NetEx EFT213 Reference Manual Rel 5.4

Host aliases can translate only into a single host command. This is not typically a problem since most hostssupport command procedures or script files which can then be accessed by a Host alias.The remainder of this section is devoted to issues relating to NetEx/eFT aliases. The topics apply to host aliasesas well unless specifically designated as “NetEx/eFT Aliases”.Creating Multicommand NetEx/eFT AliasesAn alias can translate to a single NetEx/eFT command as shown above where FETCH was mapped toRECEIVE. NetEx/eFT aliases can also be defined to be a sequence of several commands. The method fordefining a multicommand alias is to put each command of the definition on a separate line, where each line,except for the last one, is terminated by the escape character ‘!’. The escape character tells NetEx/eFT to continuethe alias definition on the next line. The following is an example of a three line FETCH alias that connectsto HOSTA, receives a file called ‘sourcefile’, then disconnects:eFT> set alias fetch connect hosta guest netex !More>> receive sourcefile !More>>disconnectThe SHOW ALIAS command can be used to display the new FETCH alias:eFT> show alias fetcheFT: FETCH ............... connect hosta guest netexeFT:receive sourcefileeFT:disconnectNotice that NetEx/eFT strips the ‘!’ from the alias definition. It is only needed for the initial definition of thealias.Although they are very powerful, multicommand aliases are limited to roughly 500 characters in length. It issuggested that if an alias approaches this limit, it should be made into an input script and stored in a file.Unlike single command aliases (such as the simplest FETCH alias defined earlier), multicommand aliases donot implicitly pass command parameters or qualifiers through to the actual NetEx/eFT commands.NetEx/eFT has no way of determining which command a particular parameter is destined for unless the aliasis set up to pass its own parameters, as explained in the next section.Passing Parameters to an AliasWhen creating multicommand aliases, it is often desirable to allow parameters to be passed on the alias commandline. These parameters can then be substituted into various places within the command sequence in thesame way as was done for input scripts.Refer back to the FETCH alias defined in the previous section. To make that alias more flexible, one can defineit to take as parameters such things as userid and password on the CONNECT line, and file name on theRECEIVE line. The definition then is:eFT> set alias fetch {} connect hosta {1} {2} !More>> receive {3} !More>>disconnectNote the empty ‘{}’ above. These are important when defining alias parameters and will be discussed shortly.The resulting alias becomes:eFT> show alias fetcheFT: FETCH .............. connect hosta {1} {2}eFT: receive {3}eFT:disconnectPage 98 Advanced Local User’s Guide REF-eFT213-R5.4-08