WARNING: WebRSH is CASE SENSITIVE!
WebRSH supports 19 specialized commands, all of which are lower-cased and start with 'rsh'. Any other command will be forwarded to the DOS/console shell for execution. There are two basic methods for execution of such shell commands: The first is to spawn the command as an independent process, without waiting for it to finish, and without returning any output to the client. This method is appropriate for launching applications that are intended to be running for some time. The second method is to wait for the command to finish, and to return its output (if any) to the client. WebRSH utilizes the fact that the DOS/Win32 shell itself is case-insensitive, and chooses the execution method according to the CASE OF THE FIRST CHARACTER. Commands which start with a capital character (such as 'Dir') will use the first method, and would thus not result in any output. Commands which start with a lower-case character (such as 'dir') will use the second method, and would thus return their output to the client. (Of course, using 'Dir' will usually not serve any useful purpose, so one is more likely to use 'dir' for this particular command.)
WARNING: When using the second method, one should know in advance that
the command will complete its task without prompting for further input.
Otherwise, the execution attempt would result in a hang process. Under
Windows NT, such hang processes can usually be safely killed using
WebRSH's killable links (or the "rshkill" command). Moreover, many
system commands would recognize that they are called in a
noninteractive mode, and would die by themselves if they need to prompt
the user. Under Windows 95, however, the situation is much more
problematic: such hang processes may be impossible to terminate without
shutting the system down. Moreover, such processes may have various bad
effects on the system. They may reduce system stability and consume a
significant amount of system resources. An attempt to kill such processes
might only make things worse, and it might even crash the system.
Further, a hang process might prevent Windows 95 from shutting down,
such that it may become necessary to use the power switch (or a reset
button) in order to reboot it. These problems lead to the following
recommendations WHEN USING THE COMMAND LINE INTERFACE UNDER WINDOWS 95:
1) Avoid using the command line interface as much as possible.
2) If you must use it, do so with extreme caution. Only use familiar
commands that have been previously tested to work well with WebRSH.
3) If you have created a hang process: Do not attempt to kill it. Reboot
the system as soon as possible, but only do so when you are physically
located near the system (so that you can use the power switch if needed).
WebRSH supports the following specialized commands: rshhome, rshfm, rshedit, rshps, rshkill, rshkilllist, rshlaunchlist, rshexeclist, rshgetlist, rshget, rshgettxt, rshgetbin, rshtextmode, rshuploadform, rshupload, rshstart, rshperl, rshgethtm, and rshoptions. They are mainly intended to be used from WebRSH's generated hyperlinks. Nevertheless, they may also be used from the command line. The syntax for these commands is described below. Moreover, the standard DOS command 'cd' is recognized and receives "special treatment" by WebRSH, so that it should be safe to use even in case the requested directory is not accessible. It can be used to safely change WebRSH's working directory for the next command.
NOTE: The working directory is a property of the form (or link) that sends the command. The program changes to this directory upon startup.
Most commands are responded with an HTML page containing their output. This output may contain text output, as well as hyperlinks and forms which provide an easy to use interface for execution of further commands.
SPECIALIZED COMMAND SYNTAX: