Command execution and results

Like most UNIX commands, ADEdit produces no output or return value if a command executes successfully. Only commands that are defined to return a result produce output when an operation completes successfully. If a command fails, however, ADEdit notifies you of an error in execution and reports the general reason for failure. For example, you might see an error message indicating the wrong number of arguments or a connection problem.

Some commands return results as a Tcl list that other commands in a Tcl script can use. Other commands output results directly to standard output (stdout) where the results are displayed in the shell. You can redirect a command’s stdout output to a file or other destination, if desired.

Commands that return Tcl lists start with get followed by an object type (get_zone_users, for example) and return the list of the objects matching the specified object type that are stored in Active Directory. Because other commands can use the Tcl list to act on the returned data, the get commands are especially useful for writing scripts.

Commands that send data to stdout start with list followed by an object type (list_zone_groups, for example) and return the list of the objects matching the specified object type that are stored in Active Directory for the currently selected context. Because the list goes to stdout, the list commands are especially useful for displaying data in interactive sessions as a script executes.