Vxworks Command Cheat: Sheet

The Ultimate VxWorks Command Cheat Sheet: A Developer’s Guide to the Real-Time Shell

Introduction

In the world of real-time operating systems (RTOS), VxWorks by Wind River stands as a titan. For over three decades, it has powered mission-critical systems: from the Mars rovers (Curiosity and Perseverance) and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to avionics systems, industrial robotics, and network infrastructure.

The VxWorks C-Shell (or Kernel Shell) is a powerful tool for real-time debugging and system management. Unlike standard Linux shells, it often interprets commands as direct C function calls, meaning strings must be quoted and arguments are separated by commas. 🛠️ Core System & Navigation vxworks command cheat sheet

semMCreate / semCCreate, semBShow — Mutex and counting semaphores. The Ultimate VxWorks Command Cheat Sheet: A Developer’s

10. Debugging & Logging

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | tr | Trace tasks (context switch logging) | | trc | Start task tracing | | trcStop | Stop task tracing | | b <funcName> | Set breakpoint | | t <taskId> | Show task stack trace | | d | Dump memory | | printf "format", args | Print to console | | logShow | Show system log | | logFdShow | Show log file descriptors | Unlike standard Linux shells, it often interprets commands

These are the most used commands for controlling the real-time processes (tasks) that define a VxWorks system. sp (entryPt, arg1, ...) : Spawns a new task with default parameters. sps (entryPt)

2. Memory & Heap

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | memShow | Show system memory usage (total, free, allocated) | | m <address> | Display memory contents (hex & ASCII) | | d <address> | Display memory as bytes | | l <address> | Display memory as longs | | mfill <addr> <len> <value> | Fill memory with a value | | mcopy <src> <dst> <len> | Copy memory region | | checkStack <taskId> | Check task stack usage |