Files and paths

Enter literal paths

Use file commands only when the prompt belongs to Console commands. During a run, command-looking text belongs to the program. Console accepts one command at a time, without shell expansion or pipelines. Both Arabic and English aliases work in either interface language. Read the exact command syntax.

Linux paths use / between directory names. An absolute path starts with /; a relative path starts from the Console current directory. Spaces and tabs separate command tokens outside quotes. Quote a path containing spaces:

mkdir "My projects"
cd "My projects"
pwd
cat -- -notes.txt
cat "$HOME"
cat "*.aspl"

Enter these as separate commands. The last two name literal files called $HOME and *.aspl, if they exist. ~, variables, wildcards, backticks and # do not expand. Put -- before an operand beginning with a hyphen. Quoting "-notes.txt" alone still invokes option parsing.

Single quotes keep their contents literal. Inside double quotes, only \" and \\ escape a quote and backslash. Outside quotes, backslash quotes the next character; adjacent quoted and unquoted pieces form one token. Unclosed quotes, dangling escapes, empty path tokens and unquoted or unescaped | < > ; & fail before any operation. Use an external editor to change file contents; Console has no file-editing command.

Follow physical paths and read display escapes

pwd prints the physical absolute current directory with a final LF. cd follows real filesystem traversal, including symbolic links and link/... If link points to /srv/project, cd link/.. reaches /srv, not the directory containing the link. The filesystem must allow each part of that traversal.

Paths keep their original Linux bytes independently of their display. Console escapes backslashes, invalid bytes and controls, and marks names command input cannot address. A displayed escape is informational, not a raw-byte input encoding. Copying it does not reconstruct an otherwise unrepresentable filename. Use a file manager or another filesystem tool for such names.

Physical paths display left-to-right without adding direction characters to copied text. A listing's / directory suffix and @ symlink suffix are display markers, not part of the name. Symlinks to directories and broken links both carry @.

List, create and read

ls lists the immediate entries of one directory, or the current directory when no path is supplied. Names appear in original-byte order, one per line. -a includes hidden names; . and .. never appear.

ls
ls -a -- "My projects"
mkdir -p -- "My projects/demo/data"
cat -- "My projects/hello-en.aspl"

These are independent examples with paths relative to your current directory. mkdir creates a directory using your account's permissions and umask. Plain mkdir fails if the path already exists or a parent is missing. -p creates missing parents and accepts an existing directory or a link to one. Both forms preserve physical symlink/parent traversal, succeed silently and leave the current directory unchanged.

cat reads a complete regular UTF-8 file without NUL. A link to a readable regular file is allowed. Directories, devices, FIFOs, sockets and other special targets are refused before reading content. LF and tabs remain text; CRLF becomes one break. Standalone CR, other terminal controls and bidi-formatting controls display as escapes. File text and ANSI sequences never execute commands. No final newline is added; an empty file adds no data.

Stay within the limits

Exactly each limit succeeds. A filesystem, encoding or limit failure reports the command, escaped path and actual reason. ls and cat publish only complete validated results, with no earlier partial listing or file data on failure. Completed data enters scrollback and may evict older retained text. These limits do not promise that all earlier output remains retained.

Recover the current directory

Startup uses the usable physical launch directory. If it cannot, Console explains a fallback to home. If neither is usable, commands remain available without a current directory. Relative file operations and pwd then fail. An externally renamed or unavailable directory produces an error without automatically relocating Console.

Recover with an existing, accessible absolute path, replacing this sample with your own:

cd -- /home/samira
pwd

Alternatively, cd with no operand tries your home directory. Success is silent; a failed cd preserves the previous directory. cd ~ and cd "$HOME" do not mean home. Inspect the error and correct the path or permissions before an explicit retry.

A run captures a usable Console current directory even when its source path is absolute. Source location does not set the runtime-data directory, and a child cannot change Console navigation. The run reference explains that boundary.

Wait, cancel and inspect effects

File operations run in a cancellable helper. While waiting or cancelling, the prompt stays read-only and scrollback remains readable and copyable. After five seconds, Still waiting reports pending work; there is no automatic retry or completion deadline.

Ctrl+C requests cancellation and escalates to SIGKILL after 1,000 ms if needed. Console keeps ownership until completion or confirmed helper exit. A complete result can win the cancellation race, and an uninterruptible kernel wait can delay exit indefinitely. Closing offers Cancel or Cancel operation and close, then waits for the operation to finish.

Cancellation does not undo effects. A complete mkdir failure receipt reports how many directories were created and that they may remain. If cancellation or helper death prevents a complete receipt, effects are uncertain and directories may remain. Inspect the filesystem before retrying; Console neither rolls back nor retries automatically. See mkdir failure details. For a reported failure, use path recovery or filesystem recovery.