The istool command modes

• Command mode: Invoked by passing istool with one or more commands.
• Console mode: Invoked by running istool with no commands.
• Script mode: Invoked by providing the istool option.

Command mode (in a command prompt)

In the Command mode, commands are entered one at a time on a single command line. Each command line starts with a command, then the options. Option values that contain embedded spaces must be surrounded by double quotes.

Command syntax:

istool {command } [-options … ]

Command option syntax:

Table 1. Command option syntax

Flag	Description
-help	Prints a help message describing istool command usage and listing all available CommandSets.

Console mode (in a command prompt)

An alternative to entering commands one-by-one, which might require a new Information Server connection to be established for each command, is to execute istool with no options. This puts istool in Console mode.

In Console mode, istool caches connections to the Information Server. This reduces execution time for subsequent commands to the same Information Server. In Console mode, istool prints a command prompt and waits for a command. Each command is processed without exiting istool. You can exit the Console mode by entering ‘.’, “exit”, or “quit” at the prompt. istool in Console mode also provides a history feature, which recalls the last 30 commands entered. Each command can be recalled and re-executed.

Command syntax:

istool

Option syntax: No options are required for Console mode.

Script mode

istool can be used to execute commands read directly from a text file. The file is read and executed as a series of command lines.

In Script mode, connections to the Information Server are cached between commands. This causes significantly faster command execution. Each line in the input file must be formatted exactly the same as a command line entered manually, except for the following stipulations:

• The -username/-password options can be specified only the first time a –domain option is given. Subsequent commands only require the corresponding –domain option and –username option to identify the server.
• It is not necessary to include the istool string on each command line.
• Multiple commands are separated by a semicolon character (';') at the end of an input line.
• Command lines can cross line boundaries.

Command syntax:

istool –script <filename>

Table 2. Script command option syntax

Flag	Description
-script <filename>	Opens a text file containing istool commands.

istool export -domain d -username u -password p
		-archive c:/x.isx -ds 'd/project1/routines/a.pjb';
istool import -domain e -username v -password q
		-archive c:/x.isx -ds '-replace e/project2'