Help

To see which operations an object supports, use the operations command. An example is:

dcecp> principal operations
catalog create delete modify rename show help operations
dcecp>

This command provides simple help similar to usage messages found on many systems. Users unsure of an operation name or whether an operation is supported by an object can use this command to find the answer. The output is a dcecp list that can be used by other dcecp commands.

To see other information about an object, use an object's help operation. All dcecp objects have a help operation that offers three kinds of information.

· View brief information about an object's operations by using help without arguments or options. Operations are listed in alphabetical order, with the operations and help operations listed last because all objects support these operations. An example is:

dcecp> principal help
catalog Returns all the names of principals in the registry.
create Creates a DCE principal.
delete Deletes a principal from the registry.
modify Changes the information about a principal.
rename Renames the specified principal.
show Returns the attributes of a principal.
help Print summary of command-line options.
operations Returns a list of the valid operations for this command.
dcecp>

· View brief information about the options an operation supports by using help with one argument - the name of the operation. This operation returns attribute options in alphabetical order. If no options are supported, an empty string is returned. An example is:

dcecp> principal help create

-alias Add principal named as an alias of specified uid.
-attribute Attribute list to be assigned to the new principal.
-fullname Fullname of the new principal.
-quota Quota of the new principal.
-uid User Identifier of the new principal.
-uuid Orphaned UUID to be adopted by the specified principal.
dcecp>

· View a short description of a dcecp object using the help operation with the -verbose option. This command returns text explaining what the object represents and how to use it. An example is:

dcecp> principal help -verbose
This object allows manipulation of principal information stored
in the DCE registry. The argument is a list of either relative or
fully-qualified principal names. Specify fixed attributes using
attribute options or attribute lists. Specify any extended attributes
using attribute lists. Principal operations connect to a registry that
can service the request. Specify a particular registry by setting the
_s(sec) convenience variable to be a cell-relative or global replica
name, or the binding of the host where the replica exists. The
completed operation sets _b(sec) to the name of the registry
contacted.

dcecp>