FAQ: How to use License Borrowing feature of VisualDSP++

I am looking for detailed instructions for using new License Borrowing feature in VisualDSP++ 5.0.

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The licenses can be checked out either by using the lmborrow.exe (command-line) tool, or using the LMTOOLS application (GUI) , and can be borrowed up to a maximum of 30 days.

Using the LMTOOLS GUI

If you would rather use a GUI interface to borrow licenses, check the status, return licenses early or stop license borrowing, you can use the LMTOOLS application. LMTOOLS can be found in the same folder the lmborrow utility is located on the license server. To use LMTOOLS, you will need to copy the application to your client system.

To borrow licenses with LMTOOLS, start the application and click on the "Borrowing" tab. In the Vendor Name field type in "analogd." In the Return Date enter the date the licenses are to be borrowed until and for the Return Time field enter the time to return the licenses (24 hour format). Then click the "Set Borrow Expiration" button.

To actually borrow the licenses for the various features (VDSP-DEBUGGER, SIMULATOR-FRIO, COMPILER-FRIO, etc.) you need to start VisualDSP++ and build a program that targets the processor type you are developing for. By doing that all the necessary licenses will be borrowed so you can do your development while disconnected from the server.

You can check the status of borrowed licenses with the LMTOOLS by starting the application and click on the "Borrowing" tab. Click the "List Currently Borrowed Features" button to see what licenses have been borrowed and when they are set to expire. You can also return borrowed licenses early using LMTOOLS. To do so you must first create an Environment variable called LM_LICENSE_FILE with a value of the path to the license file (default is C:\Program Files\Analog Devices\VisualDSP 5.0\System\license.dat). Then from the "Borrowing" tab, enter the name of the feature whose license is to be returned early in the Feature Name data field and click the "Return Borrowed Licenses Early" button to return the license for that feature. This has to be done for all features that are borrowed.

To stop borrowing licenses using LMTOOLS, start the application and click on the "Borrowing" tab. The user then just needs to click the "Don't Borrow Anymore Today" button to stop license borrowing.

Using the lmborrow.exe Command Line Interface
If you prefer to use the command-line application, "lmborrow.exe", to initiate license borrowing, check the status of borrowed licenses, return licenses before their expiration and stop borrowing licenses, you can do so by copying the "lmborrow.exe" to the client machine from the VisualDSP++ Floating License Server install at <install path>\LMSERVER.

The syntax to initiate license borrowing is:
lmborrow analogd end_date [time]

where "analogd" is the name of the process running on the license server that serves the licenses and end_date is the date when the license will expire. The format for the end date component is dd-mmm-yyyy where dd is the day, mmm is the month (may, jun, jul, aug, etc.) and yyyy is the year. The optional time part is the time on the end date the license will expire. The format for the time component is hh:mm where hh is the hour and mm is the minutes. It is in a 24 hour format. Example: To borrow a license until June 15, 2008 at 1:00pm the user issues the following command from a DOS prompt:
lmborrow analogd 15-jun-2008 13:00.

The syntax to check the status of borrowed licenses is: lmborrow -status. The command will give the following output (depending on the end date and time specified when borrowing the licenses):

C:\FlexLM Command-line Apps>lmborrow -status

    lmborrow - Copyright (c) 1989-2005 Macrovision Europe Ltd. and/or Macrovision Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
    Vendor     Feature               Expiration
    ______     ________              __________
    analogd    VDSP-DEBUGGER         15-May-08 12:59
    analogd    EMULATOR-SHARC        15-May-08 12:59
    analogd    SIMULATOR-FRIO        15-May-08 12:59
    analogd    SIMULATOR-SHARC       15-May-08 12:59
    analogd    EMULATOR-FRIO         15-May-08 12:59
    analogd    EMULATOR-TIGERSHARC   15-May-08 12:59
    analogd    SIMULATOR-TIGERSHARC 15-May-08 12:59
    analogd    ASSEMBLER-FRIO        15-May-08 12:59
    analogd    LINKER-FRIO           15-May-08 12:59

The syntax to return licenses early is: lmborrow -return -c "<path to license file>" <feature name>. The -c option is optional but it is strongly recommended that you use it as lmborrow usually cannot find the license file without it. The path to the license file is the System folder in the install path specified when VisualDSP++ was installed. The default is "C:\Program Files\Analog Devices\VisualDSP 5.0\System\license.dat". The feature name is the same as the ones listed in the output from the lmborrow -status command.

The syntax to stop license borrowing is: lmborrow -clear. By running this command any more requests from the client to the server for a license will not result in that license being borrowed.

This FAQ was generated from the following discussion: How to use License Borrowing feature of VisualDSP++

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