Gasboy CFN III Mgnr's Mnl V3.4 - Manual (Page 193)

MDE-4315 CFN Series CFN III Manager’s Manual for Windows NT · August 2004 Page 177
Making Your Own Commands
17 – Making Your Own Commands
Many times you will have procedures at your site that require the use of several
Site Controller commands. The most common example is a shift-break
procedure. When you break shift at your site you may want to load the new
shift, reset some totals, and print reports.
You can create a command file that contains several Site Controller commands,
then have your users execute that single command file rather than having to
give a series of complicated commands. When you execute a command file, all
the commands in it are automatically performed. You can even create command
files that can be executed from the console.
As another example, other procedures may require you to enter a lot of data to
load prices for fuel price codes or to load broadcast messages. You can use one
of the editors to create a command file that will load the data. Once you have
created the command file, you can easily make small changes in it to reload
new data.
Command files should contain only Site Controller system commands, disk-
based commands, and comments.
Restrictions on Command File Names
Command files must follow MS-DOS filename restrictions given in “CFN3
File System” on page 151 . Command files also have two additional name
restrictions:
First, command file names must have the extension .CMD. That is how the Site
Controller can tell they are command files.
Second, the first part of the command file name (the part before the period and
the extension) cannot match any of the names reserved for Site Controller
system commands, including any abbreviations for commands. For example, P,
PR, PRI, PRIN, and PRINT are all reserved names. But PRXX is not a reserved
name, because the third and fourth characters do not match a reserved name.
Program Space
Only one disk-based program or command file can be run at once. If a cron or
command file attempts to run a disk-based program and finds another program
is running, it will wait until the program space is free. (However, if you invoke
a disk-based command directly at the prompt and another program is running,
the command will be terminated with the error message Program space is