2.5 FunnelWeb Startup

FunnelWeb's command line options can be divided into two groups. Action options instruct FunnelWeb to performs some sort of independent action such as processing a file. Ordinary options merely modify the way in which FunnelWeb executes the actions.

The four action options are: +F, +K, +X, and +H.

When FunnelWeb is invoked, if no action options are specified, and there is a file called fwinit.fws in the current directory, then FunnelWeb executes the FunnelWeb script file (.fws) and terminates. If there isn't such a file, FunnelWeb issues a help message and terminates.

If, when FunnelWeb is invoked, one or more action options are specified, FunnelWeb performs the actions in a predefined order as follows:

Initialization script: FunnelWeb starts by looking in the current directory for a file called "fwinit.fws". If it doesn't find one, it doesn't raise any error. If it does find one, it executes it as a FunnelWeb shellscript. Initialization scripts are useful for setting up FunnelWeb options (e.g. using the "set" command without having to type them each time).

Execute argument script: If a shellscript has been specified using the "+X" option, FunnelWeb executes it.

Process input file: If the user has specified an input file using the "+F" option, then this is processed next (by FunnelWeb proper).

Display help message: If the user requested, using the "+H" option, that a help message be displayed, the message is displayed at this time.

Interactive mode: If the user specified the "+K" option, FunnelWeb enters interactive (keyboard) mode.

FunnelWeb processes these actions in the above order regardless of the order in which they appear on the command line.

It may be hard to see how some of these actions might be combined. Nevertheless, FunnelWeb allows this. For example, a user might wish to process a batch of files as specified in a script ("+Xscript.fws"), be reminded of the interactive commands available ("+Hcommand"), and then enter interactive mode so as to be able to reprocess files for which FunnelWeb reported errors (after correcting the errors in a different workstation window).