With the advent of the nwadmin tool, many of the old console commands have become forgotten and many new Novell administrators aren't even aware that administration can be done without the GUI tool! Imagine that!

Well, believe it or not, there are quite a number of Novell console commands and I've dug out my notebook from back then and I'll take you on a brief tour through the next series of articles. These commands are useful for day to day administrative tasks and for writing specialized scripts.

ATTACH

The attach command is used to connect multiple Novell servers. Use this command when you've already attached to one server and wish to attach to a separate server

  attach (server)(\user)

If you fail to provide these arguments, you will be prompted for them.

CAPTURE

The Capture command is used to 'capture' printers from a network resource.(This is similar to the "Capture Printer Port" on Windows machines.)

  capture (Arguments)

    Local         = Capture and reassign and local port

    S(Server)     = File server the data should be sent to.

    J(Job)        = Specify the print job configuration to use.

    P(Printer)    = Specify the Printer number on the server.

    Q(Queue)      = Printer queue for job to be sent to.

    C(Copies)     = Number of copies to print

    Nam (Name)    = Username to appear on the print job

    B(banner)     = Specify text for the banner page. (if you haven't disabled banners)

    NB(No banner) = Specify not to print a banner page.

    CR            = Print to file instead of Printer (Specify file name)

CASTOFF

The Castoff command disables broadcast messages to the local machine.

  castoff

CASTON

The Caston command enables broadcast messages to the local machine.

  caston

CHKVOL

This command is used to view information about specified server volumes.

  chkvol (path to volume)

ENDCAP

Endcap ends the capture of resource that has been specified with the "capture" command.

  endcap L=(LPTx)

FLAG

Flag is used to set the attributes of a file or directory:

  flag (path | option)

    S  = Mark file as shareable.

    NS = Mark file as Non Shareable.

    RO = Mark file as Read Only

    RW = Mark file as Read Write

    N  = Mark file as Non Shareable and Read Write

    I  = Mark file as Indexed

FLAGDIR

Use this command to specify Directory attributes

  flagdir (path | option)
 
    N = Normal. Cancels any other directory attributes.

    H = Hidden.Directory will not appear in directory searches

    S = System. Indicates system function folder.

    P = Private. Specifies the folder to be private and not viewable with searches.
        (Sub directories can be specified directly though.)

We will continue our review of Novell console commands in my next article. In the meantime, try out these commands and you will find a new level of control over your Novell servers!

• Novell Console Commands, A quick tutorial (Part 2)
• Novell Console Commands, A quick tutorial (Part 3)
• Novell Console Commands, A quick tutorial (Part 4)