I need help to understand what this command line is doing

[bikashh]

Dear Experts,


Friends, please help me understand this line of command

%VDB_DIR%\vcshell --echo --out=%VCSHELLDIR%\vcshell.txt --db=%VCSHELLDIR%\vcshell.db 03_project_build.bat

Thanks in advance,

 

[betwixt]

%VDB_DIR% is an environment variable set somewhere else. It will probably translate to a directory name where the "vcshell" program is stored. Try typing 'env' at a command prompt to see all the current variables.
Everything else is passed as a parameter to the vcshell program.
--echo probably means send the output to the screen
--out looks like a path (again using %VDB_DIR% as directory name) to a text file called vcshell.txt
--db is a path to vcshell.db which may be a database as a guess
03_project_build.bat is another parameter but what it does would depend on the purpose of the vcshell program.

The parameters and their names are at the whim of the author of vcshell so you would need to find documentation on it to see their exact purpose. Have you tried typing "man vcshell" or "vcshell --help" to see if it has a manual entry of built-in help?

Brian.

 

[bikashh]

Thanks Brian for the reply.

Please correct me if I am wrong.
My understanding is
03_project_build.bat is being executed from this folder ( %VDB_DIR%\vcshell )

and vcshell.txt and vcshell.db are the output files to be stored in --out and --db paths

Thanks

 

[betwixt]

It depends on what the writer of vcshell decided. When the program is executed, the OS passes the parameters to it and from there they are used for whatever the writer decides. There is no standard for parameters but in general when you see '--' it signifies the start of source or destination path and the next parameter is the file name along that path.

Although there is no hard rules on file names, it is unusual to use one ending in '.bat' in Linux, they are more common in Windows environments.

Brian.

 

[ads-ee]

I see you like to cross post on multiple forums...

Although there is no hard rules on file names, it is unusual to use one ending in '.bat' in Linux, they are more common in Windows environments.

Highly unlikely this is on Linux. The directory hierarchy uses \, unless they are trying to port a windows batch command file to Linux I doubt this is being done on Linux.

 

[betwixt]

I agree ads-ee, but this is posted in the "Linux Software" part of the forum.

Nevertheless, the rule applies that parameters passed to a program from the command line can be used in any way the program writer chooses and "vcshell" isn't a program I recognize or part of a normal Linux distro. Maybe 'vc' is something to do with Visual C, in which case it definitely isn't Linux :fight:

Brian.