SVAR: Program that Creates System Variables from Network Info (67868)

   Value      Description
   -----      -----------

   %1         the username of the user logging on
   %2         the computer name of the Netlogon server validating
              logons
   %3         the sharename of the server directory that contains the
              home directories
   %4         the path of the user's home directory relative to %3
				

MORE INFORMATION

You can obtain all of the %1 through %4 system variable information elements that were in OS/2 LAN Manager version 1.01 plus many additional information elements, in OS/2 LAN Manager version 2.00 by means of several API calls, including NetWkstaGetInfo() and NetUserGetInfo().The APIs are used in a sample program, SVAR.C.

A Microsoft Software/Data Library article contains these files:

  Filename       Description
   --------       -----------

   SVAR.C         SVAR source code
   SVAROS2.CMD    OS/2 command file used to build SVAR-OS2.EXE
   SVARDOS.BAT    MS-DOS batch file used to build SVAR-DOS.EXE
   SVAR-OS2.EXE   OS/2 version of SVAR (~10K)
   SVAR-DOS.EXE   MS-DOS version of SVAR (~29K)
   SAMPLE.CMD     sample command logon script file that demonstrates
                  how SVAR might be used in an OS/2 LAN Manager logon
                  script
				

To find SVAR in the Software/Data Library, search on the keyword SVAR, the Q number of this article, or S12868. SVAR was archived using the PKware file-compression utility.

SVAR.C uses OS/2 LAN Manager APIs to obtain network information elements:

• workstation's computer name (obtained from local LANMAN.INI file)
• user's logon name (as specified at logon time)
• workstation's default domain (obtained from local LANMAN.INI file)
• user's preferred logon server (from user's account -- if specified)
• user's home directory (from user's account -- if specified)

It creates a temporary .BAT (MS-DOS) or .CMD (OS/2) file in the local environment's %TEMP% directory, appends each information element to a "SET <varname> =" string and writes them to a temporary file that can be run whenever the elements are needed as local system variables. For example, the temporary batch file can be called from your logon script to set the requested system variables for use further down in the logon script (see SAMPLE.CMD).

Usage

    {os2}

svar-dos [-c [Computer varname]] [-u [User varname]]
            [-d [Default domain varname]] [-s [Preferred server varname]]
            [-h [Home directory varname]] [-f Temporary file name]
				

You can provide any combination of the -c, -u, -d, -s, and -h flags (at least one is required), or you can follow any of the indicated flags with a local system variable name that you want used in the "set <varname> =" string instead of these standard information element names:

   -c  COMPUTER
   -u  USER
   -d  DOMAIN
   -s  SERVER
   -h  HOME
				

By default, the filename for the temporary file is "$x$x$x$x". You can designate a different filename by using the -f parameter (see the usage listed above).

Example

   svar-dos -c -u USERNAME -d -h HOMEDIR -f tmpfile
				

If the local workstation's computer name is TW301, the domain is SALES, the user's logon name is JOE, and JOE's home directory is \\SERVER1\HOME1, this command creates the following TMPFILE.BAT file in the %TEMP% directory:

   SET COMPUTER=TW301
   SET USERNAME=JOE
   SET DOMAIN=SALES
   SET HOMEDIR=\\SERVER1\HOME1
				

You can modify SVAR easily to provide additional system variables that may be needed within the logon script.

For example, if you are configured in a large network installation you may want to be automatically connected to a departmental (or divisional) word processing data directory, either at system boot or when you run a word processing application. One way to do this is to make the department code (and division code, if needed) available through system variables.

There are a few fields in the user account record, such as "comment" or "parms," that can contain additional information elements--such as department and division code--obtained by parsing the appropriate field (comment, parameters, etc.) returned by NetUserGetInfo(), and adding them in "set <varname> =" strings in the temporary .BAT or .CMD file.

You can add a network command such as the following to the logon script (or word processing application execution batch file) to attach your drive W to the appropriate departmental word processing share and set the default directory to the appropriate divisional subdirectory:

   NET USE W: \\WORDPROC1\%department%
   CD W:\%division%
				

Or, if the servers are departmentalized:

   NET USE W: \\%department%\WORDPROC
   CD W:\%division%
				

Note: the system variables established by CALLing the temporary .BAT or .CMD file remain in effect only for the duration of the logon script, so you may want to keep the file in the %temp% directory for later use by another process (such as the above mentioned word processing application execution batch file).