Console module

What it does

Console sends an entire line to the selected guest. The receiver owns parsing, help, and command behavior.

Availability

Both guests have local consoles and wire-driven console behavior. Their command sets differ and are discovered from the machine, not from a host-side union.

On the modern Mac

The host is a dumb shell: it preserves the line and renders output and terminal status. It does not guess where a verb or argument ends.

On the classic Mac

The PowerPC Workshop page and NOW-68K console call the same implementation as their wire dispatchers, preserving command parity.

Common tasks

• Run help on the selected guest before assuming a command exists.
• Use the module's cancel control for a long-running execution.

Safety, consent, and privacy

Commands can launch or quit applications, move files, or reveal machine facts. Read the command help and selected machine identity before running a mutation.

Failure states

Unknown command, bad arguments, refused action, cancelled execution, output truncated, and disconnect are explicit outcomes.

Current limitations

Command parity means one implementation behind local and wire faces within a guest. It does not mean the PPC and 68K command tables are identical.

For developers

See command parity and the generated command registry.