User`s guide

Issuing Commands

A prompt character, a period at the left margin of the terminal screen or printer,

appears whenever KMON is ready for you to type a command. Usually command

examples begin with that prompt character.

After typing a command, you issue or execute it by pressing

RETURN

. This is

sometimes indicated in a command example by the abbreviated

RET

symbol.

Most of the command descriptions in this manual presume that you press

RETURN

issue a command. However, the Introduction to RT–11, a tutorial on how to use the

operating system, includes the abbreviated

RET

symbol in all its command examples.

Getting Help with Issuing Commands

For on-line command descriptions, issue the HELP command. The command HELP

* displays a summary listing of all DCL commands with a description of each. See

the HELP description in this manual for more information.

If you get an error message that you do not understand, see the RT–11 System

Message Manual. That manual lists each error message in alphabetical order with

an explanation of each and how to deal with the situation.

Issuing Incomplete Commands

RT–11 accepts commands as either a complete string containing all information

necessary to execute a command or a partial string. In the latter case, RT–11

prompts you to supply the rest of the information. For example, if you issued the

command PRINT without any ﬁle parameters, RT–11 would prompt Files? and wait

for you to type in what you wanted printed:

.PRINT

RET

Files?

Continuing Commands on More Than One Line

You can use a hyphen at the end of a command line to continue the command to the

next line. However, the entire command line, including wildcard ﬁle names and types

and default devices, must include no more than 80 characters. For example, the

following DCL command copies three input ﬁles to the output ﬁle DK:OUTFIL.TXT:

.COPY/CONCATENATE MYFIL1.TXT,RK0:MYFIL2.TXT,-

MYFIL3.TXT DK:OUTFIL.TXT

Using the Type-Ahead Feature When Issuing a Command

The monitor has a type-ahead feature that lets you enter terminal input while a

program is executing. For example, you can issue the DIRECTORY command and

while the ﬁles are being displayed on your terminal, you can issue another command;

for example, DATE. RT–11 stores your second command in a buffer and executes

it when RT–11 completes the ﬁrst operation. As soon as the directory listing is

completed, RT–11 will execute the DATE command by displaying the date.

1–4 Using RT–11 Commands