NFS_USE

Syntax

NFS_USE newdrive, drive1 [,drive2 […, drive8]] or

NFS_USE [newdrive]

Location

Toolkit II, THOR XVI

Two QLs, both fitted with Toolkit II on EPROM (or SMS) and connected via a network cable, can use Toolkit II’s file server which is activated by the FSERVE command. All of the devices on the other QL (provided the Server job is running on that QL) can then be accessed as if they were a normal device on the QL wishing to use the facilities. This is achieved by prefixing the device name by: n<netnr>_, eg:

DIR n2_flp1_

will show the directory of flp1_ on station number 2.

NET sets this station number.

Two problems do however arise from using this technique: Firstly, it is a bit annoying to have to type n2_flp1_. Secondly, a lot of programs check the validity of a device by checking if the length is five characters, the first three characters of which must be letters, and the fourth character of which must be a digit from 1 to 8 with an underscore at the end. These programs therefore only allow device names such as ram6_, mdv1_, etc. To fool these programs (and also to shorten names):

NFS_USE

can be used to create a new device which has a shorter name. The first parameter is the name of the new drive which can be any description up to four characters long (there is no need to include a number or underscore). After this up to eight parameters (each of which can be up to a maximum of 15 characters) can follow which specify the drive which should be accessed as (for example): flop1_, … flop8_. It is neither possible to rename a local drive with:

NFS_USE test,ram1_

(error -12), nor indirectly with NET1:

NFS_USE test,n1_ram1_

The second example can be entered but any attempted access to test1_ will lead to a Network aborted message after half a minute of complete silence.

The second syntax is used to remove a specified set of definitions (or, if no parameter is supplied, then all definitions will be removed) which have been created with NFS_USE.

Examples

NFS_USE flop,n2_flp1_,n3_flp1_

creates a device name flop where flop1_ refers to flp1_ on QL2 and flop2_ to flp1_ on QL3. NFS_USE flop clears the above definition.

NFS_USE without any parameters clears all such definitions.

NOTE

Devices can be shared by several remote QLs. Although a file can be read by several jobs (or QLs) at the same time, QDOS will ensure that a file cannot be opened by one job (or QL) for writing to whilst another is trying to read from it (or vice versa). If this occurs, then an error -9 (IN USE) will be reported.

CROSS-REFERENCE

QRD renames any local device. See also FLP_USE, RAM_USE and DEV_USE. MIDINET and SERNET set up similar fileservers to FSERVE - NFS_USE can be used with these fileservers also, provided that you use SNET_USE n or MNET_USE n to ensure that they are identified by the letter n.