When launched, the following parameters can be specified (applies for the Empirum Legacy Agent):
SwDepot.exe [File [/A] [/B[R]] [/C Sec] [/E] [/F] [/G] [/I File] [/K Sec[, Polling interval]] [/L Drive] [/M] [/N] [/O] [/P Password] [/Q[R]] [/R Directory] [/RB time until reboot, Time between alerts] [/S Flags] [/T Level] [/U Username] [/V] [/W[U]] [/X10] [/Y Sec] [/Z[Level],[Sec],[EXECUTE]]If you do not specify a path for the configuration file, SwDepot.exe will try to locate the file in the directories used for loading dynamic link libraries (DLLs).
- The directory containing the application.
- The current directory.
- The system directory.
- For Windows NT, the 16-bit system directory.
- The Windows directory.
- The directories of the "Path" environment variable.
Instead of a file in a directory, you can also specify a file on an FTP or HTTP server. You have to prefix the file name with an "ftp://", an "http://", or an "https://". In addition, an additional proxy server can be specified, separated by comma. Moreover, bypass proxies can be specified separated by comma. These proxies have to be separated by semicolon, e.g. http://www.xyz-ag.de/SwDepot.dds,webproxy.zx.xyz-ag.de,localhost;pc-meier. Immediately after starting the program, a login dialog will appear. If you leave the user name empty, the name "anonymous" will be used. For the Internet functionality to work, the file "DDSINet.dll" is required, which should be in the same directory as SwDepot.exe. It is included in Empirum. In addition, this file is based on "WinINet.dll", which is part of Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 4 or Windows 2000. It is also installed if you install Microsoft Office 97 or higher. If one of the two DLLs is missing, an error message appears saying that the configuration file could not be loaded.
| Parameter | Meaning | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /A | Together with /I, this parameter shows all packages in the user query (Z dialog) that are assigned to the computer or the user via the DDC file, independent of whether they have already been installed or not. | |||||||||||||||
| /B | No reboot is carried out, even if it is necessary. The REVOKE distribution is not taken into consideration for individual packages. | |||||||||||||||
| /BR | Performs a reboot. The REVOKE distribution is not taken into consideration for individual packages. | |||||||||||||||
| /C | It is checked whether new software was added via a workstation setup (see also /W). The user is then shown a dialog box which lists all the applications still requiring a user-specific setup. The check is carried out every Sec seconds. If no value is specified, the check will be carried out every six hours. If /Q is specified as well, the program will be exited when closing the dialog box. | |||||||||||||||
| /E | The user will be asked to reboot if necessary even in silent mode. | |||||||||||||||
| /F | Does not display any error messages if the configuration file has not been found. Makes sense if it is located on a medium which is not always available, such as a network directory. | |||||||||||||||
| /G | Always displays all packages, even those to which the user has no access. The latter cannot be installed, though. | |||||||||||||||
| /I | File with installation instructions. Allows you to assign domains (workgroups), computers and users certain software packages for distribution. If no file name is specified, the file carrying the same name and the suffix "ddc" will be used by default. | |||||||||||||||
| /K | It is checked whether new software for distribution was added. The check is carried out every Sec seconds (/K7200). If no value is specified, the check will be carried out every 10 minutes. In addition, a polling interval can be specified, defining that the check is only carried out at the specified time (/K7200, 8 a.m to 6 p.m). The Software Depot remains in the memory. If /K is used, /I /S/T should be used as well. The corresponding call can be entered into the registry (HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run) or in the login script, for example. Alternatively, the Setup Service may be used. If token files are used, this parameter is mandatory! | |||||||||||||||
| /L | Local drive, which can be mapped to a server beforehand (/LY:). | |||||||||||||||
| /M | During initialization, a drive is mapped temporarily to a server. A temporary mapping can make older network clients work faster during initialization. | |||||||||||||||
| /N | Executes a software scan of all applications installed on the computer and listed in the configuration file. The result is saved in a log file, if such a file was defined in the configuration file. | |||||||||||||||
| /O | Compares the applications installed on the server and on the workstation, and lists only those applications which are more recent on the server or which are not installed on the workstation. If, in addition, the flag 'Q' (/QQ) is set, the software depot will be exited immediately if there is no new software available. | |||||||||||||||
| /P | Password to be used when mapping the directory (/P Password). | |||||||||||||||
| /Q | The program is shut down if there is nothing more left to do (valid for /C and /O). If R (/QR) is also specified, the software depot logs off in each polling interval from the Software Depot Server. | |||||||||||||||
| /R | Directory on a remote server, which can be mapped to a local drive or only the name of a remote server (/R ServerName). If no local drive is specified via the /L parameter, only a connection to the server will be established. If the connection shall be shut down after each polling interval, /Q (/QR) must also be used. | |||||||||||||||
| /RB | Controls the reboot behavior of the Empirum Agent through a dialog /RB time until reboot,Time between alerts (/RB30,6). Time is specified in minutes. In this example, an enforced restart is performed after 30 minutes; within this interval, the user is reminded every 6 minutes to reboot the system. If no parameter RB or /RB-1 or /RB without any values is set, no automatic restart is performed. In this case, the user is reminded of the reboot every 60 minutes. | |||||||||||||||
| /S |
Silent mode for the Software Depot. No windows are displayed. If individual windows are to be suppressed, these can be specified separately. The following flags, which may also be separated by spaces (e.g. "MAPPING INIT"), are allowed:
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| /T | Silent mode for the setup program. For the values of Level, see documentation of Setup (/S). | |||||||||||||||
| /U | User name to be used when mapping the directory or for FTP (/U User name). | |||||||||||||||
| /V | The user access rights are also verified during Client Check (/C). | |||||||||||||||
| /W | Only those applications are displayed which were installed on a Windows NT workstation by an administrator and for which the user may carry out a user-specific installation. This may become necessary if several users share a workstation. If, in addition, the flag 'U' (/WU) is set, user-specific installations may be deleted, even if the workstation installation has already been deleted. In that case, the original installation files (only Setup.exe and Setup.inf are required) have to be exactly where they were during installation. Only then can /S and /T be used as well. If the parameter /V is used in addition to /WU, even user-specific installations of those applications for which the user no longer has access rights may be deleted. | |||||||||||||||
| /X |
Extended parameters may be specified. All values are hexadecimal and may also be added. The following applies:
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| /Y | There is a pause before the software depot is launched. The interval is specified in seconds (/Y7200). | |||||||||||||||
| /Z |
Displays a list of the software to be installed. If the Level is also specified, the following applies:
If [Sec] is also specified, the user query is closed automatically after the specified time. After each automatic close, the number of postpones is reduced by 1. After the last postpone, installation is enforced. |
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| /? | Displays short information. |
If you want to ensure the prompt installation of all software packages and patches after a system has been reinstalled, you can, for instance, set the environment variable IgnoreScheduler in the Agent.bat file to 1 to ignore scheduler entries and only consider the respective distribution options.
| IgnoreScheduler= not available | normal behavior |
| IgnoreScheduler=0 | normal behavior |
| IgnoreScheduler=1 | SwDepot.exe ignores all scheduler entries of the respective package. |
SwDepot.exe returns the following error levels:
| Errorlevel 0 | = | no software has been installed. |
| Errorlevel 1 | = | SwDepot.exe could not find DDS and/or DDC. |
| Errorlevel 100 | = | software has been installed. |
| Errorlevel 101 | = | errors occurred during an attempt to install software. |
If SwDepot.exe is executed as service under the user LocalSystem, the SWDEPOT push will only work if the parameters /R /U /P are also set!
Using /K for software distribution
The parameter /K allows you to consistently monitor the software distribution without restarting the software depot each time. This can happen in two ways:
- After the login by the user
The software depot has to be executed on the computer via one of the default methods, i.e. via the login script, a run entry in the registry database or in the startup group. - Before the user login
The software depot has to be called by the setup service. Since the user is not logged in yet , settings for the user are not taken into account. The user part of the installation has to be carried out later by the client check. Under Novell NetWare, a default login for the distribution server has to be defined, because every service has to log on to the NDS individually.
Examples:
The files SwDepot.dds and SwDepot.ddc are stored in the same folder
SwDepot.exe \\ServerName\Configurator$\User\SwDepot.dds /I
Display all packages in the user dialog box (Z-Dialog)
\\%EmpirumServer%\Configurator$\User\SWDepot.exe /I\\%EmpirumServer%\Values$\MachineValues\%%DomainName%%\%ComputerName%.ddc /A /B /F /S /Q /T2 /X10 /Z2
Launch without tokens with client-specific DDC file
\\%EmpirumServer%\Configurator$\User\SWDepot.exe /I\\%EmpirumServer%\Values$\MachineValues\%%DomainName%%\%ComputerName%.ddc /B /F /S /Q /T2 /X10 /Z2
Launch without tokens with client- and user-specific DDC file
\\%EmpirumServer%\Configurator$\User\SWDepot.exe /I\\%EmpirumServer%\Values$\MachineValues\%%DomainName%%\%ComputerName%.ddc /I\\%EmpirumServer%\Values$\UserValues\%UserDomain%\%UserName%.ddc /B /F /S /Q /T2 /Z2,300
Launch with tokens and client-specific DDC file (/K must also be specified!)
\\%EmpirumServer%\Configurator$\User\SWDepot.exe /I\\%EmpirumServer%\Values$\MachineValues\%%DomainName%%\%ComputerName%.ddc /B /F /K7200 /Q /S /T2 /X10 /Z2
Launch with tokens and client- and user-specific DDC file (/K must also be specified!)
\\%EmpirumServer%\Configurator$\User\SWDepot.exe /I\\%EmpirumServer%\Values$\MachineValues\%%DomainName%%\%ComputerName%.ddc /I\\%EmpirumServer%\Values$\UserValues\%UserDomain%\%UserName%.ddc /B /F /K7200 /Q /S /T2 /Z2,300,EXECUTE