commands -- Overview

The following lists the  commands included with COHERENT.  The command name
is given on the left and a description on the right.

CD-ROM Commands

The following commands let you manipulate a CD-ROM device.

cdplayer.......Play audio CDs
cdv............Interface to CD-ROM devices
cdview.........Read a file from a CD-ROM

Communications

The following  commands let you  exchange information with  other users and
other systems.

ckermit........Interactive inter-system communication and file transfer
cu.............UNIX-compatible interactive communications program
mail...........Send/read electronic mail
mesg...........Permit/deny messages from other users
msg............Send a brief message to other users
msgs...........Read messages intended for all COHERENT users
uucico.........Connect to a remote system
uucp...........Copy a file to or from a remote system
wall...........Send a message to all logged in users
write..........Converse with another user

De-fragmentation Commands

The  following   commands  give  you   information  about  the   degree  of
fragmentation shown by a file system's  free list.  They can also rebuild a
file system, to de-fragment it and  so greatly the speed with which you can
read and write it.

dpac...........De-fragment a COHERENT file system
fmap...........Measure fragmentation of the free list
qpac...........Map the file system
spac...........Sort a file system
upac...........De-fragment a file system without sorting

Directory and File Handling

The  following commands  let you create,  remove, and  otherwise manipulate
files and directories.

cat............Concatenate a file to the standard output
cd.............Change directory
chgrp..........Change the group owner of a file
chmod..........Change the modes of a file
chmog..........Change mode, ownership, and group of a file
chown..........Change ownership of a file
cmp............Compare bytes of two files
compress.......Compress a file
cp.............Copy a file
cpdir..........Copy directory hierarchy
dd.............Convert the contents of a file
dos............Manipulate files on MS-DOS file systems
doscat.........Concatenate a file on an MS-DOS file system
doscp..........Copy files to/from an MS-DOS file system
doscpdir.......Copy directories to/from an MS-DOS file system
dosdir.........List the contents of an MS-DOS directory
dosdel.........Delete a file from an MS-DOS file system
dosformat......Build an MS-DOS file system on a floppy disk
doslabel.......Label an MS-DOS floppy disk
dosls..........List files on an MS-DOS file system
dosmkdir.......Create a directory in an MS-DOS file system
dosrm..........Remove a file from an MS-DOS file system
dosrmdir.......Remove a directory from an MS-DOS file system
fdisk..........View/change hard-disk partitioning
file...........Name a file's type
find...........Search for files satisfying a pattern
gzip...........GNU utility to compress files
gunzip.........GNU utility to uncompress files
l..............List directory's contents in long format
lc.............List directory's contents in columnar format
lf.............List directory's contents in columnar format
ln.............Create a link to a file
lr.............List subdirectorys' contents in columnar format
ls.............List directory's contents
lx.............List directory's contents in columnar format
mkdir..........Create a directory
mv.............Rename files or directories
mvdir..........Rename a directory
pwd............Print the name of the current directory
qfind..........Quickly find all files with a given name
rm.............Remove files
rmdir..........Remove directories
touch..........Update modification time of a file
uncompress.....Uncompress a file
unpack.........GNU utility to uncompress files
unzip..........Unzip a zipped archive
whereis........Locate source, binary, and manual files
which..........Locate executable files
zcat...........Concatenate a compressed file
zcmp...........Compare compressed files
zforce.........Force the suffix .gz onto every gzip file
znew...........Recompress .Z files to .gz files

Editors

COHERENT includes a number of text editors, to suit a variety of tastes.

ed.............Interactive line editor
elvis..........Berkeley-style screen editor
emacs..........COHERENT screen editor
ex.............Berkeley-style line editor
me.............COHERENT screen editor
sed............Stream editor
vi.............Berkeley-style screen editor

Games

The following commands are just for fun.

almanac........Print an almanac entry for this date
banner.........Print large sized letters
cal............Print a calendar
chase..........Highly amusing video game
fortune........Print randomly selected, hopefully humorous, text
guess..........Extraordinarily amusing guessing game
lines..........Highly amusing board game
moo............Greatly amusing numeric guessing game
rubik..........Play Rubik's cube
ttt............Three-dimensional tic-tac-toe

Kernel Tools

The following  commands let you configure the COHERENT  kernel, and build a
new bootable kernel:

asypatch.......Patch a kernel file for an asynchronous configuration
cohtune........Set a variable within a device driver
idbld..........Reconfigure the COHERENT kernel
idenable.......Enable or disable a device driver
idmkcoh........Build a new kernel
idtune.........Set a tunable system value
patch..........Patch a variable or flag within the kernel

Languages and Programming Tools

The  COHERENT  system comes  with  a  number of  languages,  and tools  for
debugging and maintaining your programs.

as.............Mark Williams assembler
asfix..........Convert file to 80386 as form
awk............Report generation, pattern scanning, and processing language
cc.............C-language compiler
cdmp...........Dump COFF files into a readable form
conv...........Numeric base converter
cpp............C preprocessor
db.............Assembly-level symbolic debugger
ld.............Link relocatable object files
lex............Lexical analyzer generator
m4.............Macro processor
make...........Program building discipline
makedepend.....Generate list of dependencies for a makefile
nm.............Print a program's symbol table
od.............Print an octal dump of a file
prof...........Print execution profile of a C program
ref............Display a C function header
srcpath........Find source files
size...........Print size of an object file
strip..........Strip symbol tables from executable file
yacc...........Parser generator

Libraries and Archives

The following  commands help  you create  and read libraries  and archives.
These can be used as libraries (such as the libraries used when linking a C
program), or to back up files.

ar.............The object librarian/archiver
cpio...........Archiving/backup utility
dump...........File-system backup utility
dumpdate.......Print dump dates
dumpdir........Print the directory of a dump
gnucpio........Archiving/backup utility
gtar...........Archiving/backup utility
ranlib.........Create index for object library
restor.........Restore file system
tar............Archiving/backup utility

Mail

COHERENT comes with with a full-featured, UNIX-style mail facility based on
the program  smail. This  is described in  the overview article  mail.  The
following  commands perform  mail-related work.   Some  are also  listed in
other sections of this article.  Please note that the descriptions of smail
and rmail are only for those users who wish to manipulate UUCP mailing on a
low level; for most users, the descriptions under the command mail are more
than sufficient.

checkerr.......Check the mail system for errors
cvmail.........Convert stored mail to System V format
getmap.........De-archive Usenet map articles
lmail..........Deliver local mail
mail...........Send/read electronic mail
mailq..........Display information about spooled mail
mkdbm..........Build a data base for smail
mkfnames.......Generate data base of user names
mkhpath........Build a pathalias data base from a hosts table
mkline.........Fold mail data into one-line records
mkpath.........Create a pathalias output file
mksort.........Sort the standard input, allowing arbitrarily long lines
newaliases.....Build the aliases data base from ASCII source
nptx...........Generate permutations of users' full names
pathalias......Generate a set of paths among computers"
pathmerge......Merge sorted paths files
rmail..........Receive mail
rsmtp..........Run batched SMTP mail
runq...........Periodically process the mail queue
savelog........Save a mail log
smail..........Send mail
smtpd..........SMTP daemon

For information  on the configuration  files used by the  smail system, see
the overview article mail, or the article Administering COHERENT.

Printing

The  following  commands help  you  print text.   For  commands that  drive
communications devices,  e.g., modems,  see the section  on Communications,
above.

cancel.........Cancel a print job
chreq..........Change priory, lifetime, or printer for a job
epson..........Prepare a file for an Epson printer
fnkey..........Set/print function keys for the console
hp.............Prepare files for HP LaserJet-compatible printer
hpr............Send to LaserJet printer spooler
hpskip.........Abort/restart current listing on LaserJet
lp.............Spool a job for printing
lpadmin........Administer the lp print-spooler system
lpsched........Print jobs spooled with command lp
lpshut.........Turn off the printer daemon
lpr............Send to line printer spooler
lpskip.........Terminate/restart current line printer listing
lpstat.........Give status of printer or job
pclfont........Prepare a PCL font for downloading via MLP
reprint........Reprint a spooled print job
route..........Show or reset a user's default printer
stty...........Set/print terminal modes

Shell Commands

COHERENT  comes with  two command  interpreters, or  shells: ksh,  the Korn
shell, and sh, the Bourne shell.  The following commands are used either by
the Korn shell, by the Bourne shell, or by both.  Please note that commands
used only  by the Korn shell  are marked by a  dagger `+', whereas commands
used only by the Bourne shell are marked by an asterisk `*'.

alias+.........Set an alias
basename.......Strip path information from a file name
bind+..........Bind key sequence to editing command
break..........Exit from shell construct
builtin+.......Execute a command as a built-in command
case...........Execute commands conditionally according to pattern
cd.............Change directory
continue.......Terminate current iteration of shell construct
dirname........Extract a directory name
dirs*..........Print contents of directory stack
echo...........Repeat an argument
eval...........Evaluate arguments
exec...........Execute command directly
exit...........Exit from a shell
export.........Add a shell variable to the environment
expr...........Compute a command line expression
false..........Unconditional failure
fc+............Edit and re-execute one or more previous commands
for............Execute commands for tokens in list
from...........Generate list of numbers, for use in loop
getopts........Parse command-line options
hash+..........Add a command to the shell's hash table
id.............Print user and group IDs and names
if.............Execute a command conditionally
jobs+..........Print information about jobs
let............Evaluate an expression
nohup..........Run a command while ignoring hangup signals
popd*..........Pop an item from the directory stack
prep...........Produce a word list
print+.........Echo text onto the standard output
pushd*.........Push an item onto the directory stack
read...........Assign values to shell variables
readonly.......Mark a shell variable as read only
set............Set shell option flags and positional parameters
shift..........Shift positional parameters
sleep..........Stop executing for a specified time
tee............Copy input to multiple output streams
test...........Evaluate conditional expression
times..........Print total user and system times
trap...........Execute command on receipt of signal
true...........Unconditional success
typeset+.......Set/list variables and their attributes
umask..........Set the file-creation mask
unalias+.......Remove an alias
unset..........Unset an environmental variable or shell function
until..........Execute commands repeatedly
wait...........Await completion of background process
whence+........List a command's type
while..........Execute commands repeatedly
xargs..........Execute a command with many arguments

String Processing

Some of the most useful  commands are those that process strings.  COHERENT
has  many  commands  that  search  for  strings, manipulate  strings,  sort
strings, and otherwise perform useful manipulations on strings.

c..............Print multi-column output
cgrep..........Pattern search for C programs
comm...........Print common lines
cut............Select portions of each line of a file
detab..........Replace tab characters with spaces
diff...........Summarize differences between two files
diff3..........Summarize differences among three files
egrep..........Extended pattern search
grep...........Pattern search
head...........Print the beginning of a file
join...........Join two data bases
look...........Find matching lines in a sorted file
more...........Display text one screenful at a time
paste..........Merge lines of files
rev............Print text backwards
scat...........Print text files one screenful at a time
sort...........Sort lines of text
split..........Split a text file into smaller files
strings........Print all character strings from a file
tail...........Print the end of a file
tr.............Translate characters
tsort..........Topological sort
uniq...........Remove/count repeated lines in a sorted file
view...........Berkeley-style text viewer
wc.............Count words, lines, and characters in text files
zdiff..........Compare two compressed files
zgrep..........Search compressed files for a regular expression
zmore..........Display compressed text one page at a time

System Accounting

The following commands  help you to keep track of  how your COHERENT system
is working.

ac.............Summarize login accounting information
accton.........Enable/disable process accounting
df.............Measure free space on disk
du.............Summarize disk usage
hmon...........Monitor the COHERENT System
ps.............Print process status
sa.............Print a summary of process accounting
quot...........Summarize file-system usage
time...........Time the execution of a command
times..........Print total user and system times
uulog..........Examine UUCP operations

System Maintenance

These commands help you to maintain your COHERENT system.

asymkdev.......Create nodes for asynchronous devices
at.............Execute commands at given time
bad............Maintain list of bad blocks
badscan........Examine a device for bad blocks
build..........Install COHERENT onto a hard disk
check..........Check file system
clri...........Clear i-node
crontab........Copy a command file into the crontab directory
date...........Print/set the date and time
dcheck.........Check directory consistency
fdformat.......Low-level format a floppy disk
fsck...........Check and repair file systems interactively
icheck.........i-node consistency check
mkfs...........Make a new file system
mknod..........Make a special file or named pipe
mount..........Mount a file system
ncheck.........Print file names corresponding to i-node
newgrp.........Change to a new group
newusr.........Add new user to COHERENT system
reboot.........Reboot the COHERENT system
shutdown.......Shut down the COHERENT system
sync...........Flush system buffers
ttytype........Set default terminal types
umount.........Unmount a file system
uuchk..........Sanity-check the UUCP system

terminfo

COHERENT supports  an implementation of  terminfo, the terminal-description
utility used  under UNIX System  V.  (It also supports  termcap, should you
prefer  to use  that venerable,  but still  useful, system.)  The following
commands help support terminfo:

captoinfo......Convert termcap data to terminfo form
infocmp........De-compile a terminfo binary file
tic............Compile a terminfo description

Text Processors

These commands  help you to  create orderly, attractive  printed text.  For
information on how to print the  output of these commands, see the commands
listed under Device Handling, above.

col............Remove reverse and half line motions
deroff.........Remove text formatting control information
nroff..........Text-formatting language
fmt............Adjust the length of lines in a file of text
fwtable........Build a font-width table from PCL or PostScript font
lcasep.........Convert text to lower case
pr.............Paginate and print files
prps...........Paginate and print files on PostScript printers
PSfont.........Cook an Adobe font into PostScript format
spell..........Find spelling errors
troff..........Extended text-formatting language
typo...........Detect possible typographical and spelling errors

UUCP

The  UUCP commands  lets you  form a  network with  other COHERENT  or UNIX
systems.   Members  of  the network  can  grant  each  other permission  to
exchange mail  and execute  commands on  each others' systems  remotely and
automatically,  without  having  to be  directed  by  a  human being.   The
overview article UUCP describes  the COHERENT UUCP facility in some detail.
The following  commands perform  UUCP-related work;  note that some  of the
commands  listed  here also  are  also  listed in  other  sections of  this
article.

mwcbbs.........Download files from the Mark Williams bulletin board
uuchk..........Sanity-check the UUCP system
uucico.........Connect to a remote system
uuconv.........Convert UUCP configuration files into Taylor format
uucp...........Copy a file to or from a remote system
uudecode.......Decode a transmitted UUCP file
uuencode.......Encode a UUCP file for tranmission
uuinstall......Configure UUCP control files
uumkdir........Create UUCP directories
uulog..........Examine UUCP operations
uumvlog........Archive UUCP log files
uuname.........Print names of recognized systems
uupick.........Pick up a file uploaded from a remote system
uurmlock.......Remove UUCP lock files
uusched........Call all systems that have jobs waiting for them
uuto...........Send a file to a remote system
uutouch........Force polling of a remote site
uux............Execute a command on a remote system
uuxqt..........Execute file as requested by remote system

Miscellaneous

The following commands do not fit  neatly into any of the above categories.
These include  some of the  more interesting and  useful COHERENT commands,
and are worth your attention.

apropos........Find manual pages on a given topic
ATclock........Read/set the AT realtime clock
bc.............Interactive calculator with arbitrary precision
calendar.......Electronic reminder service
chroot.........Change root directory
clear..........Clear your terminal's screen
coh_intro......Tour the COHERENT file system
crypt..........Encrypt/decrypt text
dc.............Desk calculator
disable........Disable a port
elvprsv........Preserve the modified version of a file after a crash
elvrec.........Recover the modified version of a file after a crash
enable.........Enable a port
env............Execute a command in an environment
factor.........Factor a number
findmouse......Examine a port to see if a mouse is plugged into it
ftbad..........Manipulate bad-block list on a floppy-tape cartridge
help...........Print concise description of command
ideinfo........Display information about an IDE disk drive
install........Install a software update onto COHERENT
ipcrm..........Remove an interprocess-communication memory item
ipcs...........Display a snapshot of interprocess communications
kill...........Signal a process
ksh............Invoke the Korn shell
login..........Log in or change user name
makeboot.......Make a bootable floppy disk
man............Display Lexicon entries
mklost+found...Make an enlarged lost+found directory
passwd.........Set/change login password
phone..........Print numbers and addresses from phone directory
script.........Capture a terminal session into a file
sh.............Invoke the Bourne shell
su.............Substitute user id, become superuser
sum............Print checksum of a file
tape...........Manipulate a tape device
tty............Print the user's terminal name
ttystat........Get terminal status
uname..........Print information about the system
units..........Convert units of measure
vsh............Invoke the COHERENT visual shell
who............Print who is logged in
yes............Print infinitely many responses

For more  information on any  of these commands,  see its entry  within the
Lexicon.

See Also

Administering COHERENT,
Programming COHERENT,
Using COHERENT

© 2012 by Stephen A. Ness