The nShell(tm) uses traditional Macintosh pathnames to identify files and directories. In the Macintosh file system the path to a file may be specified as one long name. Because Macintosh names often have spaces in them, nShell allows the quoting of pathnames. The command:
cat “my file”
would type a file called “my file” from your current directory onto the screen. When you want to select a file on another disk, the name of the disk is added to the pathname. The command:
cat “my disk:my file”
would type a file called “my file” from “my disk”. The “:” character is used to tell the Macintosh that you are specifying a path to a file, and not a file in the current directory.
If you wanted to identify a file in a specific directory on “my disk”, you would add the name of that directory to the pathname. The command:
cat “my disk:my folder:my file”
would type a file called “my file” from the directory “my folder” on “my disk”. This is called a full pathname because it specifies every name from the disk name to the file name.
You can also specify pathnames relative to your current directory. If you start a pathname with a “:”, the Macintosh knows that this path starts from your current directory. The command:
cat “:another folder:my file”
would type a file from “another folder” in your current directory. Because some of this path is implied, it is called a partial pathname.
Another form of shorthand may be used with full or partial pathnames. Using two “:”s in a pathname means "up one directory". If your current directory is "my disk:my folder", the command:
cat “::my file”
would move up from your current directory and type "my file" from “my disk”.
Testing Paths
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The nShell includes a command called pathchk, which allows you to experiment with pathnames. When given a pathname, pathchk attempts to print the equivalent full pathname. For example, if your current directory is “Hard Disk:nShell” and you type the command:
pathchk :bin
the response would be:
Hard Disk:nShell:bin
The pathchk command does not change any files, and can safely be used to test pathnames before they are used.
