kaem(1)
π NAME π
okay bestie, meet kaem β it's like running with scissors but shell scripts without a shell. no cap, that's literally the tagline. π
β¨ SYNOPSIS β¨
kaem [--file FILE --strict --verbose --nightmare-mode]
π DESCRIPTION π
so the whole point of kaem is that it's the most minimal shell you could possibly need in bootstrap processes β and the way it serves is that it can function as an init, which means the whole bootstrap can happen with only itself and a hex0 assembler as the only binaries running on the system. that's it. that's the whole squad. π
At its core, here's the vibe: it reads a line β except when that line is terminated with a '\', in which case it reads the next line too (yes bestie, it's a continuation, we love her) β and then it collects the arguments into an array, looks up the program in the path provided by the name, or if that doesn't hit, in the ENVIRONMENT, and then executes that program with the specified options. slay.
If no filename is passed, kaem then attempts to execute a file called kaem.run β which is, and I cannot stress this enough, the standard name for kaem scripts. iconic. π¦
Wanna know how to level it up? here's the tea:
- If you wish for kaem to stop when one of the lines throws or returns an error code, simply add
--strict. - If you wish to see what is being executed, simply add
--verbose. - If you hate dealing with an environment and want to eliminate it entirely,
--nightmare-mode.
yes the flag is literally called --nightmare-mode. no I'm not kidding. it's giving unhinged and I respect it so much. π
π EXAMPLES π
Typically, kaem will be in running scripts used in bootstrapping, so like:
# kaem --verbose --strict
# kaem -f bootstrap.sh --nightmare-mode
look at her go. main character energy fr fr. β¨
πΈ COMPATIBILITY πΈ
kaem is compatible with all Turing complete machines β even the ones that try to be Turing complete -1. π§
π AUTHORS π
Jeremiah Orians <Jeremiah@pdp10.guru>
π COPYRIGHT π
Copyright 2016-2019 Jeremiah Orians <Jeremiah@pdp10.guru>
License GPLv3+.
π SEE ALSO π
M1(1), hex2(1), blood-elf(1), get_machine(1), syscalls(2)
and that's the whole page bestie β this one's a Linux special from JULY 2019, and yeah, it lives under the kaem(1) glow-up. go bootstrap something cute. π«Άπ
π¦ where this page comes from
- debian bookworm: mescc-tools 1.4.0-1 Β· GPL-3.0-or-later
- debian trixie: mescc-tools 1.5.2-1 Β· GPL-3.0-or-later
- ubuntu jammy: mescc-tools 1.3-2 Β· GPL-3.0-or-later
- ubuntu noble: mescc-tools 1.4.0-1 Β· GPL-3.0-or-later
- ubuntu questing: mescc-tools 1.5.2-1ubuntu1
- ubuntu resolute: mescc-tools 1.5.2-1ubuntu2 Β· GPL-3.0-or-later
- ubuntu stonking: mescc-tools 1.5.2-1ubuntu2 Β· GPL-3.0-or-later
- π girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash on : a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms