Software 2000/Software 2000 Volume 1 (Disc 1 of 2).iso/utilities/u258.dms/in.adf/UserDocs/Manual_Pages/ARun

Text File | 1988-02-12 | 4.9 KB | 199 lines

     ARun(REL2)             ARP User's    Manual            ARun(REL2)



     NAME
      ARun - Run a process in the background.

     SYNOPSIS
      ARun Program_Command/... </k >/k NOIO/S STACK/K PRI/K

     Description
      ARun starts up programs as background    processes, similarly
      to the AmigaDOS Run command. One of the big differences
      between Run and ARun is that ARun knows about    ARP's resident
      list,    and can    take advantage of programs that    you have
      placed there (see the    manual page for    Resident for more
      information).     Resident programs load    quicker, and save you
      lots of memory. In addition, ARun allows you to set the size
      of the stack for the new process, its    priority, and to
      redirect IO for the new process.  You    can also tell ARun
      that you don't want any default files    opened for this
      process, but this must be done with care.

      Programs which begin with the    new ARP    resident program tag
      (as all ARP programs currently do) will also have the    stack
      size for the program set automatically by ARun, whether or
      not they are installed on the    resident list.    This means
      memory savings, and no more crashes due to stack problems.

      The NOIO switch launches a program without any default file
      handles.  This is useful when    you want to launch a program
      from the CLI and then    close it later,    but still have the
      background process running.  Without the NOIO    option,    the
      CLI window will not close until the last process launched
      from that cli    has terminated.     Care must be used with    this
      option, since    many programs need default file    handles    to
      operate correctly.

     EXAMPLE
      Launch a program with    priority -5, stacksize of 4000 and
      noio:

          ARun MyProgram Mycommands    NOIO STACKSIZE 4000 PRI    -5

      The same process under AmigaDOS would    be accomplished    in
      this way:

      Stack    4000       ; set the stack
      ChangeTaskPri    -5 ; set the priority, things slow down    here!
      Run <NIL: >NIL: MyProgram Mycomands ;    launch
      ChangeTaskPri    0  ; reset the priortiy
      Stack    10240       ; reset the stack.

      The arp command is much more convenient.





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     ARun(REL2)             ARP User's    Manual            ARun(REL2)



     DIFFERENCES
      The AmigaDOS Run command does    not use    its own    argument
      parser, and it spawns    a subshell to handle the commands for
      you.    These two differences in implementation    cause the
      following changes in the behavior of Arun from Run:

      Argument parser - since ARun DOES use    the ARP    argument
          parser, you have the same convenience    in entering
          commands with    ARun as    you do with the    rest of    the
          ARP commands.     The only problem occurs when you need
          to pass a quoted argument to a sub-process, this
          occurs rarely, but it    can happen.  Here is how it is
          done:

                  ARun Command "\"Quoted Arg\""

          Where    the \ represents the current escape character
          (see Set).  The outer    quotes are for ARun, and the
          Escaped Quotes tell ARun (or the argument parser) to
          send the argument to the subprocess as a quoted
          string.

      Subshell - ARun does not spawn a subshell, this has its good
          side and its bad.  The good side is that this    is a
          very low overhead command, and folks are now free to
          replace the CLI shell.  The bad side is that you
          can't    pass through lists of arguments.  Therefore
          the run command+ feature of Run will not work    with
          ARun.     This will be taken care of by an actual
          invokable shell, as it should    have been done in the
          first    place.

     IMPORTANT NOTE
      This program is called ARun and not RUN for a    good reason:
      we don't want    you to delete your Run program just yet.  The
      problem is that AmigaDOS provided a program function call
      which    loads and runs another program.     The problem with that
      is that in order to run the program this function call first
      loads    and runs Run, and Run runs the program.     If this seems
      strange to you, it is    probably because it is strange.

      Unfortunately, some programs out there have used this
      function call, and won't work    if the AmigaDOS    run is
      missing.  Actually, they won't work if the AmigaDOS run is
      not in the C:    directory, and many problems with this have
      been encountered by users and    programmers.  ARP has now
      provided a replacement for this function call    which works
      much better, and does    not rely on any    other program being
      anywhere.  New programs will probably    use this, but until
      more of them do, and the CLI is ultimately replaced, delete
      Run only if you know it won't    interfere with things.




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     ARun(REL2)             ARP User's    Manual            ARun(REL2)



      Actually, a good side    to this    is that    you can    leave Run in
      your C: directory, and place ARun in your ramdisk, using it
      instead.  Most of the    past problems with Run have been
      caused by people moving it into another directory and    then
      into their RAM: disk.


















































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