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Documentation for AAA U U ======================= A A U U AU in general line=103 AAAAA RCHIVE U U TILITIES UNARC line=299 A A U U CONVERT line=551 A A UUU VIEW line=810 TEST line=899 1 1 222 CCCC HEADER line=934 11 11 2 2 C ASCAN line=969 1 1 1 1 2 C REDATE line=1076 1 .. 1 2 C ASIZE line=1134 11111 .. 11111 22222 CCCC BBSWEEP line=1174 ================================================================== AU Ver 1.12c 06/12/90 By Dave Harris Documentation edited by Jay Shulman ================================================================== Beta Testers: John Alton Dave Empey ------------- Brandon Bachman Michael Epler ------------- Roger Campagnoni Jay Schulman Ed Cavender Ray Waechter ================================================================== File Requestable as AU from: Nibbles 'n Bits 1:302/5 (Fido), 801:753/2408 (Ghoti), 8:904/101 (RBBS) (1-801-753-2408) HST/DS KEYSTONE Net Exchange/RBBS-SD 1:273/303 (Fido) (1-215-269-9729) 9600 HST 8:8/11 (RBBS) (1-215-269-9720) 9600 HST Software Distribution/RBBS-SD 8:8/11 (RBBS) (1-215-269-9720) 9600/450 HST Wilton Woods 1:141/250 (Fido) (1-203-762-8481) HST/DS Source code Requestable as AUSOURCE from 1:302/5 (about 45k) Complete History Requestable as AUHIST (about 6K) ================================================================= If somebody can make an archiver like LHARC, and release it as freeware, then gosh darnit I can make a some simple utility programs and distribute them at the same price so... I hereby place these programs in the Public Domain. The source code is freely available and may be modified to fit your own needs provided you do not distribute the modified programs. If you make modifications that you feel would benefit other people then send me a copy of the modified source code (changes well documented) and your changes will be considered. Constructive comments are always welcome. Net mail comments to 1:302/5, or leave a message on my BBS at 801-753-2408. 1 Under NO condition is anyone to sell ANY of these programs for ANY profit (this includes PD/Shareware distributors). If you explicitly paid money for any of these programs, then you paid too much. I would expect this paragraph to be gone (among other things) if you did pay money, but what goes around comes around... DISCLAIMER: Although many hours have gone into testing and debugging these programs, I in no way take responsibility if any of these programs fail to work properly on your system or causes damage to your files and/or system. They are distributed as-is with no warranty of any kind. I can't strongly enough recommend that you make a full backup before running CONVERT on any of your files you would like to keep around. If the program is marked BETA then realize that it is not as tested as I would like it to be. Don't take it upon yourself to put any of these programs in the SDS distribution network beta or otherwise. AU is placed in SDS through 1:141/250 when I and the beta testers feel it is sufficiently working. AU does not exempt you from your obligation to the Shareware authors of PKZIP, PAK, ARC, SCAN, LIST, DSZ, and other products it interfaces with. ***************************************************************** HELP! Beta Testers Wanted!: I can still use a couple more regulars to help put these programs through the wringer. If interested, send me some net mail or call and leave a message on the board. I will send updates on my dime at 9600 baud. ***************************************************************** AU in general ============= AU (except where noted) has been tested with the following software versions: DOS 3.2, 3.21, 3.3, 4.0, 4.01 DWC 5.01 LARC 3.33 LHARC 1.00, 1.12, 1.13, 1.13c LU87 5.00 PAK 1.0 1.6, 1.61, 2.00, 2.01, 2.10 PKARC 3.6 PKZIP 0.90, 0.92, 1.00 beta, 1.01, 1.02, 1.10 SEAs ARC 1.28, 6.00 ZOO 1.40, 2.01 It is reasonable to assume all 9 utilities will work with versions of DOS 2.11 and later. It is also likely that they will work with most other versions of these unarchivers (where applicable)... But I make no promises. 2 ===================== Command Line options: ===================== These are parameters that are entered following the program (or command) on the same line. They always start with a - (dash) (forward slash / is also allowed) followed by a letter and are usually followed by a value. The letter and value may be seperated by whitespace and neither are case sensitive. They may be placed before and/or after the file specs (with the exception of BBSWEEP). Command line options always override the .CFG file settings (or defaults if the utility doesn't use a .CFG file). Examples: UNARC -son round42 UNARC round42 -son CONVERT round42 -S on -X off UNARC /x OFF round42 -Ron ======================= -? command line option: ======================= Quick reminder of the command line options. Also works with most of the AU utilities. ========================= Smart_Mode ON/off/always: ========================= The AU utilities are able to recognize files as archives even if the files extension would not indicate this. Some examples include .SDN files (which are usually in PAK format) and NODEDIFF.Axx which could be in any format. Set on, this option first looks at the file extension. If it is not one of the ones explicitly mentioned in the AU.CFG file, it then opens the file and looks for certain bytes being in certain places. If set to always, the file is opened first thing and checked (so that you could get away with renaming .PAK to .ZIP and whatnot). This tends to be a bit slower if most your files have regular extensions already. Smart_mode relys on hardwired checks for certain bytes at certain positions in the files. I am reasonably sure that I have it working for the above mentioned versions of the compression programs, but future version may not work as the authors often feel inclined to rearrange things. If this does happen, it will simply not be recognized as a compressed file and therefore ignored. It is also possible that it will attempt to process a file that isn't really archived if the file just happens to have the right bytes at the right places. This also shouldn't be a problem since the compression programs are usually good enough to see the file isn't one of theirs. Here is a listing of bytes that I use as identification for smart_mode: 3 .ZOO files have ZOO as the first 3 bytes in the file .DWC files have DWC as its last 3 bytes .PAK files have chr(26) as first byte .ARC files have chr(26) as its first byte and chr(26) as its second to last byte .ZIP files have PK chr(3) as its first 3 bytes .LZH files have lh as its 4th and 5th bytes .LZS files have lz as its 4th and 5th bytes Small Quirks: DWC does not work unless the file on its command line actually ends with .DWC. Therefore DWC files are renamed to *.DWC if they are not already. Currently they are not renamed back to the original file name. If this is a problem for anyone, let me know. If a .ARC file's last file has a file comment attached to it, the file will recognized as a .PAK file instead (since its second to last byte will probably not be a chr(26)). If the file in question in padded on the end with NULLs, then smart mode will skip backwards (up to 256 bytes) until it finds a non-null character. This should help smart_mode for .ARC, .PAK, and .DWC files that have been transferred using Xmodem. -Son, -Soff, and -Salways are the command line options used in most of the AU utilities. These override the settings in AU.CFG. If you do encounter a file that will not unarc then please let me know about it so it can be fixed. ===================== self_extracts ON/off: ===================== AU utilities are also capable of recognizing when a .COM or .EXE file is a self extracting archive file. When set on, it will process this type of file (by simply executing it for you). It has been made to work with LHARC, PKZIP, PKARC, and PAK with most if not all version produced. It also works with SEZ 2.30 self extractors. This is a third party product that creates self extractors for ZOO. DWC doesn't make self extractors as far as I can tell. Sea's ARC is capable, but there are so many versions that I haven't found anything that is constant throughout all of them, therefore, they have not been included. Unless somebody is in dire need I doubt I will bother with them. It has been my experience that most people use Lharc's because it adds less than 2K on to your file, whereas ZIP and PAK add more like 10K. -Xon and -Xoff are the command line options. Like smart_mode, self_extract also relies on the right bytes being in the right places so the same things apply. Here is a listing of what bytes I currently use to tell whether a file is a self extractor: LHARC .COM 1.13 files have "LHa" at offset byte 6 LHARC .COM 1.0 "LHa" 13 LHARC .EXE 1.13L "LHa" 37 4 LHARC .EXE 1.13S "LHa" 38 LHARC .EXE 1.0 "LHa" 45 PKSFX 1.01 "PKW" 45 Sez (Zoo) 2.30 "Sez" 2246 PAK 1.51 "NoG" 4694 PAK 1.61 "NoG" 4764 PAK 2.10 "NoG" 5227 PKarc 3.5 "PKW" 8929 PKarc 3.61 "PKW" 9774 PKarc 3.6 "PKW" 9790 PKZip 0.92 "PKZ" 14064 PKZip 1.01,1.02 "PKZ" 14368 Configuration file ================== Contains the information needed by the utilities. The options placed above the first BEGIN statement are used by all of the utilities. The options between BEGIN statements are used only by the individual utilities (ie BEGIN UNARC, BEGIN CONVERT). Options set after the BEGIN statements override the global options The AU.CFG file should be placed in one of the these places: 1 - The current directory you are running the utilities in. 2 - The directory specified by the environment variable AUPATH (ie SET AUPATH=c:\utility\temp) 3 - Somewhere in your PATH The utilities that use it will search for it in that order. ***************************************************************** UNARC: ====== This program allows you to unarchive programs compressed under SEAs, PKARC, PAK, PKZIP, ZOO, DWC, LBR, LHARC (and any other archiver that will come along in the future) without having to remember how to unarc it. This program does not do the actual uncompressing, but acts as a shell (or glorified switch) that automates running the uncompressing programs. The unarchive programs must either be in the path or used with an explicit pathname specified in the AU.CFG file. AU.CFG holds the information that UNARC needs in order to run (it also contains the info for the other programs too). The startup AU.CFG is adequate for most folks, but you can modify the options, or if there are archivers you have that are not listed, these can be added. The information pertaining to UNARC starts at the line containing BEGIN UNARC and continues down to the next BEGIN statement. 5 The Unarc segment has the following format: =========================================== BEGIN UNARC smart_mode on|off|always ;Comments follow a semicolon delete_behind on|off ;| indicates a choice recurse on|off self_extracts on|off redirect_to <where you want the output to go> .EXT unarc method .EXT unarc method ie. .ZIP PKUNZIP .LZH LHARC x . . . UNARC (as well as the other utilities) ignores whitespace such as the indentation. The switches may appear in any order but must reside on seperate lines. UNARC is not case sensitive (although some compression programs might care which case their command line parameters are in). You may have up to 20 unarchiving methods in the .CFG file. The method can include a path such as .LZH c:\compress\lharc x which would allow you to use archive programs not in your path. The following are the switches that are used. The default option is shown in CAPS. The defaults are the ones set up in the startup AU.CFG which is distributed with AU. Removed options are considered OFF options. ========================= =================== smart_mode ON/off/always: -Son -Soff -Salways ========================= =================== When smart_mode is ON, UNARC will additionally check files with extensions other than the ones specified in the .CFG file and determine what format they are in and unarc them (if they are in archived format and that format is in your AU.CFG file). Refer to the AU in general section for more info. ===================== ========== delete_behind on/OFF: -Don -Doff ===================== ========== This option specifies whether you want the original archived file deleted after it is unarced. -Don and -Doff are the command line options. 6 ================================ ========= Redirect_to <where output goes>: -O<where> ================================ ========= This option lets you decide where you want your output to go. If left blank or commented out, it will go to the standard output device (your screen unless > is used). All that mess that comes up when unarchiving will go to that place. Examples are NUL where output goes to never never land. PRN where output goes to the printer and FILENAME.EXT where output goes to that file. LHARCs heading is written directly to the screen and does not go to the place you specified, but other than that it redirects all the other output that I know of. -Onul -Oprn -Ounarc.log are examples of command line options. Note: If the program stops, then it is likely waiting for you to press Y or N to override a file that already exists. This happens occasionally when you have RECURSE ON and REDIRECT_TO set to somewhere other than the screen. Refer to the -Y command option. It will let you avoid this problem at the price of possibly overriding an existing file. Additionally: One of the hacks making the rounds is the bomb archive file header that has ANSI escape code sequences that reassign your keyboard. Some are harmless "jokes" while others attempt to reassign keys to strings that can erase directories or worse. If you don't mind not seeing these headers and the unarchiver in progress, it is highly recommended that you set "redirect_to NUL" inside the cfg file. =============== ========== recurse on/OFF: -Ron -Roff =============== ========== Sometimes you have archives within archives. Some of the PC Magazine Volume disks came like that, and there are a variety of other examples I'm sure. You may wish to unarchive those files as well. With recurse on this is exactly what happens. After unarching the main archive file(s) it will proceed to check the files that it/they split into. It will go as many levels deep as necessary. ===================== ========== self_extracts ON/off: -Xon -Xoff ===================== ========== UNARC is capable of recognizing when a .COM or .EXE file is a self extracting archive file. When set on, it will unarc this type of file (by simply executing it for you). Refer to the AU in general section for the specifics of what it can and can't do. -Xon and -Xoff are the command line options. ======================= -P command line option: ======================= Lets you specify what files in the archive you want to extract. For example, -P *.com will extract only the *.com files. You may 7 use as may -P's on the command line as you need. If you specify the file(s) you are going to extract and the -P has a * in it, then the -P becomes unnecessary. UNARC *.* *.com <-- WORKS UNARC *.* temp.doc <-- DOESN'T WORK UNARC *.* -Ptemp.doc <-- WORKS UNARC *.com <-- Will fully unarchive .com files (the *.com is not a partial in this case). If -P is not used, UNARC extracts ALL files from the archive. ======================= -C command line option: ======================= Lets you specify an alternate .CFG file. ie. UNARC -C file.cfg. If all the stuff in a .cfg file pertains to the program you are using, then the BEGIN statement is unnecessary. ======================= -Y command line option: ======================= This option takes a On/Off value. It specifies whether or not you want UNARC to answer Y (for yes) to the questions the unarchiving programs may ask. Such questions include "file already exists, Overwrite?" and "Do you wish to continue self extraction?". Normally you would not want to use this option as those "yes/no" questions the archivers ask are there for good reasons. The only good reason to set this on is if you have UNARC in an automated process that happens when you are not around. ASCAN calls UNARC with -Yon because it is normally a process that can take several hours (and you have better things to do than be a mother hen). Running it is easy. Simply type: UNARC [command line options] [filename] [destination] and it will unarc it/them. If you leave the filename blank it will unarc the whole directory (the files that are in archive format that is). So if you do like I do and move one file off to a temporary area for testing, unarchive it, then move it to the download area (given it is not hacked or a trojan), then just type UNARC at the temporary directory. You can use wildcards if you find the need to. Also, you do not have to specify the extension if you are doing just one file. ie: UNARC ROUND42 will unarc it no matter what format it is. The filename can also have a drive and/or directory attached in front of it. ie UNARC d:\test will unarc all the archive files on the d: drive under the \test directory. Both the command line options and the destination are optional. The destination is where you want the archived files to unarc to. In order for the destination to work though, you must specify the filename so that it does not think that your destination is your filename. ie. 8 UNARC -Son *.* c:\temp ====================== will unarc all files in the current directory that can be and place their uncompressed files in c:\temp. The *.* is necessary for without it UNARC would try to unarc the c:\temp directory.... Smart mode is on in this case. UNARC d:\download\recent\round42 /d off ======================================= will unarc the file round42.* from the d:\download\recent\ directory and put its uncompressed files in the current directory. The delete behind option is turned off. UNARC \file\net\nodediff f:\ ============================= will unarc nodediff.??? from the \file\net directory onto the f:\ directory. ***************************************************************** CONVERT: ======== Convert allows you to change your archived files from one format to another. The same applies for CONVERT as did UNARC as far as where AU.CFG is searched for, and where the actual compression programs are located. Convert works off the AU.CFG file starting at the statement BEGIN CONVERT. The Convert segment looks much the same as the Unarc segment did with the difference of the 'U' and 'A' options that are in front of the methods. The 'U' option specifies that this is an unarcing method and the 'A' specifies an arching method. Note that you can have more that one arcing method. This is useful for benchmarking a number of archivers on the same file(s). It should be pretty straight forward to modify if you need to. BENCH.CFG is an example of such. (use the -C bench.cfg to use it). The "redirect_to", "smart_mode", and "self_extracts" options work in CONVERT the same exact way as they did in UNARC. You can convert from self extractors but not to them (with the exception of PAK 2.0>). "delete_behind" does not exist as it is taken care of in a different way. Other options in CONVERT are: ============================== ========================= date_retain ON/off/last/first: -Don -Doff -Dlast -Dfirst ============================== ========================= When set to 'on', this option allows you to retain the date of the old file on the new one(s). If it is set to 'last', then the new archive file will be marked with the date of the most recent file in its archive. 'first' likewise chooses the oldest. If it 9 is set 'off', the new file is marked with the current system date and time. The program is not as fast with this option on, so if the date is of no consequence you can comment out this option. Date_retain last and first execute the program REDATE to do its dirty work. Check REDATE's options if you plan on using these and make sure REDATE is available for use and not renamed. =============== ========== recurse ON/off: -Ron -Roff =============== ========== Works similarly to the way unarc does except that the files are left grouped in the same grouping (only with a different archive format). If you had 2 .PAK files within one .ZIP file you would end up with 2 .LZH files within 1 .LZH file (assuming you are converting to LZH) ==================== ========== convert_pak2 on/OFF: -Pon -Poff ==================== ========== If you are converting from pak 1.xx to pak 2.xx you will probably not want to convert the 2.xx files again. Setting this option off tells CONVERT not to convert pak 2.xx files if you are converting to pak. If you are converting to something other than pak this option does nothing. Setting this option ON will convert them as normal. =================== ========== convert_zip1 on/OFF -Zon -Zoff =================== ========== Likewise when converting from PKZIP 0.9x to PKZIP 1.0x you may not want the 1.0x's to unarc and then rearc. This option is not as accurate as convert_pak2. This option looks to see if the string "Implode" exists in the pkunzip -v output. If so the zip file is assumed to be a 1.0x. Since not all files implode, some 1.0x zip files will be converted. Both of these options are used to eliminate some unnecessary work and save the HD from banging around more than needed. No harm will come rearching files already in the destination format. This option requires that PKUNZIP be in your path somewhere and not renamed. =============== ========== summary ON/off: -Uon -Uoff =============== ========== When set on this option gives you a display of how many bytes you saved (or lost <grin>) when it is through, and the effective number of bytes you saved in diskspace (which will certainly be negative if you are specifying more than one archiving method)... It also shows how much time was spent in the archiving process (so you can compare different archivers), and how much total time it took (ie archiving time + unarchiving time + time to load and change dates etc...). 10 ===================== keep_smallest on/OFF: ===================== If the new archive fails to beat the old archive and keep_smallest is on, the old archive will remain and the new one will be deleted. If you specify more than one arching method then the smallest of the group (including the old archive) will remain.... With this option on, you ensure yourself optimum space savings; however, consistency (as in one archive fits all files) is lost (which might irritate BBS users). Currently, it is a fairly tight race between LHARC, PKZIP and PAK... ====================== keep_old on/off/BENCH: ====================== This option specifies whether you want the old archive file to be deleted or not. With keep_old ON, the old archive will always remain undeleted, with OFF it will always be deleted (unless you are converting to itself) and with BENCH, it will keep it if you specify 2 or more arching methods, otherwise delete it ====================== ============= file_list <file_name>: -L<file_name> ====================== ============= Specifies a file that holds a listing of your files. For example, opus uses FILES.BBS to hold all the files available for download. By using the option, all occurrences of the old file name will be replaced with the new file name. This option is not the fastest. If you have a ramdrive, it would be beneficial to move that file list file over there temporarily while converting. It works with Opus, RBBS, and Gt-Powercomm file listings... You take your chances otherwise.... You may specify more than one in your .cfg file and it will fix all specified files. The -L command line parameter adds to the list of files to convert instead of replacing it. ================== execute <command>: ================== If you include this, CONVERT will execute <command> right after each unarchive takes place. ASCAN can be placed here to check for viruses. Other useful execute statements are redirected directory listings, directory sorters to get the files in the order you want them in, and deleting .BAK files. I am sure there are other uses. You can use as many execute statements as you need. It will execute them all in the order you have them listed. ================= ram_drive <path>: ================= Lets you specify a faster work directory. If the compressed file is 10% or less of the size of the ram drive, the ram drive will be used instead of the current directory (or work directory if 11 you specified one). 10% is a little conservative, but better safe that sorry. A future version may be able to make better guesses. If you run ASIZE, it will give you the best compression obtained by any of the compressed files. If any are below 10% don't use the ramdrive option. Recursive archives can effect this number from ASIZE since it doesn't check recursion. ========================== -#<n> Command line option: ========================== If you have specified this parameter, then it will select only the nth archiving method to convert to. The online convertor in view makes use of this option. ========================== -N<n> Command line option: ========================== If you do not wish to do the whole directory, this option will allow you to specify how many files it is to convert before stopping. If you run a BBS you can put this in your daily maintenance and do only a handful a day. Be careful to use this option only when you are not converting to the same archive type. If you do this it will convert the same first n files each time you run CONVERT. The Convert_zip1 and Convert_pak2 options will alleviate this in the appropriate cases. ================= Other .CFG files: ================= The two other cfg files that come with AU are bench.cfg and online.cfg. Both are used only by CONVERT. Bench is used to compare the different archivers for compressability and speed. Use this CFG only on a small number of files since it will consume a lot of disk space. Online.cfg is used when VIEW calls CONVERT when the online convertor option is called. CAUTION!: Don't be foolish. Backup your files. If this fails for some reason, it does have the potential to erase your directory. One person lost some files because he was running it in a DDOS partition with not enough memory. I ran some tests and LHARC starts to die when you have less than 250K. PAK and ZIP have unarching thresholds about 50K less than this. To be safe, don't run it under Double Dos or in a partition with less than 300K. Make a temporary directory and copy a few archived files over to it and try CONVERT on that temporary directory before you try it on the real thing. Also, make sure you have enough diskspace left to unarchive the largest file you are converting and then some. Other than that. Simply type: CONVERT [command line options] [file_spec] [work directory] If the file_spec is left blank it will convert the whole current directory. Wildcards are allowed if you want to convert only 12 part of the directory. The file_spec can also take a source directory so you can convert from a different directory. The work directory is a directory you want the unarching to take place in. This is useful if you are converting floppies and want some additional speed, or the drive you are working on is about out of diskspace. (This should also work if you have a ramdrive and you are careful to choose files that aren't too large for it.) If no work directory is specified, it uses a temporary directory off your current directory. Convert will only process files with the extensions you specified in the .CFG file (and the self extractors if you specified) and won't fiddle with your other files. If your directory(s) are large, plan on it taking a while, even on a fast machine. ***************************************************************** VIEW: ===== This program allows you to view text files (and other files if you so desire) that are inside archive files. Unarchiving still needs to take place to get at those text files, so the same things apply here as did in UNARC. The benefit of using this program is that once again, you don't have to remember how to unarchive different formats. Additionally, the files are brought up in a menu and you simply have to choose the number corresponding to the file you want to look at. The program also cleans up behind itself which also saves you effort. As with UNARC and CONVERT, this program also runs off the AU.CFG file. Its section looks like UNARC's, with the exception of the switches. ===================== work_drectory <path>: ===================== VIEW copies the archive file to a work directory to make sure that you do not damage your original. This option specifies where that work directory is. If you have a ramdrive, then it is to your advantage to specify it as the work_directory. Doing so will increase the speed and save wear and tear on the ol Hard Drive. If you are using a ramdrive, you may run across files that are too large to completely unarc. They will simply be chopped off. If you do not have a ramdrive then make a new directory and use it for the work_directory. The directory you choose will be completely emptied when you are done. ============== avoid_listing: ============== Specifys the extensions that will be ignored by the viewer. Typically .COM and .EXE files are two you would not want to view. You may specify more than one by either sticking them on the same line with no spaces between them, or by putting them on seperate lines... ie: avoid_listing .COM 13 avoid_listing .EXE or avoid_listing .COM.EXE ================ external_lister: ================ Allows you chose a different lister than the limited one included, such as Browse or List. This will only work in local mode.. If used over a modem, then it will use the built in lister. ========================== Enforce_empty_work YES/no: ========================== Specifies whether you want strict checking for the work directory being empty. My work directory is my ramdrive which I often use for other purposes. Occasionally I forget to delete the files and View would balk at me for having files already there. If this option is yes, it will delete all the files there first. To run it locally, simply type: VIEW [command line options] <file spec> It will bring up a list of files matching your file specs. These files can be archives file or non-archive files, it doesn't care. If you select one that wasn't an archive it will immediately display it, otherwise it will unarc that file and bring up a list of what it decomposed into. It will go as many levels deep as necessary. Unarchiving takes time (LHARC and PAK are particularly bad) so don't be alarmed if it takes a moment to bring up that list. If you do not use an external file listing program, View will display 23 lines at a time followed by a pause for a keystroke.. 'Y' continues the printout, 'N' aborts the printout, and 'C' prints it continuously without any more pauses. ***************************************************************** TEST: ===== This program allows you to test your archive files to make sure they are not corrupt. Its creation was prompted by an SDS distributer who wanted to catch bad files before they were automatically sent (long distance). It works like unarc with a few exceptions. 1 - the unarching methods are replaced with testing methods. 2 - Recurse, Delete_Behind, and destination directories options don't exist (You don't need them). 3 - Self extracting files are not supported, indeed I doubt they can be. When run, this program will rename all of the bad archive files to an extension of .BAD. The good ones will remain the same. 14 Like unarc, you can specify a source directory. ie TEST d:\uploads\*.* TEST exits with an errorlevel of 1 if any .BAD files exist in the directory when it is finished, 0 otherwise. ***************************************************************** HEADER: ======= This program lets you add or replace header comments in archived files. HEADER uses AU.CFG file like the previous utilities and has the following options: Smart_mode is supported like all the rest. Date_retain works exactly the way it does in convert with all 4 options. It defaults to ON. The -C command option lets you specify an alternative .cfg file Self-extracting files are not supported at this time. I have only played with archive comments a little bit so far and only know how to get good results with .ZIP and .PAK files. .PAK files echo @file | PAK h. The rest use redirection. .ZIP files sense multiple lines, the rest of the archivers max out at 1 line so I am sure I have plenty of work left to do on this utility. If you are versed in archive comments for any of the other archivers, send me a note on how to get multiple lines and save me some reading. =================== header_file <file>: =================== This specifies the file(s) that contain the comment(s) you want to be redirected into your archive files. If you specify more than one, then it chooses between them randomly. Use full path names with the file name. Specify a file that is completely empty if you are looking to rid yourself of comments completely (which will save disk space). If you are adding large comments (known as BBS ads) to many files, make sure you have sufficient space left. ***************************************************************** ASCAN: ====== This utility lets you scan a directory full of files (both archive and otherwise) for viruses. It unarcs the archives then virus scans the files. Provided you use UNARC as the unarching tool, it can find viruses inside recursive archives, archives with non standard extensions (ie .SDN) and self extractors. If it does find a virus, it will rename the archive file with an extension of .$V$. ASCAN takes an optional file_spec where you can specify path and file(s) to be scanned. It returns an errorlevel of 1 if any .$V$ files are left in the directory when it is finished. 15 ====================================== Scanner <executable_file plus options> ====================================== Specifies the virus scanner you wish to use. Recommended is SCAN by McAfee. Note that the /nomem option in the AU.CFG file only works with versions 51 and later. The scanner you choose must (like SCAN) return an errorlevel greater than 0 if a virus is found. ================ =========== version <number> -V <number> ================ =========== This option allows you to specify which version of the virus scanner you are using (ie -V60 is the most current version of SCAN at this time). If you specify a version, then ASCAN will mark the files it checks by changing the files time. If the time of the file is critical for some other reason, then don't use this option. The seconds get set to 0, and the hour and minutes are used to hold the version. The hour is set to version/60, the minutes are set to the remainder of that division. The version must be a whole number (ie 1.20 isn't going to cut it) =================== ========== newer_than <number> -N<number> =================== ========== This option specifies the number of versions of SCAN that have passed before the file is scanned again. For example, if -V53 and -N5 are used, only files scanned with V48 and below (or not yet scanned) will be rescanned. To be rigorous, use -N1 as it will make sure that files scanned under even the previous version will be looked at again. Scan takes time on huge directories so specifying a reasonable number like 5 will keep your virus protection reasonably up to date. -V must be used if -N is to be used. Without it, ASCAN will scan all the archive files specified. ====================================== unarcer <executable_file plus options> ====================================== Lets you specify which program is to unarcive the files. Naturally I put UNARC in there. If you feel inclined to use a different program, make sure it allows a destination directory. ======================== -W Command line option: ======================== This option lets you specify a work directory for ASCAN. If you have a sufficiently large ram drive, it is recommended you use it, as it will save time and save on HD wear and tear. Another good usage of this option is if the drive you are scanning is all but full. ASCAN currently doesn't check to make sure the work directory has enough room for the file to unarc in, so the possibility exists that it will miss files. 16 ======================== -A Command line option: ======================== This is an on/off switch (ie -Aon -Aoff) that specifies whether you want the scanner to look inside of archives or not. The default is ON and this is what you will use most of the time. The off switch is valuable when used with CONVERT and recursion on (in CONVERT). This will help speed things along for it wont do any redundant checking. It executes as: ASCAN [command line options] [file_spec] ***************************************************************** REDATE: ======= The rest of the programs do not use the configuration file. This program allows you to change the date on any archive file to the date of either the most recent or the oldest file in the archive without having to unarc the file. This program moves rather quickly and can do entire directories in a matter of minutes. It is used like unarc with the following differences. No .CFG file is necessary since the code to pick apart the v option output is hard wired. It excepts any legal dos wildcards and also excepts a source directory. ie. REDATE \download\ibm\f*.lzh. No destination directory is necessary. Use -S for smart on/off/always. It now works with self extractors as well (which take a considerably longer time than regular archives). Use -Xon on the command line for this. There is no segment in the AU.CFG file, and therefore it has to assume that the archives can be executed as such: LHARC PAK <-- Used to do the .ARC files as well DWC ZOO PKUNZIP ================================== -W<directory> command line option: ================================== lets you specify a temporary work directory that the -v output goes to. Specifying a ramdrive will give you a significant speed increase, plus save wear and tear on your drive. ======================= -L command line option: ======================= selects the option to set the date to the lowest (or oldest) date in the archive file. This and -H do not take a value following 17 them. -L is sufficient. ======================= -H command line option: ======================= selects the option to set the date to the highest (or most recent) date in the archive file. This is the default ***************************************************************** ASIZE: ====== This program allows you to find out how many bytes are packed away inside your archived files. Although not the most useful utility ever made, it does serve to satiate your curiosity. When finished, it displays a table of how many bytes you have stored in each of the main 7 archive types, files in self extracting archives (if -Xon is used), and files not archived (ie everything else). It is not recursive and the total bytes and percentages do not reflect archives within archives. It is used as follows: ASIZE [parameters] [file spec] -W, -S and -X are the allowed options for ASIZE. Just like REDATE, -W specifies a temporary directory to dump the -v output to. -S is smart_mode on/off, -X is self_extracts on/off. The [file spec] can be either a regular DOS file spec (ie drive, path, file(s)) or can be a @ file. This is a file containing as many file specs as you want. For example, Opus sysops can copy their okfile.lst to files.dat, remove the magic filenames, passwords and other non-DOS stuff in the files.dat, then run ASIZE @files.dat. This should size up all the sysops download directories. The @ feature is not recursive (ie the @ file can't contain @ files within it). Like REDATE, there are no .cfg file options and the 5 archiving programs must not be renamed. This program was made to use only the most recent version of those 5 (LHARC 1.13c, PAK 2.10, PKZIP 1.0x, DWC 5.01, ZOO 2.01), so using older versions like PKZIP 0.92 may or may not work (I will test them sooner or later)... ASIZE will show incorrect results if any of the figures (compressed or uncompressed including the total) exceeds about 2.1 gigabytes. Most people don't have this much, but give it a few years...... ***************************************************************** BBSweep: ======== This program allows you to execute a command on all download directories for either OPUS or GT-Powercomm (will be trying for RBBS too next version). BBSWEEP must be executed from the directory in which the system*.bbs files reside (in the case of 18 OPUS) or the gtdir.bbs file resides (in the case of GT- Powercomm). Although not so much a utility based on archiving programs, it still interfaces nicely with TEST, HEADER, CONVERT, REDATE and ASCAN. You can also use it with ASIZE, but you will have to add up the totals for a grand total (thus the @file in ASIZE). Additionally, you can do things such as: BBSWEEP FILL *.* A: BBSWEEP DIR }}c:\listing\files.lst BBSWEEP del *.bak ^^^ *** PLEASE Use extreme care with DEL *** and so forth.. Officially it executes as such BBSWEEP [options] command [parameters for that command] In this case, the options that BBSWEEP uses MUST come before the command because the command may have parameters that look exactly like the options for BBSWEEP. -Bon/off specifies whether to break and wait for a keypress before changing over to the directory to run the command on. When it does ask for a keystroke, pressing control C will abort the program entirely. The process may also be stopped by pressing any key then answering N to the continue question much like they way UNARC works. However the command you are running may "consume" your keystrokes and so the -B was introduced. The -G, -L, and -P are used to define the character you wish to set up as the greater than, less than, and pipe (|) characters respectively. >, <, and | when used in the command, such as BBSWEEP DIR | SORT apply to the entire command. In this case the entire contents of BBSWEEP DIR is dumped into the SORT filter because DOS grabbed the | and BBSWEEP never even got to look at it. If you need the | SORT to apply to each directory then you need to specify a character which BBSWEEP will internally convert to the |. DOS does the same thing with > and < so the same thing applies. The defaults that BBSWEEP uses are } for >, { for <, and ~ for |. The internal },{ and ~ override the external >,< and |, so doing something like: BBSWEEP DIR *.LZH }}temp.dat >temp1.dat will put the directory contents in temp.dat and the BBSWEEP title and messages in temp1.dat. Note the use of }} for >>. ****************************************************************** Future Releases: ================ 1.13 - Addition of a duplicate file checker that will scan down through all the archive files and point out all the programs that exist more than once based on the contents of the file and not the name... 19 Front end file selecter menu driven type doohicky like ArcMaster's and those other shareware product. (Tentative until I can think of some features that would make mine stand out in the crowd) and of course, and other good suggestions you the users can think of......... Last But Not Least: =================== A thousand thanks to the beta testers John Alton, Dave Empey, Ray Waechter, Ed Cavender, Brandon Bachman, Jay Schulman, Michael Epler, and Roger Campagnoni for taking time to beta test these programs (which have been in less than working order at times), find bugs, and suggest improvements...... 20