Monday 21-Sep-92 15:20:38

AXSH(1)                   USER COMMANDS			Version 1.26


NAME
	AXsh - a shell (command interpreter)

SYNOPSIS
	AXsh

DESCRIPTION
	AXsh, the AXshell, is a command  interpreter with a number of
	convenient  features for interactive use that  are or are not
	available with the standard AmigaDOS shell, including command
	aliasing,history events, variables, filename and command name
	completion , shell level protections and a number of built-in
	commands.

OPTIONS
	-con	Turn off carrier checking (console mode)

	-log	Keep log (AXsh:etc/adm/log.*)

	-user <user>
			Accepts user without asking the password. Account for
			the  user  must still exist in /etc/passwd.  In  this
			mode  "login"  command  causes  relogin with the same
			login  name.  This  option is useful with closed UUCP
			systems.

Command Line Parsing
	A  simple  command  is  composed of a sequence of words.  The
	first word specifies the command to be executed. One line can
	have several commands separated with a semicolon (";").

Variable substitution
	In case '$' is encountered, it is treated as an environmental
	variable  and  the  variable is replaced by its value. If the
	variable  is  to  be part of a word, it must be surrounded by
	braces of some kind.  The substitution is not done inside the
	quotes .  List  of  the reserved and special variables may be
	found elsewhere in this document.

	$name		Normal type, will (usually) select the whole
			variable as is.
	$name[select]	Selects only one word from the variable.
			Numbering starts from zero. If the referenced
			word doesn't exist,a NULL string is returned.
	${name}[select]	When the variable name contains spaces or '['
			chars , it must be surrounded by braces.  Any
			pair of "()", "[]" and "{}" are considered as
			braces.
	examples:

	> echo $user
	root
	> echo ${tty}/$[host] $(quota)kB
	con7/amiga.pasbox.fi 30kB

	> echo ${s p a c e}

	You can still use $-sign by doubling it ($$->$).  Another way
	to use $-sign is to preceed it with a back-slash (\).

	There is a special variable: $< , which reads a line from the
	standard  input and that line is appended to the command line
	as is.

	Each variable is inserted as a single argument, even if it
	consists of several words. If you want to add something to the
	same argument, you can use e.g.

		$[var1]" text "$var2	"a"\"$[var]\""b"

Command Separator
	If  you  want  to execute several commands from a single line
	you  can use ';' as a delimiter. This command separator works
	only with command line, not from scripts.

	In script files semicolon is used as a comment-mark!

	e.g. "cd arc: ; ls"

	If  you want to use semicolon somewhere else, preceed it with
	a backslash: "\;". The same with any other special character.

	e.g. "echo ls \; more file\ name ; ls ; more file\ name"

History Events
	History events allows you to call for already typed lines for
	editing.  You  can use either cursor keys up/down or type the
	!-character  and  the  command number. History numbers can be
	found  out  with  the 'history'-command,which is built in the
	getline-routine.  The  number  of  history-lines is fixed and
	cannot be set by user.

Command, history, directory and filename completion
	The  command line editor offers you the ability to complete a
	partial  filename  by  pressing TAB (^I). If the name matches
	several  files  or directories, expansion is made only to the
	extent it can be made and a BELL (^G) is printed.

	If you apply TAB (^I) to the first word on a line,the word is
	treated  as a command and the completion is made accordingly.
	If no perfect match was found on the command set , a filename
	completion is tried. Remember that these actions are separate,
	and  a  partial  completion  may  be  performed  in the ccomp
	routine  before  passing  the partial filename to fcomp.  You
	can do completions on redirections too.

	History  completions are also possible.  This function can be
	invoked using shift+crsr up.  It behaves like fcomp and beeps
	for a partial completion.

Aliases
	The AX shell maintains a list of aliases that you can create,
	display  and modify using the alias and unalias commands. The
	shell  checks the beginning of each command line to see if it
	matches a name of an existing alias.  If it does, the command
	is reprocessed with the alias definition replacing its name.

	Aliases  shouldn't be nested .  An alias definition shouldn't
	contain another alias as the first command, because the alias
	substitution is made only once for each command. So,recursive
	aliases  are  not  possible , but looping aliases are easy to
	create. To break such loop, you may have to send successive
	BREAKs (^C) for undefined period of time (depending on the
	command inside the loop).
		(ex. alias loop wait 10\;loop)

	You cannot make an alias for strings 'alias' or 'unalias', so
	these commands are always accessible.

	Aliases  are  case-sensitive,  so  you can escape an alias by
	typing the command using a different case.

I/O Redirection
	The  following metachars indicate that the subsequent word is
	the name  of a file to which the command's standard output is
	redirected. Standard input cannot yet be redirected.
	Redirection does not work with all of the shell builtins.

	>	Redirect  the standard output to a file . If the file
		does not exist, it is created. If it does exist,it is
		overwritten; its previous contents are lost.

	>>	Append the standard output. Like >, but places output
		at the end of the file rather than overwriting it. If
		the file does not to exist, it is created.

Command Execution
	If  the  command is a AXshell built-in, the shell executes it
	directly.   Otherwise,  the shell searches for a file by that
	name with execute permission.  If the command-name contains a
	/  or  a  :  the shell takes it as a pathname, but completely
	ignores it. This way unsecure commands won't be executed. You
	can also use this feature to supress alias-replacement.

	e.g. c:dir would use the command 'dir', not the alias for dir

	For superusers in local (console) mode things are not as
	simple. Paths are used as is.

Signal Handling
	The  AXshell normally ignores all signals.  Ctrl-D is checked
	only if the ignoreeof-variable it SET. Ctrl-C it not yet used
	for anything .  It is upto the running program to acknowledge
	break signals.  AXsh will exit if it detects an EOF situation
	or a loss of carrier.  If  you  open  AXsh in a window with a
	close-gadget, it can also be used to make AXsh exit.

Directory and filename expansion
	The  shell expands all arguments containing ':' or '/' chars.
	This  way  all external commands get the right parameters and
	you  still  have  a consistent referencing in filesystem: you
	can use '~/' to refer to home dir in any command.

	This expansion can be turned off by defining the 'f'-flag for
	the command in AXsh:etc/rc.  This  means that the argument is
	not a filename.

	Wildcard expansion isn't made by AXsh,but the command itself,
	if it supports wildcards. This may change in the future.

Built-In Commands
	Built-in commands are executed within the AXshell.

	;	Null command.This command is interpreted,but performs
		no action.  Actually this contains two null-commands.
		In script files semicolon is used as a comment mark.

	alias [ name [ def ] ]
		Assign "def" to the alias name. "name" is not allowed
		to be "alias" or "unalias" .  If def is omitted , the
		alias  name  is  displayed  along  with  its  current
		definition. If both the name and def are omitted, all
		aliases are displayed. The name is the first argument
		and the definition is the second.

		e.g. alias help "man axsh"

		You can remove all aliases with "alias clear".

	cd [ dir ]
		Change  the  shell's  working  directory to directory
		dir.   If  no  argument  is given, change to the home
		directory of the user. ~ denotes home directory and :
		denotes  the  root  directory  of the current working
		directory.  '..' is the parent directory and / is the
		AXsh: assign or disk.

		"cd" may be omitted ,  if there is no command mathing
		the directory name.

	echo	Just prints out everything to the output. Mainly used
		on  script files for output.  The trailing newline is
		not printed if the first argument is "-n" or the last
		argument is "noline".

		Example: echo $realname has logged on $host

	execute script-file
		Get the commands from a specified file. The execution
		continues  until  the end of file is reached or if an
		error occurs. Empty lines are skipped. Scripts can be
		nested, but the recursion depth is limited.

		Currently you cannot redirect the output of a script.

		"execute" may be omitted, if there is no command with
		the same name as the script-file nor a directory with
		the same name (currently this is impossible in Amiga).
		"execute" still appears as the zeroth argument to the
		script. The script file bit must be set if you plan to
		start the script with only its name.

	exit	The shell exits and hangs up.

	ftp file [file2 ..]
		Will copy the file(s) to the home directory.

	internal
		Lists all internal commands. It is still possible that
		they aren't allowed to all users, depending on /etc/rc.

	login	Terminate a login and initiate a new one.

	protect modes file [file2 ..]
		Parses the mode argument and then sets the protection
		bits accordingly. You can set, clear and toggle ANY
		defined bit, including group and world protection
		bits.

		e.g.	protect go+r-w /etc/systemaliases

		However, THESE BITS ARE NOT USED in AXsh yet, but ls
		shows them.

	quit	A null-command. Otherwise used to exit scripts.

	quota	Shows  home  filesystem , number of files used , disk
		space used and usage limit. Will return warning level
		(5) if the quota is exceeded.

	set [ var [ definition ] ]
		Create or modify a shell variable.  There are several
		predefined ones that cannot be changed and some, with
		whom the changes are discarded. Actually all variables
		are  currently  environmental  variables, but this is
		supposed to change.

		The variable name is the first argument and the
		definition is the second.

		e.g. set HELP "cat /etc/motd\n"

		-- System variables:

		user		user's login name
		tty		which terminal 'line' the user uses
		accesslevel	just what it says.
		realname	full name of the user
		home		user's home directory
		host		current host name
		dosv		system version
		intime		time the user has been logged in (mins)

		-- Special variables:
		autologout	in minutes - time between keystrokes
				in AXsh for automatic logout.

		language	What catalog to use. If the language
				is not found or the variable is not
				set, English is used.

				Currently you can select one of these:
				 suomi		(Finnish)
				 français	(French)
				 dansk		(Danish)

		cwd	 current working directory
		quota	 disk space currently used (in kB)
		lasterr	 return code from the last command
		ioerr	 IoErr() returned by the last external command
			 Lasterr and ioerr are not seen in the variable list.

		term	 terminal emulation (vt100 or ansi, def:ansi)
		rows	 number of rows on terminal (default: 24)
		visual	 name of the full screen editor (def: editor)
		edscroll scroll length in lines (in editor)
		prompt	 the prompt format:
			 Variables:
			   %%	% itself
			   %d	current working directory
			   %h	command counter
			   %l	line (terminal)
			   %M	hostname
			   %q	actual quota/limit
			   %r	full name
			   %t	time (full time now, might change)
			   %u	username
			   %i	intime (in minutes)

			 C-style special codes:
			   \e	ESC
			   \t	TAB
			   \n	Newline
			   \r	CR
			   \a	BEL

			 Control codes:
			   ^L	Ctrl-l
			   ^G	Ctrl-g
			   etc..

			 any other character as is, default prompt
			 is "%h.%d> "
			 Example: "\e[1m(%u)\e[m %%%h \e[7m%d\e[m > "

		ignoreeof
			 if this variable is set, ^D will do exit..
			 It is actually reversed from the tcsh.

		HELP	 You can create macros by defining these
		F1	 variables. e.g.
		..		set F1 "^a^d^d^d^drm^e"
		F20	 will goto start of line, delete 4 chars, add
			 "rm" and goto end of line when you press F1.
			 C-style codes and control characters are like in
			 the prompt.

		-- Special variables in scripts --

		argument Works only with a word specifier, not as $argument.
			 argument[0] is 'execute', argument[1] is the
			 script name (possibly including path) etc.
			 This variable is not seen in the variable list.

	sysinfo	Print out some information about the OS version etc.

	unalias word [word2 .. [wordn]]
		Discard one or more aliases.

	unset var [var2 .. [varn] ]
		Discard one or more shell variables.

	upload file [file2 ..]
		Copies the file(s) to the system upload directory.

	uptime	Displays uptime and system load information.

	wait time
		Goto sleep for time (in seconds). Wait can be stopped
		with a keypress.

	which command
		Will show from where the command is executed. e.g.

		%14 (root) AXsh:home/root/ 169 > which dir
		AXsh ALIAS
		DH0:Oldsys/C/Dir
		c:dir

		Dir is an alias, but otherwise DH0:oldsys/c/dir would
		have been executed. There is also another dir in the
		command search path, c:dir.

	who	Displays uptime and load information with a list of the
		users currently logged in.

	whoami	Print out your current login name

	write user text [text ..]
		Will send the text to another user in the system.
		If the user is not logged in, an error message is
		displayed instead.

Special script file commands

	The if-construct is a bit lame, but there simply are some
	more important features to think about..

	if	Keywords for if-else-endif -contruct.
	else	The condition can be one of the forms :
	endif		"foo" == "foo"
			"bar" != "foobar"
			exists file

		If you use variable, the form depends on the variable
		   $var != "foo" will become:
		   "" != "foo"	, if the variable is empty and
		   var != "foo"	, if the variable is unset

	goto label
		Jumps to a defined label. It is an error if the label
		doesn't exist.

	quit	Exits the script

	label: [command]
		Command  labeling .  The command is optional, and the
		label is ignored in the command execution. A label
		name cannot have spaces in it.

	; comment
		Commenting. Starts a comment which proceeds to the
		next end-of-line.

FILES
	/bin/AXsh	AXsh executable
	/etc/rc		Configuration file
	~/.lastlogin	Showed by the login shell at login.
	~/.logout	Script file which is EXECUTEd on every logout
	~/.login	Script file which is EXECUTEd on every login

SEE ALSO
	login, exit, cd, execute