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A-Shell Reference

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Virtual Command Files

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A-Shell startup command line commands can also be assembled into a virtual command file, consisting of multiple commands separated by '\n'. For example:

ashw32.exe -e LOG BAS:\n:T\nJOBALC\nTIME\nEL -CFG

The above command line (after the -e) is equivalent to the following command file:

:R            ; (this is automatic)

LOG BAS:

:T

JOBALC

TIME

EL -CFG

 

Note that the \n is case sensitive (must be lower). Also note that if using this technique under a Unix shell, you'll need to 'escape' the backslashes by preceding them with a backslash, i.e.:

ashell -e LOG BAS:\\n:T\\nJOBALC\\nTIME\\nEL -CFG

Notes

A-Shell attempts to analyze whether any \n characters occur in something that looks like a filespec. If so, it treats the \n as literal; else it treats it as a line break. For example:

xcall HOSTEX,"$ASHELL log ashtst:\nvue c:\notes \nsize c:\notes.txt"

The above command line contains 4 \n sequences. The first and third are considered not part of filespecs and thus are converted to line breaks. The second and fourth, which are contained in the token c:\notes.txt, which is interpreted as a filespec because it starts with what could be a drive letter.

Note the following tricks and considerations when trying to get "\n" to be treated as a line break:

If you want to follow a filespec with "\n", precede it by a space, as we did in the example above for the "\n" following "vue c:\notes". A trailing or leading space does not usually interfere with the interpretation of a filespec, so that shouldn't cause a problem. Without the space, in the example above, "c:\notes\nsize" would have been considered a single filespec.
Quoting the filespec doesn't help, since the quotes are generally removed by the shell or other command line parser before we get to the code that looks for "\n".
A token is considered to be a filespec if it starts with \\ or with a letter followed by a colon.

History

2005 April, 4.9.927:  Virtual command file handling added to A-Shell