User's Guide - Testing the NetRexx installation

NetRexx User's Guide, version 2.02 Copyright (c) IBM Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved. © | Draft of 22 May 2001
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## Testing the NetRexx installation

After installing NetRexx, it is recommended that you test that it is working correctly. If there are any problems, check the Installation Problems section.

To test your installation, make the directory to which you copied the executables the current directory, then (being very careful to get the case of letters correct):

1. Enter the command

         java COM.ibm.netrexx.process.NetRexxC hello

   This should run the NetRexx compiler, which first translates the NetRexx program `hello.nrx` to the Java program `hello.java`. It then invokes the default Java compiler (`javac`), to compile the file `hello.java` to make the binary class file `hello.class`. The intermediate `.java` file is then deleted, unless an error occurred or you asked for it to be kept.[1]
   If you get errors from Java and you're running Java 1.2 or later, first re-check the final two steps in the Installing for Java 1.2+ section before trying the Installation Problems section.
2. Enter the command

         java hello

   This runs (interprets the bytecodes in) the `hello.class` file, which should display a simple greeting. On some systems, you may first have to add the directory that contains the `hello.class` file to the CLASSPATH setting so Java can find it.
3. With the sample scripts provided (`NetRexxC.cmd`, `NetRexxC.bat`, or `NetRexxC.sh`,), or the equivalent in the scripting language of your choice, the steps above can be combined into a simple single command such as:

         NetRexxC.sh -run hello

   This package also includes a trivial `nrc.cmd`, and matching `nrc.bat` and `nrc` scripts, which simply pass on their arguments to NetRexxC; ‘`nrc`’ is just a shorter name that saves keystrokes, so for the last example you could type:

         nrc -run hello

   Note that scripts may be case-sensitive, and unless running the OS/2 Rexx script, you will probably have to spell the name of the program exactly as it appears in the filename. Also, to use `-run`, you may need to omit the `.nrx` extension.
   You could also edit the appropriate `nrc.cmd`, `nrc.bat`, or `nrc` script and add your favourite ‘default’ NetRexxC options there. For example, you might want to add the `-prompt` flag (described later) to save reloading the translator before every compilation. If you do change a script, keep a backup copy so that if you install a new version of the NetRexx package you won't overwrite your changes.

Footnotes:

[1] | For example, by specifying the `-keep` or `-nocompile` flags.

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