shell: Interact with Fuchsia by typing things.

This directory is for development of a Fuchsia shell.

A less generic name, and more content, is pending.

The current shell is based on JavaScript.

Currently, invoking FIDL calls (and wrappers around FIDL calls) requires the use of Promises. You can invoke FIDL calls on protocols available from /svc easily by saying something like:

svc.fuchsia_kernel_DebugBroker.SendDebugCommand("threadstats")

This returns a Promise. Followup actions can be taken in the Promise's then clause. You can also use async/await, although this is not supported for direct invocation from the command line.

Arbitrary FIDL requests (those that do not depend on /svc) can be sent using the fidl.Request and fidl.ProtocolClient API. For example, if you have a channel to a directory called dirChannel, and you want to open a path within that directory, you can say:

let dirClient = new fidl.ProtocolClient(dirChannel, fidling.fuchsia_io.Directory);

const request = new fidl.Request(fidling.fuchsia_io.Node);
pathClient = request.getProtocolClient();
let openedPromise = pathClient.OnOpen((args) => {
  return args;
});
dirClient.Open(
    fidling.fuchsia_io.OPEN_RIGHT_READABLE | fidling.fuchsia_io.OPEN_FLAG_DESCRIBE, 0,
    path, request.getChannelForServer());
let args = await openedPromise;

// Manipulate args.s or args.info.

fidl.ProtocolClient.close(request.getProtocolClient());

Note that available FIDL libraries are available off of a global object called fidling. If a FIDL library you want is not available, please contact the OWNERS of this directory.

If you want to try the shell, add the package “//src/developer/shell:josh” to the packages available, shell into the device, and type “josh”.