Network Supervisor's Toolkit

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CHANGE DIRECTORY / NETWORK (CDn) v2.00 Automatic drive mapping for your Novell network Copyright by Barry Brevik 1993, 1994 all rights reserved 711 Calle Cardo Thousand Oaks, CA 91360 CIS 70132,2277 Novell and NetWare are registered trademarks of Novell, Inc. Microsoft is a registered trademark and Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. CDn is not in the public domain- see SHAREWARE NOTICE below. This user's guide dated February 14, 1994 OVERVIEW CDn is a Novell NetWare specific application that makes it easy for anyone to automatically map and de-map network drives, including SEARCH drives, from inside a batch file or from the command line. CDn delivers all of the drive mapping capability that most users will ever need while providing many functions not found in the NetWare MAP command. CDn boasts all of these features: Map a new drive and switch to it with one command. This is useful both at the command line and in batch files. Don't worry about drive letters, CDn will automatically select the first available drive or re-map a current drive- it's your choice. Add and remove SEARCH drives even when shelled out from one or more parent programs. Save and restore entire drive maps. You can save a drive map, obliterate the current maps, start a new series of maps for specific applications, and then restore the original maps all using only CDn. Map any user's SYS:MAIL directory by knowing only the user name. Map the current user's SYS:MAIL directory WITHOUT knowing the name. Map non-existent or even valid LOCAL drives to a network path. Map any specific drive letter as a normal or a SEARCH drive. Add a FAKE ROOT or SEARCH DRIVE status to any drive. The MAP SEARCH and the MAP ROOT switches work in conjunction with all of the CDn command line options so you can create numerous useful mapping situations such as adding a user's SYS:MAIL directory as a SEARCH drive with a fake root. INSTALLATION To install CDn, copy it to a drive and directory that will always be in your path. My method is to place it in both a common network directory such as SYS:PUBLIC and on each node's local disk, since CDn works whether you are logged in or not. page 1 HOW TO USE CDn All of CDn's functions are detailed in this document, but you can get started right away by reading the short command summary and examples below. CDn's strong point is it's simplicity- users have even been known to find it enjoyable. First, a few basic concepts and then on to some examples. 1) A CDn command consists of the program name "cdn" followed by either: a network path (switches can optionally be added) or a network username (switches can optionally be added) or a drive letter in the range of A - Z followed by a network path (e.g. "G:=SYS:\HOME") (switches can optionally be added) or an absolute DOS path (e.g. "C:\DOS") or one or more switches alone without a network path. A network path consists of three parts: the file server, the volume and the path. For example- FS1/SYS:HOME or \\FS1\SYS\HOME\ FS1 is the file server name (optional) SYS: is the NetWare volume name. HOME is the path name. The file server name is always optional with CDn. If you do not have a multiple file server environment, you do not need the prefix. If you do have multiple file servers and you omit the prefix, CDn will perform it's actions using the current default file server as it's venue. 2) You can add the following switches to any CDn command to enhance the scope of that command. These switches are used in combination with other command line options but never by themselves. -N Forces the creation of a NEW drive. -NS Creates a SEARCH drive (New Search). -R Creates a FAKE ROOT. These switches can appear in any order and be upper, lower or mixed case. You can combine any of these switches, but do not use both -N and -NS on the same command line... -NS combines the NEW and SEARCH functions. 3) By default, CDn will try to re-map an existing drive that is already mapped to the target volume. In other words, if drive G: is mapped as "sys:public\apps\wordproc", and you enter "cdn sys:public\mail", then CDn will re-map drive G: as "sys:public\mail". This feature prevents you from quickly depleting the supply of drive letters. You can force CDn to map an unused drive letter by using the "-N" switch . If there is no existing drive mapped to the target volume, CDn will use a new drive letter auto- matically, even without the "-N" switch. 4) When CDn re-maps an existing drive or maps a previously unused (new) drive, it also makes that drive and path the current path... in other words, it "switches" to the target path. This is supremely useful in batch page 2 files. An exception is when you add the SEARCH drive modifier. When you create a SEARCH drive, CDn adds it to your path and updates the NetWare shell's internal SEARCH table, but it maintains the current path without "switching". Updating the shell's SEARCH table is required to ensure that LOGOUT properly removes your SEARCH drives. 5) The display output of CDn can be routed to a text file or printer using standard DOS redirection like this: cdn sys:home\mary > maps.txt This is important when you use the "@" function to restore a drive map. 6) If you want Cdn to "remember" new drive maps so that you can automatically delete them later, you must load the companion utility, CDnMEM (see "THE CDnMEM RESIDENT BUFFER" below). Cdn searches for the presence of CDnMEM each time it runs. OPERATING CDn - SOME EXAMPLES cdn sys:home\jeff\backup Makes that path current on the default file server. cdn fs1/sys:home\jeff\backup Now add a specific file server. cdn fs1/william Go to user WILLIAM's mail directory on a specific file server. cdn -m -ns -r Make the current user's mail directory be a new SEARCH drive with a fake root. cdn b:=sys:xfer\floppy Redefine non-existent local drive B: to point to a directory on the file server. cdn -dk Delete the map for drive "K:" (assuming it exists). cdn -d! Delete all drive maps and create 1 or 2 new maps as specified in the default path option (see "SETTING THE DEFAULT PATH AND SEARCH PATH" below). cdn or cdn -sh This is like typing "map" except the out- put is trimmed to show only network drives. If you have a busy PATH set up, this can be a nice feature. Any drives with a fake root mapping will have the message "[fake root]" appended. If CDnMEM is loaded and contains any drive letters, a message will appear showing what drives are currently in the buffer. Generally, if you see only one drive mapped and it points to SYS:LOGIN, then you are not logged to a file server. cdn > c:\basemaps.txt Create a drive mapping script file reflecting the current drive maps. cdn @c:\basemaps.txt Delete all current drive maps and remap new drives based on the script file "basemaps.txt". page 3 EXAMPLE- WHERE IS \LOGIN? You have probably noticed that as you move from machine to machine, the login drive changes, or if you login on drive F: then map a bunch of drives and end up logging out on drive H:, your login drive is no longer F:- it has become H: and F: is now invalid. You can use one of CDn's special command line switches to handle this situation. Just enter "CDn -L" and you will always land in the login directory whether you are already logged in or not. Here is an example of a batch file that will put you or your users into a tight login loop: @ echo off :top cls cdn -l ; find LOGIN drive and dir. login ; execute the LOGIN program. if errorlevel 1 goto lerror ; if LOGIN failed... cdn -s ; check LOGIN status. if errorlevel 1 goto top ; if not logged, start over. who ; show version status and pause ; capture status. cdn -sh ; show drive maps. goto end ; exit this batch. :lerror ; if here, we failed to LOG IN. pause ; pause to see error message. goto top ; start over. :end Note how we use "cdn -s" to determine if we have successfully logged in. We don't really need to change to SYS:SYSTEM but knowing that CDn will return a non-zero errorlevel if we are not logged in allows us to use this utility for an extra purpose. MULTIPLE FILE SERVERS If you are using CDn in a multiple file server environment, you can add the file server name to the target path like this: cdn fs2/sys:\public\messages Just as with the MAP command, you must be attached to the target file server before you can map any drives to it. If you are not attached, MAP will stop and ask for a login name and password. In contrast, CDn was designed to operate in batch files and will terminate with an error code if you are not attached to the target server. Also note that CDn understands the Universal Naming Convention (sometimes called "MS-NET") method of specifying network paths. All of the following examples mean the same thing to CDn: fs1/sys:public fs1\sys:public \\fs1\sys\public\ page 4 COMMAND LINE OPTIONS Here is a listing of the CDn special purpose switches. The first group of switches should appear by themselves on the command line- in other words, adding these switches to a network path would be an invalid command. -L Changes to SYS:LOGIN on default file server. [-N |-NS |-R ] -P Changes to SYS:PUBLIC on default file server. [-N |-NS |-R ] -S Changes to SYS:SYSTEM on default file server. [-N |-NS |-R ] -M Changes to the current user's SYS:MAIL directory on default file server. [-N |-NS |-R ] -Dx Deletes a drive mapping (including a SEARCH drive) where x is the drive letter. -D* Deletes ALL drive mappings. -D! Deletes ALL drive mappings except those defined as the default map and default SEARCH (see "SETTING THE DEFAULT PATH AND SEARCH PATH" below). -SH SHows current network drive map list. If CDnMEM is loaded... -CL Clears the memory resident new drive list without deleting any drive mappings. -RM Removes all entries in the memory resident drive buffer and deletes the corresponding drive mappings. These switches are used in combination with other command line options but never by themselves. -N Forces CDn to use a NEW (not currently used) drive letter. -NS CDn will use a NEW drive letter and make it a SEARCH drive. Note that CDn does not switch to the new SEARCH drive. -R CDn will make a "MAP ROOT" drive. There is an additional command variant supported that will read drive mappings out of an ASCII script file. When you use "CDn @filespec" all of your current drive mappings will be deleted and the specified file will be used to create a new series of drive maps. Use the redirection feature of CDn to create the text file. SETTING THE DEFAULT PATH AND SEARCH PATH You can specify a network path to be the default drive map and SEARCH drive map for use with the "-d!" switch. For example, if you select "SYS:HOME" as the default path and "SYS:PUBLIC" as the default SEARCH path, when you invoke "cdn -d!", all current drive maps will be deleted and two new drive maps will be created as follows: F: will be mapped to SYS:HOME Z: will be a SEARCH drive mapped to SYS:PUBLIC This is an example- the actual drive letters may be different on your PC. You are not required to use both strings; either of them can be omitted to meet your individual needs or both can be removed if you wish to disable this function. Both strings are present by default and are set to "SYS:PUBLIC". The strings are placed in the CDn executable and are located near the end of the file. You can also edit the strings manually using DEBUG or a hex editor. The default path is immediately preceded by the string "DEFAULT PATH===>". The default SEARCH path is immediately preceded page 5 by the string "DEFAULT SEARCH=>". Both strings are limited to 64 characters including a 0 termination byte. Registered users will receive CDnFLG, a menu driven utility that lets you- 1) make changes to the DEFAULT PATH and SEARCH strings. 2) Toggle the "search for CDnMEM" flag. 3) Toggle the "show Shareware message" flag. 4) Change the four available command line switch characters. DELETING DRIVE MAPS FROM A BATCH FILE You might ask "what if I delete the current drive?". If you are running a batch file, you have no way of determining if you are deleting the current drive, so what happens? Nothing; the NetWare shell just makes another drive current, usually a local drive. In any case, you don't have to worry about being bumped to another drive after deleting a map because CDn can always take you to a known location. COMPATIBILITY CDn coexists peacefully with the NetWare MAP command. Any drives created with the MAP command can be remapped or deleted with CDn and any drives created by CDn can be remapped or deleted with the MAP command. If you are using the CDnMEM resident buffer, any drives deleted by MAP are automatically removed from the buffer, but drives created by MAP are NOT automatically added to the buffer. THE CDnMEM RESIDENT BUFFER CDn comes with a companion utility, CDnMEM.COM. This is an extremely benign and well behaved TSR that uses only 256 bytes of RAM when resident. CDnMEM does not grab any interrupt vectors, does not "pop-up" or in any other way interact with the system. The sole purpose of CDnMEM is to "remember" new drives that are created by CDn. Whenever CDn creates a NEW drive letter, it adds that drive to the resident buffer. CDnMEM is istalled by typing "cdnmem /i" on the command line (or in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file). Because it is so unobtrusive, CDnMEM can be uninstalled at any time by typing "cdnmem /u" even if other TSR's have been loaded on top of it. You can also install CDnMEM at the beginning of a batch file, use CDn to map and remove drive letters, and then uninstall it as you exit the batch file. CDnMEM will not install another copy of itself if it has already been loaded. When CDnMEM is loaded, there are two additional switches available to CDn- The "-RM" switch will ReMove (un-map) any drive mappings that are retained in the resident buffer. The "-CL" switch will CLear any drives in the resident buffer- in other words, it will reset the buffer to blanks but it will not un-map any of the drives. This is useful when you want to create and delete drive mappings in a batch file and you want to be sure you are starting with a blank slate. Just add this command to the start of your batch file. CDnMEM can be loaded high if your DOS version or memory manager software (such as QEMM) supports a loadhi function. See your DOS manual or memory manager documentation for an explanation of how to load programs high. page 6 If you are not using CDnMEM, you may want to use CDnFLG to set the "search for CDnMEM" flag to false. This will force Cdn to NOT check for the presence of CDnMEM every time it runs. WHAT ABOUT THE VLM SHELLS? CDn will work with the VLM shells provided that the module NETX.VLM is loaded. If the NETX module is not loaded, CDn will return with the message "NetWare shell not loaded". A major goal for the next version of CDn is to support the VLM shells directly. A WORD ABOUT WINDOWS If you are using Microsoft Windows you can use CDn in a DOS window with no problem. By default, Windows tries to isolate tasks from each other which results in some strange behavior- if you create a new drive with CDn or MAP in a DOS box, that drive will not be available to any other Windows tasks, and when you quit Windows, any drives you created will have disappeared. Sometimes, this might seem like a nice feature, but if you do want to share your drive maps across Windows tasks, you can change the default by editing your SYSTEM.INI file. You can edit this file by clicking on FILE/RUN from Program Manager, type SYSEDIT on the command line, and click OK. Four cascaded windows will appear- click on the one titled SYSTEM.INI. Search for the heading [NetWare]. If you can not find it, just add it to the end of the file. Add the following line to share drive maps between tasks. [NetWare] NWSHAREHANDLES=TRUE Add the following line to retain drive maps you have created or deleted when you leave Windows. RESTOREDRIVES=FALSE If you use CDnMEM, you should load it before starting Windows. Since you can only load one copy of CDnMEM, trying to load it repeatedly from multiple DOS sessions will fail. When you use CDnMEM from a DOS session, also note that all DOS windows share the same resident buffer, so if you add drive G: (for example) from DOS session 1, it will appear in the resident buffer of DOS session 2 even if drive G: does not exist in that session. This is not necessarily a problem, but you should be aware of this behavior in case you normally run more than 1 simultaneous DOS session. USING CDn IN LOGIN SCRIPTS You can use CDn in NetWare login scripts. Just add a line to your login script like this (for example, assuming CDn.COM is located in SYS:PUBLIC): #sys:public\cdn sys:\ There is no reason to do this- LOGIN.EXE handles drive mapping internally, and my tests have shown that the LOGIN process is marginally faster if you let LOGIN.EXE do the mapping. page 7 SWITCH CHARACTERS You can use the "/", "-", "#" or ";" as a switch character when specify- ing command line options. These switches can be changed with the CDnFLG utility distributed to registered users. ABSOLUTE AND RELATIVE PATHS CDn also handles relative paths and paths with drive letters just like the "CD" command. CDn however, will change both the drive and the path at the same time. These are all valid CDn commands (provided the drives and paths exist): cdn c:\windows cdn ..\..\users cdn \windows\system Note that the relative path format "cdn windows" is not supported- if a path does not start with a file server name, volume name, drive letter, ".", or "\" CDn assumes you are asking for a user's mail directory. MESSAGES In normal use, CDn displays very few informational messages. If an error occurs however, there are several error messages that may be displayed. All error messages also result in a non zero DOS errorlevel return inside a batch file. The following is a list of possible messages. INFORMATIONAL MESSAGES (no error) New drive mapped as X: Any time CDn maps a previously unused drive letter this message will be displayed replacing "X" with the actual drive letter. The mapping for drive X: has been deleted. Any time you delete a drive map with the "-d" or the "-r" switch this message will be displayed replacing "X" with the actual drive letter. Resident buffer has not been loaded. Resident buffer was empty- no drive mappings have been deleted. Resident buffer was already clear. Resident buffer has been cleared only- no drive mappings have been deleted. These messages will appear when you invoke CDn with the "-r" or the "-c" switch and the CDnMEM buffer is either not loaded or is empty. ERROR MESSAGES, COMMON User not logged in. Specified path is invalid. NetWare shell is not loaded. Specified volume is invalid - volume names have a maximum of 16 characters. Specified volume does not exist. Specified file server is invalid. You are not attached to known file server FS2 Cannot map NEW drive... all permanent drives are currently mapped. Cannot map SYS: volume... all available drives are mapped either as SEARCH drives, or to a volume other than SYS:. Cannot map target volume... all available drives are mapped either as SEARCH drives, or to a volume other than the target. No such user in Bindery - JAMES User does not have a mail directory - JAMES drive is not in the range "A-Z". drive is not a network drive. page 8 ERROR MESSAGES, UNCOMMON With the exception of the "NetWare shell not loaded" message, I have never seen these messages except under simulated error conditions. Must be running NetWare v2.10 or better. Must have NetWare shell v3.01 or better. Insufficient memory to run. Existing network drive found, but CDn could not make that drive current. Unable to map drive X: Cannot delete mapping for drive J:... You are connected, but not attached to the specified file server. Specified drive does not exist. Could not allocate space in resident memory buffer. RELIABILITY CDn has been tested extensively on a NetWare v3.12/v2.15 dual file server system- this is a 35 user production network on which CDn has been in daily use for about one year at the time of this writing. CDn has also had limited testing under NetWare 2.2, 3.11 and 4.01. CDn has been tested under several workstation OS versions including MSDOS 3.3, 4.01, 5.0, 6.0 and 6.2. Final testing was performed by myself on the 43 file server WAN at ABC studios in Hollywood, CA. CDn has CTRL/C and CTRL/BREAK handlers to avoid the unpleasant results of unexpected termination. In keeping with the intent of a batch file utility, there are no messages which require a keystroke to clear. Even the "usage" message which has multiple screens will pause for 2 seconds between screens, and will then automatically continue. DOS ERRORLEVEL RETURNS Here is a list of the possible errorlevel return codes. Most of the time, you will probably not need (or want) to get this detailed. Personally, I check for errorlevel = 1 which will trap them all. 1 insufficient DOS version. 2 insufficient memory. 3 syntax error (shows USAGE message). 4 NetWare shell is not loaded. 5 user is not logged. 6 insufficient NetWare OS or NetWare shell version. 7 invalid file server. 8 you are not attached to target server. 9 undefined. 10 invalid volume. 11 user has no mail directory. 12 path is invalid. 13 could not map. 14 no free drives. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS To run CDn, your file server(s) and workstations must meet the following conditions: Workstation must be running MSDOS v3.0 or better. NetWare shell must be v3.01 or better. File server must be running Advanced NetWare v2.10 or better. page 9 SHAREWARE NOTICE CDn is copyrighted software distributed as shareware and may be used on a 30-day free trial basis. If at the end of 30 days you find CDn to be useful and you wish to continue it's use, you must register your copy based on the fee plan shown below. When you register, you will receive a diskette containing the latest version of CDn as well as the utility CDnFLG that allows you to set the Cdn internal flags and to set the default path and search path strings. Registered users will also receive a free upgrade to the next release of Cdn as soon as it is available. Shareware disk and CD-ROM vendors, user groups, computer clubs, bulletin board systems and individuals are permitted to copy and distribute CDn for others to try on a 30-day free trial basis, provided that the program is unmodified and is accompanied by this user's guide. A reasonable fee may be charged for media, copying, and shipping and handling. HOW TO REGISTER To register your copy of CDn send your name and the address where you receive U.S. mail together with your payment to: Barry Brevik 711 Calle Cardo Thousand Oaks, CA 91360 Please specify the diskette size you want (5.25" or 3.5"). You may pay by cash, check, money order, or postal money order, in U.S. dollars. Checks and money orders must be drawn on a U.S. bank. +-----------------------------------------+--------+ | Fee schedule | Price | +-----------------------------------------+--------+ | 1 or 2 file servers, unlimited users | $24.00 | +-----------------------------------------+--------+ | 3 or more file servers, unlimited users | $39.00 | +-----------------------------------------+--------+ SUPPORT POLICY Registered users of CDn are entitled to support at no additional cost for a minimum of three months from the date of registration. Within this time, the author, when contacted via CompuServe or U.S. mail will answer questions regarding the use of CDn and will attempt to correct any failure by CDn to function as described in this user's guide. If during the three month period the problem cannot be corrected, even if that problem is caused by an incompatibility in the user's specific hardware or software environment, the user may request and will receive a full refund of the registration fee. DISCLAIMER The author disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, with respect to CDn, the accompanying documentation and any other computer programs that appear as part of the distribution package. In no event shall the author be liable for any damages, direct or consequential, resulting from the use, misuse or inability to use this product, even if the author has been advised of the possibility of such damages. page 10 FEEDBACK Comments, criticisms, and suggestions regarding the current product and possible future enhancements to CDn are welcome. Please send any communications to the address or CompuServe account shown at the end of this document. PROGRAMMER'S NOTES Both CDn, CDnMEM and all the programs in the distribution package were written entirely in Assembly Language. Why? My personal feeling is that small utilities should BE small. Although I program a variety of languages in my daily work, my favorite medium has always been MASM. MASM is great for small projects like this, however, there is a lot going on inside CDn- it weighs in at just a little over 6800 lines of source code! With CDn, I felt that execution speed was less important than size on disk and in memory, so I concentrated my efforts in that area, and MASM lets me keep very tight control of wasted space. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS During the development of this utility, several people were very helpful to me in offering their unselfish support, ideas and camaraderie. I would like to thank the following individuals: My wife, Cindy for encouragement, support and letting me work until the wolf's hour. Lawrence Couey of Novell Labs for pointing out in excruciating detail my biggest mistake. Brett Warthen of Infinite Technologies for his untiring support on the CompuServe Netwire forums. Steven Key of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater for shining a light on an area I thought was already bullet proof. Tom Ruby of Legal File Software for giving me an important clue if I had only been sharp enough to realize it. William D. Cotten for giving it the critical eye. Elaine Pate for providing a truly impressive test platform. Greg Horton of SMTEK, INC for believing in me and allowing me to make this utility public. All of the sysops on the Netwire forum for making it the best support forum in the world. The author of CDn can be reached at: Barry Brevik 711 Calle Cardo Thousand Oaks, CA 91360 or on CompuServe at: CIS account 70132,2277 or on the Internet at: 70132.2277@compuserve.com page 11