DECnet NCP — VMS 5.4-3
Additional information available:
CLEARCONNECTCOPYDEFINEDISCONNECTEVENTS
EXITHELPLISTLOADLOOPPARAMETERS
PURGESETSHOWTELLTRIGGERZERO
Commands
The command syntax has four parts: a command keyword, a component keyword(s), one or more parameters, and, optionally, one or more qualifiers. The command keywords are: SET Change parameters in the volatile database. DEFINE Change parameters in the permanent database. CLEAR Remove components or parameters from the PURGE volatile or permanent databases. SHOW Display information about components in the LIST volatile or permanent databases. CONNECT Connect local terminal to remote node console interface. DISCONNECT Disconnect logical links with processes. COPY Copy one node database to another. LOOP Test lines or connections to nodes. LOAD Downline load nodes. TRIGGER Initiate bootstrap sequence of a node. TELL Establish temporary executor node. ZERO Zero counters for the specified entity. All underscores found in parameters must be replaced with spaces when parameters are used in NCP commands.
Additional information available:
Syntax
The command syntax has four parts: a command keyword, a component
keyword(s), one or more parameters, and, optionally, one or more
qualifiers. For example,
Command Keyword Component Parameter Qualifier
SHOW ACTIVE CIRCUITS CHARACTERISTICS TO file-id
KNOWN CIRCUITS COUNTERS
CIRCUIT line-id STATUS
SUMMARY
For each command, you must supply a keyword, a component, and one
or more parameters from the parameter list. In general, the
order in which you specify parameters makes no difference.
Braces around keywords and parameters indicate that you must
choose one of the options. Lowercase letters indicate
user-supplied component and parameter values.
Issuing commands
You enter NCP commands as keywords and parameters separated by spaces or tabs. Use the standard continuation line convention--a hyphen as the last character in the line--to continue a long command to the next line. If the first character of a line is an exclamation point (!), the line is ignored by NCP as a comment line. Hyphens within and at the end of a comment line are ignored. Lines beginning with an exclamation point, however, are not ignored if they follow a command line ending with a hyphen. When entering an NCP command, you can abbreviate any command verb, component keyword, or parameter name to its fewest unique letters.
Prompting
NCP prompts for required components and parameters if they are not
supplied when you issue the command. Each prompt is either a list of
admissible keywords for that position in the command syntax or the
name of a parameter and a description of the value required.
Prompting will not occur when NCP receives input from a command file.
Parameter keywords must be supplied in command files.
Each prompt consists of two parts: the component or parameter desired,
and its format. The format of prompts is as follows:
Component (Format):
All underscores found in parameters must be replaced with spaces
when parameters are used in NCP commands.
Additional information available:
Format of promptsExiting the Prompting SequenceExamples
Format of prompts
The component part indicates the name of either the component or parameter. The format part indicates the range of acceptable values. The format part presents keywords in uppercase, value classes in lowercase as descriptive strings, and numeric ranges as two numbers separated by a hyphen. Commas indicate alternatives which are mutually exclusive.
Exiting the Prompting Sequence
You can exit a prompting sequence by responding with CTRL/Z for the prompt. This returns you to the NCP> prompt where you can then issue another NCP command. You can exit NCP directly from the prompting sequence by responding with CTRL/C or CTRL/Y. Responding to a parameter prompt or query with "_DONE" skips the remainder of the prompts or queries and performs the requested function with the parameters which have been entered up to that point.
Examples
The following examples illustrate three types of prompting that NCP
provides.
Prompts to supply missing command component keywords:
NCP>CLEAR <RIGHT>
(LINE, CIRCUIT, LOGGING, KNOWN, NODE, OBJECT):
No component is specified for the CLEAR command. The prompt format is
a list of admissible component keywords separated by commas. Note
that the plural keyword KNOWN is included in this list.
Prompts to supply parameter values:
NCP>CLEAR LINE <RIGHT>
LINE ID (dev-c-u.t):
NCP prompts for the line-id for this component since it is not
provided with the command.
The following example shows variations of the prompting scheme for
parameter values:
NCP>SET EXECUTOR <RIGHT>
Node address (1.1-63.1023): 2.11
State (ON, OFF, SHUT, RESTRICTED): ON
...
Pipeline quota (0-65535 bytes):6000
Prompts to select parameter names:
NCP>CLEAR LINE <RIGHT>
Line ID (dev-c-u.t): DMC-1
All line parameters (Y,N):
NCP prompts for the selected parameter names whose values are to be
removed from the database. In this case, no parameter name was
given; consequently, NCP asks if all values should be removed. Y
indicates that all values should be removed. N causes NCP to provide
a different response. For example,
NCP>CLEAR NODE BOSTON <RIGHT>
All node parameters (Y,N): N
Host node (Y,N): Y
Identification (Y,N): N
...
Service password (Y,N): Y
Tertiary loader (Y,N): N
Since N is the response to the first prompt above, NCP prompts for all
of the parameter names.