Here's what RUN-PROGRAM gets for arguments:

(RUN-PROGRAM '("/Users/rpg/lisp/asdf/build/fasls/clisp-2.49-unix-x86_64/asdf/test/hello-world-example--all-systems.image" "-norc" "--quiet" "--quiet" "-ansi" "-I" "-on-error" "exit" "-x" "(uiop:restore-image :entry-point 'hello:entry-point :lisp-interaction nil)") ':OUTPUT ':LINES ':ERROR-OUTPUT 'T) 1. Trace: RUN-PROGRAM ==> ("[4]> hello, world"), NIL, 0

What happens at the command line agrees with that: $ /Users/rpg/lisp/asdf/build/fasls/clisp-2.49-unix-x86_64/asdf/test/hello-world-example--all-systems.image -norc --quiet -ansi -I -on-error exit -x "(uiop:restore-image :entry-point 'hello:entry-point :lisp-interaction nil)" [4]> hello, world

Maybe the error is in UIOP:RESTORE-IMAGE: $ /Users/rpg/lisp/asdf/build/fasls/clisp-2.49-unix-x86_64/asdf/test/hello-world-example--all-systems.image -norc --quiet -ansi -I -on-error exit [1]> (hello:entry-point) hello, world T ...because just calling the entry-point function does not yield the "[4]

" prompt.

Unfortunately, neither removing :lisp-interaction nil nor --quiet lets me see what's actually happening inside clisp here.

By the way, the "-I" argument here means "be ilisp friendly." Removing this seems to give happier results:

$ /Users/rpg/lisp/asdf/build/fasls/clisp-2.49-unix-x86_64/asdf/test/hello-world-example--all-systems.image -norc -ansi -on-error exit -x "(uiop:restore-image :entry-point 'hello:entry-point)" hello, world T

Why is that argument there?

And why is this working for you?