configuration file and its default location.
parallel_slave_open_mode: Instructs Dynare to leave the connection to the slave node open after computation is complete, closing this connection only when Dynare finishes processing.
parallel_test: Tests the parallel setup specified in the configuration file without executing the ‘.mod’ file. See section The Configuration File, for more information about the configuration file.

Output

Depending on the computing tasks requested in the ‘.mod’ file, executing command dynare will leave in the workspace variables containing results available for further processing. More details are given under the relevant computing tasks.

The M_, oo_ and options_ structures are also saved in a file called ‘FILENAME_results.mat’.

Example

dynare ramst
dynare ramst.mod savemacro

The output of Dynare is left into three main variables in the MATLAB/Octave workspace:

MATLAB/Octave variable: M_: Structure containing various informations about the model.

MATLAB/Octave variable: options_: Structure contains the values of the various options used by Dynare during the computation.

MATLAB/Octave variable: oo_: Structure containing the various results of the computations.

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