MVH Kernel Interactive Shell Commands — Complete Reference

After a successful boot, MVH Kernel drops you directly into an interactive shell session. No login sequence or init system is involved — the kernel initialises its hardware abstraction layer, memory manager, VFS, and device registry, then presents the mvh> prompt and waits for your input. Everything you need to inspect the system, exercise the filesystem, run self-tests, and trigger diagnostic output is available as a built-in command at that prompt.

Shell basics

The shell prompt is mvh>, displayed in green on the VGA text console and mirrored to the COM1 serial port. Input is read from a PS/2 keyboard using the EN-US QWERTY layout. Shift and Caps Lock are both supported for uppercase entry. Backspace erases the last character and Ctrl+C cancels the current input line. The shell language is switchable at runtime. Run language <code> with one of the supported codes to change all shell output immediately:

Code	Language
`en`	English (default)
`de`	Deutsch
`es`	Español
`fr`	Français

Command reference

All built-in commands are listed below by category. Click a category heading to go to the detailed reference page.

Filesystem

Command	Summary
`ls [path]`	List directory contents
`dir [path]`	Alias for `ls`
`cd <path>`	Change working directory
`pwd`	Print working directory
`mkdir <path>`	Create a directory
`touch <path>`	Create an empty file
`write <path> <text>`	Write text to a file (overwrites)
`append <path> <text>`	Append text to a file
`cat <path>`	Print file contents
`type <path>`	Alias for `cat`
`open <path>`	Open and read a file
`rm <path>`	Remove a file
`rmdir <path>`	Remove a directory
`mount`	List mounted filesystems
`df`	Show filesystem usage

See Filesystem Commands for full syntax and examples.

Diagnostics

Command	Summary
`meminfo`	Physical memory stats, PMM counters
`free`	Brief memory and heap summary
`heapinfo`	Heap stats: sizes, blocks, fragmentation
`heaptest`	Run heap allocator self-test
`cpuinfo`	Extended CPU diagnostics (vendor, caches, TSC, temp)
`features`	CPUID capability and kernel protection flags
`irqstat`	Per-vector interrupt counters and spurious count
`pagetable`	Query kernel page-table mappings
`pagetest`	Run VMM self-test
`dmesg`	Dump the 16 KiB structured kernel log ring
`ps`	Task list with PID, priority, state, and name
`devices`	Device registry: ID, type, name, online status
`lspci`	PCI bus device scan
`drivers`	List registered kernel drivers
`statics`	Full-screen live system monitor (exit with Q or Ctrl+C)
`paniccodes`	List all stable kernel panic codes

See Diagnostics Commands for full details.

System info

Command	Summary
`uname`	Kernel name, version, and architecture
`version`	Detailed version string (name, version, ABI)
`hostname`	Display the hostname
`whoami`	Display current user identity
`date`	Current date and time from CMOS RTC
`uptime`	System uptime in days, hours, minutes, seconds
`ticks`	Raw PIT tick counter at 100 Hz
`about`	Kernel information and credits

Control

Command	Summary
`help`	List all available shell commands
`echo <text>`	Print text to the shell
`sleep <ms>`	Sleep for N milliseconds (max 60 000)
`language [code]`	Show or switch shell language
`clear` / `cls`	Clear the screen
`reboot`	Staged hardware reboot with progress display
`selftest`	Full kernel self-test (memory, heap, locks, VFS, devices, timer)
`synctest`	Test atomic operations, spinlocks, and mutex foundations

Testing and debug

Command	Summary
`faulttest`	Validates exception path without CPU error code — halts kernel
`faulttest page`	Validates page-fault handling and CR2 reporting — halts kernel

faulttest triggers a deliberate breakpoint exception (int3). faulttest page triggers a deliberate unmapped-page access. Both commands intentionally halt the kernel and produce a full panic dump on VGA and serial output. Use them only when you want to validate the exception-handling path. You will need to reboot after running either command.

See System and Control Commands for complete details on all system, control, and test commands.

Get Started

Core Concepts

Shell Commands

Drivers

Changelog

MVH Kernel Interactive Shell Commands — Complete Reference

Shell basics

Command reference

Filesystem

Diagnostics

System info

Control

Testing and debug

​Shell basics

​Command reference

​Filesystem

​Diagnostics

​System info

​Control

​Testing and debug

Shell basics

Command reference

Filesystem

Diagnostics

System info

Control

Testing and debug