"Where am I?" - Adding extra information to the Terminal prompt |

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John Murray · Apr 7, 2017 1m read

#Caché #Terminal #Ensemble #HealthShare #Tips & Tricks

If you deal with multiple instances of Caché / Ensemble / HealthShare and sometimes have to work at the Terminal command prompt, did you know that you can easily add extra information to that prompt which may help prevent you running a command on the wrong instance?

The format of the command prompt is controlled by the TerminalPrompt setting in the [Startup] section of the CPF but it is normally manipulated via Portal. The documentation is here.

The default prompt looks like this:

USER> USER>; TerminalPrompt="8,2"

The 2 is what provides the namespace name. Most of the time the 8 adds nothing, but you can see its effect by starting a transaction or two, then ending them:

USER>tstart TL1:USER>tstart TL2:USER>tcommit TL1:USER>tcommit USER>

When working with multiple instances, perhaps across different servers, setting TerminalPrompt="8,1,3,2" may be useful:

Node: TIN, Instance: ENS171 TIN:ENS171:USER> TIN:ENS171:USER>; TerminalPrompt="8,1,3,2"

Eduard Lebedyuk · Apr 7, 2017

To check new prompt $system.Process method can be used:

do $system.Process.TerminalPrompt(8,2,4)

Here's a description of all possible values. For me 4 (Current time) is very useful as it allows for a quick performance tracking.

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Danny Wijnschenk · Apr 9, 2017

And if you want to make your own prompt, you could even use your own Shell routine :

Shell ;
For {
Try {
Write !,$$Prompt()
Read cmd Write !
Xecute cmd
} Catch {
Write $ZE,!
}
If ($ZCVT($G(cmd),"U")="QUIT") Quit
}
Quit

Prompt() ;Create your own prompt here !
New prompt
Set prompt = $ZDate($H,4)_" - "_$ZTime($P($H,",",2))_" > "
Quit prompt

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John Murray · Apr 10, 2017

Be aware that by fetching $H twice there's a small possibility of an unwanted outcome. For example, consider what happens if the first time it returns "64382,86399" and the second time "64383,0". Harmless in Danny's prompt code, but in other contexts it could cause problems.

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