## Shell Command Line Parameters

Parameters are generally used to either specify file name(s) or to select options to be used by the program specified in the command line given to the shell. Parameters are separated from the command name and from each other by space characters (hence parameters and options cannot themselves include spaces). Each command program supplied with OS-9 has an individual description in the last section of this manual which describe the correct usage of the parameters of each command.

For example, the list program is used to display the contents of a text file on your display. It is necessary to tell to the list program which file it is to be displayed, therefore, the name of the desired file is given as a parameter in the command line. For example, to list the file called startup (the system initialization procedure file), you enter the command line:

    list startup

Some commands have two parameters. For example, the copy command is used to make an exact copy of a file. It requires two parameters: The name of the file to be copied and the name of the file which is to be the copy, for example:

    copy startup newstartup

Other commands have parameters which select options. For example:

    dir

shows the names of the files in the user's data directory. Normally it simply lists the file names only, but if the “e” (for entire) option is given, it will also give complete statistics for each file such as the date and time created, size, security codes, etc. To do so enter:

    dir e

The dir command also can accept a file name as a parameter which specifies a directory file other than the (default) data directory. For example, to list file names in the directory sys , type:

    dir sys

It is also possible to specify both a directory name parameter and the `e` option, such as:

    dir sys e

giving file names and complete statistics.