Uniface Command Line Interface

Uniface provides a command line interface that enables you to access many functions without actually opening the user interface. By running a Uniface executable (such as ide.exe or uniface) with command line switches you can compile objects, debug applications, import and export, specify assignment files, and more.

The command line interface is useful in many situations, including:

  • Shortcuts, specifying configuration files and other start-up options
  • Batch processing
  • Targeted compilation
  • Testing and debugging

Syntax

Executable {Switch {SubSwitches} } {Switch {SubSwitches} }n {AppShell } {Parameters}

  • Executable —Uniface executable, such as uniface, urouter, userver, ide, udbg; or a user-defined version of uniface.
  • Switch—command line switch that can be used with the specific executable. Some switches can only be used with a specific application, such as the Uniface Router. For descriptions of all switches and sub-switches, see Command Line Switches Reference.
  • SubSwitches—one or more sub-switches that may be used with the Switch. Sub-switches have no meaning when used on their own. If a sub-switch occurs more than once in a command line, the right-most occurrence is accepted.
  • AppShell—name of the application shell to be started by the uniface executable; for example, MYAPP.
  • Parameters—one or more user-defined application parameters, separated by spaces. For more information, see Passing Parameters to an Application.

Example: "D:\Uniface10\uniface\ide.exe" /log=syb:testing|| /cpy xml:data syb:

Using Command Line Switches

Command line switches can be used to specify configuration files, run utilities, apply operating constraints, supply parameters, and otherwise qualify the session. They remain in effect for the duration of that application session.

You can enter command line switches:

  • Directly on the command line, or in a Windows shortcut used to start an application. For example:
    "C:\Uniface10\common\bin\uniface.exe" /asn=C:\MyApp\adm\myapp_test.asn MYAPP
    "D:\Uniface10\uniface\ide.exe" "/adm=D:\Uniface10\uniface\adm" /asn="D:\Uniface10\uniface\adm\myide.asn" ?

    Tip: The question mark (?)at the end causes the command line dialog box to be displayed.

  • In the command line dialog box that is displayed when you start the Uniface IDE. For example:

    Command line dialog

  • In Uniface Server definitions in the urouter.asn file. For example:
    ; urouter.asn
[SERVERS]
wasv = "D:\Uniface10\common\bin\userver.exe" /dir="D:\Uniface10Data\project" /adm="D:\Uniface10\uniface\adm" /asn=wasv.asn
  • In batch scripts, for example, to perform regular exports of development objects

 

Command line switches and sub-switches are normally separated by spaces. However:
  • A switch that does not take a value can be followed, without a space, by another switch in the same command line string.
  • A switch that can take a value can be followed by another switch only if there is a space separating them. This is true, even if no value is supplied. For example, the following argument string are not allowed:
    • /pri=63/bat
    • /deb/bat

    /bat will not be recognized because /pri and /deb can take values (even though, in this case, /deb does not )

Windows

For example, on Windows, the following command starts the Uniface IDE using the settings specified in the usys.ini and ide.asn configuration files, and starts the command line dialog box: 

"C:\Uniface\Uniface\bin\ide.exe" /ini=usys.ini /asn=usysadm:ide.asn ?

The default shortcut for the Uniface IDE makes use of command line switches to present a dialog box in which you can enter command line switches. For example:

Graphical content.

You can perform actions without starting the user interface. For example, you can compile all components by entering the following at in the Microsoft Windows Run dialog box:

C:\Uniface\Uniface\bin\ide.exe /all

Note: When running the Uniface IDE from the command line, if the Repository contains unmigrated data or is an incompatible version, command line execution will fail with an error. You must start an interactive IDE session so that the data can be migrated or the problem details reported.

Unix

On Unix, every parameter that contains Uniface wildcards must be enclosed in quotes to prevent the shell from expanding before passing them on to Uniface.

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