NetEx EFT213 Reference Manual Rel 5.4

Disabling String SubstitutionWhen NetEx/eFT sees {string} on a command line, it immediately tries to perform string substitution on thestring. To disable string substitution, place an empty {} on the command line prior to the string substitutionsyntax. The typical place to do this is during an alias definition. For example:eFT> set alias put send {} {sourcefile} {destinationfile}Upon seeing the empty {} before the string substitution syntax {sourcefile} and {destinationfile}, NetEx/eFTknows to not substitute the values of ‘sourcefile’ and ‘destinationfile’ at this time. The resulting definition foralias PUT is:eFT> show alias puteFT: PUT ............... send {sourcefile} {destinationfile}If the empty {} had not been included during the definition above, NetEx/eFT would have replaced {sourcefile}and {destinationfile} by their current values at the time the alias was defined. If they were undefined,they would have been replaced by the null string. The goal of an alias is usually to replace the value of thevariable at the time the alias is run, not when it is defined.The empty {} is actually used as a toggle to turn string substitution on and off. In the following example, thefirst occurrence of {} turns off string substitution, which results in {sourcefile} not being replaced by its value.The second occurrence of {} turns string substitution back on. This results in {destinationfile} being replacedby its current value (assume ‘dest.new’):eFT> set alias put send {} {sourcefile} {} {destinationfile}The resulting alias definition looks like:eFT> show alias puteFT: PUT ............... send {sourcefile} dest.newIn this case, the alias PUT becomes a send command where the destination file is always ‘dest.new’. Since {}is used as a toggle, it should only appear once within an alias definition (including multicommand aliases)when string substitution is to be ignored for all variables declared.Nested String SubstitutionThe string substitution syntax also allows for nested substitution. Nested substitution provides for embeddingstring substitution syntax within string substitution. Figure 2 is a representation of nested substitution.Page 88 Advanced Local User’s Guide REF-eFT213-R5.4-08