1.6: Allegro CL Licenses

If you are having difficulty with your Allegro CL license file (whether you are a Trial user or a regular user), please take a moment to review the information given below. This page contains detailed instructions regarding how to install (for all users) or update (for Trial users) your license file, and may provide you with the solution to your problem.

Please contact bugs@franz.com with any additional questions you might have.

Q 1.6-1) How do I install the License File into Allegro CL?
Q 1.6-2) I have misplaced the email telling me the URL from which I can download your license?
Q 1.6-3) I can not access the URL for retrieving my license. What should I do?
Q 1.6-4) I have lost my license, but I am not able to access http://lfs.franz.com:4100/lostlicense. Is there an alternate location?
Q 1.6-5) [Trial users only] My license file is expiring: how do I to renew and reinstall it?
Q 1.6-6) [ACL Trial users only] I am trying to run newlicense to renew my ACL 6.0 trial, but I get an error: "Unknown host: [hostname]". How do I keep ACL 6.0 trial from expiring?
Q 1.6-7) [ACL Trial users only] When I run newlicense to renew my ACL 6.0 trial, I get a Connection Refused error. How can I fix that?
Q 1.6-8) I still have problems with my license file. Can I contact Franz Inc. for assistance?
Q 1.6-9) When I run newlicense I get the following error message: "NIL cannot be converted to an IP address". Can I fix this?
Q 1.6-10) How do I know if I have the latest update to the newlicense program?

Go to main FAQ page.

Q 1.6-1) How do I install the License File into Allegro CL?

A 1.6-1) You should have received an email specifying a URL from which you can download your license file. (If you haven't received that email or if you have mislaid it, see Q 1.6-2. If you cannot access the URL, see Q 1.6-3.)

The email we sent you in response to your download order contains a customized URL to your license file. Click on that URL or copy it into a browser to retrieve your license file.
Save the text to a file called devel.lic. (the name is "devel" and the type is "lic".) On Unix, this is usually not a problem, but because Windows automates many actions and may perform them in a way you do not expect or intend, some users have problems getting Windows to save the file correctly.

We have found that when using Notepad (likely this will work in Wordpad as well) it is possible to precisely name a file by enclosing the saved filename in double-quotes ("). From the Save As dialog, select the 'Save as type' to be 'Text documents (*.txt) and after choosing your Allegro directory, enter the filename as '"devel.lic"'. This should prevent some other extension from being appended to the name you've chosen.

When you view the saved file in the Windows Explorer, its file type must show as LIC, not TXT or text or anything else. Therefore, you must be careful to save this file so that its type is LIC and its contents are plain text.

Each version of Windows has a slightly different method of identifying and listing file types. Please refer to the "Windows Users" section to identify how to do this on your individual machine.

In some instances, Windows will automatically save the file as an HTML file (devel.lic.htm), adding an HTML header and footer. These headers will prevent the license file from working.

If you used the "lost license" URL to obtain your license file,be sure that you save only the license file portion of the email into devel.lic. If you save the entire email message, MIME headers and all, it will prevent the license file from working.
Put the devel.lic file into the Allegro directory.

Q 2) I have misplaced the email telling me the URL from which I can download your license?

A 1.6-2) We can send the license to you by email. (The link is to http://lfs.franz.com:4100/lostlicense -- see Q 1.6-4 if the link does not work -- and on that page, you are asked for the email address you entered when you requested the license; entering the email address and clicking the Submit button will cause your license file(s) to be emailed to you. Please wait after clicking Submit for the message saying the request was successful. If no license associated with the email address is in the database, the message `No licenses found' is displayed. If that happens, send a message to bugs@franz.com. Be sure to tell us the email address you used in the body of the message.)

Q 1.6-3) I can not access the URL for retrieving my license. What should I do?

A 1.6-3) Typically, this problem occurs because your system is behind a firewall or you must use a proxy server. Our license file server rarely experiences any significant downtime.

You should make sure that you should not be using a proxy server to access sites outside of your network and that your browser is configured appropriately. If you do not know if you should be using a proxy server, or don't know what one is, you should check with your Network Administrator for assistance. If your system does not require a proxy server, then perhaps you are behind a firewall that does not give access to certain ports.

You can get your license using the lost license page (described in Q 1.6-2) but see Q 1.6-4 for an alternate URL to use.

If the proxy server is not the problem, please email Franz Inc. at bugs@franz.com stating that you are unable to access the URL for retrieving your license (include the URL), and we will have the license(s) sent to the email under which you have registered.

Q 1.6-4) I have lost my license, but I am not able to access http://lfs.franz.com:4100/lostlicense. Is there an alternate location?

A 1.6-4) If you can use a browser to visit http://www.franz.com, then you may use the alternate lost license address:

http://www.franz.com/lfs/lostlicense

Please note: You must enter the same address that you registered under, and the license, if found, will be sent to that address. Further, you will be emailed a copy of your current license. The lostlicense URL cannot be used to renew an expired or about to expire Allegro CL Trial license (see Q 1.6-5 for information on renewing).

Otherwise, send us email at bugs@franz.com telling us that you cannot access either lostlicense URL and that you would like a copy of your license sent to you.

Q 1.6-5) [Trial users only] My license file is expiring: how do I to renew and reinstall it?

A 1.6-5) Your Trial Edition will operate for a total of thirty days. You may extend the license period, in 30-day increments, up to a total of six months.

One way to update your license is to run the the newlicense program. A new version of newlicense with a simpler interface is available as of February 16, 2001. We describe newlicense below. And you can now update by going to the http://www.franz.com/lfs/update-trial-license web page.

On that page, enter:

The email address which you used to get the license originally.
The current devel.lic file (which you should copy and paste into the correct location on the page).

When those items are entered, click the Submit button. If you are entitled to an license file extension, the new license will be displayed and emailed to the address you entered. If you are not entitled to an extension, you will be sent email telling you to contact Franz Inc.

Again, you can also update using the newlicense program as described next.

Using the newlicense program to update your license file (modified 3/15/01)

Be sure you have the latest version of newlicense. See Q 1.6-10 for information on determining if you have the latest version and information on getting the latest version if you do not have it. These instructions assume you have the latest version.

If you must use a proxy (typically because your site has a firewall, see below).

Make sure your internet connection is active before running the newlicense program.
You may run the newlicense program up to 7 days before your license expires. Do not run the newlicense program if more than 7 days remain on your license.
There is no need to download and reinstall the trial software to update the license.
Unless you must use a proxy (see below) newlicense does not require any arguments. Therefore on Windows, you need only find newlicense.exe in the Windows explorer and double-click on it. Unix users need to issue the newlicense command to a prompt while in the Allegro directory.

If all goes well, after running newlicense,

Your current devel.lic license file will be renamed devel.licbak or (if devel.licbak already exists) devel.licbak[N], where N is 2, 3, etc. to make a new filename.
A new updated devel.lic file with a new expiration date will be written.

Allegro CL 6.0 Trial should now be renewed. No further action is required.

If the update does not work or an error message is reported, please review this FAQ for possible solutions. If you are still unable to renew your license, please email bugs@franz.com including the exact text of the error message and the command-line used to run newlicense.

Running newlicense using a proxy

newlicense takes a proxy argument identified by -p. On Unix, the command line looks like

newlicense -p <proxy>

On Windows,

newlicense.exe -p <proxy>

A value for <proxy> typically looks like proxy.mydomain.com:80 so the command line will look like

newlicense[.exe] -p proxy.mydomain.com:80

Of course, the actual <proxy> value will be specific to your system. Ask your system administrator what the value is if you do not know.

On Unix, cd into the Allegro directory and enter the command line with the correct value of <proxy>..

On Windows, you must enter that command line into a DOS Box or Command Prompt window. Here are the instructions in detail.

Open a DOS Prompt (Windows 95/98) or Command Prompt (Windows 2000/NT) window.
Make the current directory (indicated by the prompt) the Allegro CL directory, that is the directory where Allegro CL Trial is installed. That directory is typically C:\Program Files\acl60\. Once you have made that the current directory, go to step 5. The next two steps describe one way to make the Allegro CL directory (assumed to be C:\Program Files\acl60\) the current directory. If the Allegro CL directory is different, modify the instructions appropriately.
Take the appropriate steps to generate a C: prompt. In most cases, you will simply need to type "C:" and hit the return key.
Enter: cd \Program Files\acl60 to change the current directory to the Allegro CL 6.0 directory. Note: Some versions of Windows will require double quotes around the words (Example: "cd \Program Files\acl60").The Allegro CL directory is normally installed at C:\Program Files\acl60. Again, if you installed somewhere else or have renamed the directory (so the Allegro CL directory is something other than C:\Program Files\acl60\), please be sure to use the actual directory name.
Type in: newlicense.exe plus the -p plus the proxy value, that is:

newlicense.exe -p <proxy>
A value for <proxy> typically looks like proxy.mydomain.com:80 so the command line will look like
newlicense.exe -p proxy.mydomain.com:80
Of course, the actual <proxy> value will be specific to your system. Ask your system administrator what the value is if you do not know.

After you have entered the command in the previous step, a message will be sent by the newlicense program from your computer to the Franz Inc. site, and the Franz site will respond to the newlicense program with the new license file. (The message and response will not be visible to you.) If all goes well, your devel.lic file will be updated and the old devel.lic file will be moved to devel.licbak or devel.licbakN (for N = 1, 2, 3, etc.) Allegro CL should startup without problem and show a later expiration date.

If the update does not work or an error message is reported, please review this FAQ for possible solutions. If you specified a proxy argument, make sure you entered it correctly. If you are still unable to renew your license, please email bugs@franz.com including the exact text of the error message and the command-line used to run newlicense.

Instructions for running the original version of newlicense included with the download

We no longer provide instructions for this. Please see Q 1-6.10 for information on updating newlicense, update it, and then follow the instructions above.

Q 1.6-6) [ACL Trial users only] I am trying to run newlicense to renew my ACL 6.0 trial, but I get an error: "Unknown host: [hostname]". How do I keep ACL 6.0 Trial from expiring?

A 1.6-6) Since the newlicense program must communicate with our License File Server in order to work, you must be online when running newlicense. Make sure that you are connected to the internet (you can verify by trying to access http://www.franz.com in a browser) and try again.

If the "Unknown Host" message refers to lfs.franz.com, you need to get the newlicense update! See Q 1.6-10.

There may be a problem with your configured DNS server. Make sure these are properly configured on your machine, asking your Network Administrator for assistance if necessary. Your DNS server should be set up correctly if you can, for example,

use a browser to access http://www.franz.com
run ping lfs.franz.com successfully from a command/DOS prompt.

Q 1.6-7) [ACL Trial users only] When I run newlicense to renew my ACL 6.0 trial, I get a Connection Refused error. How can I fix that?

A 1.6-7) This problem is most likely to occur because of your firewall configuration, though the latest newlicense update should alleviate most such problems. See Q 1.6-10 if you do not know if you have the latest newlicense update.

An alternative method for renewing your ACL 6.0 trial license (by accessing a URL) and instructions on how to use the newlicense update are given in Q 1.6-5.

If you continue to have problems, or newlicense reports any errors, please send us email at bugs@franz.com describing your problem. Please send us the contents of devel.lic in your message as well as the exact error message.

Q 1.6-8) I still have problems with my license file. Can I contact Franz Inc. for assistance?

A 1.6-8) Yes. Questions or problems should be sent to bugs@franz.com. Please be sure to include the following information:

what happened, and what steps you took;

a copy of your current license (devel.lic) file;

a copy of any error messages that you received; and

your current email address and daytime telephone number

Q 1.6-9) When I run newlicense I get the following error message: "NIL cannot be converted to an IP address". Can I fix this?

A 1.6-9) This error is caused by a problem in the acldns module when it attempts to determine the nameserver(s) to be used by your machine. To fix this, download the following file:

ftp://ftp.franz.com/pub/patches/6.0/<arch>/code/acldns.fasl

<arch> should be the platform on which you are using Allegro CL Trial, so it should be one of:

freebsd 
linuxppc 
redhat5 
redhat6 
windows

You should copy the acldns.fasl file into the code/ subdirectory of your Allegro directory, overwriting the currently existing file of the same name if there is one (this is done automatically when using sys:update-allegro). This fixes a bug with Allegro CL causing the above error.

Now see Q 1.6-10 for instructions on how to download the latest newlicense update.

For help on renewing your license see Q 1.6-5.

Q 1.6-10) How do I know if I have the latest update to the newlicense program?

A 1.6-10) There have been several updates to newlicense. The latest newlicense update has a datestamp of Tue Feb 20 19:56:00 2001.

If your current copy has an earlier date, you should download the newest version using sys:update-allegro. You do this be evaluating the form

(sys:update-allegro)

If sys:update-allegro does not retrieve any newlicense files, then you already have the latest version. The latest version does not require an email address argument and is therefore easier to use.

Please note that users who must specify a proxy address will still have to specify a proxy argument to newlicense. Nonetheless, such users should also download the new version of newlicense.

The new newlicense may be also be downloaded directly (without using sys:update-allegro) via the following URIs (both files, newlicense.dxl and newlicense.lic, must be downloaded). Downloading this way is useful if your license has expired, because in that case you will not be able to start Allegro CL in order to run sys:update-allegro.

ftp://ftp.franz.com/pub/patches/6.0/<arch>/newlicense.dxl
ftp://ftp.franz.com/pub/patches/6.0/<arch>/newlicense.lic

<arch> should be replaced by the platform for which you have installed the ACL 6.0 Trial. The trial platforms are as follows (so one of these should replace <arch>):

freebsd 
linuxppc 
redhat5 
redhat6 
windows

You should copy these files into your Allegro directory, overwriting the currently existing files of the same name (this is done automatically when using sys:update-allegro).

If you encounter the error "NIL cannot be converted to an IP address" when running sys:update-allegro please refer to Q 1.6-9 in this FAQ.

For help on using the new newlicense program, please see Q 1.6-5.