Newbie question - 1

[lineha...@gmail.com]

Hi all,

Dowloaded the minix3 virtual machine and the vmware player on a
laptop
that currently has no CD (see Newbie question - 2) and have played
around
with it for a wee while.

A couple of questions have come up - minor annoyances basically and I
wonder
could anybody shed any light on them.

The prompt is "# " which is fine, but if I mistype a command - say

# xyz

I get

xyz: No such file or directory
*

where "* " is the new prompt and it remains the prompt until I type in
a valid
command.

Could someone tell me what this behaviour is about? I've never seen it
with other
shells I've worked with and am just wondering what, *_exactly_* it's
telling me.

It also happens if I type, say "man alias" where the alias command
doesn't exist.
Does the alias command not exist under ash? I would like to alias ls
as
ls -lt or similar.

Thirdly, is there anyway of setting the system so that the Tab key
shows all the
executables beginning with the letter or letters that I have typed
into the line,

i.e. if I type "c" + Tab, then I should be offered cc, chroot, cd....
et cetera. - i.e.
all the possible commands beginning with "c".

It works well - i.e. very bash-like for filename completion but should
be (IMHO)
context sensitive and provide exe names in the right place.

Finally, "Tab" on its own provides a similar (but *_NOT_* identical)
output
to "ls" - finally, what's the difference and why is it there?

I know that these are small questions, but they are niggling me, but I
really
would love to get to grips with the minix3 system and like what I see
so
far.

TIA for any replies, explanations, help, references or URLs.

Rgs.

Paul...

[Erik van der Kouwe]

> I know that these are small questions, but they are niggling me, but I
> really
> would love to get to grips with the minix3 system and like what I see
> so
> far.

These questions are not really about Minix, but rather about its
default shell ash. Run packman and install your favourite shell, such
as bash.

--
With kind regards,
Erik van der Kouwe

[lineha...@gmail.com]

On Jul 20, 8:11 am, "Erik van der Kouwe" <vdkouwe <at> few.vu.nl>
wrote:

> > I know that these are small questions, but they are niggling me, but I
> > really would love to get to grips with the minix3 system and like what I see
> > so far.

> These questions are not really about Minix, but rather about its
> default shell ash. Run packman and install your favourite shell, such
> as bash.

I appreciate this to an extent - however, I did read the
man ash and man sh pages and found nothing about
the prompt and why it changes when a non-existent
command is typed in, or why it does this when one
looks for the man page of a non-existent command.

Googling gave me nothing and neither did anything
else I found on the system itself or the internet.

I appreciate that this is a small "niggle" or quibble
or annoyance, but I would really like to understand
why the system does this - what was the thinking
behind those who wrote this shell?

I you read my other post, you would see that I have
no CDROM and cannot bring files from Windows
to Minix in order to install them. I cannot run
packman either - however, even if I could install
the bash shell, I would like to understand what's
going on. Maybe this behaviour is a good idea,
only I haven't figured out why yet?

I am currently working on resolving the missing
CDROM problem. I am running Minix as a virtual
machine under VMWare, brought onto the Windows
box with a memory stick, but Minix can't pick that
up (or at least I don't know how to do it yet), and
I can't boot from USB devices.

Thanks for your input.

Rgs./mvg

Paul...

> Erik van der Kouwe

[Greg King]

linehan.paul wrote ...
>
> Dowloaded the Minix3 virtual machine and the vmware player on a laptop
> that currently has no CD (see Newbie question - 2), and have played

> around with it for a wee while.

> A couple of questions have come up -- minor annoyances basically, and I
> wonder, could anybody shed any light on them.
>
> The prompt is "# ", which is fine; but, if I mistype a command -- say,

> # xyz
> I get:
> xyz: No such file or directory
> *

> where "* " is the new prompt, and it remains the prompt until I type in

> a valid command.
>
> Could someone tell me what this behaviour is about? I've never seen it

> with other shells I've worked with, and am just wondering what *_exactly_*
> it's telling me.

It is a visual indication that the most recent exit-status is not zero.
(The command "echo $?" shows the number.)

>
> It also happens if I type, say, "man alias", where the alias command

> doesn't exist.
> Does the alias command not exist under ash? I would like to alias ls
> as "ls -lt" or similar.

Ash does not have "alias" -- you must define a function.

>
> Thirdly, is there anyway of setting the system so that the Tab-key

> shows all the executables beginning with the letter or letters

> that I have typed into the line; i.e., if I type "c" + Tab,
> then I should be offered cc, chroot, cd, et. cetera.
> -- i.e., all the possible commands beginning with "c".
> It works well -- i.e., very Bash-like for filename-completion,
> but should be (IMHO) context-sensitive, and provide exe names

> in the right place.
> Finally, "Tab" on its own provides a similar (but *_NOT_* identical)

> output to "ls" -- finally, what's the difference, and why is it there?

Strictly speaking, neither the shell nor "the system" does that! A function
library that does line-editing handles the TAB-key. "Bigger" systems
usually have a library that is called "readline". "Standard" Minix has a
smaller, simpler library that is called "editline" (it has a man page).
"Readline" can know the context of the line that you are editing; "editline"
cannot.