====== Command Line Interface ======
===== Introduction =====
A **command-line interface (CLI)** is a mechanism for interacting with a computer operating system or software by typing commands to perform specific tasks.  This text-only interface contrasts with the use of a mouse pointer with a **graphical user interface** (**GUI**) to click on options, or menus on a text user interface (TUI) to select options. The default command-line interface used by minix is **Almquist shell** (also known as **A Shell**, **ash** and **sh**) which was originally Kenneth Almquist's clone of the SVR4-variant of the Bourne shell; it is a fast, small, POSIX-compatible Unix shell designed to replace the Bourne shell in later BSD distributions.

{{http://www.in-ulm.de/~mascheck/various/ash/ash.png|Illustration of the family tree|width=850}}

===== Function key mappings  =====
| **key**  |**Description**                  |
| F1         |Kernel processes table             |
| F2         |Processes memory maps              |
| F3         |System Image                       |
| F4         |Processes privileges               |
| F5         |Boot monitor parameters            |
| F6         |IRQ hooks and policies             |
| F7         |Kernel messages                    |
| F8         |VM status and process maps         |
| F10        |Kernel parameters                  |
| F11        |Timing details (if enabled)        |
| Shift + F1 |Process manager process table      |
| Shift + F2 |Signals                            |
| Shift + F3 |Filesystem process table           |
| Shift + F4 |Device/Driver mapping              |
| Shift + F5 |Print keys mappings                |
| Shift + F6 |Reincarnation server process table |
| Shift + F8 |Data store contents                |
| Shift + F9 |Processes with stack traces        |

**Note:** Function keys are only valid from the first console (ttyc0).

===== Useful Command Lines (Shell) =====
  - **man** **man** -- an interface to the online reference manuals.
  - **passwd** -- change (own) password.
    - **passwd user** change the password of user //user// (root only)
  - **ls** -- list directory contents.
    - **ls -al** -- long list
    - **ls -alt** -- long list, sorted by modification time
    - **ls -alS** -- long list (GNU/Linux only), sorted by file size
  - **cd directory** -- change to directory
    - **cd** -- change to default/home directory
    - **pwd** -- show current directory
  - Basic File Utilities
    - **cp file1 file2** -- copy file1 to file2
    - **rm file1** -- remove (delete) file1
    - **mv file1 file2** move (change) file1 to file2
    - **mkdir dir** make directory dir
    - **rmdir dir** remove directory dir
  - More File Utilities
    - **cat file** -- read a file
    - **more file** -- read a file per screen
    - **ln -s -- file sfile** -- make a symbolic link from file to sfile
    - **grep aword file** -- search string aword inside file using regular expression
    - **sort file** -- sort a file