This plugin allows PCStage to receive commands from other programs running on the same or a remote PC. It opens a TCP server port to which they can connect using client sockets. There is no fixed limit on the number of simultaneous clients, and any number of commands can be sent before a connection is closed.

The plugin's window indicates its status. Click Set to set the port used.

Commands are plain text strings, and should be terminated with a single CR (ASCII 13) character. PCStage replies to each command sent with another string formatted in the same way, indicating the result. 'OK' indicates success, but 'ERR: ' indicates failure.

The included program PCSCmd sends a single command to PCStage via this plugin, and makes it possible for applications with no direct support for TCP sockets to send commands to PCStage; they merely have to be able to execute a Windows command line. PCSCmd can also be run by any other means e.g. a desktop shortcut, DOS batch file etc.

PCSCmd accepts these parameters:

	PCSCmd [-s <server>] [-p <port>] [-r] [-v] <command>

A command must always be supplied, and must be enclosed within double quotes if it contains any spaces. If any parameters to the command itself contain spaces, they must be enclosed within pairs of double quotes. Since this can be quite confusing, it is best avoided.

Its optional parameters are:

• server is the host name or IP address at which PCStage is running. If not given, the same machine (localhost, address 127.0.0.1) is assumed
• port is the IP port on which Server is configured to listen, if not the default
• -r causes PCSCmd to show PCStage's reply to the command
• -v causes PCSCmd to simply show its version number and exit, doing nothing else