Complete command reference for MXCMD built-ins, file tools, list operations, debug helpers, and regex processing.
This page is organized as a practical reference: each command includes a short purpose statement, syntax, and example where useful. Numeric return conventions generally follow shell behavior: 0 indicates success/true, non-zero indicates failure/false.
cmd "build.mxcmd"tokenize "build.mxcmd"visual "build.mxcmd" "build_ast.html"regex_replace "[^a-zA-Z0-9]" "_" valueexecExecute an external shell command and return its output as text. This is the primary bridge between MXCMD and system shell tools.
exec "ls"files = $(exec "ls | sort")random_shaderApply a random shader effect in console GUI mode.
random_shaderdefault_shaderReset shader effect to the default rendering mode in console GUI mode.
default_shaderset_shaderLoad and apply a custom shader file in console GUI mode.
set_shader "path/to/shader.glsl"clearClear the current console output buffer.
clearhelpShow built-in help for shell commands.
helpaboutDisplay runtime information about the shell build and environment.
aboutwsl_on / wsl_offEnable or disable WSL command routing on supported Windows builds.
wsl_on
wsl_offargvAccess command-line arguments passed to the current script or invocation context.
argv indexargv "length"argv "all"
exitTerminate the shell immediately.
exitechoPrints its arguments to standard output, expanding any variables.
echo [ARG]...VAR).echo Hello USERcatConcatenates and displays file contents, or reads from standard input if no files are specified.
cat [FILE]...grepSearches input or files for lines matching a pattern, optionally using regular expressions.
grep [--r|--e] PATTERN [FILE]...--r or --e: enable extended regex matching.printPrint arguments line-by-line. Supports optional numeric formatting modes for integer/float output.
print [--i|--f] ARG...cdChange the shell’s current working directory.
cd DIRlist (ls)List the contents of a directory.
ls [DIR]sortSorts lines of text from files or standard input.
sort [FILE]...findRecursively search a directory tree for filenames containing a given pattern.
find PATH PATTERNpwdPrint the current working directory.
pwdmkdirCreate new directories.
mkdir [--p] DIR...--p: create parent directories as needed.cpCopy files or directories.
cp [--r] SOURCE... DESTmvRename or move files and directories.
mv SOURCE... DESTtouchUpdate file timestamps or create files if they do not exist.
touch FILE...headDisplay the first part of files or input.
head [--n N] [FILE]...tailDisplay the last part of files or input.
tail [--n N] [FILE]...wcCount lines, words, and characters in files or input.
wc [--l] [--w] [--c] [FILE]...sedPerform basic stream editing via substitution expressions.
sed [options] 's/pattern/replacement/[g]' [FILE]-n: suppress automatic printing.-i: edit files in place.printfFormatted printing, similar to C's printf.
printf FORMAT [ARG]...testEvaluate conditional expressions for use with if, while, and boolean branching. Returns 0 for true and non-zero for false.
test ARG...if test count --gt 10
then
echo "large dataset"
ficmdExecute an MXCMD script file within the current shell runtime. Useful for modular scripts and task automation.
cmd SCRIPT_FILEcmd "./scripts/deploy.mxcmd"visualRender a script's abstract syntax tree (AST) into an HTML visualization for debugging parser/structure issues.
visual SCRIPT_FILE OUTPUT_HTMLvisual "build.mxcmd" "build_ast.html"atExtract an element by index from a newline-separated list.
at LIST INDEXlenCount items in a list, either by lines or words.
len LISTindexExtract a substring by start position and length.
index STRING START LENGTHstrlenGet the length of a string.
strlen STRINGstrfindFind the position of a substring within a string.
strfind START STRING SEARCHstrfindrFind the position of a substring within a string, searching from the right (end of string).
strfindr STRING SEARCHstrtokSplit a string into tokens using a delimiter and return the result as a newline-separated list.
strtok STRING DELIMITERexternRegister an external function from a shared library as a command.
extern LIBRARY FUNCTION COMMAND_NAMElibmath.so with a function add_numbers:
extern "math" "add_numbers" "add"Named list helpers for dynamic collections, temporary buffers, token streams, and script-level data manipulation.
list_new NAME — Create a new listlist_add NAME VALUE — Add a value to a listlist_remove NAME INDEX — Remove an item at specified indexlist_get NAME INDEX — Get an item at specified indexlist_set NAME INDEX VALUE — Set an item at specified indexlist_clear NAME — Clear a specific listlist_clearall — Clear all listslist_exists NAME — Check if a list existslist_init NAME VALUE SIZE — Initialize a list with a value repeated SIZE timeslist_len NAME — Get the length of a listlist_tokens NAME — Display all values in a list, one per linelist_sort NAME — Sort a list in ascending orderlist_reverse NAME — Reverse the order of elements in a listlist_shuffle NAME — Randomly shuffle the elements of a listlist_copy SOURCE DEST — Copy a list to a new listlist_pop NAME — Remove and return the last element of a listlist_concat LIST1 LIST2 — Concatenate the second list to the firstrandGenerate a pseudo-random number between MIN and MAX (inclusive), useful for randomized logic and procedural scripts.
rand MIN MAXrand 1 100 # Generates a random number between 1 and 100exprEvaluate expressions and return computed values. Supports arithmetic, comparison, and logical operators.
expr EXPRESSIONexpr "5 + 3 * 2" # Returns 11
expr "10 > 5 && 3 < 4" # Returns 1 (true)commandsList all available commands in the shell, including built-in, user-defined, and externally loaded commands.
commandsdebug_set <VAR> <VAL> — Set a debug variable.debug_get <VAR> — Get a debug variable.debug_list — List debug variables.debug_clear <VAR> — Clear a debug variable.debug_clearall — Clear all debug variables.debug_search [PATTERN] — Search debug variables.dump FILENAME — Dump variable table to a file.getlineRead one full line from standard input and assign it to a variable.
getline variableprintf "enter input: " && getline valueregex_matchCheck whether the entire string matches a regular expression pattern.
regex_match PATTERN STRINGif test $(regex_match "^[a-zA-Z0-9._%+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,}$" email) --eq "1"
then
echo "Valid email format"
firegex_replaceReplace every region matching a regular expression pattern with a replacement string.
regex_replace PATTERN REPLACEMENT STRINGsanitized = $(regex_replace "[^a-zA-Z0-9]" "_" string)regex_searchSearch a string for at least one match to the given regular expression pattern.
regex_search PATTERN STRINGif test $(regex_search "[0-9]{3}-[0-9]{3}-[0-9]{4}" text) --eq "1"
then
echo "Found a phone number"
firegex_splitSplit a string using a regular-expression delimiter and return a newline-separated token list.
regex_split PATTERN STRINGparts = $(regex_split "," "a,b,c" )tokenizeRun the MXCMD scanner/lexer and print the token stream for a source file. Useful for parser debugging and syntax troubleshooting.
tokenize "filename.mxcmd"tokens = $(tokenize "build.mxcmd")