You can run some gfsh commands directly from your operating system's prompt by preceding the command with gfsh. This can be useful for Unix shell or Windows batch scripting. For example:

stymon@ubuntu:~/gemfire$ gfsh start locator --name=locator2 --port=10335

If the command is successful, the output appears and the operating system prompt reappears:

stymon@ubuntu:~/gemfire$ gfsh start locator --name=locator2 --port=10335
...............................
Locator in /home/stymon/gemfire/locator2 on ubuntu.local[10335] as locator2 is currently online.
Process ID: 3135
Uptime: 16 seconds
GemFire Version: 8.0.0
Java Version: 1.7.0_65
Log File: /home/stymon/gemfire/locator2/locator2.log
JVM Arguments: -Dgemfire.enable-cluster-configuration=true -Dgemfire.load-cluster-configuration-from-dir=false -Dgemfire.launcher.registerSignalHandlers=true -Djava.awt.headless=true -Dsun.rmi.dgc.server.gcInterval=9223372036854775806
Class-Path: /home/stymon/Pivotal_GemFire_800_b48319_Linux/lib/locator-dependencies.jar:/usr/local/java/lib/tools.jar

Cluster configuration service is up and running.

To see which gfsh commands are available directly on the prompt:

$ gfsh help

The following output appears:

$ gfsh help
Pivotal GemFire(TM) v8.0.0 Command Line Shell

USAGE
gfsh [ <command> [option]* | <help> [command] | [--help | -h] | [-e "<command> [option]*"]* ]

OPTIONS
-e  Execute a command
    Commands may be any that are available from the interactive gfsh prompt. 
    For commands that require a Manager to complete, the first command in the
    list must be "connect".

AVAILABLE COMMANDS
compact offline-disk-store
    Compact an offline disk store. If the disk store is large, additional
    memory may need to be allocated to the process using the --J=-Xmx###
    parameter.
describe offline-disk-store
    Display information about an offline disk store.
encrypt password
    Encrypt a password for use in data source configuration.
run
    Execute a set of GFSH commands. Commands that normally prompt for
    additional input will instead use default values.
start jconsole
    Start the JDK's JConsole tool in a separate process. JConsole will be
    launched, but connecting to GemFire must be done manually.
start jvisualvm
    Start the JDK's Java VisualVM (jvisualvm) tool in a separate process. Java
    VisualVM will be launched, but connecting to GemFire must be done manually.
start locator
    Start a Locator.
start pulse
    Open a new window in the default Web browser with the URL for the Pulse
    application.
start server
    Start a GemFire Cache Server.
status locator
    Display the status of a Locator. Possible statuses are: started, online,
    offline or not responding.
status server
    Display the status of a GemFire Cache Server.
stop locator
    Stop a Locator.
stop server
    Stop a GemFire Cache Server.
validate offline-disk-store
    Scan the contents of a disk store to verify that it has no errors.
version
    Display product version information.

EXAMPLES
gfsh
    Start GFSH in interactive mode.
gfsh -h
    Displays 'this' help. ('gfsh --help' or 'gfsh help' is equivalent)
gfsh help start locator
    Display help for the "start locator" command.
gfsh start locator --name=locator1
    Start a Locator with the name "locator1".
gfsh -e "connect" -e "list members"
    Connect to a running Locator using the default connection information and
    run the "list members" command.

To run multiple commands directly on the command line:

prompt>gfsh -e "start locator --name=locator1" -e "start server --name=server1"

prompt>gfsh -e "start jconsole"

prompt>gfsh -e "connect --locators=remotehost[10334]" -e "rebalance" -e "gc"