Terminal¶

The Terminal is a console emulator program that lets you interface with all of the Servers in the game. The Terminal can be accessed by clicking the ‘Terminal’ tab on the navigation menu on the left-hand side of the game (you may need to expand the ‘Hacking’ header in order to see the ‘Terminal’ tab). Alternatively, the keyboard shortcut Alt + t can be used to open the Terminal.

Configuration¶

The terminal has a configuration file called .fconf. To edit this file, go to the terminal and enter:

nano .fconf

Filesystem (Directories)¶

The Terminal contains a very basic filesystem that allows you to store and organize your files into different directories. Note that this is not a true filesystem implementation. Instead, it is done almost entirely using string manipulation. For this reason, many of the nice & useful features you’d find in a real filesystem do not exist.

Here are the Terminal commands you’ll commonly use when dealing with the filesystem.

ls
cd
mv

Directories¶

In order to create a directory, simply name a file using a full absolute Linux-style path:

/scripts/myScript.js

This will automatically create a “directory” called scripts. This will also work for subdirectories:

/scripts/hacking/helpers/myHelperScripts.script

Files in the root directory do not need to begin with a forward slash:

thisIsAFileInTheRootDirectory.txt

Note that there is no way to manually create or remove directories. The creation and deletion of directories is automatically handled as you name/rename/delete files.

Absolute vs Relative Paths¶

Many Terminal commands accept absolute both absolute and relative paths for specifying a file.

An absolute path specifies the location of the file from the root directory (/). Any path that begins with the forward slash is an absolute path:

$ nano /scripts/myScript.js
$ cat /serverList.txt

A relative path specifies the location of the file relative to the current working directory. Any path that does not begin with a forward slash is a relative path. Note that the Linux-style dot symbols will work for relative paths:

. (a single dot) - represents the current directory
.. (two dots) - represents the parent directory

$ cd ..
$ nano ../scripts/myScript.js
$ nano ../../helper.js

Netscript¶

Note that in order to reference a file, Netscript functions require the full absolute file path. For example

run("/scripts/hacking/helpers.myHelperScripts.script");
rm("/logs/myHackingLogs.txt");
rm("thisIsAFileInTheRootDirectory.txt");

Note

A full file path must begin with a forward slash (/) if that file is not in the root directory.

Missing Features¶

These features that are typically in Linux filesystems have not yet been added to the game:

Tab autocompletion does not work with relative paths
mv only accepts full filepaths for the destination argument. It does not accept directories

Commands¶

alias¶

$ alias [-g] [name=”value”]

Create or display aliases. An alias enables a replacement of a word with another string. It can be used to abbreviate a commonly used command, or commonly used parts of a command. The NAME of an alias defines the word that will be replaced, while the VALUE defines what it will be replaced by. For example, you could create the alias ‘nuke’ for the Terminal command ‘run NUKE.exe’ using the following:

$ alias nuke="run NUKE.exe"

Then, to run the NUKE.exe program you would just have to enter ‘nuke’ in Terminal rather than the full command. It is important to note that ‘default’ aliases will only be substituted for the first word of a Terminal command. For example, if the following alias was set:

$ alias worm="HTTPWorm.exe"

and then you tried to run the following terminal command:

$ run worm

This would fail because the worm alias is not the first word of a Terminal command. To allow an alias to be substituted anywhere in a Terminal command, rather than just the first word, you must set it to be a global alias using the -g flag:

$ alias -g worm="HTTPWorm.exe"

Now, the ‘worm’ alias will be substituted anytime it shows up as an individual word in a Terminal command.

Entering just the command ‘alias’ without any arguments prints the list of all defined aliases in the reusable form ‘alias NAME=VALUE’ on the Terminal.

The unalias Terminal command can be used to remove aliases.

analyze¶

Prints details and statistics about the current server. The information that is printed includes basic server details such as the hostname, whether the player has root access, what ports are opened/closed, and also hacking-related information such as an estimated chance to successfully hack, an estimate of how much money is available on the server, etc.

backdoor¶

Installs a backdoor on the current server. Root access is required to do this.

Servers will give different bonuses when you install a backdoor. This can pass faction tests or give bonsues such as discounts from companies.

buy¶

$ buy [-l/program]

Purchase a program through the Dark Web. Requires a TOR Router to use.

If this command is ran with the ‘-l’ flag, it will display a list of all programs that can be purchased through the Dark Web, as well as their costs.

Otherwise, the name of the program must be passed in as a parameter. This name is NOT case-sensitive:

$ buy brutessh.exe

Note that you do not need to be connected to the actual dark web server in order to run this command. You can use this command at any time on the Terminal.

cat¶

$ cat [filename]

Display a message (.msg), literature (.lit), or text (.txt) file:

$ cat j1.msg
$ cat foo.lit
$ cat servers.txt

cd¶

$ cd [dir]

Change to the specified directory.

See Filesystem (Directories) for details on directories.

Note that this command works even for directories that don’t exist. If you change to a directory that doesn’t exist, it will not be created. A directory is only created once there is a file in it:

$ cd scripts/hacking
$ cd /logs
$ cd ..

check¶

$ check [script name] [args…]

Print the logs of the script specified by the script name and arguments to the Terminal. Each argument must be separated by a space. Remember that a running script is uniquely identified both by its name and the arguments that are used to start it. So, if a script was ran with the following arguments:

$ run foo.script 1 2 foodnstuff

Then to run the ‘check’ command on this script you would have to pass the same arguments in:

$ check foo.script 1 2 foodnstuff

clear/cls¶

Clear the Terminal screen, deleting all of the text. Note that this does not delete the user’s command history, so using the up and down arrow keys is still valid. Also note that this is permanent and there is no way to undo this. Both ‘clear’ and ‘cls’ do the same thing:

$ clear
$ cls

connect¶

$ connect [hostname/ip]

Connect to a remote server. The hostname of the remote server must be given as the argument to this command. Note that only servers that are immediately adjacent to the current server in the network can be connected to. To see which servers can be connected to, use the ‘scan’ command.

download¶

Downloads a script or text file to your computer (your real-life computer):

$ download masterScript.script
$ download importantInfo.txt

You can also download all of your scripts/text files as a zip file using the following Terminal commands:

$ download *
$ download *.script
$ download *.txt

expr¶

$ expr [math expression]

Evaluate a mathematical expression. The expression is evaluated in JavaScript, and therefore all JavaScript operators should be supported.

Examples:

$ expr 5.6 * 10 - 123
$ expr 3 ** 3

free¶

Display’s the memory usage on the current machine. Print the amount of RAM that is available on the current server as well as how much of it is being used.

hack¶

Attempt to hack the current server. Requires root access in order to be run.

Related: Hacking Mechanics (TODO Add link here when page gets made)

help¶

$ help [command]

Display Terminal help information. Without arguments, ‘help’ prints a list of all valid Terminal commands and a brief description of their functionality. You can also pass the name of a Terminal command as an argument to ‘help’ to print more detailed information about the Terminal command. Examples:

$ help alias
$ help scan-analyze

home¶

Connect to your home computer. This will work no matter what server you are currently connected to.

hostname¶

Prints the hostname of the server you are currently connected to.

ifconfig¶

Prints the IP address of the server you are currently connected to.

kill¶

$ kill [script name] [args…] $ kill [pid]

Kill the script specified by the script filename and arguments OR by its PID.

If you are killing the script using its filename and arguments, then each argument must be separated by a space. Remember that a running script is uniquely identified by both its name and the arguments that are used to start it. So, if a script was ran with the following arguments:

$ run foo.script 50e3 sigma-cosmetics

Then to kill this script the same arguments would have to be used:

$ kill foo.script 50e3 sigma-cosmetics

If you are killing the script using its PID, then the PID argument must be numeric.

killall¶

Kills all scripts on the current server.

ls¶

$ ls [dir] [–grep pattern]

Prints files and directories on the current server to the Terminal screen.

If this command is run with no arguments, then it prints all files and directories on the current server to the Terminal screen. Directories will be printed first in alphabetical order, followed by the files (also in alphabetical order).

The dir optional parameter allows you to specify the directory for which to display files.

The --grep pattern optional parameter allows you to only display files and directories with a certain pattern in their names.

The -l optional parameter allows you to force each item onto a single line.

Examples:

// List files/directories with the '.script' extension in the current directory
$ ls -l --grep .script

// List files/directories with the '.js' extension in the root directory
$ ls / -l --grep .js

// List files/directories with the word 'purchase' in the name, in the :code:`scripts` directory
$ ls scripts -l --grep purchase

lscpu¶

Prints the number of CPU cores the current server has.

mem¶

$ mem [script name] [-t] [num threads]

Displays the amount of RAM needed to run the specified script with a single thread. The command can also be used to print the amount of RAM needed to run a script with multiple threads using the ‘-t’ flag. If the ‘-t’ flag is specified, then an argument for the number of threads must be passed in afterwards. Examples:

$ mem foo.script
$ mem foo.script -t 50

The first example above will print the amount of RAM needed to run ‘foo.script’ with a single thread. The second example above will print the amount of RAM needed to run ‘foo.script’ with 50 threads.

mv¶

$ mv [source] [destination]

Move the source file to the specified destination in the filesystem. See Filesystem (Directories) for more details about the Terminal’s filesystem. This command only works for scripts and text files (.txt). It cannot, however, be used to convert from script to text file, or vice versa.

This function can also be used to rename files.

Note

Unlike the Linux mv command, the destination argument must be the full filepath. It cannot be a directory.

Examples:

$ mv hacking.script scripts/hacking.script
$ mv myScript.js myOldScript.js

nano¶

$ nano [filename]

Opens up the specified file in the Text Editor. Only scripts (.script, .js) and text files (.txt) can be edited. If the file does not already exist, then a new empty file will be created.

ps¶

$ ps [-g, –grep pattern]

Prints all scripts that are currently running on the current server. The -g, --grep pattern option will only output running scripts where the name matches the provided pattern.

rm¶

$ rm [filename]

Removes the specified file from the current server. This works for every file type except literature files (.lit).

WARNING: This is permanent and cannot be undone

run¶

$ run [file name] [-t] [num threads] [args…]

Execute a program, script, or Coding Contracts.

The ‘[-t]’, ‘[num threads]’, and ‘[args…]’ arguments are only valid when running a script. The ‘-t’ flag is used to indicate that the script should be run with the specified number of threads. If the flag is omitted, then the script will be run with a single thread by default. If the ‘-t’ flag is used, then it MUST come immediately after the script name, and the [num threads] argument MUST come immediately afterwards.

[args…] represents a variable number of arguments that will be passed into the script. See the documentation about script arguments. Each specified argument must be separated by a space.

Examples

Run a program:

$ run BruteSSH.exe

Run foo.script with 50 threads and the arguments [1e3, 0.5, foodnstuff]:

$ run foo.script -t 50 1e3 0.5 foodnstuff

Run a Coding Contract:

$ run foo-contract.cct

scan¶

Prints all immediately-available network connections. This will print a list of all servers that you can currently connect to using the ‘connect’ Terminal command.

scan-analyze¶

$ scan-analyze [depth]

Prints detailed information about all servers up to [depth] nodes away on the network. Calling ‘scan-analyze 1’ will display information for the same servers that are shown by the ‘scan’ Terminal command. This command also shows the relative paths to reach each server.

By default, the maximum depth that can be specified for ‘scan-analyze’ is 3. However, once you have the DeepscanV1.exe and DeepscanV2.exe programs, you can execute ‘scan-analyze’ with a depth up to 5 and 10, respectively.

The information ‘scan-analyze’ displays about each server includes whether or not you have root access to it, its required hacking level, the number of open ports required to run NUKE.exe on it, and how much RAM it has.

scp¶

$ scp [script name] [target server]

Copies the specified script from the current server to the target server. The second argument passed in must be the hostname or IP of the target server.

sudov¶

Prints whether or not you have root access to the current server.

tail¶

$ tail [script name] [args…]

Displays dynamic logs for the script specified by the script name and arguments. Each argument must be separated by a space. Remember that a running script is uniquely identified by both its name and the arguments that were used to run it. So, if a script was ran with the following arguments:

$ run foo.script 10 50000

Then in order to check its logs with ‘tail’ the same arguments must be used:

$ tail foo.script 10 50000

top¶

Prints a list of all scripts running on the current server as well as their thread count and how much RAM they are using in total.

unalias¶

$ unalias “[alias name]”

Deletes the specified alias. Note that the double quotation marks are required.

As an example, if an alias was declared using:

$ alias r="run"

Then it could be removed using:

$ unalias "r"

It is not necessary to differentiate between global and non-global aliases when using ‘unalias’

wget¶

$ wget [url] [target file]

Retrieves data from a url and downloads it to a file on the current server. The data can only be downloaded to a script (.script, .js) or a text file (.txt). If the target file already exists, it will be overwritten by this command.

Note that will not be possible to download data from many websites because they do not allow cross-origin resource sharing (CORS). This includes websites such as gist and pastebin. One notable site it will work on is rawgithub. Example:

$ wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/danielyxie/bitburner/master/README.md game_readme.txt

Argument Parsing¶

When evaluating a terminal command, arguments are initially parsed based on whitespace (usually spaces). Each whitespace character signifies the end of an argument, and potentially the start of new one. For most terminal commands, this is all you need to know.

When running scripts, however, it is important to know in more detail how arguments are parsed. There are two main points:

Quotation marks can be used to wrap a single argument and force it to be parsed as a string. Any whitespace inside the quotation marks will not cause a new argument to be parsed.
Anything that can represent a number is automatically cast to a number, unless its surrounded by quotation marks.

Here’s an example to show how these rules work. Consider the following script argType.script:

tprint("Number of args: " + args.length);
for (var i = 0; i < args.length; ++i) {
    tprint(typeof args[i]);
}

Then if we run the following terminal command:

$ run argType.script 123 1e3 "5" "this is a single argument"

We’ll see the following in the Terminal:

Running script with 1 thread(s) and args: [123, 1000, "5", "this is a single argument"].
May take a few seconds to start up the process...
argType.script: Number of args: 4
argType.script: number
argType.script: number
argType.script: string
argType.script: string

Chaining Commands¶

You can run multiple Terminal commands at once by separating each command with a semicolon (;).

Example:

$ run foo.script; tail foo.script