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From: CC004049%BROWNVM.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga
Subject: CLI Summary
Message-ID: <578@caip.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Wed, 27-Nov-85 13:17:13 EST
Article-I.D.: caip.578
Posted: Wed Nov 27 13:17:13 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 29-Nov-85 21:36:38 EST
Sender: daemon@caip.RUTGERS.EDU
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
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From: George S. Musser Jr.

I've hacked out the meaning of most of the CLI commands.  If anyone
has any corrections, drop Info-Amiga or me a line.  I'll post a
revised version if necessary.

If you type <command> ?, CLI will tell you the syntax of that command.
I omit the command syntax here; generally, it's obvious from the meaning
of the command.


                        Summary Of CLI Commands

RUN             Execute program and offer a new CLI prompt.
                (If you execute a program by typing its name, CLI
                will wait for the program to end before prompting.)
BREAK n ...     Executes appropriate control code in task n.
                Defaults to |C.
                Say task 2 is ABasiC.  BREAK 2 would execute a |C in
                ABasiC, halting any BASIC program.
ASSIGN          Define location of system 'volumes', such as C:, S:,
                DEVS:, LIBS:, FONTS:, and SYSTEM:.
                These default to the appropriate directory on the disk
                with which you booted up.
                This is my favorite CLI command.  With ASSIGN, you can
                boot up using one disk, and then start using another disk
                instead of getting that annoying 'Insert WorkBench disk'
                message.
                For example, I copy the CLI commands to RAM:, then
                ASSIGN C: RAM:.  From now on, Intuition will look to
                RAM: to find system commands, instead of asking me to
                insert the disk with which I booted up.
CD              Change directory.  A la UNIX.
DATE            Set system time/date.  Unlike MSDOS, the syntax is quite
                strict:  You MUST type the 24-hour time, then the date in
                26-Nov-85 format.
                (Why didn't CBM-Amiga include a hardware clock?
                Setting DATE on boot-up is a real annoyance.)
DIR             Lists filenames in alphabetical order and in two columns.
ECHO "string"   Print string on console.
EDIT            Line editor.  I prefer ED.
ENDCLI          Close current CLI window.
EXECUTE         Run executable file.  An exec file is a list of CLI
                commands, waiting to be used.
FAULT n         Display error message corresponding to error code n.
FORMAT          Disk format and verify.
INFO            Check information on mounted disks.
JOIN x y as z   Combine files x and y into z.
LIST            List files, file sizes, date and time of last mod, etc.
MAKEDIR         Create directory.
PROMPT          Redefine CLI prompt to a desired string.
QUIT            Exit EXEC file.
RENAME          Rename file.  Will also take a file into a new directory.
SEARCH          Scans ASCII file for specified text.
SORT            Sort text file alphanumerically.
WAIT            Pause for x seconds, y minutes, or until a given time.
COPY            Copy a file or a directory.
                To copy all the files in a directory, use COPY C/ TO D ALL.
                Single-drive users, beware!  COPY seems to have almost
                no memory buffering, so COPYing a 2K file may take a dozen
                swaps -- or, worse, an infinite number of swaps.  (I'm
                serious.  After 25 swaps for a 2K file, I decided something
                was wrong.  After rebooting, I found that the file had
                COPYed correctly; apparently, COPY doesn't know when it's
                done.)
DELETE          Annihilate file(s).  Here's another of my favorite things:
                you can delete up to nine files on a single DELETE line.
DISKCOPY        Copy a disk, track by track.
ED              Full-screen editor.  I'll post ED commands later.
INSTALL         Put the system onto a disk.  Equivalent to MSDOS's SYS.
LAB <label>     Label for SKIP command in EXEC files.
LOADWB          Invoke WorkBench.  The WorkBench backdrop will appear behind
                the CLI window from which LOADWB was typed.
NEWCLI          Open a NEWCLI window.
PROTECT         Protect or unprotect a file from deletion.
RELABEL         Define synonym for a mounted disk, i.e. rename a disk
                temporarily.
                I like to RELABEL my Graphics Demonstrations disk as G.
IF..ELSE..ENDIF Conditional execution of a group of lines.  Be sure to put
                the keywords IF, etc. on lines by themselves.  ELSE is
                optional.  Currently, IF supports not, warn, fail, eq, exists.
                (I sure wish I could prompt the user and let IF check the
                response.)
FAILAT          Instruct program to end if the error code equals or exceeds
                the parameter.
FILENOTE        Add comment to INFO file.  Note that you can't do this
                from WorkBench, until Amiga fixes the bug.
SKIP label      Goto <label>, as defined by LAB.  You can only SKIP ahead.
STACK           Set stack size.  Defaults to 4K-bytes.  You need 8K for ABasiC.
TYPE            Dump file contents to the console.  You can use TYPE on
                non-text files, but it usually sets the font to
                gibberish, so you have to ENDCLI and get a new CLI.
WHY             Ask Amiga why the last program bombed.  It generally
                won't know, though.
FRAGS           List how memory is allocated.  This has something to do
                with the fact that Amiga allocates memory dynamically.
AVAIL           How much memory do we have?  This command is better than
                the so-called memory meter in WorkBench, because it
                also tells you the largest contiguous block of memory.
                You could have 1M-byte (sigh) of available memory, but
                if it's in 2K chunks, you're sunk.  (I've loaded programs
                into RAM: and deleted programs from RAM:.  The memory
                meter said 250K, but I still couldn't run Robo 'cause
                the 250K was really two 125K blocks.)
STRIPA          Hmm.  Maybe it strips off the high bit.
DOWNLOAD        Sounds like it'll download programs from a mainframe,
                but I don't have a modem yet so I can't check.