The MainBoss Command Line

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MainBoss can be invoked using a command line with various arguments. This makes it possible to invoke MainBoss from a command file (.BAT or .CMD) or from other software applications that invoke programs through command lines.

In particular, MainBoss command line options make it easy to backup your MainBoss database automatically, using software like the Windows 2000 Task Scheduler. In this way, you can schedule regular backups that take place automatically, without anyone having to start MainBoss by hand.

In a command prompt window, you would usually invoke MainBoss with a CD command to go to the directory that contains the program file, and then a command to invoke MainBoss itself. The lines below show a typical example:

  cd "C:\program files\mainboss\2.9"
  mboss Backup /mbd:C:\mainboss /mzh:D:\mbsaves

Note that the program is named mboss, not MainBoss.

The general format of the command line is

mboss subcommand option option option...

As a special case,

mboss /?

prints information about using MainBoss in command-line format, including a list of all subcommands and options.

As another special case,

mboss /MainBossDatabase:folder

starts a normal MainBoss session on the MainBoss database contained in the given folder. If you omit the /MainBossDatabase argument, the command just starts a normal MainBoss session using the current directory as the MainBoss database directory.

Abbreviations: Most keywords on the MainBoss command line may be abbreviated. In MainBoss documentation, the letters that must be included are shown in upper case; any or all other letters may be omitted. For example, the following are all valid abbreviations for the option /MainBossDatabase:

/mainbossdb
/mbdata
/mbdb
/mbd

Although the documentation shows some letters in upper case and some in lower, you can type letters in any case you want. For example, /MBD is exactly the same as /mbd or /Mbd on the MainBoss command line.