Licensing Overview

As more than one program requires access to the licence information, the licence file is stored in a centralised location, e.g. the directory which contains the main database files. When a product is registered the file csd_licence.dat is created in the CSD database directory or, if this is not possible, either a location will be requested or a csd_licence.dat file will be created in the home directory of the user.

 

When checking the licence information for a given machine, all the programs will proceed by checking one or more locations for licence data:

 

•	If the environment variable CCDC_CSD_LICENCE_FILE is set to a valid filename then this file will be checked.

•	The contents of csd_licence.redirect in the database directory will then be examined; any line not starting with # will be checked to see if it is the name of a valid licence file that can be accessed. If any can be accessed then these will be checked and the first one possible used.

•	The file csd_licence.dat in the main database directory will then be checked.

•	In the unlikely event that it is not possible to write to any of the possible licence file locations, some programs (Mogul or Mercury) may allow you to save and/or locate the licence data in a different location to the above. If this has been done, this location will be checked.

•	If a .csd_licence.dat is located in the home directory of the user (/home/user on Linux /documents and settings/user on WindowsXP, /users/user on Windows Vista/7), this will be checked last.

 

If a valid licence for the machine cannot be located, the machine will have to be licensed i.e. a component of the CSD System software will have to be registered on the machine (see Registration Overview).

 

The file csd_licence.redirect can be used in the event that the directory containing the database files is read-only, meaning it is not possible to write any licence information to the csd_licence.dat file. In this case, the filename(s) of one or more licence files (found in writable locations) should be added to the csd_licence.redirect file; these files can then be used instead of the csd_licence.dat file. Note that it is possible to include both Windows and Linux filenames in this file.

 

If any of the csd_licence.redirect and csd_licence.dat approaches do not work, the CCDC_CSD_LICENCE_FILE environment variable can be set to point all the applications to a different location. For example, to use a similar method to previous releases you could set CCDC_CSD_LICENCE_FILE to <conquest_dir>/csd_licence.dat.

 

This licensing system is particularly suitable for users with unlimited licences who can then take advantage of the IP licensing option (see IP-Based Licensing).