6.2.1 File commands

You have at your disposal a series of commands that let you load and execute MIX executable files, as well as manipulate MIXAL source files:

file command: load file[.mix]

This command loads a binary file, file.mix into the virtual machine memory, and positions the program counter at the beginning of the loaded program. This address is indicated in the MIXAL source file as the operand of the END pseudoinstruction. Thus, if your sample.mixal source file contains the line:

     END 3000

and you compile it with mixasm to produce the binary file sample.mix, you will load it into the virtual machine as follows:

MIX > load sample
Program loaded. Start address: 3000
MIX >

file command: run [file[.mix]]

When executed without argument, this command initiates or resumes execution of instructions from the current program counter address. Therefore, issuing this command after a successful load, will run the loaded program until either a HLT instruction or a breakpoint is found. If you provide a MIX filename as argument, the given file will be loaded (as with load file) and executed. If run is invoked again after program execution completion (i.e., after the HLT instruction has been found in a previous run), the program counter is repositioned and execution starts again from the beginning (as a matter of fact, a load command preserving the currently set breakpoints is issued before resuming execution).

file command: edit [file[.mixal]]

The source file file.mixal is edited using the editor defined in the environment variable MDK_EDITOR. If this variable is not set, the following ones are tried out in order: X_EDITOR, EDITOR and VISUAL. If invoked without argument, the source file for the currently loaded MIX file is edited. The command used to edit source files can also be configured using the sedit command (see Configuration commands).

file command: compile file[.mixal]

The source file file.mixal is compiled (with debug information enabled) using mixasm. If invoked without argument, the source file for the currently loaded MIX file is recompiled. The compilation command can be set using the sasm command (see Configuration commands).

file command: pprog

file command: psrc

Print the path of the currently loaded MIX program and its source file:

MIX > load ../samples/primes
Program loaded. Start address: 3000
MIX > pprog
../samples/primes.mix
MIX > psrc
/home/jao/projects/mdk/gnu/samples/primes.mixal
MIx>

Finally, you can use the quit command to exit mixvm:

file command: quit

Exit mixvm, saving the current configuration parameters in ~/.mdk/mixvm.config.