Introduction to AROS Shell

Index

AROS has a command line interface, the 'Shell'. You can start it with menu Wanderer>Shell. A window with the path of the current AROS window will be opened. The prompt normally shows the the number of the Shell and the current path.

The Shell has a history. You can access it with cursor up and down keys.

You can move the cursor in the current command line with the cursor left and right keys and delete characters with the backspace and del keys.

There is a completion feature. If you type the first letters of a command or a file name and press the tabulator key, the Shell searches for a matching name. If there are more possibilties a window will be opened where you can select an entry.

AROS commands and file names are case insensitive. You can even use mixed case.

AROS searches commands in the current directory and in the search path. You can view and change the search path with the Path command.

Some important commands

CD -- changes directory
DIR -- shows content of directory
COPY -- copies files and directories
DELETE -- deletes files and directories
INFO -- shows available drives
MAKEDIR -- creates directory
RENAME -- renames files and directories
TYPE -- shows content of text file

Path

Absolute paths start with the drive name and a colon (:), directories are separated with a slash (/). The drive name can be a device name (dh0:), a volume name (workbench:) or a logical drive (see Assign command)

Example: dh0:dir1/dir2/file.dat

If you need the current path as argument of a command, you can just write "".

Example: copy from ram:x to ""

When the path starts with a colon then it is relative to the root directory of the current path.

A slash at the beginning of a path means: go one level up. Two slashes mean go two levels up and so on.

When a path contains spaces it must be written within double quote characters.

Example: type "name with spaces"

Command template

A question mark after the command shows the parameter template of the command. The command is then in a mode where it waits for you to type in the parameters.

Example: copy ?
FROM/M,TO/A,ALL/S,QUIET/S,BUF=BUFFER/K/N,CLONE/S,DATES/S,NOPRO/S,COM/S,NOREQ/S

The keywords can have options:

/A -- argument must be given
/K -- keyword must be written when using this argument
/S -- switch; just write the keyword to access the switch
/N -- numerical argument
/M -- more than one argument is possible
/F -- rest of command line
=  -- abbreviation; you can optionally use the abbreviation

Some commands like Copy have an extended help. You can see it when you type again a question mark after the short help is shown.

When calling a command '=' can be used for distinct assignment between keyword and value:

Example: copy from=a.dat to=b.dat

Patterns

Some commands allow patterns for file name parameters:

?  -- one arbitrary character
#? -- zero or more arbitrary characters
#x -- zero or more x
~  -- negation
|  -- or
() -- group
[] -- range
`  -- disable the following special character

Examples:

dir #?.info
dir #?~(.info)
dir a(b|c)d
dir [a-c]e

Redirection

> redirects output to file or device
>> redirects output and appends to file
< redirects input from file or device

Example: dir >ram:a

Pipe

If you want to forward the output of a command to another command you can use the pipe. You have to connect the commands with a | character. There must be at least one space before and after the |:

Example: dir | othercommand

But what if the second command wants to read the input from a file? The solution is to use the fake device 'in:':

Example: dir | more in:

Special devices

ram: you can use the ram disk like a hard drive. But after a reset its content is lost.
nil: if you don't want the messages of a command to be displayed in the window you can use the 'nil:' device. Example: delete #? >nil:
con: read/write from/to another Shell window
console: the current Shell window
sys: the drive from which AROS was booted
ser: the serial interface
par: the parallel interface

Running in background

Normally, a command blocks the Shell until it is finished. You can run commands in the background with the run command.

Example: run delete #?

Info files

Files with the suffix '.info' play an important role in Wanderer. They contain the icon picture and some additional information. When you work with shell commands you have to take the Info files into account.

Scripts

You can write programs of Shell commands with a text editor. Scripts can be executed by the Execute command. Another possibility is to set the 's' flag with the Protect command. Then you can just type the script's name to execute it. If you have some commands you want to be run every time AROS starts, write them in a file with the name 's:user-startup'.