Appendix B Qshell versus DOS

This reference is provided for the benefit of those who have used the DOS batch language and need to learn Qshell.

Case Sensitivity

Although Unix shell commands are case-sensitive, that is not true of Qshell. For example, to get a directory listing, you can use either form of the List directory contents (ls) shown here:

ls -l LS -l

However, options are case-sensitive, so the following command is not equivalent to the previous two commands under Qshell:

LS -L

Options (Switches)

DOS options are preceded by the forward slash. Qshell options are preceded by a hyphen, or in some cases, by a plus sign. For example, in DOS, you would add an option to the directory command like this:

C:WINDOWS> dir /p

In Qshell, you would do this:

ls -l

Separation of Tokens

Qshell requires that command-line tokens be separated from one another by white space. DOS permits tokens to immediately follow one another when no confusion arises. So, the following would be acceptable in DOS:

C:WINDOWS> cd C:>

In Qshell, however, it would lead to an error:

/home/THOLT $ cd/ qsh: 001-0014 Command cd/ not found.

Instead, you would need to enter the command as follows :

/home/THOLT $ cd/ / $

Comparison of Commands

The following table gives a list of corresponding DOS and Qshell commands. Keep in mind that these are not exact equivalents ”the Qshell commands do not behave exactly like their DOS counterparts.