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consvar(8)
NAME
  consvar - Manipulate system firmware console environment variables

SYNOPSIS
  /sbin/consvar [-v] [-nc] -g -s -l -a -d [variable] [value]

FLAGS
  -v  Verbose mode.  Prints out the system IDs used by firmware, the current
      firmware revision, and information about the process.

  -g variable
      Get the value of the specified console environment variable.

  -s variable value
      Set the value of the specified console environment variable.

  -l  List the values of all variables supported by this platform that are
      not disabled.  This is similar to the 'show' SRM console command.

  -a  Save the values of all environment variables to non-volatile storage.
      Setting a variable with the -s flag only updates the in-memory copy of
      console environment variables.  The save process could take a long time
      on some platforms, so it is recommended that the variables are saved
      after all set operations have been performed.

  -d  List the system and exception database information.

  -nc Do not perform value conversion.	Variables that contain device
      information have an underlying console bootstring format.	 If this flag
      is used, consvar does not convert between the Digital UNIX names for
      these devices, but accepts and displays the raw values.  The same goes
      for integer values which are converted between strings and hexadecimal
      values.

DESCRIPTION
  Use the consvar  command to get, set, list, and save console environment
  variables available on SRM system firmware.  Some firmware versions on some
  platforms do not comply with the Alpha SRM when dealing with certain
  variables, or operations.  To ensure UNIX functionality with such firmware,
  an exception database is consulted and these operations are disabled.	 By
  default, consvar accepts and displays device values with Digital UNIX
  device names, or their device special file names. The raw console
  bootstrings can be used by providing the -nc flag. For information
  regarding the console environment variables, please refer to the Alpha
  System Reference Manual.




EXAMPLES
   1.  To show the values of all available console variables, enter:


	    % consvar -l

   2.  To get the value of the booted_dev variable, enter:


	    % consvar -g booted_dev

   3.  To set the value of boot_dev, enter one of the following commands:


	    % consvar -s boot_dev rz1
	    % consvar -s boot_dev /dev/rz1a
	    % consvar -s boot_dev tu0

   4.  To save the values of the variables across system resets, enter:


	    % consvar -a

   5.  If an operation fails, you can find out if it is disabled by using the
       -v  flag.  For example, to see if the bootdef_dev  variable is
       disabled, enter:


	    % consvar -v -g bootdef_dev

   6.  The exception database can be printed out along with the status of the
       current platform's console variable support by entering:


	    % consvar -v -d

RETURN VALUES
    ·  0 - Success

    ·  1 - Failure

FILES
  /sbin/consvar
	     Specifies the command path.

  //etc/fwevdb
	     Exception database.

RELATED INFORMATION
  Commands: getsysinfo(2), setsysinfo(2).