TACL Reference Manual

UTILS:TACL Commands and Functions
HP NonStop TACL Reference Manual—429513-018
8-109
O[BEY] Command
O[BEY] Command
Use the OBEY command to execute a series of TACL commands or built-in functions
contained in a file.
command-file
is either the name of an existing disk file that contains TACL commands or built-in
functions, or the name of a running process.
Considerations
•
If command-file is the name of an existing file, TACL opens the file in read-only
mode and interprets each logical line in the file as a command or command
sequence to be executed.
•
If command-file is the name of an existing process, TACL performs a WRITEREAD
operation, sending the process a prompt of the form “OBEY> ” and waiting for the
process to reply. The response, presumably a command or command sequence
for TACL to execute, can contain as many as 239 characters. TACL continues to
prompt and accept replies until the process sends back an end-of- file character or
terminates.
•
The OBEY command:
°
Echoes the line
°
Interprets the statement, including metacharacters
•
TACL does not check the file type or contents before trying to interpret the file. If
the file does not contain TACL commands, the TACL process tries to interpret
each line and returns errors.
•
You cannot include TACL directives (such as ?TACL or ?FORMAT) in an OBEY
command file. For example, the OBEY command returns an error when
interpreting a file that starts with a ?TACL MACRO directive.
•
You can stop the execution of commands in an OBEY file by pressing the BREAK
key at the terminal where you entered the OBEY command. TACL closes the
OBEY file and prompts you for the next command. (Note, however, that you can
set the #BREAKMODE built-in variable to disable the BREAK key; in this case,
TACL ignores the BREAK key.)
Example
To execute the commands in the file ALLFILES (assuming that ALLFILES is in the
current subvolume), type:
14> OBEY allfiles
O[BEY] command-file