1X3270-SCRIPT(1) General Commands Manual X3270-SCRIPT(1)
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6 Scripting Facilities for x3270, s3270, ws3270 and c3270
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9 x3270 -script [ x3270-options ]
10 s3270 [ s3270-options ]
11 ws3270 [ ws3270-options ]
12 Script ( command [ ,arg... ] )
13
15 The x3270 scripting facilities allow the interactive 3270 emulators
16 x3270 and c3270 to be operated under the control of another program,
17 and form the basis for the script-only emulators s3270 and ws3270.
18 There are two basic scripting methods. The first is the peer script
20 facility, invoked by the x3270 -script switch, and the default mode for
21 s3270 and ws3270. This runs x3270, s3270 or ws3270 as a child of
22 another process. Typically this would be a script using expect(1),
23 perl(1), or the co-process facility of the Korn Shell ksh(1). Inthis
24 mode, the emulator process looks for commands on its standard input,
25 and places the responses on standard output and standard error output.
26 The second method is the child script facility, invoked by the Script
28 action in x3270, c3270, or s3270. This runs a script as a child
29 process of the emulator. The child has access to pipes connected to
30 the emulator; the emulator look for commands on one pipe, and places
31 the responses on the other. (The file descriptor of the pipe for com‐
32 mands to the emulator is passed in the environment variable X3270INPUT;
33 the file descriptor of the pipe for responses from the emulator is
34 passed in the environment variable X3270OUTPUT.)
35 It is possible to mix the two methods. A script can invoke another
37 script with the Script action, and may also be implicitly nested when a
38 script invokes the Connect action, and the ibm_hosts file specifies a
39 login script for that host name.
40 Commands are emulator actions; the syntax is the same as for the right-
42 hand side of an Xt translation table entry (an x3270 or c3270 keymap).
43 Unlike translation tables, action names are case-insensitive, can be
44 uniquely abbreviated, and the parentheses may be omitted if there are
45 no parameters. Any input line that begins with # or ! is treaded as a
46 comment and will be ignored.
47 Any emulator action may be specified. Several specific actions have
49 been defined for use by scripts, and the behavior of certain other
50 actions (and of the emulators in general) is different when an action
51 is initiated by a script.
52 Some actions generate output; some may delay completion until the cer‐
54 tain external events occur, such as the host unlocking the keyboard.
55 The completion of every command is marked by a two-line message. The
56 first line is the current status of the emulator, documented below. If
57 the command is successful, the second line is the string "ok"; other‐
58 wise it is the string "error".
59
61 The status message consists of 12 blank-separated fields:
62 1 Keyboard State
64 If the keyboard is unlocked, the letter U. If the keyboard is
65 locked waiting for a response from the host, or if not connected
66 to a host, the letter L. If the keyboard is locked because of
67 an operator error (field overflow, protected field, etc.), the
68 letter E.
69 2 Screen Formatting
71 If the screen is formatted, the letter F. If unformatted or in
72 NVT mode, the letter U.
73 3 Field Protection
75 If the field containing the cursor is protected, the letter P.
76 If unprotected or unformatted, the letter U.
77 4 Connection State
79 If connected to a host, the string C(hostname). Otherwise, the
80 letter N.
81 5 Emulator Mode
83 If connected in 3270 mode, the letter I. If connected in NVT
84 line mode, the letter L. If connected in NVT character mode,
85 the letter C. If connected in unnegotiated mode (no BIND active
86 from the host), the letter P. If not connected, the letter N.
87 6 Model Number (2-5)
89 7 Number of Rows
91 The current number of rows defined on the screen. The host can
92 request that the emulator use a 24x80 screen, so this number may
93 be smaller than the maximum number of rows possible with the
94 current model.
95 8 Number of Columns
97 The current number of columns defined on the screen, subject to
98 the same difference for rows, above.
99 9 Cursor Row
101 The current cursor row (zero-origin).
102 10 Cursor Column
104 The current cursor column (zero-origin).
105 11 Window ID
107 The X window identifier for the main x3270 window, in hexadeci‐
108 mal preceded by 0x. For s3270, ws3270 and c3270, this is zero.
109 12 Command Execution Time
111 The time that it took for the host to respond to the previous
112 commnd, in seconds with milliseconds after the decimal. If the
113 previous command did not require a host response, this is a
114 dash.
115
117 When an action is initiated by a script, the emulators behave in sev‐
118 eral different ways:
119 If an error occurs in processing an action, the usual pop-up window
121 does not appear. Instead, the text is written to standard error out‐
122 put.
123 If end-of-file is detected on standard input, the emulator exits. (A
125 script can exit without killing the emulator by using the CloseScript
126 action, below.) Note that this applies to peer scripts only; end-of-
127 file on the pipe connected to a child script simply causes the pipes to
128 be closed and the Script action to complete.
129 The Quit action always causes the emulator to exit. (When called from
131 the keyboard, it will exit only if not connected to a host.)
132 Normally, the AID actions (Clear, Enter, PF, and PA) will not complete
134 until the host unlocks the keyboard. If the parameter to a String
135 action includes a code for one these actions, it will also wait for the
136 keyboard to unlock before proceeding.
137 The AidWait toggle controls with behavior. When this toggle is set
139 (the default), actions block as described above. When the toggle is
140 clear, AID actions complete immediately. The Wait(Output) action can
141 then be used to delay a script until the host changes something on the
142 screen, and the Wait(Unlock) action can be used to delay a script until
143 the host unlocks the keyboard, regardless of the state of the AidWait
144 toggle.
145 Note that the Script action does not complete until end-of-file is
147 detected on the pipe or the CloseScript action is called by the child
148 process. This behavior is not affected by the state of the AidWait
149 toggle.
150
152 The following actions have been defined or modified for use with
153 scripts. (Note that unlike the display on the status line, row and col
154 coordinates used in these actions use [0,0] as their origin, not
155 [1,1]).
156 AnsiText
158 Outputs whatever data that has been output by the host in NVT
159 mode since the last time that AnsiText was called. The data is
160 preceded by the string "data: ", and has had all control charac‐
161 ters expanded into C backslash sequences.
162 This is a convenient way to capture NVT mode output in a syn‐
164 chronous manner without trying to decode the screen contents.
165 Ascii(row,col,rows,cols)
167 Ascii(row,col,length)
169 Ascii(length)
171 Ascii Outputs an ASCII text representation of the screen contents.
173 Each line is preceded by the string "data: ", and there are no
174 control characters.
175 If four parameters are given, a rectangular region of the screen
177 is output.
178 If three parameters are given, length characters are output,
180 starting at the specified row and column.
181 If only the length parameter is given, that many characters are
183 output, starting at the cursor position.
184 If no parameters are given, the entire screen is output.
186 The EBCDIC-to-ASCII translation and output character set depend
188 on the both the emulator character set (the -charset option) and
189 the locale. UTF-8 and certain DBCS locales may result in multi-
190 byte expansions of EBCDIC characters that translate to ASCII
191 codes greater than 0x7f.
192 AsciiField
194 Outputs an ASCII text representation of the field containing the
195 cursor. The text is preceded by the string "data: ".
196 Connect(hostname)
198 Connects to a host. The command does not return until the emu‐
199 lator is successfully connected in the proper mode, or the con‐
200 nection fails.
201 CloseScript(status)
203 Causes the emulator to stop reading commands from the script.
204 This is useful to allow a peer script to exit, with the emulator
205 proceeding interactively. (Without this command, the emulator
206 would exit when it detected end-of-file on standard input.) If
207 the script was invoked by the Script action, the optional status
208 is used as the return status of Script; if nonzero, Script will
209 complete with an error, and if this script was invoked as part
210 of login through the ibm_hosts file, the connection will be bro‐
211 ken.
212 ContinueScript(param)
214 Allows a script that is waiting in a PauseScript action, below,
215 to continue. The param given is output by the PauseScript
216 action.
217 Disconnect
219 Disconnects from the host.
220 Ebcdic(row,col,rows,cols)
222 Ebcdic(row,col,length)
224 Ebcdic(length)
226 Ebcdic The same function as Ascii above, except that rather than gener‐
228 ating ASCII text, each character is output as a hexadecimal
229 EBCDIC code, preceded by 0x.
230 EbcdicField
232 The same function as AsciiField above, except that it generates
233 hexadecimal EBCDIC codes.
234 Info(message)
236 In x3270, pops up an informational message. In c3270 and
237 wc3270, writes an informational message to the OIA (the line
238 below the display). Not defined for s3270 or tcl3270.
239 Expect(text[,timeout])
241 Pauses the script until the specified text appears in the data
242 stream from the host, or the specified timeout (in seconds)
243 expires. If no timeout is specified, the default is 30 seconds.
244 Text can contain standard C-language escape (backslash)
245 sequences. No wild-card characters or pattern anchor characters
246 are understood. Expect is valid only in NVT mode.
247 MoveCursor(row,col)
249 Moves the cursor to the specified coordinates.
250 PauseScript
252 Stops a script until the ContinueScript action, above, is exe‐
253 cuted. This allows a script to wait for user input and con‐
254 tinue. Outputs the single parameter to ContinueScript.
255 PrintText([command,]filter))
257 Pipes an ASCII representation of the current screen image
258 through the named filter, e.g., lpr.
259 PrintText([html,],file,filename))
261 Saves the current screen contents in a file. With the html
262 option, saves it as HTML, otherwise saves it as plain ASCII.
263 PrintText(html,string)
265 Returns the current screen contents as HTML.
266 ReadBuffer(Ascii)
268 Dumps the contents of the screen buffer, one line at a time.
269 Positions inside data fields are generally output as 2-digit
270 hexadecimal codes in the current display character set. If the
271 current locale specifies UTF-8 (or certain DBCS character sets),
272 some positions may be output as multi-byte strings (4-, 6- or
273 8-digit codes). DBCS characters take two positions in the
274 screen buffer; the first location is output as a multi-byte
275 string in the current locale codeset, and the second location is
276 output as a dash. Start-of-field characters (each of which
277 takes up a display position) are output as SF(aa=nn[,...]),
278 where aa is a field attribute type and nn is its value.
279 Attribute Values
281 ─────────────────────────────────────
282 c0 basic 3270 20 protected
283 10 numeric
284 04 detectable
285 08 intensified
286 0c non-display
287 01 modified
288 41 highlighting f1 blink
289 f2 reverse
290 f4 underscore
291 f8 intensify
292 42 foreground f0 neutral black
293 f1 blue
294 f2 red
295 f3 pink
296 f4 green
297 f5 turquoise
298 f6 yellow
299 f7 neutral white
300 f8 black
301 f9 deep blue
302 fa orange
303 fb purple
304 fc pale green
305 fd pale turquoise
306 fe grey
307 ff white
308 43 character set f0 default
309 f1 APL
310 f8 DBCS
311 Extended attributes (which do not take up display positions) are
313 output as SA(aa=nn), with aa and nn having the same definitions
314 as above (though the basic 3270 attribute will never appear as
315 an extended attribute).
316 In addition, NULL characters in the screen buffer are reported
318 as ASCII character 00 instead of 20, even though they should be
319 displayed as blanks.
320 ReadBuffer(Ebcdic)
322 Equivalent to Snap(Ascii), but with the data fields output as
323 hexadecimal EBCDIC codes instead. Additionally, if a buffer
324 position has the Graphic Escape attribute, it is displayed as
325 GE(xx).
326 Snap Equivalent to Snap(Save) (see below).
328 Snap(Ascii,...)
330 Performs the Ascii action on the saved screen image.
331 Snap(Cols)
333 Returns the number of columns in the saved screen image.
334 Snap(Ebcdic,...)
336 Performs the Ebcdic action on the saved screen image.
337 Snap(ReadBuffer)
339 Performs the ReadBuffer action on the saved screen image.
340 Snap(Rows)
342 Returns the number of rows in the saved screen image.
343 Snap(Save)
345 Saves a copy of the screen image and status in a temporary
346 buffer. This copy can be queried with other Snap actions to
347 allow a script to examine a consistent screen image, even when
348 the host may be changing the image (or even the screen
349 dimensions) dynamically.
350 Snap(Status)
352 Returns the status line from when the screen was last saved.
353 Snap(Wait[,timeout],Output)
355 Pauses the script until the host sends further output, then
356 updates the snap buffer with the new screen contents. Used when
357 the host unlocks the keyboard (allowing the script to proceed
358 after an Enter, PF or PA action), but has not finished updating
359 the screen. This action is usually invoked in a loop that uses
360 the Snap(Ascii) or Snap(Ebcdic) action to scan the screen for
361 some pattern that indicates that the host has fully processed
362 the last command.
363 The optional timeout parameter specifies a number of seconds to
365 wait before failing the Snap action. The default is to wait
366 indefinitely.
367 Source(file)
369 Read and execute commands from file. Any output from those
370 commands will become the output from Source. If any of the
371 commands fails, the Source command will not abort; it will
372 continue reading commands until EOF.
373 Title(text)
375 Changes the x3270 window title to text.
376 Transfer(keyword=value,...)
378 Invokes IND$FILE file transfer. See FILE TRANSFER below.
379 Wait([timeout,] 3270Mode)
381 Used when communicating with a host that switches between NVT
382 mode and 3270 mode. Pauses the script or macro until the host
383 negotiates 3270 mode, then waits for a formatted screen as
384 above.
385 The optional timeout parameter specifies a number of seconds to
387 wait before failing the Wait action. The default is to wait
388 indefinitely.
389 For backwards compatibility, Wait(3270) is equivalent to
391 Wait(3270Mode)
392 Wait([timeout,] Disconnect)
394 Pauses the script until the host disconnects. Often used to
395 after sending a logoff command to a VM/CMS host, to ensure that
396 the session is not unintentionally set to disconnected state.
397 The optional timeout parameter specifies a number of seconds to
399 wait before failing the Wait action. The default is to wait
400 indefinitely.
401 Wait([timeout,] InputField)
403 A useful utility for use at the beginning of scripts and after
404 the Connect action. In 3270 mode, waits until the screen is
405 formatted, and the host has positioned the cursor on a
406 modifiable field. In NVT mode, waits until the host sends at
407 least one byte of data.
408 The optional timeout parameter specifies a number of seconds to
410 wait before failing the Wait action. The default is to wait
411 indefinitely.
412 For backwards compatibility, Wait is equivalent to
414 Wait(InputField).
415 Wait([timeout,] NVTMode)
417 Used when communicating with a host that switches between 3270
418 mode and NVT mode. Pauses the script or macro until the host
419 negotiates NVT mode, then waits for a byte from the host as
420 above.
421 The optional timeout parameter specifies a number of seconds to
423 wait before failing the Wait action. The default is to wait
424 indefinitely.
425 For backwards compatibility, Wait(ansi) is equivalent to
427 Wait(NVTMode).
428 Wait([timeout,] Output)
430 Pauses the script until the host sends further output. Often
431 needed when the host unlocks the keyboard (allowing the script
432 to proceed after a Clear, Enter, PF or PA action), but has not
433 finished updating the screen. Also used in non-blocking AID
434 mode (see DIFFERENCES for details). This action is usually
435 invoked in a loop that uses the Ascii or Ebcdic action to scan
436 the screen for some pattern that indicates that the host has
437 fully processed the last command.
438 The optional timeout parameter specifies a number of seconds to
440 wait before failing the Wait action. The default is to wait
441 indefinitely.
442 Wait([timeout,] Unlock)
444 Pauses the script until the host unlocks the keyboard. This is
445 useful when operating in non-blocking AID mode (toggle AidWait
446 clear), to wait for a host command to complete. See DIFFERENCES
447 for details).
448 The optional timeout parameter specifies a number of seconds to
450 wait before failing the Wait action. The default is to wait
451 indefinitely.
452 Wait(timeout, Seconds)
454 Delays the script timeout seconds. Unlike the other forms of
455 Wait, the timeout is not optional.
456 WindowState(mode)
458 If mode is Iconic, changes the x3270 window into an icon. If
459 mode is Normal, changes the x3270 window from an icon to a
460 normal window.
461
463 The Transfer action implements IND$FILE file transfer. This action
464 requires that the IND$FILE program be installed on the IBM host, and
465 that the 3270 cursor be located in a field that will accept a TSO or
466 VM/CMS command.
467 The Transfer action can be entered at the command prompt with no
469 parameters, which will cause it to prompt interactively for the file
470 names and options. It can also be invoked with parameters to define
471 the entire transfer.
472 Because of the complexity and number of options for file transfer, the
474 parameters to the Transfer action take the unique form of option=value,
475 and can appear in any order. Note that if the value contains spaces
476 (such as a VM/CMS file name), then the entire parameter must be quoted,
477 e.g., "HostFile=xxx foo a". The options are:
478 Option Required? Default Other Values
480 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
481 Direction No receive send
482 HostFile Yes
483 LocalFile Yes
484 Host No tso vm
485 Mode No ascii binary
486 Cr No remove add, keep
487 Remap No yes no
488 Exist No keep replace, append
489 Recfm No fixed, variable,
490 undefined
491 Lrecl No
492 Blksize No
493 Allocation No tracks,
494 cylinders,
495 avblock
496 PrimarySpace No
497 SecondarySpace No
498 BufferSize No 4096
499 The option details are as follows.
501 Direction
503 send to send a file to the host, receive to receive a file from
504 the host.
505 HostFile
507 The name of the file on the host.
508 LocalFile
510 The name of the file on the local workstation.
511 Host The type of host (which dictates the form of the IND$FILE
513 command): tso (the default) or vm.
514 Mode Use ascii (the default) for a text file, which will be
516 translated between EBCDIC and ASCII as necessary. Use binary
517 for non-text files.
518 Cr Controls how Newline characters are handled when transferring
520 Mode=ascii files. remove (the default) strips Newline
521 characters in local files before transferring them to the host.
522 add adds Newline characters to each host file record before
523 transferring it to the local workstation. keep preserves
524 Newline characters when transferring a local file to the host.
525 Remap Controls text translation for Mode=ascii files. The value yes
527 (the default) causes x3270-script to remap the text to ensure
528 maximum compatibility between the workstation's character set
529 and encoding and the host's EBCDIC code page. The value no
530 causes x3270-script to pass the text to or from the host as-is,
531 leaving all translation to the IND$FILE program on the host.
532 Exist Controls what happens when the destination file already exists.
534 keep (the default) preserves the file, causing the Transfer
535 action to fail. replace overwrites the destination file with
536 the source file. append appends the source file to the
537 destination file.
538 Recfm Controls the record format of files created on the host. fixed
540 creates a file with fixed-length records. variable creates a
541 file with variable-length records. undefined creates a file
542 with undefined-length records (TSO hosts only). The Lrecl
543 option controls the record length or maximum record length for
544 Recfm=fixed and Recfm=variable files, respectively.
545 Lrecl Specifies the record length (or maximum record length) for files
547 created on the host.
548 Blksize
550 Specifies the block size for files created on the host. (TSO
551 hosts only.)
552 Allocation
554 Specifies the units for the TSO host PrimarySpace and
555 SecondarySpace options: tracks, cylinders or avblock.
556 PrimarySpace
558 Primary allocation for a file created on a TSO host. The units
559 are given by the Allocation option.
560 SecondarySpace
562 Secondary allocation for a file created on a TSO host. The
563 units are given by the Allocation option.
564 BufferSize
566 Buffer size for DFT-mode transfers. Can range from 256 to
567 32768. Larger values give better performance, but some hosts
568 may not be able to support them.
569
571 expect(1)
572 ksh(1)
573 x3270(1)
574 c3270(1)
575 s3270(1)
576 ws3270(1)
577
579 Version 3.3.10ga4
580 02 October 2009 X3270-SCRIPT(1)