Command Line Switches

To load Robo-FTP, double-click on its icon on your Windows desktop or from the Start menu in Programs:Robo-FTP. One or more of the following command line switches may have been associated with Robo-FTP during installation, or may be specified when defining the properties of Robo-FTP within the Target control of the Shortcut Properties dialog.

robo-ftp [-asn] [-d] [-gfile] [ -m] [-n] [-px arg] [-sfile] [-v] [&var1& | %var2%]

The following paragraphs describe these and other optional parameters in detail:

The -a switch allows for automatic license activation. Normally activation is done manually from the Help menu. In cases where Robo-FTP is run hidden or is launched from another process, this may not be possible. When activating Robo-FTP for the first time include the serial number in the switch. For example:

When reactivating Robo-FTP include the serial number and removal code in the switch as shown below. Notice that the serial number and removal code are separated with a plus sign. Also there should be no spaces embedded in the removal code.

The -d switch activates the debug mode. The debug mode writes internal debug information to the log file during script processing. This switch is only useful for diagnostics to be interpreted by a Robo-FTP technical support engineer.

The -g switch specifies the optional settings file to be used to configure Robo-FTP. Settings files have a .set extension and are created by a previous run of Robo-FTP. The settings are read from the file and transferred to the Windows registry overwriting all previously existing settings. Typically settings would only need to be imported once. Also, refer to the EXPORT and IMPORT script commands for more information.

The -h switch results in Robo-FTP running completely invisible from the desktop.

The -l switch may be specified with the -m switch to lock the minimized state of Robo-FTP and prevent a user from maximizing the window. This may be advantageous to prevent users from having access to the console window and its associated controls. This switch is ignored if the -m switch is not present.

The -m switch results in Robo-FTP starting with its console window minimized. This also hides the splash screen.

The -n switch suppresses the Robo-FTP splash screen that is otherwise displayed when the program first loads.

Use of the -p switch is the preferred method to pass external arguments into Robo-FTP from a shortcut or the Windows Command Prompt command line. The value x must be the single digit 1 - 9. Therefore, up to nine arguments may be passed this way and are assigned to internally defined script file variables %1 through %9. The single space between x and arg is required.

The advantage to this method over the legacy method (see below) is that Windows environment variables (e.g., %SystemDrive%, %USERNAME%, etc.) as well as user defined strings may be passed into Robo-FTP.

Enclose user defined strings with embedded spaces in quotation marks. You cannot mix multiple environment variables and/or environment variables and user strings in the same argument. Use of this method and the legacy method on the same command line is not recommended.

The -s switch specifies the script file to be loaded and executed. Pressing the (Esc) key or clicking the Stop button cancels script file execution.

The -t switch specifies a string identifier used to identify this particular instance of Robo-FTP to Monitor (a Windows tray applet) provided with Robo-FTP that may be used to monitor the operation of Robo-FTP when it is running as a Windows service or when it is running minimized. For more information see Monitoring a Robo-FTP Service and the SRVNAME script command. See also installing services from the command line.

The -v switch disables the user interface; it is used by the Service Installer when running Robo-FTP as a service. You should use this switch when launching a new instance of Robo-FTP from a Robo-FTP service.

The -w switch specifies the working directory. For more information see the WORKINGDIR script command.

Alternatively to the newer -p switch, arguments delimited by & or % are assigned to internally defined script file variables %1 through %9. There can be up to nine script file variables assigned in this way. Script file variable arguments must follow the last switch passed into Robo-FTP as shown below.

Value	Description
0	Success
-1	Robo-FTP licensing system failed.
-2	Maximum number of instances allowed have been launched.