Why with Netware 4.1 & up do you still need to use the n4Attach(server) command?

Keywords:  NDS n4attach attach map  

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Question:

Why do you even have to use the n4Attach() function in Netware 4 if you are already logged into NDS? The Novell MAP command allows mapping of drives on any server in the tree without explicitly attaching to the server, as long as you have rights. NDS automatically authenticates. For example, I don't have to be attached to a second or third server to map to it. The authentication is done automatically for you. Yet WinBatch will tell you that you aren't attached to the server you are trying to n4Map() to.

Answer:

It's a strange kind of definition problem. The command line MAP command is really an "Attach and Map", whereas in our Netware Extender, we follow the Novell API, where the Attach and Map are separate steps.

It's a semantic question. In the Novell documentation, the people who write the Novell API's we use and the people who write the command line utilities don't talk to each other. The command line utility people automagically do an attach when you issue a command line MAP command. But there are separate Novell APIs for this: an Attach and a Map.

To ease debugging and to follow the intent of the API's, we have them as separate functions.

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Article ID:   W13617

Filename:   n4attach and Netware NDS.txt