Command Line Parameters

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The command line usage for the symax communications driver is summarized as follows:

 

Usage: symax -v | <source> | -monitor | -listdevices |

      -read <route> <start> <count> | -inittypes

      [-device <dev>] [-drop <drop>] [-nap <ms>] [-readonly] [-maxtries <n>]

      [-timeout <seconds>] [-symaxretries <n>] [-ackms <ms>] [-maxrequests <n>]

      [-debug] [-detailed] [-logfile <file>] [-loglines <lines>]

 

The square brackets indicate parameters that are optional. A vertical line | is used to define an OR scenario i.e. whether either one parameter or another can be used but not both. The table provides additional details on the meaning of each parameter.

 

Parameter(s)

Description

-v

Displays a version banner and then exits.

<source>

Defines the MacroView data source that the driver will update as a result of its communication actions. Note that the -device command line option must also be specified for the driver to operate.
-monitor

Runs the program in monitoring mode only. The driver monitors all Symax 802.3 packets it detects on the chosen ethernet network and reports on their contents. This is a symax protocol specific alternative to a network analyzer such as Ethereal. It can be used to analyze your Symax ethernet protocol interactions at a very detailed level. Note that the -device command line option must also be specified to identify which network adapter to monitor packets on.
-listdevices

Lists the names of the ethernet packet devices available on your system. Use this to identify what name to pass to the

-device command line option. See the Ethernet Device Names section for more information.
-read

Issues a single read request from the command line. The read request parameter is followed by a <route> which identifies the destination station and a <start>/<count> that defines the register block section to read. This command line functionality is provided primarily to quickly test route specifications within your Symax network. See the Symax Routing section for information on the route specification syntax. Note that the -device command line option must also be specified for identify which network adapter to communicate on. In addition, the drop number must be explicitly specified for the read action to proceed. This can be done via a command line parameter or Environment Variable.

-device <dev>

Names the pcap device to use for ethernet communications. This parameter is required when running in standard driver mode and also for the -monitor and -read command line modes. See the Ethernet Device Names section for more information.

-drop <drop>

Specifies the Symax protocol drop number for the driver instance. The symax driver acts as just another drop on a Symax network and hence requires a drop number. The default is a drop number of 5. The driver must have a unique drop number on a Symax network. Duplicate drop numbers will cause Symax device communications to be halted and require a device reset to restart.
-inittypes

Checks that the contents of the type attribute database includes the standard types used with the symax driver and then exits. If the standard type attributes are missing, the driver will add the definitions required. This command line option is useful when first setting up a system to use the driver. See the Entity Type Configuration section for more information on the standard type attributes.

-maxtries <n>

The maximum number of communication attempts that the driver will perform to get a response to a read or write request. The default is 3 attempts.

-readonly

Runs the driver in read only mode. In this mode, all write requests are ignored and instead a system alarm is generated e.g. "SQDE: In read only mode. Rejecting Write Request 23 STN1:R/1-1".

-timeout <seconds>

The number of seconds to wait for a reply to a read/write request before assuming the communication interaction has failed. The default time out is 4 seconds. After a timeout for a request has occurred, the driver will try again by retransmitting the request up to the maximum try count defined by the -maxtries parameter.

-symaxretries <n>

Specifies the maximum number of packet transmission retries performed if an acknowledgement is not received from the destination drop. The default is 3 retries.

-ackms <ms>

The number of milliseconds to wait for an acknowledgment that a destination drop has received a previously transmitted packet. The default is 500 milliseconds waiting for an acknowledgement.

-maxrequests <n>

The maximum number of read/write requests the driver will manage that have pending replies. Once the number of requests waiting for a reply reaches this value, the driver will hold off transmitting another request to a PLC station before one of the expected replies has been received. This parameter allows the Asynchronous Processing functionality of the driver to be tuned based on specific needs. A higher value typically increases performance and network loading. Setting maxrequests to a value of 1 instructs the driver to operate synchronously with respect to each PLC station. The default value is 3 outstanding requests and the setting is limited to a range of between 1 and 8 based on the Symax protocol specification.

-nap <ms>

The time in milliseconds to wait for incoming packets before reviewing the data request scheduling. The default is 200 milliseconds. A higher value decreases processing loading while a lower value improves the reaction time for request scheduling.

-debug

Turns on debug output information for the driver. The driver executable will report the details of all communication requests it makes on the standard output.

-detailed

Turns on detailed debug output information for the driver executable. This will result in large volumes of detailed debug statements being logged so should only be used to investigate specific scenarios and not left on during normal operation.

-logfile <file>

Sends any driver operation logging output to the specified log file. Note the log file size is self limiting and old log information is automatically discarded. By default only error and warning information is written to the log file i.e. successful communications aren't logged. To get more operational data use the -debug command line option. For extremely detailed operational logs the -detailed command line option can be specified.

-loglines <lines>

Sets the number of debug log lines that will be kept by the driver before discarding the old logs.

 

 

Notes:

•The term drop defines a node on a Symax network. Each drop/node has a unique drop number on that network.
•There are two levels of protocol retries performed by the symax driver, request/reply and acknowledgement level retries. The request/reply retries are at the higher level portion of the protocol and is controlled by the -maxtries and -timeout command line parameters. The acknowledgement level retries ensure a destination drop has received a transmitted packet and is controlled by the -symaxretries and -ackms parameters.
•The Environment Variables section sets some parameter defaults before these command line parameters are applied.