TOPS-20 Commands Reference Manual

TYPE

Displays the contents of one or more files on your terminal.

Format

@TYPE (FILE) filespec,...,
@@subcommand

where:

filespec is the specification of the file you want to display on your terminal.
@@subcommand means that after a final comma you can enter the following optional subcommand:
UNFORMATTED Disables the formatting of control characters contained in the file. Normally, the TYPE command displays the graphic equivalent for certain control characters, for example, ESCAPE as $ and CTRL/C as ^C. The UNFORMATTED subcommand causes characters to be displayed literally, allowing graphic text (for example REGIS files) to be displayed on the terminal.

Output

Entire Contents of Files

In response to the TYPE command the system prints the entire contents of a file (up to the EOF (end-of-file) pointer), including blank lines and line numbers if there are any. If you specify more than one file, the filespec precedes the contents of each file.

Hints

Stopping TYPE Output

To stop the TYPE command, type two CTRL/Cs. A CTRL/O will also stop the output, but will not stop the processing of the command or the accumulation of CPU charges. Note that a pair of CTRL/Os causes the system to skip over part of the output and continue printing.

Related Commands

COPY for copying files to any device
EDIT for examining specific parts of a file
PERUSE for editing files in read-only mode
PRINT for printing files on the line printer

Example

  1. Have the system print a file on your terminal. 
    @TYPE TEST.TXT
! This is file TEST.TXT !