DCL is the “Digital Command Language”, and is equivalent in intent to a command-line shell, like bash or zsh, in Linux and Unix – in short, DCL is the VMS command-line shell. You (the VMS user) can enter DCL commands to perform file management, program development, system administration and other tasks as needed.
The basic DCL command looks like this:
$ COMMAND-VERB [/QUALIFIER] [param1] [param2]... [/QUALIFIER]
COMMAND-VERBis a command (verb) which performs some specific action.
[ ]is optional.
/QUALIFIERis a command-specific modifier (adverb) for that action.
…are parameters or arguments which are operated on by the command (verb). Any particular command can have zero, one, two or several arguments.
Other things to know about DCL commands:
Enterkey), it UP-CASES all command text (unless the text is enclosed in
”), and compresses any/all multiple runs of space (blank) and tab characters to a single space.
Backspacekey (to erase characters),
Ctrl/Ato toggle between insert and overstrike entry modes,
Ctrl/Uto erase the entire command to left of current cursor, and more.
When DCL executes a command, one of two things can happen: