Nuts and Bolts description

FILE_ID.DIZ was created by Clark Development for use with their PCBDescribe utility, as a means for shareware authors to provide descriptions for their products, and thus so that BBS callers can upload the file(s) without having to manually type in a file description.

As long as an author creates and includes a FILE_ID.DIZ file in their distribution fileset, the text from that file will be used for the online description (in most cases) rather than anything typed in by the uploader. It also ensures that the online description is always the same regardless of the number of different BBS systems the file is posted on. It has since been accepted by the BBS industry more-or-less as the "standard" file description source. (The extension of "DIZ" actually stands for "Description In Zip").

The FILE_ID.DIZ file is nothing more than a straight ASCII text file which contains the full description of the archived file containing it. It is used by most popular BBS oftware to describe your program, rather than using the description supplied by the person that uploaded your file. It should be placed *INSIDE* your distribution archive file. The FILE_ID.DIZ file is defined by its creators (Clark Development) as being created by the program author, and *NOT* the end user who is trying to upload the program.

The BBS software will "look" inside the archive file. If a FILE_ID.DIZ file is found, it will replace any existing online file description with the text contained in FILE_ID.DIZ. It is an excellent method for making sure that your program files are described the way that "you" want them described. Even sysops who's software can't automatically make use of the FILE_ID.DIZ file have found it to be an excellent source for their manually added file descriptions.

Further Information

Getting Started
Why Should You Use FILE_ID.DIZ?
Structure specifications
An example of a FILE_ID.DIZ
Multiple Disks