This will improve disk access time by setting the size of the cache. Every buffer is equal to 512 bytes. If the number of buffers is very low, disk performance will suffer greatly. Disk benchmark programs will help determine how many buffers to add. Any drive should have a minimum of 30 buffers.

DRIVE name of the device or volume to be affected

BUFFERS number of buffers to add or remove

Alias allows you to create a custom command that replaces another command or a command with arguments. All aliases are lost when rebooting, but aliases can be added to your User-Startup file.

NAME name of the alias to be affected

STRING string of characters to be substituted

This will ask the user to perform some operation, and will receive the following input: Y = YES, N = NO, RETURN = NO. This is used in combination with the IF and WARN commands.

PROMPT query to be asked to the user

This allows the user to assign a short name to a directory or device anywhere on the hard disk. All references to the ASSIGN will be directed to the corresponding directory.

NAME name to be assigned to the directory

TARGET directory to be affected

LIST lists all assignments in memory

EXISTS checks to see if an assign exists

DISMOUNT removes an assignment

DEFER does not verify that the device exists until the first reference to the assignment

PATH does not verify that the device exists until the first reference, and at every reference beyond that

ADD adds a directory to a list of directories that the assignment is made to

REMOVE removes a directory from a list of directories that the assignment is made to

VOLS shows all assignments to volumes

DIRS shows all assignments to directories

DEVICES shows all assignments to devices

This will display the amount of free RAM and the total amount of RAM accessible to the system. This will also display the largest contiguous block of free memory.

CHIP displays only Chip RAM

FAST displays only Fast RAM

TOTAL displays only Total RAM

FLUSH removes all unused devices and libraries from memory

This will add device drivers found in the SYS:Expansion directory.

BREAK is used to halt a process, script, or Commodities Exchange program.

PROCESS process name to be affected

ALL send all break codes

C halt a process

D halt a script file

E halt a Commodity

F unused

This allows you to change directories from the CLI or Shell. Typing the command alone also displays the current directory. With 2.x and up, it is possible to change to a directory simply by typing the directory name.

DIR the directory to be changed to

Any truly multitasking OS uses task priorities to determine how much CPU time the program will use. The higher the priority, the more time it will have. The range of values is -128 to 127, and the default process is 0. All tasks inherit the priority from the Shell it was launched from. It is suggested that all normal tasks maintain a priority less than 10. Priorities, from the user's standpoint, should be used such that CPU intensive programs use lower priorities than less CPU intensive programs. Raising a taks priority will not greatly affect CPU performance unless other CPU intensive processes are running. Use the Status command to list all processes executed from the current Shell.

CUSTOM -1 Used for CPU intensive processes when the user requires access to other programs currently running.

DEFAULT 0 Provides equal access time to most user run processes.

WORKBENCH 1 Uses a higher priority since its primary use is to launch other process.

DISK DEVICES 10 Disk access requires more CPU time. If given a lower priority, disk access times suffers greatly.

INPUT DEVICES 20 Input requires a high priority to ensure the user will always have control over the system.

This will duplicate a file or group of files to another directory or partition. The files retain their original names, unless a new file is specified.

FROM the original file

TO the destination file or directory

ALL copies all files and subdirectories

QUIET do not display status as files are copied

BUF set number of 512 byte buffers

CLONE preserve the date, protection bits, and comment

DATES preserve the date

NOPRO set the protection bits to RWED only

COM preserve the comment

NOREQ do not display any requestors

DATA_CACHE DATA_BURST INST_CACHE INST_BURST
DATACACHE ON
NODATACACHE OFF
INSTCACHE ON
NOINSTCACHE OFF
CACHE ON ON
NOCACHE OFF OFF
DATABURST ON
NODATABURST OFF
INSTBURST ON
NOINSTBURST OFF
BURST ON ON
NOBURST OFF OFF

COPYBACK turns cache copyback mode on

NOCOPYBACK turns cache copyback mode off

EXTERNALCACHE attempts to access external cache

NOEXTERNALCACHE turns external cache off

FASTROM copies KS ROM into 32 BIT RAM

NOFASTROM frees KS stored in RAM

TRAP

NOTRAP

NOMMUTEST

CHECK

Date allows you to display the system time or to alter it. There are two clocks in the Amiga. One is the software clock, and the other is the battery backed clock. If you use the Date command to alter the date, it will alter only the software clock. The software clock cannot survive a cold reboot or power down. To save the date permenantly, use the SetClock SAVE command.

If your Amiga does not have a battery backed clock, then the system date will be set upon booting to the latest date any file on the boot disk was recorded at.

DAY change the current day

DATE change the current date

TIME change the current time

TO specify a file to write the output to

VER specify a file to write the output to

This is used to delete a file or a directory. If a directory is attempted, and that directory contains more files, then the Delete command will return an error. A file with the D protection bit off cannot be deleted. The Delete command does not ask for confirmation before deleting a file. If a file is accidentally deleted, it may be removed using various public domain or commercial utilities. A deleted file is rarely deleted immediately. Instead its disk space is no longer reserved and may be used by other files. The best way to recover a deleted file is to discontinue writing to the partition or device until an undelete utility can be attempted.

FILE the name of the file or directory to be deleted

ALL overrides the error when attempting to delete a directory that is not empty

QUIET redirects screen output to a NIL port

FORCE overrides the D protection bit, allowing you to delete a file that is D protected

This will list the entire contents of files and directories found on a partition or directory.

ALL displays all files contained in all subdirectories

DIRS only displays directories found in the current directory

FILES only displays files found in the current directory

INTER engages in interactive directory listing, prompting for each directory to be listed

Some devices do not offer automatic disk change. This includes 5.25" floppy drives and some removable hard drives. These drives require the use of the DiskChange command to notify the system that a new disk has been inserted. Sometimes altering a disk icon will not redisplay the new image until after rebooting. This command will allow the image to be reread by the Workbench.

DRIVE the device to inspect for disk insertion

The DiskCopy command will duplicate a disk to a new disk, preserving all contents, only if the two disks have similar file structure capabilities. A floppy disk cannot be copied to a hard disk partition with this command, or from DH0: to RAM:, however RAD: can be designed to mimic other devices such as DF0:.

FROM the name of a source or destination device

TO a keyword inserted between the source and the destination names

NOVERIFY overrides the Verify routines, making the disk copy process much faster but unable to check for erros in the transfer

MULTI allows one disk to have multiple destination disks without reinserting the source disk for every new destination disk

NAME overrides the name of the source disk and provides a new name for the destination disk

This command is used to attempt to recover files from a damaged disk. In the event that a disk is damaged, first copy all good files to a good disk that you wish to keep. Then, use DiskDoctor to try and recover the other files. Sometimes it may take more than one attempt to recover files.

DRIVE the name of the volume or device to be repaired

This command is used to display text in the CLI or Shell. It is similar to the PRINT statement in BASIC. All the following parameters are optional.

NOLINE specifies that the cursor will not advance to the next line after displaying the text.

FIRST the position in the string where the text will begin printing.

LEN the number of characters that will be displayed.

TO the file which is to be written to

This is a text editor available for editing scripts, text, and the Startup-Sequence.

This is a text editor available for editing scripts, text, and the Startup-Sequence.

When using the If command, an alternate block may be executed in the event the If statement fails. This is defined by the Else statement.

This will close a CLI or Shell window. If the Workbench is no longer open, and you do not have any other means of opening a new CLI, you will have to reboot in order to open a new CLI. There are programs that allow you to open a new CLI using the keyboard or other shortcuts.

This signifies the end of a block defined by the If command.

This will close a CLI or Shell window. If the Workbench is no longer open, and you do not have any other means of opening a new CLI, you will have to reboot in order to open a new CLI. There are programs that allow you to open a new CLI using the keyboard or other shortcuts.

This defines the end of a Skip block within a script. Execution of the script continues where the EndSkip was located in the script file.

This will perform a mathematical operation. Numbers may be in decimal, hexadecimal, or octal format. Operations may be any of the following:

OPERATOR OPERATION
+ addition
- subtraction
* multiplication
/ division
mod modulo
& AND
| OR
~ NOT
<< left shift
>> right shift
- negation
xor exclusive OR
eqv bitwise equivalence

This will run a script file. If a script file has the script protection bit set to S then the file may also be executed by typing the script name.

FILE specify the filename to be executed

The default error return code required to cease script execution is 10. This command alters the error return code value for which the script will cease execution. An error is an non-zero return value.

When an error message appears that displays an ID code number, Fault may be used to convert the error ID code number into the English text equivalent. Ten ID codes may be entered with each execution.

This will add a comment of up to 80 characters to any file. This comment is used to explain the purpose of the file and is retained when the file is copied or rewritten.

This will return the value of a variable that is stored locally. Local variables are available from the current shell and any shells spawned from that shell.

NAME The name of the variable to be displayed

This will return the value of a variable that is stored globally. Global variables are available from the current shell and all other shells, unlike Local variables.

NAME The name of the variable to be displayed

If a script file is to be executed from the Workbench by double-clicking on it, it may either be done using a Shell Startup file or by using IconX. The icon must be a Project with the Default Tool set to C:IconX or whatever path is used to access IconX.

This is used in a script file to denote the beginning of a conditional block. When the script reaches this command, it will make a decision on whether to perform the block, to perform an alternate block, or to skip the block.

NOT uses the negative value defined by the test equation

WARN returns a TRUE value if the previous return code is greater than or equal to 5

ERROR returns a TRUE value if the previous return code is greater than or equal to 10

FAIL returns a TRUE value if the previous return code is greater than or equal to 20

EQ returns a TRUE value if the preceeding value is equal to the following value

GT returns a TRUE value if the preceeding value is greater than the following value

GE returns a TRUE value if the preceeding value is greater than or equal to the following value

VAL performs a numeric comparison

EXISTS returns a TRUE value if the named file exists

This will display the information available about each mounted device, or for a given device.

DEVICE the device to return information of

Unit DF0:, DH0:, RAM:, etc

Size total space possible, in kilobytes or megabytes

Used amount of blocks used

Free amount of blocks unused

Full percentage of space currently used

Errs number of errors on device surfaces

Status READ/WRITE status

Name System2.x, Empty, etc

This is used to create a bootable disk using the standard Amiga boot block. The boot block defaults to the file system used when formatting the disk. A non-AmigaDOS disk may have a boot block written to it by using the NOBOOT option.

DRIVE the drive or device to install

NOBOOT make a disk non-bootable

CHECK inspects the boot block for standard boot block, and displays output

FFS force use of Fast File System boot block

This is used to interpret the data stored in the Preference files used for the Workbench. It is executed during the Startup Sequence, and only resets the Workbench if all windows are closed that are not Workbench drawers.

This will combine a number of files into the last file name as one larger file containing the smaller files. The destination file cannot use the same filename as any of the other files.

FILE the name of a file to be joined

AS denotes that the following filename is the destination, and may be used in place of TO

TO denotes that the following filename is the destination, and may be used in place of AS

You may set a label in a script file using this command, which the Skip command may search for. The label name must be alphanumeric.

This will list the entire contents of files and directories found on a partition or directory.

This will load the Workbench unless the Workbench is already running. If the Workbench is exited, it may be reloaded using this method. This command is normally executed at the end of the Startup-Sequence.

This command will set the write protect status of a partition. If a partition is locked, files cannot be written or deleted from the partition. If a PASSKEY is used, the same PASSKEY is required to remove the protect status. The protect status is also removed automatically when the computer is rebooted or turned off.

This is used to create a new directory on an existing directory. Multiple directories can be created with one command. This command does not create an icon for the directory, while the Workbench menu function NEW DRAWER will make an icon.

NAME name of the directory to create

A link is able to access a file located in another directory on the same partition. The link is a small file in the current directory that points to the other file. Links are not able to access files on other partitions.

FROM file to be created

TO file to be referenced at any occurance of the FROM file

HARD specify HARD link on some device

FORCE override directory linkage

This is used to make a device availble to the system if it is not currently available. The given device must be defined in DEVS:Mountlist or in a similar file.

DEVICE the name of the device to be mounted

FROM the filename that will provide information on the given device, defauling to DEVS:Mountlist

This will launch a new shell, retaining the same local and global variables of the parent shell. This is identical to the NewShell command and they may be interchanged. It is possible to have various AmigaShells that you may customize. The Shell icon is a Project icon. This allows you to set the default tool to SYS:Sytem/CLI, which is the default Shell tool. Various Shell Project icons can point to this tool. In the S: directory, you will have a file called Shell-Startup. This is addresses as default by a shell. However, you may use the FROM=s:shell-startup.1 tooltype, or a similar variation, to access a script file to be executed upon booting the shell.

WINDOW used to define the characteristics of the newly opened shell window, with the following options available:

CON:x/y/width/height/title/options

x the upper left horizontal coordinate.

y the upper left verticle coordinate.

width the width of the shell window.

height the height of the shell window.

title displayed in the drag bar of the window.

options CLOSE

FROM the filename which is to be executed when a new shell is invoked, defaulting to S:Shell-Startup

This will launch a new shell, retaining the same local and global variables of the parent shell. This is identical to the NewCLI command and they may be interchanged. It is possible to have various AmigaShells that you may customize. The Shell icon is a Project icon. This allows you to set the default tool to SYS:Sytem/CLI, which is the default Shell tool. Various Shell Project icons can point to this tool. In the S: directory, you will have a file called Shell-Startup. This is addresses as default by a shell. However, you may use the FROM=s:shell-startup.1 tooltype, or a similar variation, to access a script file to be executed upon booting the shell.

WINDOW sed to define the characteristics of the newly opened shell window, with the following options available:

CON:x/y/width/height/title/options

x the upper left horizontal coordinate.

y the upper left verticle coordinate.

width the width of the shell window.

height the height of the shell window.

title displayed in the drag bar of the window.

options CLOSE

FROM the filename which is to be executed when a new shell is invoked, defaulting to S:Shell-Startup

Path is used to specify the default search path when each Shell command is executed. For example, if you wish to use the More program from the Shell, the Shell will scan a certain list of directories until it either finds or doesn't find the More program. Since More is in the default path under SYS:Utilities, most users should be able to access it from any directory. To see your current list of search directories, type PATH with no arguments. The current directory is always scanned before any other directories. This is then followed by the C: directory. These cannot be removed from the path list.

PATH specifies the directory to be added

ADD specifies that the directory is to be added to the current path list

SHOW displays the current list of search directories

RESET removes all directories from the path list with the exception of the current directory and C:

REMOVE removes a directory from the path list

QUIET does not open requestors if an unmounted volume is specified

This allows the Shell prompt to be changed. The prompt may contain alphanumeric characters plus certain global variables. The default prompt may be used by entering no string. Any and all strings should be surrounded by double quotation marks to delimit and identify spaces.

" " string delimiters

%N the Shell ID number

%S the current directory

%R the return code from the last command execution

' ' execute the filename within the quotes

PROMPT the string to be used for the prompt, delimited by double quotation marks

This command is used to alter the state of some files as they are stored on disk. It can prevent files from being deleted, used, or overwritten.

FILE filename to change

FLAGS any file may have the following bits set:

Hidden H not viewed normally
Script S text contains executable commands
Pure P re-entrant program
Archive A archived or backed-up
Read R readable
Write W writable
Execute E executable
Delete D deletable

ADD specifies that the bits are to be added

SUB specifies that the bits are to be removed

ALL specifies all data bits to be affected

QUIET redirect output to NIL:

This is used to halt script execution upon the existence of a specific return code. The most common return code values are 0, 5, 10, and 20. The default is 0.

RC the return code value to halt execution on

This will rename a disk partition, volume, or device name in the same way that a file may be renamed. The DRIVE must be followed by a colon, while the NAME is not followed by a colon.

DRIVE the name of the device or volume to be renamed

NAME the new name to be given to the device or volume

This allows you to remove the RAD: device or a similar recoverable RAM disk without turning the computer off. If the drive is busy, you may use the FORCE option.

DRIVE the name of the device or volume to be removed from memory

FORCE override any errors if the device or volume is currently busy

This is used to alter the name of a file or a directory. This may also be used as a Move command, which is in many ways similar to Copy, although the original file is not retained. A file can be renamed as long as the new name does not change the disk or partition that it is placed on.

FROM the name of the original file or directory

AS the name of the destination file or directory; this may be interchanged with the TO keyword

TO the name of the destination file or directory; this may be interchanged with the AS keyword

QUIET suppresses output while renaming files

Resident allows files to be stored in buffers, such that any further access to those files saves disk access and loads from memory instead. It is recommended that files only be made resident if they are Pure, with the P protection BIT set. This means that they may be used by two Shells at the same time and will reduce access time when used more then once. Only a file that is tested properly should be set to Pure.

NAME the name to access the command as after being made resident

FILE the filename to be made resident

REMOVE allows an Internal resident command to be removed

ADD allows one command to be made resident under various resident names

REPLACE allows an Internal resident command to be reactivated

PURE forces Resident to accept a non-pure command

FORCE forces Resident to accept a non-pure command

SYSTEM adds the command to the System list, such that it cannot be removed

This is used to execute a background process that detaches itself from the current shell. The new process will take on the same characteristics of the parent shell, such as the search path. Multiple commands may be executed by placing a + symbol between command names.

COMMAND the name of the command to be executed as a background process

The Search command is used to find a text string located in a text file. This is capable of scanning multiple files in various directories for the string, and will identify which files the string is located in. This may also be used to find a filename using the FILE option.

FROM diretcory or volume to scan

SEARCH string to search for

ALL scan all child directories

NONUM does not report which line number the string is found at

QUIET no output is displayed

QUICK less output is displayed

FILE look for filename as opposed to string in text data

PATTERN allows pattern matching of filenames (filenames must also be specified)

This is used to define a local variable. To access a variable within a shell, place a $ before the variable name. Use the AmigaDOS UnSet command to remove a variable.

NAME the name of the variable

STRING the string to be stored in the variable.

Whenever the software clock is altered with the Date command, the battery backed-up clock is not altered. Since the battery backed-up clock is used to store the time even when the Amiga is turned off, the SetClock command is used to store or retrieve the time and place it in the software clock.

LOAD retrieves the time from the battery backed-up clock to the software clock

SAVE stores the time from the software clock to the battery backed-up clock

RESET resets the battery backed-up clock

If you wish to change the date a file was last altered or created, this command allows the date of a file to be changed to the current system date or a specified date.

FILE name of file to alter

DATE creation date to set the file to

TIME creation time to set the file to

ALL operate on all files in the directory

This is used to define a global variable in the system. The string can be of any length and does not require quotation marks as delimiters. A comment cannot be used on the same line as this command. Global variables can be accessed by placing a $ before their names. The SetENV command with no options will display a list of global variables.

NAME the name of the global variable

STRING the string to be substituted for the named variable

This command defines which non-proportional font is to be used in the current shell window.

NAME The font to be used

SIZE The point size of the given font

SCALE Allows the font images to be scaled

PROP Allows the use of proporionally spaced fonts

ITALIC Displays the font in italics

BOLD Displays the font in bold

UNDERLINE Displays the font with underlines

This allows you to select between various keyboard layouts available in the DEVS:Keymaps directory.

KEYMAP name of keymap to use

cdn French Canadian
ch1 Swiss French
ch2 Swiss German
d German
dk Danish
e Spanish
f French
gb Great Britain
i Italian
is Icelandic
n Norwegian
s Swedish
usa0 American (outdated)
usa1 American
usa2 DVORAK

This will make patches to the operating system, allowing updates and bug fixes to be provided after the software has been released. It is suggested that this be run at the beginning of the Start-Sequence.

QUIET redirect any text output to NIL:

NOCACHE turn off caches on most accelerator cards

This allows a script file to find a label defined using the AmigaDOS Lab command.

LABEL the name of the label to restart executing, defined in the script by the LAB command, and following the Skip command

BACK search either from the beginning of the script or from the last Execute statement

This will take the contents of a given file and sort them, line by line, and output the sorted data to the second file. It defaults to case-insensitive.

FROM The input file

TO The output file

COLSTART Define which column of the text file the sort routine should start sorting at

CASE Set sort method to case-sensitive

NUMERIC Lines are sorted in numerical order, such that any line not beginning with a number is treated as a 0 value

All programs require a certain amount of stack memory. this is used to determine how much any given program will use when executing. Most small program request 4096 bytes of stack space, while larger programs may request more. If the stack is too small, the system may crash. Using too large of a stack space will be wasteful and may limit multitasking capabilities.

SIZE the number of bytes or stack space to reserve for a program

This will display the current commands in memory executed from that particular shell. It is possible to find information regarding these commands in memory, as well as send each command in memory another command from the shell.

PROCESS The process number to display information about

FULL Information on the stack size, priority, vector size, and command information is displayed

CB Same as FULL, minus information on the command

COMMAND Specify a command to search for

This is used to display a text file in the current CLI or Shell. A text file may also be stored as another file using the TO option.

FROM the input filename

TO an optional output filename

OPT options include H for Hexadecimal output or N to number each lines

HEX display in Hexadecimal form

NUMBER list line numbers before each line

This will remove any alias from the list of aliases currently in memory. If no argument is given, it will provide a list of all aliases currently in memory.

NAME the name of the alias to be removed

This will remove a local variable from the list of variables active in memory. If no variable is given, it will provide a list of all active local variables.

NAME the name of the local variable to be removed

This will remove a global variable from the list of variables active in memory. If no variable is given, it will provide a list of all active global variables.

NAME the name of the global variable to be removed

This will scan a file for a version string and display the version number if information is available.

NAME file or device to inspect

VERSION display only version information

REVISION display only revision information

FILE inspect file even if located in memory

FULL display entire version string

UNIT specifies which unit to inspect

INTERNAL inspect internal command list

RES inspect resident command list

This is used to temporarily suspend the script or shell from executing other commands within that script or shell.

SEC number of seconds to wait

MIN number of minutes to wait

UNTIL time of day to discontinue waiting

In order to find a command's location, this will search the list of resident commands, the current directory, the path, and the C: directory.

FILE filename to search for

NORES do not search Resident command list

RES search only the Resident command list

ALL continue searching even after finding a match

This will attempt to display a little information as to why the last command failed to execute.