Issuing Commands in the Command Line

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# Issuing Commands in the Command Line

Initially, the command line is not shown. For information on how to display it, see Command Line in the section Elements of the Natural Studio Window.

This document covers the following topics:

- What Can be Entered in the Command Line

- Command Execution

- Asterisk Notation

## What Can be Entered in the Command Line

You can execute the following directly from the Command drop-down list box which is part of the command line.

- Natural System Commands
  In most cases, a system command can be issued using the menu bar, a context menu or a toolbar button. However, there are scenarios where applying commands with the command line is useful. This is especially the case for commands which do not depend on the current context. An example of such a command is `GLOBALS XREF=ON` which is used to set global settings (generation of XRef data for Natural). An example of a system command which does depend on the context is `STOW` which acts on the current object (this can be an active editor window or the current selection in the library workspace).

  See also Asterisk Notation below.

- Natural Utilities
  You can invoke Natural utilities which are available for the Windows environment but for which a menu command is not provided in Natural Studio. For example, when you enter "SYSMAIN" in the command line, the dialog box for this utility appears (see the Tools and Utilities documentation for further information).

  When working in a remote environment on a development server (only available in a SPoD environment), you can invoke utilities that can only be used in this environment and for which a graphical user interface is not provided in Natural Studio. `SYSBPM` is an example of such a utility (see the Natural for z/OS documentation for further information). When you invoke this utility, either the Natural Web I/O Interface client or a terminal emulation window is used to show its character-based screen. See Natural Web I/O Interface Client and Terminal Emulation in the Remote Development Using SPoD documentation for further information.

- Generated Programs and Dialogs
  You can enter the name of a generated program or dialog in the command line. When it can be found in the current library, it is executed.

## Command Execution

Natural Studio saves each character string you enter in the command line for the current session. The drop-down list box contains your last entries (history).

To issue a command in the command line

1. Type the command in the text box of the Command drop-down list box.

   Or:
   When the mouse pointer is positioned on the Command drop-down list box, you can also use the right mouse button to invoke a context menu. Using the commands from this context menu, you can, for example, paste a text string into the command line.

   Note
   In addition to the standard Windows editing commands such as Cut and Paste, the context menu may also contain Windows commands for Unicode. See your Windows documentation for further information.

2. Press ENTER to execute the command.

To issue a command using the command line history

1. Open the Command drop-down list box and select an entry.

   Or:
   Enter the first character of a command that you have previously entered in the text box of the Command drop-down list box. The corresponding command automatically appears in the text box. When you have previously entered several commands which start with the same letter(s), the command that has been entered last appears in the text box.

2. Press ENTER to execute the command once more.

## Asterisk Notation

Many Natural functions display lists of objects. Usually these lists contain all objects available (for example, all objects of a given type, all objects in a given library, etc.). If you do not wish all objects to be listed, but only a certain range of objects, you may specify that range by using asterisk notation.

By specifying a parameter value followed by an asterisk (*) you can get a list of only those objects whose names (or IDs or whatever the parameter is) begin with that value. This option to enter a value followed by an asterisk is referred to as asterisk notation.

#### Example 1

If you enter the system command `SCRATCH` without any parameters:

    SCRATCH

you will get a list of all objects in the current library. You can then select the objects which are to be deleted.

#### Example 2

If you enter the system command `SCRATCH` as follows:

    SCRATCH BOC*

you will get a list of only those objects in the current library whose names begin with "BOC". You can then select the objects which are to be deleted.

### On this page

- What Can be Entered in the Command Line
- Command Execution
- Asterisk Notation