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Running wc3270 Without Installing It
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It is possible to run wc3270 without installing it. This allows it to be run
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from a USB flash drive or CD without modifying the system it is run on, or to
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be bundled with another application without needing to include the full wc3270
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When wc3270.exe or wc3270wiz.exe are run without doing a full software
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installation, they will not use the wc3270 Application Data directory.
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Instead, keymaps will be searched for in the working directory first, then in
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the directory where the executable file is. wc3270wiz.exe will write new
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keymaps to the working directory. wc3270 trace files will be written to the
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working directory as well.
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A new feature, auto-shortcut mode, also facilitates installation-free
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Auto-shortcut mode is controlled by the wc3270.autoShortcut resource. If this
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resource is set to True in a session file or via the -S command-line option,
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then wc3270.exe will automatically create a temporary shortcut file (.LNK file)
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that matches the parameters in a session file (model number, character set,
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font, etc.) and re-run itself from the shortcut. (Without auto-shortcut mode,
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wc3270.exe will generally run as a Model 2 in a 25x80 console window, using the
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system default ANSI code page, and the system default font, which is usually
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not a Unicode font and thus cannot display all of the EBCDIC characters.)
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Note that auto-shortcut mode is set in all session files created by the
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Session Wizard, starting with version 3.3.10. Also note that all shortcuts
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created by the Session Wizard and by wc3270 itself as part of auto-shortcut
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mode include the +S command-line switch, to turn auto-shortcut mode off and
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avoid infinite looping.
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Thus, the easiest way to create a 'standalone' copy of wc3270 is to simply
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create a session file with the Session Wizard. Then you can run wc3270 via a
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1-line .BAT file (substituting your session name for the session file):
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This command can also be passed to the 'system' library call from an
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application. Only wc3270.exe and the session file need to be present on the
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flash drive or copied to the target system.
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Note that custom keymaps can still be used in no-install mode. Keymap files
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can either be placed in the same directory as wc3270.exe, or the definitions
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can be included in the session file via a Session Wizard option ('Embed
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Note also that it is possible to create a session file that does not specify
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a hostname. This allows the creation of session files that define things like
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the model number and character set, but allow the hostname to be entered
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removed
wc3270/NO-INSTALL.txt
