Wally Dug's Guide to C

All alone at C:? Join Captain Wally Dug as he sails through the C(LI), passing by some Shells

Many of you have written in to JAM over the past few months asking for an idiot's guide to the CLI and Shell, so, who better to write it for you than the JAM idiot himself? Unfortunately, Steve's away on holiday at the moment, so Jeff asked me to do it instead.

As AmigaDOS is such a huge and complicated beast, I've taken over the whole of the magazine this month in order to make the article easy to follow (No you haven't... I've cut it! - Ed.), so while I'm making a pot of tea, why don't you boot up your copy of Workbench and crack open a shell.

Hard drive owners, you go and get the biscuits while we wait for the floppies.

Everybody ready now? Good! With Workbench 2.0 and above, the C: commands are actually stored in two different places - in Rom (inside your computer) and also in the C: directory of your boot (i.e. Workbench) disk - whereas all you 1.3 and below owners will find every command in one single place - the C: directory of your boot (i.e. Workbench) disk.

Entering a command is very simple - all you do is type in the name of the command in either upper, lower or even a mixture of case at the prompt (the "1.Workbench 4.0:>") and then press the RETURN key (the biggest key on the keyboard; the one that looks like a back-to-front L - what do you mean "I can't find it"? Use your eyes!). If you entered everything correctly, the command will work.

However, if after chewing it over a few times, the computer then spits it back out at you with an error message, don't worry too much - it occasionally happens to me as well! If the computer's reply is "COMMAND NAME: Unknown command", that is just the Amiga's way of saying that you can't spell. On the other hand, if the reply is "Required argument missing", all that you have done is to miss out a particular foible of that command. This, however, is easily solved.

In case you get stuck or confused, a really useful feature of AmigaDOS is the on-line help facility. If you are unsure how to use a command, all you need to do is typeCOMMAND [SPACE] ?and a short summary of that command will appear below containing many, many wonderful ways to use it.

As you read through the article, feel free to type in each command as you come across it. Don't worry if your screen doesn't quite match mine - it'll just be due to slightly different versions of Workbench being used.

ADDBUFFERS - This is, in fact, a safety net for programs and is named after the buffers of a train. ADDBUFFERS simply adds memory to the memory already running a program so that the program won't run out of memory.

ALIAS - This command lets you call other commands by other names in a similar way to RENAME.

ASK - This command asks a question, doesn't it? (See?) (It's happened again, hasn't it?)

ASSIGN - This is a command for the techie programmers out there which gives a sign to the pointer (the current memory location of an assembly program).

BINDDRIVERS - When this is run, it locks all the disk drives (floppy and hard) into their sockets to enable you to move the computer safely.

BREAK - Quite simply, this command will break your computer.

CD - This enables you to access a CDTVCD, PCCD, CD+G, CDMIDI or a conventional music CD via the C: Shell.

CHANGETASKPRI - This obviously changes the taskpri.

COPY - This command will duplicate everything.

DATE - This is here so that sad, pathetic computer people can say "I can't make it tonight - I have a DATE".

DELETE - This will erase the last lette

ECHO - Using this command will create an ECHO ECHO ECHO ECHO.

ED - Jeff Walker.

ENDCLI - See ENDSHELL.

ENDSHELL - See ENDCLI.

EXECUTE - This will cut (i.e. stop) a program.

FAULT - If you type this in to the computer, it will accept the blame for anything at all.

FILENOTE - This handy command will tell you if the current disk that you are accessing is using the old or fast file systems (OFS or FFS).

INFO - This gives you information.

LIST - This will give you a break-down of the code in a particular program.

LOADWB - As we are using the CLI and Shell, you don't need to know about this command.

LOCK - Whereas an IBM PC has a lock and key on the outside of the machine, the Amiga has a far more sophisticated electronic lock on the inside of the machine, accessed via this command.

NEWCLI - See NEWSHELL.

NEWSHELL - See NEWCLI.

PROMPT - This tells you what to type if you, em, oh yes, forget.

PROTECT - This command will keep your data safe from prying eyes.

QUIT - This, er, finishes.

RELABEL - This handy command will automatically put one of those sticky labels correctly onto a disk for you.

RENAME - This command lets you call other commands by other names in a similar way to ALIAS.

RESIDENT - He is in charge of the Nited Tates f Merica.

RUN - Used in conjunction with DATE, this allows you to RUN your DATE home.

SEARCH - And you shall find.

SKIP - This command allows to miss bits out sentences

TYPE - Another handy command, this one, when used with a printer, will allow you to emulate a typewriter.

UNALIAS - This command doesn't let you call other commands by other names in a dissimilar way to ALIAS.

VERSION - This will tell you what kind of Amiga you have (mine's an A5000 Master, of course).

WAIT - The command WAIT causes a delay.

WHY - Because.

Forthcoming attractions: Next month, we'll be using Workbench and I'll be telling you how to open up a window and the month after, we reach our antepenultimate alphabetical AmigaDOS attack when I'll be explaining in minute detail the Empty and Expansion directories as they appear on your original Workbench disks.

Now, do you want to go back to the Article Index or go to the next article?