Re: Message ANS1102E Excessive number of command line arguments

Follow-up on an older issue:

In reviewing the TSM server documentation, I happened to note the
following in the online help, which suggests a solution:

============================================================
tsm: STORMAN_SERVER1>help
  1 - Using Syntax Diagrams
  ...
 11 - Using Continuation Characters
  ...
 20 - Commands Any Administrator Can Issue

tsm: STORMAN_SERVER1>help 11
Using Continuation Characters
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Using Continuation Characters

You can use continuation characters in the interactive mode of the
administrative client. Continuation characters are useful when you want to
process a command that is longer than your screen or window width.

Attention: Without continuation characters you can enter up to 256
characters. With continuation characters you can enter up to 1500
characters. In the MACRO command, these maximums are after any
substitution
variables have been applied.

With continuation characters, you can do the following:
  ...
   * Continue a string of values enclosed in quotation marks by entering
the
     first part of the string enclosed in quotation marks, followed by a
     dash or a back slash at the end of the line. Then, enter the
remainder
     of the string on the next line enclosed in the same type of quotation
     marks.

     For example:

     contact="david pease, bldg. 100, room 2b, san jose,"-
     "ext. 1234, alternate contact-norm pass,ext 2345"

     Tivoli Storage Manager concatenates the two strings with no
intervening
     blanks. You must use only this method to continue a quoted string of
     values across more than one line.
============================================================

This suggests the following solution:

   OBJECTS='"G:\DATA\ACCESS\184 BACKUPS\*" ' -
   '"G:\DATA\ACCESS\57 BACKUPS\*" ' -
   '"G:\DATA\ACCESS\578 BACKUPS\*" ' -
   '"G:\DATA\ACCESS\1263 BACKUP\*" ' -
   '"G:\DATA\ACCESS\182MAN BACKUP\*" ' -
   '"G:\DATA\ACCESS\182SYSTEM BACKUP\*" ' -
   '"G:\DATA\ACCESS\CISPS SPT DATABASE BACKUP\*" ' -
   '"G:\DATA\ACCESS\CISUM SPT DATABASE BACKUP\*"' -

Note that each file specification is enclosed in double quotes, then
single quotes. There is a blank space between the right-hand double quote
and single quote so that when the concatenation with the next line occurs,
there will be a blank space between each file specification, i.e. this:

   "G:\DATA\ACCESS\184 BACKUPS\*" "G:\DATA\ACCESS\57 BACKUPS\*"

instead of this:

   "G:\DATA\ACCESS\184 BACKUPS\*""G:\DATA\ACCESS\57 BACKUPS\*"

Best regards,

Andy

Andy Raibeck
IBM Software Group
Tivoli Storage Manager Client Development
Internal Notes e-mail: Andrew Raibeck/Tucson/IBM@IBMUS
Internet e-mail: storman AT us.ibm DOT com

The only dumb question is the one that goes unasked.
The command line is your friend.
"Good enough" is the enemy of excellence.
----- Forwarded by Andrew Raibeck/Tucson/IBM on 06/24/2003 08:35 -----


Andrew Raibeck
04/28/2003 07:03


        To:     "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>
        cc:
        From:   Andrew Raibeck/Tucson/IBM@IBMUS
        Subject:        Re: Message ANS1102E Excessive number of command line 
arguments


Mmmmmmmm..... I don't think the asterisk is the problem, as Windows
doesn't have the same expansion issue that Unix does.

I think the problem is in the syntax used for the OBJECTS parameter:

   OBJECTS='"G:\DATA\ACCESS\184 BACKUPS\* "' -
   '"G:\DATA\ACCESS\57 BACKUPS\* "' -
   '"G:\DATA\ACCESS\578 BACKUPS\* "' -
   '"G:\DATA\ACCESS\1263 BACKUP\* "' -
   '"G:\DATA\ACCESS\182MAN BACKUP\* "' -
   '"G:\DATA\ACCESS\182SYSTEM BACKUP\* "' -
   '"G:\DATA\ACCESS\CISPS SPT DATABASE BACKUP\* "' -
   '"G:\DATA\ACCESS\CISUM SPT DATABASE BACKUP\* "' -

Rather than enclosing each file specification in double and single quotes,
each file spec should be enclosed in a pair of double quotes, then the
entire set of file specs enclosed in a pair of single quotes, like this:

   OBJECTS='"G:\DATA\ACCESS\184 BACKUPS\* " -
   "G:\DATA\ACCESS\57 BACKUPS\* " -
   "G:\DATA\ACCESS\578 BACKUPS\* " -
   "G:\DATA\ACCESS\1263 BACKUP\* " -
   "G:\DATA\ACCESS\182MAN BACKUP\* " -
   "G:\DATA\ACCESS\182SYSTEM BACKUP\* " -
   "G:\DATA\ACCESS\CISPS SPT DATABASE BACKUP\* " -
   "G:\DATA\ACCESS\CISUM SPT DATABASE BACKUP\* "' -

The asterisk isn't really necessary, though, so this could be slightly
shortened to:

   OBJECTS='"G:\DATA\ACCESS\184 BACKUPS\ " -
   "G:\DATA\ACCESS\57 BACKUPS\ " -
   "G:\DATA\ACCESS\578 BACKUPS\ " -
   "G:\DATA\ACCESS\1263 BACKUP\ " -
   "G:\DATA\ACCESS\182MAN BACKUP\ " -
   "G:\DATA\ACCESS\182SYSTEM BACKUP\ " -
   "G:\DATA\ACCESS\CISPS SPT DATABASE BACKUP\ " -
   "G:\DATA\ACCESS\CISUM SPT DATABASE BACKUP\ "' -

Regards,

Andy

Andy Raibeck
IBM Software Group
Tivoli Storage Manager Client Development
Internal Notes e-mail: Andrew Raibeck/Tucson/IBM@IBMUS
Internet e-mail: storman AT us.eyebm DOT com (change eye to i to reply)

The only dumb question is the one that goes unasked.
The command line is your friend.
"Good enough" is the enemy of excellence.




Richard Sims <rbs AT BU DOT EDU>
Sent by: "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>
04/28/2003 05:42
Please respond to "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager"


        To:     ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
        cc:
        Subject:        Re: Message ANS1102E Excessive number of command line 
arguments



>ANS1102E Excessive number of command line arguments passed to the program
...
>OBJECTS='"G:\DATA\ACCESS\184 BACKUPS\* "' -
...
>So i only have 8 directories that i want to archive. What confuses me is
>that we have been running this command schedule for some months now,
>without problem. It started last week, and happened again yesterday.

Jeff - As Consumer Reports would point out: what about that pesky
asterisk?
       That results in an expansion of filenames under the directory, I
believe.  (I'm not a Windows guru.)  I should think you would only need to
specify the directory names in the Objects list.

  Richard Sims, BU