The program nAlert is used to send and distribute a message from the command line. Messages generated in this way are treated the same as messages initiated from the Messaging Interface. nAlert messages are first sent to the Nobix Alert Service, and the service determines the distribution, then sends the messages.

nAlert is available for UNIX, Linux, and Windows systems. The syntax is the same for all systems.

Unlike the Messaging Interface, nAlert need not reside on the same system as the Nobix Alert Service. nAlert is designed to be used from applications and monitoring systems. It may also be run by a user from the command line.

Syntax

nAlert, when entered without arguments displays its usage syntax.

nalert [-html | -plain] [-buta | -butd | -butad | -butno] [-play <file.wav>] [-secs <seconds>] <nobixAlertServer> <send-to> [message]

nalert -keyinfo



-html	message text is html
-plain	message text is plain text (default)
-buta	only accept button appears on message display
-butd	only dismiss button appears on message display
-butad	accept and dismiss buttons appear (default)
-butno	no buttons appear on message display
-play	plays <file.wav> as the message announcement sound. note: if the file does not exist on the client, a beep is used. may also be "beep" for beeping, or "none" for no sound. beep is the default
-secs	plays the sound for the specified <seconds>
-cancelmins	the number of <minutes> after which the unsent message expires. defaults to 1440 (24 hours)
-keyinfo	displays activation key info then stops
nobixAlertServer	the IP address or hostname of the Nobix Alert Server to send the message through
send-to	the recipient or distribution list name to send the message to
message	plain or HTML text to send as the message. if missing, stdin is read as the message.

The button, text, and sound options control the appearance of the message in the desktop pop-up display. If a sound file is specified, but does not exist in the Nobix Alert sounds directory, a beep is substituted.

The message to send may be specified on the command line, or may be read from stdin. If the message contains spaces and is specified on the command line, it must be surrounded with quotes.

When the nAlert command is executed, it sends the message and options to the indicated Nobix Alert server. The Nobix Alert Service on that machine then determines the distribution based on the <send-to> argument. The message is then sent to the appropriate recipients.

After sucsessful transmission of the message to the Nobix Alert server, nAlert writes the message tracking number that was assigned to stdout. If any errors are encountered, error messages are written to stderr.

Note that on UNIX and Linux systems, the nAlert command is in all lower case characters.

The default installation pathnames for the nAlert program are as follows:

Windows	C:\Program Files\NobixAlert\bin\nalert.exe
UNIX & Linux	/opt/nalert/bin/nalert