Shortcut Properties Command Line Switches

To load FileLink, double-click on a shortcut on your Windows desktop created by the FileLink configurator or one of the menu items that appears when clicking the Start button and navigating to All Programs | FileLink. One or more of the following command line switches may have been associated with FileLink during installation, or may be specified when defining the properties of FileLink within the Target control of the Shortcut Properties dialog.

The general command line syntax is

filelink [-d] [-gfile] [-m] [-n] [-pn] [-sfile] [-v] [&var1& | %var2%] [-x]

The following paragraphs describe these and other command line switches in detail:

The -d switch activates the debug mode. The debug mode writes internal debug information to the log file during script processing. This switch is only useful for diagnostics to be interpreted by a Serengeti System technical support engineer.

The -ft switch may be used with the -px switch to suppress a pop-up message reminding the user to run the FileLink configurator for the detected COM port if the port has not been previously configured. This switch is useful in unattended environments when the default settings are acceptable and/or when there is no user present to respond to the pop-up message.

The -g switch specifies the optional settings file to be used to configure FileLink. Settings files have an .set extension and are created by a previous run of FileLink. The settings are read from the file and transferred to the Registry overwriting all previously existing settings. Typically settings would only need to be imported once. Also, refer to the EXPORT and IMPORT script commands.

The -h switch results in FileLink running completely invisible from the desktop.

The -l switch may be specified with the -m switch to lock the minimized state of FileLink and prevent a user from maximizing the window. This may be advantageous to prevent users from having access to the console window and its associated controls. This switch is ignored if the -m switch is not present.

The -m switch results in FileLink starting with its main window minimized.

The -n switch suppresses the FileLink splash screen and other informative windows (i.e., information about auto-detected COM port(s), see -p switch) that may otherwise be displayed when the program first loads.

The -p switch selects the COM port to be used by FileLink. FileLink may be used on a single COM port in a given system. For example, -p2 specifies COM2. Default settings are assumed for each COM port. If necessary, FileLink may be configured specifically for each COM port by running FileLink configurator.

If you do not know which COM port to use ahead of time, specify -px. This option results in FileLink scanning the PC for all available COM ports and using the first COM where a modem is detected. If no modem is detected, then the first COM port detected is used. The default configuration settings are used if the port found has not been previously configured. (Also see the -ft switch.)

The -s switch specifies the script file to be loaded and executed. Pressing the (Esc) key or clicking the Stop button cancels script file execution.

The -t switch specifies a service name used to identify this particular instance of FileLink to SrvMonitor (a Windows tray applet) provided with FileLink that may be used to monitor the operation of FileLink when it is running as an NT service or when it is running minimized. For more information see Monitoring a FileLink Service and the SRVNAME script command.

The -tl switch may be helpful to Serengeti System technical support in troubleshooting problems with terminal emulation in the TTY Terminal applet. You may be asked to add with switch to the FileLink shortcut to produce a set of log files to be sent in for analysis.

The -ua and -uc switches are not commonly used unless FileLink is to be run on a system and it has NOT been installed using the provided InstallShield installation program (i.e., setup.exe). Under such circumstances, FileLink will use the specifed switch to create the appropriate Windows registry hive (where its settings are saved) according which user(s) may use FileLink.

The -v switch should be specified whenever FileLink is started as a Windows service.

The -x switch should be specified whenever the FileLink console window (and script processor) is to be suppressed and only the TTY Terminal applet is to be visible.

&sub-parm&

- or -

Arguments delimited by & or % are assigned to internally defined script file variables %1 through %2. There can be up to nine script file variables assigned in this way. Script file variable arguments must follow the last switch passed into FileLink as shown below.

       C:\program files\fileLink.exe -n -sscript.s %var1% %var2%