Thin Client Command-line Files

When users install the ACUCOBOL-GT Thin Client on a Windows display host, the .atc and .acutc file extensions are automatically associated with the thin client executable (acuthin.exe). As a result, when your browser downloads one of these files, it uses these associations to invoke acuthin.exe. The thin client uses the contents of this file to establish its command-line parameters. The thin client command-line file has a format that resembles other configuration files, and it may contain the following variables:

Variable name Description
atc-auto-update Lets you disable the thin client automatic update feature with a setting of "off" (0, false, no)
atc-user The logon user name (no default value)
atc-password    The password given to the server (a required variable when atc-user is used; no default value)
atc-splash-screen The option that lets you disable the thin client splash screen with a setting of "off" (0, false, no)
atc-trace The trace level (default value is "0")
atc-server The name or IP address of the server to connect to (a required variable with no default value)
atc-port The TCP port number to use (default value is 5632)
atc-runtime-options runtime options passed to the runtime via AcuConnect (no default value)
atc-alias The alias to execute (a required variable with no default value)
atc-cobol-args COBOL arguments passed to your COBOL program via AcuConnect (no default value)

Comment lines (preceded by the "#" character) are allowed in this file, as they are in other configuration files.

The contents of the .atc or .acutc file are interpreted by the thin client as the following command line:

acuthin [atc-user atc-password atc-splash-screen atc-trace] <atc-server>[:<atc-port>] [atc-runtime-options] <atc-alias> 
[<atc-cobol-args>]

As an example, assume the following command-line file components:

atc-server myserver
atc-port 5633
atc-runtime-options    -lxe runtime.err
atc-alias myprog
atc-cobol-args 10 20 30

These command-line file contents are interpreted as the following command line:

acuthin myserver:5633 -lxe runtime.err myprog 10 20 30

There is an additional command line argument for when a COBOL program does a lot of file IO without interacting with the user in a thin client environment, and if that user attempts to interact with the COBOL window (by trying to activate a control, for example), the thin client could just disappear after a few minutes.

the command line is:

acuthin --notimeout server alias

Note that setting this switch may cause the thin client to wait for a runtime that has died for some reason, without having notified the thin client. In other words, it is better to rework your application and to no use this switch if possible, so that your application will respond correctly to user interaction.