StreamBase Command Prompt

Introduction

The StreamBase Command Prompt is a feature of the Windows version of StreamBase, starting with release 5.0.

Previous releases of StreamBase for Windows modified the Windows environment during installation, adding a STREAMBASE_HOME environment variable and putting the StreamBase bin directory in the PATH. This practice was changed starting with release 5.0, to allow support for multiple versions of StreamBase installed on the same Windows machine.

Instead of modifying the global Windows environment, StreamBase versions 5.0 and later provide a link in the Start menu for a StreamBase Command Prompt. This link opens a standard Windows Command Prompt session with its environment pre-set for running StreamBase command-line utilities.

Open a StreamBase Command Prompt with the following command sequence:

Start(All) ProgramsStreamBase n.mStreamBase Command Prompt

Environment Settings

The following table summarizes the differences in Windows environment settings between former and current releases of StreamBase.

Environment Variable StreamBase 3.7 and earlier StreamBase 5.0 and later
STREAMBASE_HOME Set during installation in the global Windows environment By default, set only in StreamBase Command Prompt sessions
PATH
CLASSPATH Not set

Single Current StreamBase Installation

If you have only one version of StreamBase installed, and it is release 5.0 or later, you might prefer to have the StreamBase environment set globally. In this configuration, you could use any Windows Command Prompt session to run StreamBase utilities, and would not be restricted to using the StreamBase Command Prompt.

Important

If you have more than one StreamBase installation on the same Windows machine, do not use sb-config to modify your global environment, or use it with caution, as discussed below in More Than One StreamBase Installation.

Use the sb-config utility to add the PATH and STREAMBASE_HOME settings to your global environment, as described in the reference page sb-config. Use the --setenv option to modify the currently logged-in Windows user's environment. Use the --setsysenv option to modify the environment for all users. (The --setenv and --setsysenv options are new as of the 5.0 version of sb-config.)

More Than One StreamBase Installation

If you have more than one StreamBase installation, the use of sb-config and the StreamBase Command Prompt change accordingly. There are two cases, described in the following sections.

Mixed Old and New StreamBase Installations

Follow these rules if you have, on the same Windows machine, one StreamBase 3.x installation and one or more StreamBase 5.0+ installation:

  1. Do not use the 5.0+ sb-config utility to modify your machine's global environment. This would overwrite the StreamBase 3.x global environment settings. Once overwritten, they can only be restored by reinstalling StreamBase 3.x or by manual edits.

  2. Use any standard Windows Command Prompt to run utilities from your StreamBase 3.x installation.

  3. Use the StreamBase Command Prompt in your StreamBase 5.0+ installation to run utilities from that installation.

Caution

With mixed 3.x and 5.0+ installations, the StreamBase 3.x bin directory is still in the PATH, after the 5.0+ bin directory. This means utilities from 3.x that do not have matching files in 5.0+ can still be inadvertently run at the 5.0+ StreamBase Command Prompt.

Multiple Current StreamBase Installations

Follow these rules if you have, on the same Windows machine, two or more StreamBase 5.0 or later installations, such as one 5.0 and one 5.1 installation:

  1. Use the 5.0+ sb-config utility with caution to modify your machine's global environment.

    By default, none of your StreamBase 5.0+ installations modified the global Windows environment. However, you might prefer to set one of your 5.0+ installations as the system default, and thereafter to use carefully chosen StreamBase Command Prompt windows to run utilities from other 5.0+ installations.

    Caution

    Be sure to run the correct sb-config utility when using the --setenv and --setsysenv options. You have one sb-config utility for each installation. Before running sb-config, open a StreamBase Command Prompt for the installation you want to become the system default, and verify that you have the right one with the following command:

    sb-config --version
    
  2. Use the StreamBase Command Prompt link in the Start menu of a particular 5.0+ installation to run StreamBase utilities from that installation. The following example command sequences open two separate StreamBase Command Prompts, each set with the environment from its StreamBase installation.

    • Start(All) ProgramsStreamBase 5.0StreamBase Command Prompt

    • Start(All) ProgramsStreamBase 5.1StreamBase Command Prompt

StreamBase Command Prompt Tips

You can change the default window size, placement, font, and color of StreamBase Command Prompt windows, using standard Windows Properties settings:

  1. Open a StreamBase Command Prompt window.

  2. Click the icon on the left side of the titlebar, and select Properties from the pop-up menu.

  3. Make the changes desired, and click OK.

  4. In the Apply Properties to Shortcut dialog, select Modify shortcut that started this window and click OK.

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