Normal mode commands

[Marco Gerards]

Hi,

Which commands should be added to normal mode?  I can think of the
following ones:

`ls' with the options:

--long  -- Long list
--all   -- Show all files
--human -- File sizes in a human readable format

This command should be an module IMHO.  It's more convenient to use ls
than tab completion to list files.

`boot' which has no options

I think this one should be hard-coded in normal mode.  What about
adding this to command.c like the terminal and rescue commands?

`cat' which has just one argument, a file name

I assume you'd also like this command, otherwise I will explain why
I'd like it.

I'm not sure if this needs to be a separate loadable module or in
command.c.

`cmp' which has just two arguments, the file names

This would be useful in some situations but I think you don't need it
very often so I can make a separate module.

`find' which has one argument, a file name

Is having bash like wildcards useful for PUPA?  It would be nice if
you can use find to locate all your kernels for example, don't you
think?  Something like: "find linux-*" or "find gnumach-*".

For dealing with variables we need some commands:

`set' to list all variables when no argument was given, otherwise you
can do something like:

set foo=bar

pupa_command_execute should be able to parse "foo=bar" directly
without using any additional command.  With `unset', which requires
one argument, you can unset a variable.

This works all the same as bash so most users don't need to learn a
new set of commands.  I think set and unset should be added to
command.c because they are quite important, right?

The same is true for insmod, rmmod and lsmod.

And there are some environment variables that should be supported.
What about these?:

PAGER  --  When set to 1 the pager is on.

PREFIX --  Instead of the prefix command.

ROOT   --  The currently used root.

To be honest, I don't know how this should work.  For my idea it would
be nice if there was a `root' command that checks the root device and
sets the ROOT env. variable.  The rootnoverify won't exist anymore
because the user can set ROOT directly.  I'm sure there are better
ways to do this.  I have never used rootnoverify so all this might be
stupid...

I can add a PS1 and PS2 variable without any trouble if you think that
would be nice.  I won't need it but it's not hard to do.

Obviously I forgot a lot and I hope you all will remind me of things I
should add.  I hope to finish all this in a few days from now.

Thanks,
Marco