Computers: Universe: LOGIN, ON.EXIT and ON.ABORT

Three VOC records define commands which are usually invoked by UniVerse itself rather than being entered from the > prompt:

LOGIN

The LOGIN command is invoked whenever you enter a particular UniVerse account: either from UNIX using the uv command (see Universe and UNIX), or from another universe account by using the LOGTO command (see The Command Prompt).

LOGIN must be a command, and could theoretically therefore be a verb (see Verbs), a sentence (see Sentences), or even a keyword with a fourth field (see Keywords). however, it is almost always a paragraph (see Paragraphs): analogous perhaps to the UNIX .profile script (for those who know UNIX).

The LOGIN command is useful for performing initialisation (such as setting the terminal type with SET.TERM.TYPE, see The Command Prompt), and frequently invokes the main menu of an application as its last action.

ON.EXIT

Complementing LOGIN is the ON.EXIT command, which UniVerse invokes when a user uses the QUIT or LO commands to leave UniVerse (see The Command Prompt). Again, where it is defined at all it is usually defined as a paragraph, and is sometimes used for logging activity, displaying reminder messages, or, on friendly systems, simply saying goodbye.

ON.ABORT

Finally, the ON.ABORT command is invoked when a user uses the break key to break out of a process. It can be used to deny access to the UniVerse command prompt (which appears if the ON.ABORT paragraph is absent) or sometimes just to reset 'sensible' terminal parameters, which may have been changed by the program being broken out of.