MKS Toolkit 6.1

Transform NT systems into UNIX-like powerhouses

Integrating Windows NT and UNIX is difficult, but convincing UNIX users to use NT is even more difficult. Mortice Kern Systems (MKS) Toolkit 6.1 makes the job easy. The toolkit, which includes the UNIX-style KornShell and more than 210 scripting tools, brings native UNIX functionality to NT, Windows 98, and Win95 platforms. With MKS Toolkit in place, UNIX users can be productive immediately on a Win32 platform.

Familiar Features
MKS Toolkit includes some standard utilities. The domain command displays domain information (e.g., which computers are members of specific domains and which computers serve as Backup Domain Controllers--BDCs). You can use the desktop command to create a virtual desktop that is identical to the original desktop and runs NT Explorer. You can easily switch desktops at the command line. The web command is a standard utility that lets a user issue a command (e.g., web get http://www.ntsecurity.net/newfiles) and process the output with other scripting commands (e.g., grep). For example, you can pull up a page that lists files on a particular Web site and parse the files for specific information from the command line or from within a shell script. The toolkit also includes standard features such as vi, grep, dd, awk, ps, diff, touch, sleep, wait, make, pwd, and tar.

New Features
The latest version of MKS Toolkit includes new features. The su utility lets you run processes as different users so you don't have to log off one account and log back on to the account you want to test a process under. The db utility lets you send SQL commands directly to an Open Database Connectivity (ODBC)-compliant database without using a complex database front end (i.e., a database program that requires installation and configuration).

PScript, mapimail, and smtpmail are also new to this version. PScript introduces Microsoft's Active Scripting paradigm and provides a new way to execute Perl scripts. Mapimail and smtpmail let users send mail (from the command line or from within a shell script) directly to Messaging API (MAPI)- and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)-based systems.

MKS Toolkit includes nifty new Web-based development tools, such as htdiff, htsplit, and url. The htdiff command is similar to the UNIX diff command, which displays the differences between two HTML files. Screen 1 shows the color-coded diff interface. The htsplit command is a filter process that splits an HTML file into tokens that other shell scripts process. The url command parses URLs. This feature is handy when you're writing Web-based applications.

MKS Toolkit includes new NT resource-management tools, such as groupinfo and chacl. Groupinfo lets you add, delete, and update group information from the command line. Chacl lets you change access control lists (ACLs) for files, directories, and other NT-based objects.

Transform Your System
MKS Toolkit has more than 210 utilities and includes almost any script you might need on a UNIX system. MKS Toolkit adds UNIX-style functionality to Win32 systems. For example, you can create applications encompassing dialog boxes (e.g., File Open, File Save) using shell scripts. You can also run most applications you develop on other operating systems (OSs) without having to make many changes. The toolkit includes a graphical scripting language to enhance KornShell script files, so users can add graphical front ends to existing script files easily. MKS Toolkit lets you use Win32 systems to develop applications at a fraction of the cost you might typically incur.

MKS Toolkit provides more functionality than competing packages provide. UNIX users will find this software beneficial.