External commands

This table shows the available options on the External Command tab:

Option Description
Local Shell Command

Remote Shell Command

Use these to customize the command line to specify which program to run when Shell Window is selected under Runtime.

The Shell Window provides access to the command line prompt, where all utilities are available. When you click the Shell Window tool, the command line in local mode is the windows command prompt (Xterm in UNIX).

In remote mode, it is telnet to host server. This is the default.

If you do not configure the Shell Window, then the command line is the default.

To customize the command line, specify your preferred command line in Local Shell Command or Remote Shell Command. You can also click the folder button to open a file browser and navigate to the command file for the local machine.

For external shell programs selected for local servers, the IDE might or might not successfully pass all environment settings. This includes the current working directory.

To configure the command line to access the computer system that runs the host server, specify a @H placeholder in the command line. For example, to configure a command line to telnet the computer system that runs host server, specify telnet @H. The @H placeholder is substituted with the host name of the host server when the command line is run.

If an error happens, then when you select Shell Window a message box opens showing exception information.

These customized command line values are stored in the General section of client.ini. These values are located at local_shell_window= and remote_shell_window=.

External Editor Command Select an external editor command by clicking the folder button to navigate to the external editor's folder.

External editors are used to create new or open existing Tcl scripts. You can import the modified or generated Tcl script files back to the IDE using the Import Script tool.

External File Compare Command This is a way to launch a third-party binary to manually compare resource files.

Specify the full path of the file compare binary and arguments to the text field. For example:

C:\diff.exe @F1@F2 /i /p

When the command line is run, the @F1 placeholder is substituted with the BOX resource file path. The @F2 placeholder is substituted with the resource file path of the current site.

Click the folder button to open a file browser. After selecting a file compare binary, click Open. This closes the browser and populates the field with the selected file path with the two placeholders mentioned above.