Commands

Commands

XAIOS provides a bounded FreeBSD-style command surface for authenticated local and SSH PTY sessions. This page lists session syntax and service or kernel operations. Every dedicated executable, including file, text, archive, and observability utilities, is listed in Applications.

Current ownership

Current owner	Commands or responsibility	Fault boundary
Kernel session layer	cd, pwd, help, exit, quit, logout, aliases, redirection, and pipelines	Maintains per-session state and command composition.
Independent utility ELFs	File, text, archive, and observability tools documented in Applications	Each invocation has a bounded address space, least-privilege capabilities, exit status, and fault containment.
/bin/sshd plus transient /bin/ssh	Inbound SSH/SFTP transport plus dedicated outbound ssh and scp protocol execution	The client uses asynchronous child-channel IPC; a client fault is contained without terminating the inbound service.
Kernel operations layer	status, power, service, process, network, clock, recovery, update, configuration, and support commands	Capability checks and privileged mechanisms remain authoritative in the kernel.

Session navigation and composition

Command	Supported core behavior
pwd	Print the session working directory.
cd [DIR]	Change directory; no argument selects /; relative, absolute, . and .. paths are normalized.
l, la, ll	Session aliases that dispatch the standalone /bin/ls application.
echo [TEXT...]	Print text. > and >> redirect output to a file.
COMMAND | COMMAND	Connect supported producer/filter commands through the bounded in-memory pipeline.
status	Render the bounded administrative status view; detailed operations use the xaiosctl application family.

Outbound network clients

Command	Supported core behavior
ssh [-A] [-i KEY] [-p PORT] [-J user@host[:port]] user@host [command]	Dedicated SSH application with password, Ed25519 identity-file or forwarded-agent authentication; encrypted OpenSSH keys, IPv4/IPv6 and DNS A/AAAA are supported. One password-authenticated ProxyJump hop can carry a separately password- or identity-authenticated target through direct-tcpip.
scp [-r] [-A] [-i KEY] [-P PORT] SOURCE DESTINATION	Dedicated SFTP-backed copy application for files or bounded directory trees between XAIOS and compatible XAIOS, FreeBSD, or OpenSSH servers. Exactly one endpoint may be remote.

The clients run outside the persistent SSH service through bounded asynchronous child-channel IPC, so a client fault does not terminate the inbound server. The inbound server implements hybrid mlkem768x25519-sha256, direct-tcpip jump-host forwarding and agent forwarding. The native outbound client supports one -J user@host[:port] hop; multi-hop -J, ProxyCommand, -J with agent authentication, and the complete OpenSSH algorithm matrix are not implemented.

Operations and diagnostics

Command	Supported core behavior
shutdown / reboot	Persist lifecycle intent, flush logs and block devices, then power off or reset through the architecture backend.
power status	Show running/quiescing and boot-ready state.
service list|status|start|stop|restart	Inspect or control the bounded kernel service registry with capability checks.
kill PID	Terminate and reclaim a non-running transient process; PID 1/2 and the current process are protected.
ifconfig	Show the active VirtIO interface, IPv4 address, netmask, MTU, and MAC.
route, arp, ndp, netstat	Show bounded routing, neighbor, packet, flow, drop, and resolver state.
ping IP, ping status	Start a validated asynchronous ICMP echo and inspect its result/RTT.
nslookup [-6] NAME	Start or read an asynchronous DNS lookup: the A record by default, the AAAA record with -6.
date, date -s EPOCH	Show epoch/source or set a validated UTC epoch in seconds.
ntp sync [IP], ntp status	Start a bounded SNTP exchange or inspect source, attempts, stratum, RTT, timeout, and error state.
limits	Show normal/warning/critical pressure plus memory, heap, process, filesystem, and CPU capacity.
recovery status|enter|clear	Inspect unclean boots or manage the persistent rescue marker.
update status|rollback	Inspect the signed update transaction or invoke its authorized rollback path.
config export|import PATH	Round-trip canonical configuration through the validated transactional admin path.
support	Emit a redacted build/lifecycle/clock/resource/network/log bundle suitable for host-side capture.

Power, lifecycle, and recovery details are in Operations and Recovery.

Worked examples

Transcripts from an authenticated session. admin@xaios:/$ is the prompt and everything after it is typed; the lines below each are what the machine prints. Output that varies (addresses, counts, timings) is shown as it appears rather than tidied.

Where am I, and what is here?

admin@xaios:/$ pwd
/
admin@xaios:/$ ls -l /state
-rw-r--r--   1 admin  admin      118  lifecycle/record
drwxr-xr-x   2 admin  admin        0  services
admin@xaios:/$ df
Filesystem Size Used Avail Capacity Mounted on
xaibootFS 2048K 29K 2018K 2% /
xaiFS 65536K 10312K 55224K 16% /models

Look at a file, and edit one.

admin@xaios:/$ cat -n /etc/xaios-init.conf
     1  service sshd
     2  service source-index
admin@xaios:/$ nano /state/notes.txt

less FILE pages a file without taking over the terminal; nano FILE is the full-screen editor. Both exit with q — less also with ctrl-C.

Compose commands. Redirection and the bounded pipeline work in the session:

admin@xaios:/$ echo hello > /state/greeting
admin@xaios:/$ cat /state/greeting
hello
admin@xaios:/$ cat /etc/xaios-init.conf | grep service
service sshd
service source-index

Copy a file to another machine. From XAIOS outwards:

admin@xaios:/$ scp -P 22 /state/greeting [email protected]:/tmp/
admin@xaios:/$ scp -r -P 22 [email protected]:/tmp/tree /state/

Exactly one endpoint may be remote, and -r copies a bounded tree through SFTP. ssh -p 22 [email protected] opens a session on the other machine; add -J jump@bastion for one jump hop.

Ask the network what it thinks.

admin@xaios:/$ ifconfig
admin@xaios:/$ ping 10.0.2.2
ping: started
admin@xaios:/$ ping status
admin@xaios:/$ nslookup example.com
admin@xaios:/$ route
admin@xaios:/$ netstat

ping and nslookup start asynchronously: the first command asks the question and the status form (or a second nslookup) reads the answer, so a slow resolver never blocks the session.

Check the clock, the pressure, and the record.

admin@xaios:/$ date
admin@xaios:/$ ntp sync
admin@xaios:/$ ntp status
admin@xaios:/$ limits
admin@xaios:/$ support

date names its source (rtc, manual or ntp); limits prints the normal/warning/critical verdict beside the counts it came from; support prints a redacted bundle to capture from the host.

Inspect and control services, then stop the machine.

admin@xaios:/$ service list
admin@xaios:/$ service status sshd
admin@xaios:/$ service restart sshd
admin@xaios:/$ shutdown

shutdown and reboot acknowledge first, then flush the lifecycle record, xaibootFS and every block device that advertises flush support before the power call. What happens if that record does not reach the disk is in Operations and Recovery.

Session control and errors

help prints the available surface. exit, quit, and logout end the session. Unknown commands return command not found; invalid options, missing paths, unsupported archive features, authentication failures, and application exit failures return a nonzero status with command-specific text. Per-session working directories are isolated across concurrent SSH connections.

All executable utilities, diagnostics, and interactive terminal applications are intentionally documented on Applications, not duplicated here. Interoperability coverage is in Testing XAIOS.