User's Manual

pulsAR radio Operator’s Manual
4-2
where nnnnn are the last five digits of the radio serial number. The first three characters are an
abbreviation of the node type in the network, which may be: hub, rmt, rt1, rt2, bra, lf. If a node
“name” has been assigned to the node, the prompt will be that name.
The “help” command provides a list of all the commands available. To get more detailed help for a
specific command, type “help command-name”.
The radio keeps a history of several of the previously issued commands. Those commands can be
viewed by pressing the up-arrow and down-arrow keys on the keyboard. Any of those previously
issued commands can then be edited and reentered by pressing the <Enter> key.
4.2 Command syntax
The command interpreter in the pulsAR radio is designed to accommodate both a novice as well as an
expert operator. All commands and parameters have descriptive names so that they are easily
remembered and their meaning is clear. In order to be descriptive however, those commands are
sometimes long. As the operator becomes familiar with the command language, typing the complete
words could become cumbersome. The PulsAR radio command interpreter recognizes any
abbreviations to commands and parameter names, as long as they are unambiguous. If an ambiguous
command is entered, the radio will output all possible choices.
Commands have the following generic form:
command parameter=value parameter=value
You can enter multiple commands in one line by separating them with a semi-colon. If one of the
commands has a syntax error the radio executes all commands up to the one with the syntax error and
discards the remaining commands.
Following is a brief list of syntax rules:
• Words (for commands, parameters, or values) can be abbreviated to a point where they are
unambiguous.
• Some commands or parameters consist of compound words separated by an hyphen. With
compound words, the hyphen is optional. Additionally each word in a compound word can be
abbreviated separately. For example, the following are all valid abbreviations for the command
“save-configuration”: “save”, “savec” s-c” “sc”.
• The parameter and value lists are context sensitive, i.e., in order to solve ambiguities the
command interpreter only considers parameters valid for current command, or values valid for the
current parameter.
• The arguments “parameter=value” must be entered with no blank spaces on either side of the ‘=’
sign. Those arguments (parameter/value pairs) can be listed in any order.
• Even though parameters can be listed in any order, there is a “natural” order known by the
command interpreter. This allows the user to specify parameter values without having to type the
parameter names. For example the command
>spectrum-analysis antenna=a display=table