VMS operating system commands

Everything you ever wanted to know about VMS and were afraid to ask

Help with all DCL commands can be found by typing HELP Command. This helper gives a quick guide to some of the commands you may need to know about, to find you way round the system. Note VMS is not case sensitive - use upper or lower case as you wish. Commands may be abbreviated to their first few letters (you need enough letter to be unambiguous, usually 3 by sometimes 2).

DIRECTORIES - gives a guide to your directory structure and how to move around the different directories.
FILES - gives a brief description of file names and how to access them, change them, edit them etc.
COMMANDS - gives a brief description of a few useful DCL commands.

Directories

When you log into the uVAX as user MULTI, your current directory will be $DISK1:[CORR] with subdirectories for different groups to use. Directory names are enclosed in [ ] and subdirectories separated by dots.

$DISK1:[CORR] the top of the Corr group directory tree.
DISK$DATA:[RPFITS.DATA] Rpfits data files.
DISK$DATA:[RPFITS.SCHED] multi sched files
COR$LASER: alias to MBD and SPD dumps

Changing directory

Moving to another directory is done with the command

       SET DEFAULT diskname:[directoryname]

This can be abbreviated to SET DEF [dir] or SD [dir] or (with luck) CD [dir] You can give the full name of the disk and directory.subdirectory eg. SD $DISK1:[CORR.LASER] or you can move relative to your current directory ( . = current, - =up).

current directory       command                result

DISK$DATA:[RPFITS]         SD [.SCHED]        DISK$DATA:[RPFITS.SCHED]
DISK$DATA:[RPFITS.DATA]    SD [-]             DISK$DATA:[RPFITS]
DISK$DATA:[RPFITS.SCHED]   SD [-.DATA]        DISK$DATA:[RPFITS.DATA]

Typing HELP SET DEF at the prompt will give the full VMS help text for this command.

Where am I?

You can find your current position using the command SHOW DEFAULT, which can be abbreviated to SHO DEF or possibly pwd.

Files

File names can be a combination of almost any letters and numbers (a notable exception is +) and consist of a name, a dot, an extension and version number, e.g.} NAME.EXT;1.
No file is ever lost or overwritten, any edit or copy command produces a file with a new version number. A file must be deleted to get rid of it.

File List

To get a list of the files in the current directory use the command DIRECTORY. This can be abbreviated to DIR or maybe ls. More information can be produced by adding modifiers to the command.

DIRECTORY/DATE/SIZE/PAGE (or DIR/DAT/SIZ/PA or DDS/PA) will list the files with their creation date, size in blocks (1 block = 512 bytes), a page at a time.
DIR *.FOR will list all the files in the current directory which have any name (*) and the extension FOR.
DIR/SINCE="1-FEB-1994 17:00" will list all the files in the current directory created since the given date.
DIR/SINCE=YESTERDAY will list all the files in the current directory created since the start of yesterday
DIR/SINCE=5 will list all the files in the current directory created since 5 am on the current day. (Note the VAX is held at GMT).
DIR [CORR...] will list all the files in [CORR] and its subdirectories.

Moving Files

Files can be copied to another directory, or the same directory with another file name with the command COPY. Any part of the dilename (disk, name, extension) that is ommitted will be given th at part of the original name.

COPY TESTL.FOR .OLD will make a copy of TEST.FOR in the current directory, called TEST.OLD. (The original is left unchanged).
COPY [-.DATA]TEST.FOR NEWTEST.FOR copies TEST.FOR in the directory [rpfits.data] (assuming that you are currently in [rpfits.sched]) to NEWTEST.FOR in the current directory.
COPY FILE1.DAT;1+FILE1.DAT;2 FILENEW.DAT copies first version of the file plus second version of the file to FILENEW.DAT.

Commands

The up and down arrows on the keyboard will recall previous commands. These command lines can be edited using the backarrow, and delete keys. The following commands may be useful

COPY srcfile destfile to copy files
RENAME oldfile newfile to move files
SET DEFAULT to change current working directory
SHO DEFAULT to show current working directory
LOGOUT to finish session
ED FILENAME edit file with VMS editor
EMACS FILENAME edit with emacs.
TYPE/PAGE FILENAME type filename, page by page ie more
DELETE FILENAME;VERSION deletes file.
PURGE FILENAME deletes all except the most recent version of a file.
PURGE/KEEP=N FILENAME as above, but keep most recent n versions.
CANPRINT FILENAME Prints TEXT file to Canon printer in observing room
PRINT/QUEUE=CAXTON FILENAME Print POSTSCRIPT file to printer caxton, in Merlin Visitors room.
PRINT/QUEUE=IRIS FILENAME Print POSTSCRIPT file to colour printer iris, in Merlin Visitors room.

More information on these and other VMS commands can be found by typing HELPEditing Typing ED filename will bring up the VAX Editor to create or edit a file. In an existing file you can use the arrow keys to move around, then add new data or delete old data. (The editor always works in insert mode ie anything typed will be inserted at the current cursor position, you can't type over existing data.) Commands are summoned using the right hand key pad (and the small block of keys to the left of this). This makes using the editor from a Unix box rather inadvisable!)

FIND Prompts for string to search for.
SELECT Places a mark in the text. All text between the mark and the current cursor position will be highlighted.
REMOVE Cuts highlighted text and saves it in a paste buffer.
INSERT HERE Insserts the contents of the paste buffer at the current cursor position.
NEXT SCREEN Page down
PREV SCREEN Page up
BACKSPACE Deletes previous character
KEYPAD , Delete character under cursor
PF1, SELECT Cancels SELECT
PF1 then 4 Goto End of file
PF1 then 5 Goto Start of file
PF2 HELP
PF3 Repeats FIND
CTRL-Z EXIT Saves changes and exits editor
CTRL-Z QUIT Exits editor without saving changes
You can also use emacs, as long as you can remember the key commands! Editing a file creates a version of the file with a higher version number. You will always have the last version to go back to if necessary. ( DIR/DATE/SIZE or DDS will show all the files, with version numbers and creation dates).
Last modified: Thu Jun 15 14:01:06 BST 2000