dclish

Overview ¶

Package dclish A DCL-like command line parser.

From the OpenVMS manual on how to parse a DCL command line.

The following rules apply when entering DCL commands. Refer to Chapter 5 for information about using extended file names in DCL commands.

• Use any combination of uppercase and lowercase letters. The DCL interpreter translates lowercase letters to uppercase. Uppercase and lowercase characters in parameter and qualifier values are equivalent unless enclosed in quotation marks (" ").
• Separate the command name from the first parameter with at least one blank space or a tab.
• Separate each additional parameter from the previous parameter or qualifier with at least one blank space or a tab.
• Begin each qualifier with a slash (/). The slash serves as a separator and need not be preceded by blank spaces or tabs.
• If a parameter or qualifier value includes a blank space or a tab, enclose the parameter or qualifier value in quotation marks.
• You cannot specify null characters (<NUL>) on a DCL command line, even if you enclose the null character in quotation marks.
• Include no more than 127 elements (parameters, qualifiers, and qualifier values) in each command line.
• Each element in a command must not exceed 255 characters. The entire command must not exceed 1024 characters after all symbols1 and lexical functions2 are converted to their values.
• You can abbreviate a command as long as the abbreviated name remains unique among the defined commands on a system. DCL looks only at the first four characters for uniqueness.