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NEWS YOU CAN USE FROM VANDYKE SOFTWARE® The beta cycle for all VanDyke Software products is in full swing, with beta 3 releases available before this reaches your inbox. The issue begins with overviews of high-productivity areas of SecureCRT®: button bars, keyword highlighting, and the script recorder. For network admins who want to cut time spent pushing out and installing VShell® software updates, we offer a solution using VShell itself. ------------- 1. Essential Skills: Using the Button Bar
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----------------------------------------------------- With the SecureCRT 6.7 beta release, the button bar has become still more capable and flexible, so now is a good time to cover the range of button bar capabilities. In addition to supporting eight varied functions from shell commands to launching applications, the latest version of the button bar makes it easy to move buttons around a button bar or between button bars, and allows creating more than ten buttons on a single button bar. Buttons on the button bar give you one-click access to frequently used SecureCRT menu commands and save thousands of keystrokes by avoiding manual command entry. A button command can be as simple as launching an external application like a text editor, or invoking a VBScript, or as complex as an easily mistyped shell command such as this example: chown -R `ls -dl . | awk -F\ '{print $3}'`:users .?* *\n The following is a quick overview of button bar operations:
You can find the complete updated button bar tip on the
VanDyke Software website. -------------------------------------------------------------------- SecureCRT 6.5 and later releases support real-time highlighting of user-specified keywords in the terminal window. This is probably not the first application feature you would want to master, but it is invaluable for technical users who have to monitor host output for important alerts or events, often across many sessions. Keyword highlighting might be used to call attention to errors in output from a script or program, or to flag specific text or IP addresses in a log file. To set up highlighting, find the Highlight keywords group in the Terminal / Appearance category of the Session Options dialog. You first select or create a list of keywords, with a choice to highlight them in reverse video or bold text. Note that because keyword highlighting processes the remote session data stream in real time, it can affect display performance. Thus, if the remote host supports keyword highlighting, we recommend you use that facility. SecureCRT provides limited scripting access to keyword highlighting through the SessionConfiguration object. Visit the VanDyke Software forums for a discussion of this, including example scripts. --------------------------------------------------------------- The script recorder has been a part of SecureCRT for Windows since version 5.5. Until recently the recorder was limited to generating VBScript code. With the arrival of SecureCRT 6.7 in March, the recorder adds Python support, and is now available for Mac and Linux as well as Windows. The script recorder can be used to automate issuing a series of commands that need to be performed regularly on one or more remote hosts. The SecureCRT script recorder saves terminal keystrokes, so the entire set of commands can be captured and written to a script, making it easy to start writing scripts for SecureCRT even if you're not a Python or VBScript guru. Use the Script menu to turn on recording, key in your commands and keystrokes, stop recording from the Script menu, and save the script as VBScript or Python code. You can also use it as a foundation to build on to create more powerful scripts. To start using scripting and the script recorder, look at the Scripting Essentials guide in the Support section at www.vandyke.com. Chapter 1, Creating Scripts, covers using the script recorder to create a VBScript (Windows only). -------------------------------------------------------- The VShell server now has the capability to launch remote
exec commands in the background. One of the benefits of this is that you can now upgrade the VShell installation without having to physically go to every machine that VShell is installed on. In fact, many software packages can be distributed and installed in the same way; stay tuned for more on this in
upcoming newsletters. With the right version of VShell in place, you first use vcp to upload the installer to the remote system, as in this example: C:\>vcp vshell-ftps-x86.3.8.0.132.exe username@hostname:. ----------------------------------------
Beta 3 releases were made available April 12 of the VShell 3.8 server, the SecureCRT 6.7 and SecureFX(R) 6.7 applications, and the ClientPack 6.7 utilities. VShell 3.8 server (beta) increases administrator control with a real-time connection monitoring tool, the ability to set virtual root file and folder access permissions, and auto-creation of virtual root paths. SecureCRT 6.7 (beta) delivers a Linux version for Ubuntu and Red Hat, a "Connect bar," Python support in the script recorder, and improvements to the button bar. SecureFX 6.7 (beta) helps you save time by adding directory bookmarks, a "Connect bar," and logical sorting in the "Connect" dialog. VanDyke ClientPack 6.7 (beta) features VRALib enhancements with new time-out flags, a shell function, and remote execute properties. Here is a list of the latest
official product releases: All VanDyke Software products may be downloaded and evaluated free for 30 days. Licenses include one year of free upgrades and access to our expert technical support. Licenses for three years of upgrades and support are also available. Pass it along! If you find this monthly newsletter helpful and informative, forward it to co-workers or friends, or tell them where to sign up. https://secure.vandyke.com/cgi-bin/subscribe.php RSS Feeds Now Available Links to VanDyke Software pages with RSS feeds: What's New Subscription Information You received this e-mail because you subscribed to VanDyke Software News when you visited our website or downloaded a VanDyke Software product. Click here to unsubscribe or change your e-mail address. Don't miss out on important product news. If your ISP or e-mail client filters incoming e-mail, please add the domain @vandyke.com to your list of approved senders to make sure you receive the newsletters and product announcements to which you've subscribed.
VanDyke Software, Inc. Do you have questions, comments, or ideas? E-mail
us at or use one of our web
forms. VanDyke Software, CRT, SecureCRT, SecureFX, and VShell are trademarks or registered trademarks of VanDyke Software, Inc. All other products and services mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. |
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