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- DOWNSORT
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- Maximus CBCS DOWNload file SORT and List Utility
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- Version 5.6 (OS/2 and DOS)
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- February 20, 1993
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- Rob Hamerling
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- Vianen, The Netherlands
- Phone: ++31-3473-72136 (voice)
- FIDO-net: 2:512/4.1098
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- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
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- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
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-
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- CONTENTS
-
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- About DOWNSORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
- Registration and Shareware Fee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
- Warranty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
- Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
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- Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
- Purpose and Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
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- User's Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
- Initial setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
- Data Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
- List Type Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
- Data Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
- List Customisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
- Miscellaneous report information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
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- Parameter Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
- Commandline parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
- Hints for specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
- Configuration file Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
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- Sample of Getting organised . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
- DOWNSORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
- BinkleyTerm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
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- Packaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
- Availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
- RUN-time material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
- Source material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
- Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
- Dependencies and restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
- Storage and Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
- Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
- Wishlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
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- Internals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
- Development Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
- Program Organisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
- Main Data Organisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
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- Appendix A. History of changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
- Version 5.6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
- Version 5.5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
- Version 5.4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
- Version 5.3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
- Version 5.2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
- Version 5.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
- Version 5.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
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- Appendix B. World-wide use of DOWNSORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
-
-
- Contents ii
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
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- Appendix C. Sample Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
- ALL-list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
- GBL-list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
- NEW-list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
- EMI-list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
- FILES.BBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
- OKfile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
- ORPhan list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
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- Appendix D. Sample Configuration File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
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- Contents iii
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- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
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- ABOUT DOWNSORT
-
- DOWNSORT was originated in 1987 as a program for my own use when I was
- SYSOP of the Bulletin Board PC-Square (2:512/4), to automatically generate
- daily overviews of my download material for the users. The program name is
- related to the SORTing of the collection of DOWNloadable files, in DOWNward
- time-stamp sequence and an online Bulletin was the only list that was
- produced at that time. PC-Square was running BinkleyTerm and OPUS under
- DOS, and file-requesting was not so popular then.
-
- Now PC-Square runs with OS/2, BinkleyTerm and MAXIMUS CBCS. I'm not SYSOP
- anymore but still strongly involved. As a contribution to PC-Square and
- the large international Bulletin Board community of MAXIMUS CBCS boards,
- and in the highly appreciated spirit of BinkleyTerm, I decided to upgrade
- my DOWNSORT program to the current software. During the past years a lot
- of improvements and extensions have been made: many user-configurable
- options for many more output formats then the original DOWNSORT.
-
- The only dependency of DOWNSORT on MAXIMUS CBCS is a parameter-file
- AREA.DAT, which is usually created with a MAXIMUS utility (SILT(P)), which
- itself can be used without actually running MAXIMUS! This is the way I
- work for testing of DOWNSORT.
-
- "Appendix A. History of changes" on page 38 gives an impression of recent
- history.
-
- DOWNSORT is now developed in an OS/2 environment, but it is distributed as
- 'family'-application: it runs under OS/2 and DOS.
-
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- REGISTRATION AND SHAREWARE FEE
-
- DOWNSORT is a $ 0.00 Shareware Program. This means (to me) that you
- respect the commonly known rules for shareware, but you don't have to pay
- me anything.
-
- Registration is voluntary: please send me a netmail message with your name
- and (net-)address if you are a regular user of DOWNSORT as SYSOP. That
- gives me an impression of the usage and the impact of changes to DOWNSORT.
-
- If you tell me that you are running DOWNSORT on your Bulletin Board as
- service to your users, and you appreciate to be mentioned, I'll add your
- name to the reference list in "Appendix B. World-wide use of DOWNSORT" on
- page 43.
-
-
- WARRANTY
-
- For this price? You must be kidding! But I'll listen to your complaints
- and suggestions, and if time permits, I'll work on the improvements you
- suggest.
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- About DOWNSORT 1
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
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- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
-
- I would like to thank all users that contributed with constructive remarks
- and encouraging appraisals. Without doubt Emmanuel Sandorfi of 2:320/5
- holds the record in number of suggestions and amount of additionally
- required programming effort. He also provided some additional title-fonts
- (2 and 3).
-
- I also would like to thank the regular users (SYSOP's of Bulletin Boards)
- who made DOWNSORT much more popular than I ever dreamed of! A collection
- of geographically dispersed Boards can be found in "Appendix B. World-wide
- use of DOWNSORT" on page 43.
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- About DOWNSORT 2
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
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- OVERVIEW
-
- DOWNSORT is a program to make lists of available download files for
- Bulletin Board Systems, especially MAXIMUS CBCS. The different types of
- lists are each for a specific audience (online bulletin board user,
- file-requestor, SYSOP) and purpose (all files, recent acquisitions).
- Within each type there are many ways to customise the contents (selection
- on user-privilege or user-interest), and format (sort-sequence of files,
- titles, logo, etc).
-
- DOWNSORT can produce the following report-types 1 for you:
- (all these can be produced in one run).
-
- ■ user-lists
- - BBS-list, a colorful overview for online users of MAXIMUS CBCS
- - NEW-list of the most recent files (as a response to a file-request of
- 'NEWFILES')
- - ALL-list for a complete overview in a file-group per area (as a
- response to a filerequest of 'FILES' of 'ALLFILES')
- - IPF-list similar contents as ALL-list, but in a different
- presentation format (VIEW-able under OS/2)
- - GBL-list for a complete overview over the area-boundaries, as an
- alternative for ALL-list if you don't want to bother file-requestors
- with your area-structure
-
- ■ SYSOP lists:
- - ORPHAN-report as a help with management of the contents of your
- area's and directories, and to correct possible upload problems or
- inconsistencies
- - DUP-list for a list of duplicate filenames as a help to control your
- | disk-space and with management of versions of different files
- | - OKFile for (Binkley) File Requests.
- - EMI-list for a list of new file arrivals to be included in an
- announcement message.
- - Updated FILES.BBS files
-
- The lists can be generated for different privilege levels, and be
- customised to a very high extend to present your system as you like it to
- be seen by your users (headers, log, etc). At the same time Maximus (and
- OPUS) conventions are reflected in the way the file information is
- presented.
-
- A sample of most of these lists can be found in "Appendix C. Sample Lists"
- on page 44.
-
- In short: DOWNSORT is a very versatile tool to manage your database of
- files, both in an OS/2 and DOS environment.
-
-
-
- ─────────────────────
- 1 For the target audience the distiction between 'user' and 'sysop' is
- strictly the author's view!
-
-
- Overview 3
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES
-
- DOWNSORT is designed for the following purposes:
-
- 1. Produce different overviews of files which are available for download by
- online users of the Bulletin Board and by File Requestors. QUICK and
- EASY file retrieval is the main goal for the lists. Therefore many
- lists-types and within a type several variations should be available for
- SYSOP and users.
-
- 2. Should not disclose files to users (file-requesters) without positive
- agreement by SYSOP.
-
- 3. Detect discrepancies between the contents of FILES.BBS and the
- corresponding download directory, such as:
- ■ The directory contains so called orphan-files, which have no
- descriptive entry in FILES.BBS.
- ■ FILES.BBS contains entries of which the file in not in the directory
- (is 'offline'). This may be on purpose!
-
- 4. Must be able to be run unattended (typically overnight). The
- file-access privilege system of a Bulletin Board System like Maximus
- CBCS should be respected by the reports.
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- Overview 4
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
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- USER'S GUIDE
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- This chapter explains the possibilities of DOWNSORT. Parameter
- specifications will be covered in "Parameter Specifications" on page 18.
-
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- INITIAL SETUP
-
- When you are going to use DOWNSORT for the first time, you have to make a
- number of decisions. Below you'll find a kind of check-list, which is
- setup to help you with a logical sequence of tasks to make the use of
- DOWNSORT succesful. It does NOT give detailed specifications, these can be
- found in "Parameter Specifications" on page 18.
-
- The specifications will be put into a configuration file DOWNSORT.CFG,
- which may contain information about:
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- 1. Data Collection
-
- File information will be collected from:
- ■ Privilege and download path-information from AREA.DAT
- ■ Actual file-information from download directories
- ■ FILES.BBS files for file descriptions
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- 2. List Type Selection
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- DOWNSORT can produce the following report types for you (all in one
- run).
- ■ ORPHAN-report for SYSOP use only
- ■ BBS-list for online users of MAXIMUS CBCS
- ■ NEW-list(s) for a list of the most recent files
- ■ ALL-list(s) for a complete overview in a file-group per area
- ■ IPF-list(s) same as ALL-list, but in a different presentation format
- (VIEW-able under OS/2, there is a special IP2-list for OS/2 2.0).
- ■ GBL-list(s) for a complete overview over area-boundaries
- | ■ DUP-list(s) for a list of duplicate filenames
- | ■ OKFile(s) for (Binkley) File Requests
- ■ EMIFile(s) to for a list of file arrivals over the last period
- ■ Updated FILES.BBS files
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- 3. File selection
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- Reporting of file-information can be limited by:
- ■ Reporting privilege: only those files up to a certain privilege level
- will be listed
- ■ Area INclude or EXclude: for sub-selection for special interest
- groups
- ■ Number of files or period (days, weeks or months) to be reported
-
- 4. List Customisation
-
- The layout of the lists can be jazzed-up with:
- ■ BLOCK-title and its font
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- User's Guide 5
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
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- ■ TopTitle, SubTitle, BottomTitle, Include (logo-) file
- ■ Sorting sequence of area's in ALL-list (unsorted, name, include)
- ■ Sorting sequence of files (unsorted, date, filename)
- ■ Truncation or wrapping of file descriptions
- ■ Area- or file-privilege information
- ■ Message and Warning texts
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- All in the language which suites your audience best.
-
- The sample DOWNSORT.CFG file (see "Appendix D. Sample Configuration File"
- on page 47) contains defaults and a brief information to help you with the
- parameter specifications.
-
- Below you can find some more explanation.
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- DATA COLLECTION
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- AREA.DAT
-
- A MAXIMUS file 'AREA.DAT' is absolutely required by DOWNSORT. It is
- however not necessary to run MAXIMUS itself, the AREA.DAT file is created
- with SILT(P) from the MAXIMUS package. You can use this utility without
- the other MAXIMUS stuff. In fact I do that myself (NOT running a MAXIMUS
- board)! If you run DOWNSORT in a directory without AREA.DAT, then you
- should use specify the filespec for AREA.DAT. It allows also to specify a
- different AREA.DAT file than the one that is used by your MAXIMUS.
-
- With SILT(P) you may build a special AREA.DAT for exclusive use by
- DOWNSORT, with different, less, or even more directories! Probably much
- more convenient is the use of AreaINclude or AreaEXclude in DOWNSORT.CFG to
- limit the contents of the lists to a group of area's, that you want to
- report together, while you use the regular AREA.DAT. A combination of a
- 'special' AREA.DAT and AreaIN/EXcludes is another option to obtain
- areagroups.
-
- Remember: The combination of area privilege in AREA.DAT and the
- report-privilege specification in DOWNSORT.CFG may restrict the contents of
- reports. AreaINclude is subordinate to this and will work only for the
- collection of area's within these privilege limits.
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- If DOWNSORT reports a memory constraint (see also "Storage and Performance"
- on page 31), you may use these techniques as circumvention: exclude one or
- more of the file area's and rerun DOWNSORT.
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- User's Guide 6
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
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- FILES.BBS
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- DOWNSORT uses the information in AREA.DAT to locate the description files,
- usually called FILES.BBS. So either the ListFile specification in
- AREA.DAT, or the download directory to locate them (Maximus default).
-
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- LIST TYPE SELECTION
-
- DOWNSORT can produce several types of output reports, indicated by type of
- list. The following list types are available:
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- ORPHAN REPORT
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- This is a list of all files in download directories for which there is no
- entry in any FILES.BBS file of all areas which have this directory
- specified as download path. The report contains date, area-name and
- area-path of the orphan. The entries are sorted on area and filename. Not
- reported are MAXIMUS system files like: FILES.*, *.BAK, DIR.?BS and
- SYSTEM*.?BS.
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- If you have more than 1 area pointing to the same download directory, but
- with different FILES.BBS files, the orphans are reported for the first of
- these areas only.
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- Note: If there is an entry for a file in FILES.BBS without a description,
- the file is NOT considered to be an Orphan!
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-
- BBS-LIST
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- This is a list of downloadfiles that became recently available on your
- system. File selection is on date, but for presentation the list may be
- sorted on date, newest first or on filename.
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- The list contains compiled MECCA control sequences, for direct use in
- MAXIMUS bulletins: a user-privilege sensitive list! It might be a good
- idea to put a translated [onexit] string, which translates into: ^OFpath.
- When a user exits from the BBS-list bulletin, it will fall back to the
- exit-bulletin.
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- The length of the file (number of file-entries) may be limited by
- parameters:
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- ■ file-count
- ■ file age in days, weeks or months (30 days)
- ■ maximum privilege
-
- (never more than available within the privilege limit). If neither
- specified it will contain all available files in all download directories.
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- User's Guide 7
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
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- To make it easy for you to build a complete MAXIMUS bulletin-file a
- user-provided header is included preceding the list and a trailer at the
- end of the list. Header and trailer can be built by SYSOP, and may contain
- any information and bulletin-control sequences (a sample is provided).
-
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- NEW-LIST
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- Basically the same list as above, but in simple ASCII format. This list is
- suitable for regular file-requestors as brief overview of the latest
- additions, updates or replacements.
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- EMI-LIST
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- Basically the same as NEW-list, but more compact:
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- ■ contains file also file-time and exact filesize in bytes.
- ■ Description wrapping (if used) is overlapping the file-details except
- filename.
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- The EMI-list is especially suitable to generate file-arrival messages (the
- output should be included by another program).
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- ALL-LIST
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- A list of all downloadfiles by area. Files of the same area are listed in
- groups, separated by imbedded headers with area-name, -description, and
- -privilege. Actual status information is provided in the area-header as
- well: area-filecount and -bytecount, and latest acquisition (date and
- file-name).
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- At the end a SUMMARY report shows per area: area-title, file-count,
- byte-count, and totals.
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- The size of this list is limited only by the privilege parameter. The
- numbers in area-header and summary report show only what is available for
- the particular privilege.
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- You may generate several ALL-lists in one run!
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- IPF- AND IP2-LIST
-
- Same contents as ALL-list but in a different format. Only useful for users
- that run OS/2 (OS/2 version 1.2+ under Presentation Manager). This file
- has the format of an input-file for the Information Presentation Facility
- Compiler (IPFC).
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- There is a separate form of this list (called IP2-list) for OS/2 2.0. It
- produces information that can be compiled only with the accompanying IPF
- Compiler of the OS/2 2.0 Toolkit. The result however can be VIEWed under
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- User's Guide 8
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
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- OS/2 1.3!
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- GBL-LIST
-
- Similar to ALL-list, but where ALL-list gives the files in groups per area,
- the GBL-list ignores area-boundaries and gives a single group. It contains
- an extra column with the area-code for each file, there is no area-summary.
-
- SYSOP may choose which of both is suitable to make available to users, and
- which to use for himself (or even both).
-
- The GBL-list can be used in stead of the ALL-list if your users prefer
- searching in the list without having to bother about area-organisation.
- Although one of the original purposes of the GBL-list was checking for
- duplicate files, there is now also a special report for this particular
- purpose (see "DUP-list").
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- DUP-LIST
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- Simple report of possibly duplicate files over the area's. The format is
- the same as the GBL-list, but only files with the same filename are
- reported. 'Offline' files are included in the check.
-
- Note: The extension is not considered in the name comparison. This might
- be inconvenient, like for area's where you keep your NODEDIFF.Ann files.
-
- Please note:
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- ■ You may exclude area's from the lists.
-
- ■ You may specify a privilege, but Downsort completely ignores area's with
- a higher privilege than any report asked for.
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- These two circumstances may hide duplicates!
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- All duplicate files within this privilige-range will be reported, even when
- a counterpart has a higher privilege (and thus will not be reported in the
- DUP-list)! You may need a file-finder-utility to search for the
- 'partner'-file in one of the directories with a higher privilege. So
- 'SYSOP' is really the only useful privilege, I would say.
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- There are very few other parameters applicable to this list. File
- descriptions may be specified as truncated or wrapped. All user-titles are
- left out and only an alphabetic sort of filename is supported.
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- User's Guide 9
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
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- OKFILE
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- List filespecifications for file-requests in BinkleyTerm style. The
- generated paths in the list obey the following rules:
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- ■ the area-privilege is within the privilege limit of the report
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- ■ the area is not excluded (by areaEXclude)
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- ■ the area has at least 1 file within the privilege limit of the report
-
- The paths are sorted on area-name (although the area-name is not part of
- the list). There is no check on duplicate paths.
-
- The list is not jazzed-up with titles, etc, but a file may be included in
- front of the list if specified on the OKFileList in DOWNSORT.CFG (see
- "Appendix D. Sample Configuration File" on page 47). This option allows
- | you to insert 'magic filenames' in the OKFile.
-
- | The list may be in short format (path\*.*), or in long format: all files
- | are listed explicitly (no generic filespecifications).
-
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- FIL-LIST
-
- New "FILES.BBS" type of file may be (re-)created, one for every area. The
- contents of the file-information will be about the same as the original
- FILES.BBS, but with the following notes:
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- ■ A header is generated with area-name, -title, and -privilege. Also the
- total amount of files and bytes and the most recently acquired new file
- in this area is part of the header information.
- ■ Files with a privilege up to and including the area-privilege are listed
- first.
- ■ Files can have a privilege other than the area-privilege when the
- original FILES.BBS file contains ^Pp-sequences ('p' being a privilege
- letter). This construction will be rebuilt by DOWNSORT. Files with a
- higher privilege than the area-privilege will follow after a compiled
- MECCA-sequence (^Pp) in the new FILES.BBS. DOWNSORT respects these
- indicators when reading FILES.BBS, so all file-privilege information is
- retained. This ensures no accidental loss of file-information, and the
- regular user won't see more than he should.
- ■ Wild-card specifications in the original FILES.BBS are not propagated to
- the new FILES.BBS.
- ■ The file description is kept internally as a single string of maximum
- 240 characters. When creating FILES.BBS files, this will be the file
- format (single record per file-entry). The original FILES.BBS may
- contain a (long) single string description, or multiple (short)
- multiline descriptions. When encountering multiline descriptions in
- input-FILES.BBS, DOWNSORT concatenates the separate description lines
- with a single intermediate space up to a maximum of 240 bytes. This
- will be the output format if the FIL-list is requested.
- ■ Comments in FILES.BBS will be preserved only when the Keep-Sequence
-
-
- User's Guide 10
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- option is used (specify /K on the FilFileList line of Downsort.Cfg).
-
- Note: Comments before line 8 are discarded (are assumed to be the
- standard FILES.BBS header of Downsort).
-
- The destination of FILES.BBS-files is not by definition the same as the
- origin! When specified with the "FIL:"-parameter (or in the configuration
- file), the output may be located in a different directory than the original
- input FILES.BBS. Manual checking or post-processing by some other program
- may follow DOWNSORT, after which the files might be put back on the MAXIMUS
- specified position.
-
-
- DATA SELECTION
-
-
-
- PRIVILEGE CONTROL
-
- The default file privilege to be shown in the lists is SYSOP. All files
- with a higher privilege than the specified (or defaulted) report-privilege
- will not appear in the report.
-
- Files without a matching filename-entry in FILES.BBS are treated as Hidden.
- That means that by default these files will not be listed, unless the 'H'
- privilege is used on the report-request specification.
-
- If you run a mailer like BinkleyTerm and support file-requests, you lack
- the extensive privilege system like Maximus. The only distiction
- BinkleyTerm makes with file-request is 'unknown', 'known' and
- 'password-protected'. You may generate multiple download lists with
- different privilege indictor, depending if you allow these categories to
- request different file collections a sample of this kind of environment is
- given in "Sample of Getting organised" on page 26.
-
- This is not needed for DOWNSORT.BBS, since this file has imbedded privilege
- control sequences for MAXIMUS users. But you should specify a sufficiently
- high privilege for the BBS-list to satisfy your most valuable users!
-
-
- AREA SELECTION
-
- When you need file selections on subject, you can use AreaINclude or
- AreaEXclude to limit the lists to files that are part of certain
- area-groups. You should realise that this is the latest selection phase:
- privilege selection has taken place already before AreaINclude or
- AreaEXclude are processed. So make sure you specified a sufficiently high
- report-privilege to get the proper areas into the group.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- User's Guide 11
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- REPORT LENGTH
-
- For lists that are meant to show the latest file-information only (BBS-list
- and NEW-list), the length of the list can be limited to a maximum number of
- file-entries or to file-age in days, weeks or months.
-
-
- LIST CUSTOMISATION
-
-
-
- HEADERS, TITLES AND INCLUDE FILES
-
- There are several ways to custimise the appearance of the lists for
- DOWNSORT. All items in the following list are optional, but the sequence
- in the reports is fixed and as listed:
-
- Pre-Title Up to 20 lines as very first lines of your lists. Any text may
- be specified. Leading '~'-characters (tilde) will be treated
- as full-size required blanks, mainly to manually align (center)
- the text in these lines. There is no automatic centering. You
- may have to experiment a little.
-
- TITLE A short title (8-12 characters), that will be magnified to big
- BLOCK-letters. There are 4 block-fonts to choose from. Not
- all characters are supported and lower-case will be translated
- to upper-case. The '~'-character (tilde) will be treated as
- full-size required blank, the '`'-character (accent-grave) as
- half-size required blank.
-
- If not specified, a default title is generated as DOWNSORTxy,
- where xy stands for the current version of DOWNSORT.
-
- TitleFont Number of the font to be used for the BLOCK title. If
- specified as 0, the BLOCK-title will NOT be generated at all.
-
- Include-file A text-file to be included. There will be no manipulation of
- the contents of this file. This include-file may be all you
- need to obtain a fully custimised list. For the IPF-list this
- include file will most likely have to contain IPF tags for
- proper formatting, for the OK-file it will be a list of 'magic'
- filename entries.
-
- Sub-Title Up to 20 lines. These are treated like the Pre-Title lines.
-
- BottomTitle Up to 20 lines as very last lines of the lists. These follow
- my 'signature'. The lines follow the same treatment as
- Pre-Title lines.
-
- The BLOCK-title and Pre-, Sub-, and Bottom-titles are used for all reports
- identically, there is no such thing as an 'individual' title specification
- for each report. However the Include-file may be different for each
- report. If you want to build more than 1 list but with different
-
-
- User's Guide 12
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- 'headings' or no headings at all, you better forget the Title-options. In
- stead make heading-files and use the Include option of the individual list
- specifications.
-
- Note: Exceptions:
-
- 1. None of the above does apply to the BBS-list. As it will generally be
- desirable to imbed (compiled) MECCA control sequences in this type of
- lists, this report will include dedicated top and bottom files (if
- available in the current default directory). These files must be called
- DOWNSORT.HDR (header) and DOWNSORT.TRL (trailer).
-
- 2. The ORPHAN report will not contain any user-titles.
-
- 3. The FILES.bbs files will not use any of the title-specifications, but
- may use an Include-file.
-
- Recommendation: File-requestors appreciate a header with a clear indication
- of the source of the reports. Many Bulletin Boards use FILES or ALLFILES
- as 'magic' name, but that is not very distinctive if you collect lists of
- different boards! So use Downsort's facilities to generate a block-title
- with your system-name, or an include file with some kind of logo.
-
- Note: Specification details and samples can be found in DOWNSORT.CFG.
-
- Some SYSOPs do not like to confront their users with privileges. In most
- headers there will be a line with the reporting privilege. This may be
- suppressed.
-
-
- FILE SORTING
-
- The file-entries in the lists can be sorted on different keys:
-
- ■ Filedate
-
- ■ Filename
-
- ■ Sequence of FILES.BBS
-
- The default sorting sequence depends on the type of list. Some lists do
- not support some of these sorting keys.
-
- Note: File sorting has a local scope. It can be specified for to each
- listtype individually.
-
-
- AREA SORTING
-
- The order in which the areas are presented in the lists can be specified:
-
- ■ Order of AREA.DAT
- ■ Sorted alphabetically on areaname
-
-
- User's Guide 13
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- ■ Order of areaINclude statement in Downsort.Cfg
- ■ Groupname-order
-
- The Groupname-order is a special order based on a popular naming convention
- for areas. Many SYSOPs use areanames with a group-name or -letter followed
- by a sequence number. With groupname sorting the areaname is split - if
- possible - into a groupname (if the first character is not be numeric) and
- a sequence number (if the last part of areaname is numeric). Primary sort
- key is groupname, secundary sortkey is sequence number. If the first
- character of the area-name is numeric, the groupname is empty, and if the
- last part of the areaname is not numeric, the second key is empty.
-
- If the ordering does not match your more complicated area naming
- convention, you can always fallback on a properly sequenced AREA.DAT, or on
- areaINclude sequence.
-
- If Include-order is specified, but AreaINclude is not, then the order falls
- back to Group-order.
-
- The area-order specification has a global scope. It applies to every lists
- where the areaname is significant, including summaries in ALL- and
- IPF-lists.
-
- Default sorting order is 'Group'.
-
-
- WARNINGS, INDICATIONS, DESCRIPTIONS AND COMMENTS
-
- ■ There are two options for long file descriptions (those that do not fit
- on a 80-character line):
- - Truncation at end-of-line
- - Wrapping to multiple lines
-
- Both options are available for all lists, but the defaults vary with the
- type of the report.
-
- ■ Orphan description: Text that will be reported in the description column
- of a file, when for this file no entry in FILES.BBS could be located.
-
- Default: "--- Orphan ---".
-
- ■ Not-Found description: Text for the description column when the
- file-entry was found in FILES.BBS, but there was no description present.
-
- Default: "--- no description available ---".
-
- ■ Offline description: Text that will replace file-size and file-date,
- when an entry for this file was found in FILES.BBS, but the file could
- not be located in the download directory.
-
- Default: "** offline **".
-
- ■ Comments in FILES.BBS (mostly used for additional description for groups
-
-
- User's Guide 14
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- of files) will be listed when no sorting is specified (the /K option for
- ALL-, IPF- and FIL-lists).
-
- ■ Size of a VIEW-page in IPF-list: The IPF-list of area's with more than
- 250 file entries will be splitted into 'parts' to prevent the
- IPF-compiler message 'page size exceeded'. But if you have many long
- descriptions, or wish smaller parts, the page-size can be altered with a
- parameter on the IpfFileList line in DOWNSORT.CFG.
-
- Default: 250.
-
-
-
- MISCELLANEOUS REPORT INFORMATION
-
-
-
- FILE INFORMATION IN LISTS
-
- 1. Dates are marked with a 'new'-indicator: a '*' if the file is only since
- a week on this system, and a '+' if it is since a month. Filedates
- later than the current system date are marked '-' (negative age).
-
- 2. In every outputfile the filename, MAXIMUS-area name, file-size and
- -date, and file-description from FILES.BBS is listed. A report-line
- will never display more than 79 characters.
-
- The file-description will be multi-line in ALL-, IPF- and GBL-list if it
- is longer than would fit on the standard 79-position line, a
- word-wrapping technique is used for readability (line-split on word
- boundary). The description is truncated at end of line in BBS-list and
- NEW-list.
-
- The -T option will force truncation of the description in all reports,
- the -W option will allow multi-line descriptions in all reports.
-
- If a filename is found in FILES.BBS, but no accompanying description, a
- "--- no description available ---" will be put in place. An alternative
- text may be specified with DOWNSORT.CFG.
-
- Files for which there is no entry in the FILES.BBS (Orphans) are treated
- as Hidden files, which are only listed in the reports if the Hidden
- privilege is specified.
-
- Note: If you want the orphans to appear in FILES.BBS (or in any other
- report), you MUST also request an ORP-list!
-
- 3. 'OFFLINE" in stead of file-size and file-date is reported if FILES.BBS
- contains an file-entry while the file is not in the corresponding
- directory.
-
- 4. The BBS-list contains MAXIMUS authorisation controls (^PLp-sequences),
- corresponding to the privilege of the area or the individual file. So
-
-
- User's Guide 15
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- it is not necessary to make different files for different categories of
- MAXIMUS users, even with the default privilege-limit SYSOP a user will
- not see the files he/she is not supposed to know about.
-
- Other lists do not contain any privilege information, the files (or
- complete area's) above the specified privilege are simply not listed,
- however multiple lists can be produced for different categories of users
- (based on privilege).
-
-
-
- FILE DATES
-
- One of the function of DOWNSORT is sorting on file date. Since the
- introduction of HPFS in OS/2 version 1.2, there is not one single file-date
- anymore! A file on an HPFS volume has different values for:
-
- ■ Creation date
- ■ LastAccess date
- ■ LastWrite date
-
- The date you see normally in DIR-listings is the LastWrite date. Most
- SYSOPs will have noticed that ZMODEM uploads and file-attaches give
- file-dates corresponding to the (LastWrite-) date of the sending system.
- And most utilities handle only this 'single' date. That means that old
- ZMODEM-uploaded files are generally not on top of the acquisition lists.
-
- But HPFS stores the date of arrival on your system (Creation) as well.
- DOWNSORT handles the Creation date for sorting, but the lists (see below)
- contain the 'old fashioned' LastWrite date. This has the following
- consequences:
-
- ■ A new acquisition is on top of lists, if that list is sorted on date,
- and are marked in the lists as new by a flag for an 'age' of a week or a
- month.
- ■ The listed file-date is the 'ordinary' date. So users can judge for
- themselves if the file is 'new' for them as well.
-
- Note: The LastAccess date is not very relevant for the purposes of
- DOWNSORT, although SYSOP may see when it was last downloaded.
-
- Downsort is delivered with a simple DIR-like utility 'HPFSDATE' to show the
- three dates of a file on a HPFS volume.
-
-
- DUPLICATES
-
- Duplicate filenames are checked if the DUP-list is requested, and they will
- be reported only in the DUP-list. So duplicates may appear in the regular
- user-lists, which means:
-
- ■ If a filename.ext is encountered more than once in different
- subdirectories of FILES.BBS files, it will appear that many times in the
-
-
- User's Guide 16
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- outputlist. The file-privilege reflects that of the area where the file
- belongs to, unless overridden by a ^Px modifier in FILES.BBS.
- ■ It may happen that a file is reported as orphan in one area, and as
- duplicate in another. It is likely that the file is found in a common
- download directory of more than one area but it is described in the
- FILES.BBS of a 'secundary' area, but with the wrong extension.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- User's Guide 17
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- PARAMETER SPECIFICATIONS
-
- This chapter tells you how to customise the configuration file and what you
- might specify on the commandline.
-
- A sample configuration file (in "Appendix D. Sample Configuration File" on
- page 47) is part of the package. It contains a brief comments (in Binkley
- and MAXIMUS style) to help you.
-
-
- COMMANDLINE PARAMETERS
-
- This paragraph deals only with the commandline parameters!
-
- NOTE: Parameters from DOWNSORT.CFG are processed first, commandline
- parameters may complete and (partly) override those in the configuration
- file.
-
- An explanation of how to read the command syntax diagram can be found in
- the (online) OS/2 Command Reference manual.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Parameter Specifications 18
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
-
- ┌────────────────────────┐
- v │
- ──┬─────────┬─┬────────┬─ DOWNSORT ────┬────────────────────┬─┴─────┤
- └─ drive ─┘ └─ path ─┘ ├─ @filespec ────────┤
- ├─ BBS ─┬──────┬─────┤
- │ └─ :p ─┘ │
- ├─ NEW ─┬───────┬────┤
- │ └─ :pp ─┘ │
- ├─ EMI ─┬───────┬────┤
- │ └─ :pp ─┘ │
- ├─ ALL ─┬───────┬────┤
- │ └─ :pp ─┘ │
- ├─ IPF ─┬───────┬────┤
- │ └─ :pp ─┘ │
- ├─ GBL ─┬───────┬────┤
- │ └─ :pp ─┘ │
- ├─ DUP ─┬──────┬─────┤
- │ └─ :p ─┘ │
- ├─ OK ──┬──────┬─────┤
- │ └─ :p ─┘ │
- ├─ ORP ──────────────┤
- ├─ FIL ─┬──────────┬─┤
- │ └─ :fpath ─┘ │
- ├─ nnn ─┬────────────┤
- │ └── D|W|M ───┤
- ├──┬─ /T ─┬──────────┤
- │ └─ /W ─┘ │
- ├──┬─ /A ─┬──────────┤
- │ ├─ /D ─┤ │
- │ └─ /K ─┘ │
- | ├──── /L ────────────┤
- ├──┬─ /H ─┬──────────┤
- │ ├─ /Q ─┤ │
- │ └─ /V ─┘ │
- └──── /X ────────────┘
-
- @filespec The character '@' followed by a complete file specification of
- the DOWNSORT configuration file (see "Configuration file
- Parameters" on page 24 for details). This file will be used to
- specify processing parameters. If the file cannot be read,
- only the commandline parameters are used.
-
- NOTE: The use of a configuration file is mandatory when the
- file AREA.DAT is not in the default directory when running
- DOWNSORT.
-
- Default: DOWNSORT.CFG in current default directory.
-
- BBS Create the BBS-list: DOWNSORT.BBS.
-
- Default: DOWNSORT.BBS will not be created.
-
-
-
- Parameter Specifications 19
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- NEW Create NEW-list(s): DOWNSORT.N~p, where 'p' is the appropriate
- privilege class (see below).
-
- Default: DOWNSORT.N~p will not be created.
-
- EMI Create EMI-list(s): DOWNSORT.E~p, where 'p' is the appropriate
- privilege class (see below).
-
- Default: DOWNSORT.E~p will not be created.
-
- ALL Create ALL-list(s): DOWNSORT.A~p, where 'p' is the appropriate
- privilege class (see below).
-
- nnn-limit does not apply to ALL-list.
-
- Default: DOWNSORT.A~p will not be created.
-
- IPF Create IPF-list(s): DOWNSORT.I~p, where 'p' is the appropriate
- privilege class (see below).
-
- nnn-limit does not apply to IPF-list.
-
- Default: DOWNSORT.I~p will not be created.
-
- GBL Create GBL-list(s): DOWNSORT.G~p, where 'p' is the appropriate
- privilege class (see below).
-
- nnn-limit does not apply to GBL-list.
-
- Default: DOWNSORT.G~p will not be created.
-
- DUP Create DUP-list(s): DOWNSORT.DUP.
-
- Only the privilege-specification and WRAP/TRUNC flag apply to
- DUP-list.
-
- Default: DOWNSORT.DUP will not be created.
-
- OK Create OKFile(s): DOWNSORT.O~p.
-
- Only the privilege(s) and include-file specifications apply to
- the OKFile.
-
- Default: DOWNSORT.O~p will not be created.
-
- ORP Create ORP-list: DOWNSORT.ORP (orphan report, if any orphans).
-
- If an orphan report is not requested, no other report will
- contain any orphan information, even when 'Hidden' is specified
- as reporting level.
-
- Default: DOWNSORT.ORP will not be created.
-
-
-
- Parameter Specifications 20
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- FIL Create FILES.BBS type of files for each area.
-
- The specification does not apply to FILES.BBS, a
- privilege-limit cannot be specified and defaults to SYSOP.
- Another privilege limit can be specified however by means of
- the configuration file.
-
- For each individual area the following convention will be used
- for the name and place of the FILES.BBS list (in this
- sequence):
- 1. If the "FIL:" parameter specifies a directory-path, then for
- each area the output file "FILES.ac" is put in the specified
- directory ('ac' is 1 or 2 char area-code). Previous files
- with the same name will be discarded.
- 2. If "ListFile" is specified in AREA.CTL, then that name and
- path will be used.
- 3. Otherwise the file FILES.BBS: will be put in the directory
- with the download files.
-
- For situations 2 and 3 existing files will be renamed to .BAK
- (older .BAK files will be discarded).
-
- Default: FILES.BBS-type of files will not be generated.
-
- fpath Optional directory path specification for FILES.BBS-output.
- See the "FIL:" parameter for usage.
-
- Default: none
-
- nnn[P] If 'nnn' is specified sec (without a trailing letter), then it
- is the maximum number of files to be reported in the BBS- and
- NEW-list(s). When followed by a character (only D, W and M are
- allowed), then 'nnn' specifies the maximum age of the files in
- number of Days, Weeks or Months, to be included in NEW- and
- BBS-lists. A maximum value of 32767 can be specified.
-
- Default: all files up to and including the (specified or
- default) privilege class will be listed..
-
- p Single privilege character.
-
- Lists only download files with a privilege of up to and
- including privilege 'p'. The indicator must be the first
- character of an existing MAXIMUS privilege level (T, D, L, N,
- W, P, F, E, C, A, S, H). No error-message is given for an
- invalid privilege character, there will simply be no file-list
- for an invalid character!
-
- For the BBS-list and DUP-list only a single privilege character
- is allowed, the files lists will get the extension of BBS and
- DUP respectively.
-
-
-
-
- Parameter Specifications 21
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- Default: S (SYSOP): files of all privilege levels will be
- listed, except HIDDEN files (with real Hidden privilege or
- files for which no entry could be found in FILES.BBS).
-
- pp Multiple privilege characters (minumum 0, maximum 10).
-
- Make for every valid specified privilege level a download-list
- with files of a privilege of up to and including privilege 'p'.
- The indicator must be the first character of an existing
- MAXIMUS privilege level. No error-message is given for an
- invalid privilege character, there will simply be no file-list
- for an invalid character!
-
- Applies to ALL-, GBL-, IPF-, NEW- and OK-lists, these are
- called DOWNSORT.A~p, DOWNSORT.G~p, DOWNSORT.I~p, DOWNSORT.N~p
- and DOWNSORT.O~p respectively, were 'p' represents the
- applicable privilege character.
-
- Default: S (SYSOP): files of all privilege levels will be
- listed, except HIDDEN files (with real Hidden privilege or
- files for which no entry could be found in FILES.BBS).
-
- /T /W Action to be taken if the file description would cause the
- reportline to exceed 79 characters:
- ■ T - truncate the description
- ■ W - wrap the description and provide as many reportlines as
- needed to show the complete description.
-
- Default: -T for NEW-list and BBS-list, -W for ALL-, IPF- and
- GBL-list.
-
- /A /D /K Sorting method.
- ■ A - Sort the files alphabetically on filename.
- ■ D - Sort the files on reversed date sequence (newest file on
- top of list).
- ■ K - keep lines in sequence of FILES.BBS and keep the
- interfile comment lines.
-
- When the -A option is selected, an additional header-line will
- appear in the BBS-list and NEW-list, indicating the latest
- acquisition. This line is not needed and will not be done when
- these lists are sorted on date, since the the latest
- acquisition will be on top of the list!
-
- The -K option is useful in situations where the files are
- primarily grouped on AREA, i.c. ALL-, IPF- and FIL-list.
-
- If and only if this option specified, any imbedded comments in
- FILES.BBS are copied to the ALL-, IPF- and/or FILES.bbs-files.
-
- Default: -K for FILES.BBS, -D for BBS- and NEW-files, -A for
- | other.
-
-
-
- Parameter Specifications 22
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- | /L Generate a LONG OKfile with explicit filenames, rather than a
- | list with generic filespecifications (path\*.*).
-
- /H /Q /V Operating mode
- ■ H - help: display screen with essential information about
- running DOWNSORT, such as the command syntax. In that case
- the program will not undertake any other action.
- ■ Q - quiet: display only start and finish-message, and error
- messages which prevent the program from proceeding normally.
- ■ V - verbose: display a lot of progress messages.
- If neither -Q nor -V is specified, than the number of console
- messages will be 'intermediate': more than -Q, but less than
- -V.
-
- Default: none
-
- /X Exclude Privilege Indications
- ■ X - exclude privilege indications in all list-types. Some
- SYSOPs want to hide any kind of privilege-system for users
- and file-requesters of their Bulletin Board System. With
- the -X option specified all privilege indications will be
- suppressed.
-
- Note: This does not apply to the compiled MECCA privilege
- controls in the BBS-list!
-
- Default: none (privilege indications will be reported).
-
-
-
- HINTS FOR SPECIFICATIONS
-
- 1. All commandline parameters are optional, may be specified in any
- sequence and are case independent.
-
- 2. Parameters from the configuration file are processed before those from
- the commandline. This has some side-effects, like:
- ■ If you specify a specific list in DOWNSORT.CFG, it will be created
- anyhow, whatever you specify on the commandline.
- ■ However, if you specify privilege values on the commandline, only the
- commandline values will be used, and none from the configuration
- file.
- ■ Commandline parameters have a global meaning, and are applied to all
- lists (if applicable). For example: if you specify '-A' on the
- commandline, all lists will be sorted alphabetically on filename.
-
- 3. Parameters that can be specified with the configuration file only, and
- cannot be overridden with a commandline parameter are:
- ■ BLOCK title-text and -font
- ■ Other titles
- ■ Filename and individual list-options
- ■ Privilege for FILES.BBS output
- ■ Replacements of some warnings and messages that may appear in the
-
-
- Parameter Specifications 23
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- lists.
-
- 4. Even when specified on the commandline, or in DOWNSORT.CFG, the
- Orphan-report will be generated only if there are any orphans, and then
- the specified parameters apply.
-
- 5. The IPF-list has to be processed by the Information Presentation
- Facility Compiler (IPFC). This compiler is part of the IBM Programmers
- Development Toolkit version 1.2 and 1.3 (maybe also in some other
- toolkit). The following command has to be issued:
-
- IPFC DOWNSORT.IPF /INF
-
- The option "/INF" is essential (but not documented!) to obtain a
- viewable file. Be also sure to have the file DOWNSORT.BMP in your
- current default directory, or in DPATH, as this will be imbedded by the
- IPF-compiler. The result of the compilation is a file DOWNSORT.INF,
- which can be VIEWed with the following command:
-
- VIEW DOWNSORT
-
- Note:
- ■ The names "DOWNSORT", "IPF" and "INF" are used here as sample,
- actually the filename depends on the specification in the DOWNSORT
- configuration file, the extensions are the IPFC defaults.
- ■ If VIEW gives garbled columns and hardly readable block-titles, then
- it is most likely that you did not install (or removed) the standard
- fonts that are delivered with OS/2. Start the 'control panel
- utility', select 'installation', 'add fonts'. Specify in the
- 'from'-field C:\OS2\DLL (see HELP of control panel). Now choose at
- least 1 non-proportional font.
-
-
-
- CONFIGURATION FILE PARAMETERS
-
- Almost all processing options may be specified in a configuration file.
- This is a somewhat more convenient way to specify processing parameters,
- and provides even more customisation posibilities for the lists. It is a
- good place for the more static parameters of your environment. Commandline
- parameters are nice to create quickly 'another' list or a different format
- (for example wrapped or truncated descriptions). The parameters are only
- mentioned here for completeness, see "Appendix D. Sample Configuration
- File" on page 47 for a documented specification sample of a configuration
- file.
-
-
- PARAMETERS WITH GLOBAL SCOPE
-
- The parameters below influence the execution of DOWNSORT, or have impact on
- every list (if it is applicable for that list).
-
- ■ File Specification of the MAXIMUS CBCS file 'AREA.DAT'.
-
-
- Parameter Specifications 24
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- ■ Area Selection
- ■ Sorting order of areas
- ■ List title with BLOCK-characters.
- ■ Font for the BLOCK title.
- ■ Pre-titles, Sub-titles and Bottom-lines in 'text' format
- ■ Descriptive text of orphans, files without a description and files for
- which an entry is found in FILES.BBS, but could not be found in the
- corresponding download directory.
- ■ Maximum number of entries in NEW-list and BBS-list.
-
-
-
- PARAMETERS WITH LOCAL SCOPE
-
- The parameters below are sub-parameters of the xxxFileList keyword.
-
- ■ Up to 10 privileges for NEW-, GBL-, ALL- and IPF-list (each resulting in
- a separate list).
- ■ Alternate output filename (in stead of the default DOWNSORT).
- ■ Directory for the output FILES.BBS-lists
- ■ Maximum number of file entries in NEW-list and BBS-list
- ■ File-entry sort sequence (filename or date).
- ■ Wrap or Truncate long file descriptions.
- ■ Title Font selection.
- ■ Suppression of privilege indications in NEW-, ALL-, IPF- and GBL-lists.
- ■ Include textfile in NEW-, ALL-, IPF- and GBL-lists, and in FILES.bbs.
-
- DOWNSORT can generate several lists in a single run, but processes only the
- specifications of a single xxxFileList of the same type. If you need
- different layouts, for example an ALL-list with files sorted on date, and
- another ALL-list with files sorted on filename, then you would need 2
- invocations of Downsort with different configuration files.
-
- If you specify more than one xxxFileList line of the same type, then the
- paramaters of each of the lines are 'mixed': some will be overwritten, some
- others will remain there from previous specifications. It will probably
- give unwanted effects!
-
- A sample configuration file is provided. A listing of this file is
- imbedded as "Appendix D. Sample Configuration File" on page 47. It
- contains a complete specification with comments on:
-
- ■ which options are available
- ■ how to specify the options
-
- Read and modify the file as you like. Copy the sample file to a save place
- before you start modifying the original DOWNSORT.CFG!
-
- NOTE: The parameters from DOWNSORT.CFG are processed first, then
- commandline parameters, which may complete and will (partly) override those
- in the configuration file.
-
-
-
-
- Parameter Specifications 25
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- SAMPLE OF GETTING ORGANISED
-
- Assume you are runnung MAXIMUS with BinkleyTerm as front end mailer.
- Suppose you make a distinction for file-requestors between Unknown, Known
- and Password-Protected (e.g. corresponding to Disgrace, Normal and
- Privileged MAXIMUS users).
-
-
- DOWNSORT
-
- You might have a specification like this:
-
- DOWNSORT bbs:p new:dnp all:dnp 100
-
- In addition to or in place of the specifications in DOWNSORT.CFG, this
- specification produces the following lists:
-
- ■ Orphan report (only if there are any orphans).
-
- ■ DOWNSORT.BBS with 100 entries for MAXIMUS users of category Privil.
- Users with a lower privilege will actually see a shorter list if the
- file contains Privil entries.
-
- ■ For file requestors of the magic filename FILES a list, a list with all
- files (with optional titles via DOWNSORT.CFG specifications):
- - DOWNSORT.A~D for UNKNOWN file-requestors
- - DOWNSORT.A~N for KNOWN file-requestors
- - DOWNSORT.A~P for Password Protected file-requestors
-
- Note that each list is a complete list of what is available to the user
- of the specific privilege class, but your system will generally contain
- more files than listed for UNKNOWN and KNOWN users!
-
- ■ For file requests of the magic filename NEWFILES a list of the 100 most
- recent additions to your system (with optional titles via DOWNSORT.CFG
- specifications):
- - DOWNSORT.N~D for UNKNOWN file-requestors
- - DOWNSORT.N~N for KNOWN file-requestors
- - DOWNSORT.N~P for Password Protected file-requestors
-
- Note that each list is 100 entries long, but the contents will generally
- not be quite the same (depending on your privilege strategy).
-
- In general: files, which the requestor is not supposed to know about due to
- his privilege status, will not be on his/her list!
-
- Note: The counters on top of the lists indicate what your system has
- available in total (including higher privileges), so a clever
- user/file-requester may come up with the question how that is possible:
- explain that he/she has to earn a higher privilege level!
-
-
-
-
-
- Sample of Getting organised 26
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- BINKLEYTERM
-
- In Binkley.Cfg you should specify for requests of FILES:
-
- Avail Downsort.A~d
- KnownAvail Downsort.A~n
- ProtAvail Downsort.A~p
-
- Furthermore you may need to specify different OKFILEs:
-
- OKFile Download.N
- KnownReqList Download.K
- ProtReqList Download.P
-
- And in each of the appropriate filerequest authorisation files you should
- specify the appropriate file-spec:
-
-
- ╔═══════════╦══════════════╦═══════════════╦═══════════════╗
- ║ in: ║ OKFile ║ KnownReqList ║ ProtReqList ║
- ║ ║ (Download.N) ║ (Download.K) ║ (Download.P) ║
- ║ for: ║ ║ ║ ║
- ╠═══════════╬══════════════╬═══════════════╬═══════════════╣
- ║ ..... ║ ......... ║ ........... ║ ........ ║
- ║ @NEWFILES ║ Downsort.N~d ║ Downsort.N~n ║ Downsort.N~p ║
- ║ @FILES ║ Downsort.A~d ║ Downsort.A~n ║ Downsort.A~p ║
- ║ ..... ║ ......... ║ ........... ║ ........ ║
- ╚═══════════╩══════════════╩═══════════════╩═══════════════╝
-
- This will result in sending of the appropriate NEW-list to every requester
- of the magic filename: NEWFILES. If you use the second magic filename,
- then the Avail-lines in Binkley.Cfg are not needed, and you might prefer
- this way.
-
- Of course if the privilege level of all download area's is the same, this
- construction is not needed, but in that case it is unlikely that you have
- specified KnownAvail and ProtAvail!
-
- DOWNSORT may create a set of OK-files for you. The privilege system of
- MAXIMUS CBCS is used to select the download paths in this list.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Sample of Getting organised 27
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- PACKAGING
-
-
-
- AVAILABILITY
-
- The most recent version of DOWNSORT is always downloadable and
- file-requestable from Bulletin Board "PC-Square" of the Dutch IBM employee
- PC club. Search or request DWNSRT??.* to be independent of the version and
- compression method!
-
- FIDO-net address: 2:512/4; phone: 31-79-424107 (USR HST-DS).
-
- DOWNSORT is distributed in area SDSMAX of the international Shareware
- Distribution System.
-
- There is a fair chance you may find a recent version on one of the other
- bulletin boards, listed in "Appendix B. World-wide use of DOWNSORT" on
- page 43.
-
- DOWNSORT is distributed in 2 archives:
-
- ■ A file "DWNSRTxy.ZIP", containing all material you need to run DOWNSORT,
- including documentation, formatted for browsing or printing (formfeed is
- the only printer-control).
-
- ■ A file "DWNSRSxy.ZIP", containing all SOURCE material.
-
- Note: 'xy' is the version indication, for example DWNSRT56.ZIP is the
- version 5.6 runtime package.
-
-
- RUN-TIME MATERIAL
-
- WHATSNEW.56 Summary of amendments to version 5.6 of DOWNSORT.
- DOWNSORT.EXE Execution module for OS/2 and DOS (Family Application)
- DOWNSORT.DOC Documentation (this file!).
- DOWNSORT.CFG Sample configuration file. This file contains comment
- lines with extensive instructions how to specify the
- parameters in the file.
- DOWNSORT.HDR Sample BBS-list header. You may use this header, which
- is only imbedded in the BBS-list, to imbed text and/or
- MECCA-sequences. A good candidate for the latter would
- be [onexit], which translates to ^OFpath. See the
- sample DOWNSORT.HDR file!
- DOWNSORT.TRL Sample BBS-list trailer.
- DOWNSORT.BMP Bitmap for the IPF-list, to be included by the IPF
- compiler.
- DOWNSORT.INC Sample Include-file for the reports, referenced in
- DOWNSORT.CFG.
- DOWNSORT.MAG Sample list of magic names to be included in OKFile(s).
- See BinkleyTerm documentation for details of its format
- and contents.
-
-
- Packaging 28
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- HPFSDATE.EXE Program to display all three timestamps of a file on an
- HPFS volume, and optionally reset the CREATION date to
- LASTWRITE date (helpful after moving or copying of
- files). Start the program without options to display
- command syntax and help.
- PACKAGE.LST The actual contents of the package (produced with
- PKUNZIP -V), added to the ZIP-file after this was
- created with the foregoing files of this archive. This
- gives at least some authentication!
-
-
-
- SOURCE MATERIAL
-
- DOWNSORT.C Mainline.
- DOWNCOL.C Data collection functions.
- DOWNFNT.C Font definition and formatting functions.
- DOWNPAR.C Processing functions for commandline and DOWNSORT.CFG
- parameters.
- DOWNRPT1.C Functions for NEW-, BBS- and EMI-list.
- DOWNRPT2.C Functions for the IPF-lists.
- DOWNRPT3.C Functions for the SYSOP-oriented lists, like ORPhan-,
- OK-, and DUPlicate-lists, as well as FILES.BBS files.
- DOWNRPT4.C Functions for the ALL- and GBL-lists.
- DOWNSRV.C Miscellaneous services functions.
- DOWNVARS.C Constants and global variables.
- DOWNSORT.H Header file, with external definitions of global
- variables.
- DOWNFPRO.H Common (global) function prototypes.
- DOWNSORT.SCR Unformatted documentation file. This file includes
- formatting tags in BOOKMASTER style for printing on
- whatever devices are supported (like IBM page
- printers). This format is compatible and can be
- formatted on an IBM host system with DCF (SCRIPT) as
- well. The file can also processed by the IPF-compiler
- (just ignore the warnings and error-messages!).
- DOWNSORT.DEF LINK definition file.
- DOWNSORT.MAK MAKE file for DOWNSORT.EXE. Via the MAKE-file a
- compiler variable may be specified. With a variable
- 'DEBUG' defined, several pieces of debugging code are
- activated to ease trouble shooting (especially finding
- the location of a TRAP 000D!). When DOWNSORT is run in
- 'DEBUG-mode', a DOWNSORT.LOG file will contain
- intermediate progress information: info about the data
- collection phase (where the most problems have been in
- the past). It is then not very useful to let the
- compiler perform code optimization.
- DOWNZIP?.* A number of CMD-files and ZIP-lists, used to create the
- packages.
- PACKAGE.LST The actual contents of the package (produced with
- PKUNZIP -V), added to the ZIP-file after this was
- created with the foregoing files of this archive. This
- gives at least some authentication!
-
-
- Packaging 29
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- INSTALLATION
-
- With the following directions you should be able to setup and run DOWNSORT
- in a very short time.
-
- 1. Make a separate directory for DOWNSORT, and make it the current default
- directory every time you run DOWNSORT. The separate directory is a
- recommendation, not a requirement!
-
- 2. Copy the files DOWNSORT.EXE and DOWNSORT.CFG from the DOWNSORT package
- into this directory.
-
- 3. Modify (edit) the file DOWNSORT.CFG to specify your environment and list
- requirements. The sample file contains comments to help you with this
- process. Most specifications are obvious. AreaDat is the most
- important parameter: DOWNSORT won't do anything useful if it cannot find
- this MAXIMUS file. See "Appendix D. Sample Configuration File" on page
- 47 for a printed sample.
-
- 4. You may give DOWNSORT a first shot by just using its name on the
- commandline, with the parameter -H. This will show a brief HELP-screen
- with the possible commandline parameter specifications.
-
- 5. All reports will be created in the DOWNSORT directory (unless you
- specified 'fpath' for the FILES.BBS output). Browse the lists to see if
- you like the contents and titles, and modify the CFG-file to your
- convenience.
-
-
-
- DEPENDENCIES AND RESTRICTIONS
-
- ■ Applies to MAXIMUS CBCS 2.00.
-
- ■ Requires OS/2 or DOS 3.0+.
-
- ■ To convert the IPF-list into VIEW-able format, the IPF-Compiler of the
- OS/2 Program Development Toolkit is required (for the IP2-list the
- corresponding OS/2 2.0 version of this compiler)
-
- ■ The input FILES.BBS files are assumed to contain only filename.ext (the
- regular 8.3 format, no support for OS/2 1.2+ HPFS format), the remainder
- of the line is considered as file description. The filename should be
- left-aligned (start in position 1).
-
- If a privilege modifier (^Px) is encountered in FILES.BBS then 'x' will
- become the privilege of all subsequent files (it assumes ^Px on a
- SEPARATE line, the REST OF THE LINE IS IGNORED!). Heading, comments and
- blank lines in FILES.BBS are ignored, unless /K is specified on the
- FilFileList line of Downsort.Cfg. In that case comments following line
- 8 (the standard header created by DOWNSORT) are preserved. The modified
- privilege might be higher (generally the case) or lower than the
- area-privilege.
-
-
- Packaging 30
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- STORAGE AND PERFORMANCE
-
- As a rough estimate of the memory requirements of DOWNSORT, use sum of the
- following elements:
-
- ■ Program: about 80KB
-
- ■ Each area: 300 Bytes
-
- ■ Each file: 48 Bytes for each download file (excluding file descriptions
- and excluding orphans if no orphan-list requested)
-
- ■ The sum of the file description texts (average 80 bytes/file?)
-
- ■ The sum of the comments in FILES.BBS if -K option specified
-
- | The maximum number of area's for reporting is 217. Your system may have
- | more, but Downsort can currently not work properly when more than 217
- | area's will have to be scanned for files.
-
- There is a limit on the number of files that can be processed by DOWNSORT:
- about 16350. I suppose you'll reach other limits first, for example
- available memory (under DOS). But might you reach this limit, then you
- could do one or more of the following:
-
- ■ Use AreaEXclude or AreaINclude to make a selection of groups (for
- example make separate OS/2 and a DOS file-lists). Downsort will not
- collect information of 'excluded' areas.
- ■ If you have many orphans: get rid of them or do not generate an orphan
- report. Downsort releases orphan-memory during the data collection
- phase as soon as it knows that a file is an orphan.
- ■ If you have many comment-lines in your FILES.BBS: do not specify /K for
- ALL- and IPF-lists AND do not activate the FILFilePath parameter in
- Downsort.Cfg. Downsort will skip comments in FILES.BBS when it does not
- need them for reporting.
-
- DOWNSORT has been built with a 'guess' about needed stack space. The
- author would appreciate to receive a report for a better estimate.
-
- Processor performance was an issue for large file-area's before version 4.5
- of DOWNSORT in the data-collection process. That has been partly rewritten
- in version 4.5 and significantly improved. Fastest execution will always
- be obtained when the input FILES.BBS is already sorted on filename.
-
-
- PROBLEMS
-
- Although I try to prevent the cause of them, there are some unresolved
- problems in the current version of DOWNSORT:
-
- ■ One user reported unidentified characters in titles.
-
-
-
-
- Packaging 31
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- WISHLIST
-
- DOWNSORT is not finished! There are a number of wishes and requirements of
- users and myself to include in future releases. I list them below not in
- any particular order, but some seem to be more important than others, that
- differs from SYSOP to SYSOP. And some are more easy to implement than
- others, which depends mainly on the author! Some wishes don't even make it
- to be listed below and are implemented immediately!
-
- ■ Follow the MAXIMUS development (changing AREA.DAT and other structures),
- and support several versions simultaneously.
- ■ Automatic removal of 'bad' files (like .BAK-files, obsolete files, files
- that are not in FILES.BBS), maybe move them to a special BAD_FILE
- directory.
- ■ User-configurable options for:
- - week and month indicators
- - indicator for continuation lines in wrapped descriptions
- - font in AREA-header and Summary in ALL-list, and in FILES.BBS
- ■ Add [selectable] MECCA control in FILES.BBS, like in the BBS-list.
- ■ Logging to file in stead of stdout to obtain a history file of DOWNSORT
- usage.
- ■ File-selection with MAXIMUS CBCS key/lock parameters in addition to or
- in stead of area privilege levels.
- ■ Support for use of 'barricaded' areas and key/lock.
- ■ Another list: with the format of IPF-list but the contents of NEW-list.
- ■ FILES.BBS should [optionally] contain file-date and/or size.
- ■ Generate [optionally] Avatar codes in FILES.BBS headers.
- ■ Option for private headers in FILES.BBS in stead of the standard
- headers.
- ■ Option to specify right margin (line length) and left margin for
- continuation lines of long descriptions, and an optional 'indent' for a
- download counter.
- ■ Remove files from directories and FILES.BBS when they reach a certain
- age and are specified to be eligible for removal.
- ■ Do not report filename.SDN and filename.SDA as duplicates.
- ■ Remove previous include-file in FILES.BBS (if any) before including a
- specified new(?) include-file.
-
- Remember: Was there ever a time that all your wishes were fulfilled? That
- was the most boring time of your life, wasn't it?
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Packaging 32
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- INTERNALS
-
-
-
- DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT
-
- DOWNSORT has been developed with MicroSoft C compiler version 6.00a, and
- the IBM OS/2 Programming Tools and Information (generally called the OS/2
- | toolkit) under IBM OS/2 Extended Edition 1.3 as COMPACT memory model.
-
- | DOWNSORT has been tested with MAXIMUS CBCS 2.0, with the following
- | Operating Systems:
-
- | ■ IBM PC/DOS versions 4.0 and 5.0
- | ■ IBM OS/2 versions 1.3 and 2.0
- | ■ DOS-box of IBM OS/2 versions 1.3 and 2.0
-
- The generated code is at 80286 level (Compiler option /G2), since I believe
- | that only very few Bulletin Boards do use an XT these days.
-
- | Downsort is now also compilable with the IBM C-Set/2 compiler in
- | combination with the IBM OS/2 2.0 toolkit to obtain a real 32-bits version.
- | A compiler variable takes care of the selection between 1.3 and 2.0 calls
- | where necessary. The 32-bit version has no yet been tested extensively and
- | there is no 32-bit EXE-file distributed with this version of the Downsort
- | package.
-
-
- PROGRAM ORGANISATION
-
- The program is organised as follows:
-
- ■ Initialisation:
- - Read configuration file.
- - Process commandline parameters.
-
- Commandline parameters may override configuration file parameters.
-
- ■ Read AREA.DAT file to collect download pathnames (only of those area's
- that will participate this time).
-
- ■ For each file-area with a privilege not exceeding any list-request:
-
- - Read subdirectory (with find-file-first/next function). Take only
- Normal files: ignore directory entries, Hidden and System files and
- volume labels. Also ignore files with the following specifications:
- FILES.*, *.BAK, DIR.?BS and SYSTEM*.?BS.
-
- - For all regular file-entries found in subdirectory:
- -- Get filename.ext, attribute, date, time, size.
- -- Get file-description from FILES.BBS file. The path to the
- FILES.BBS file is (1) obtained from the "ListFile" specification
- in MAXIMUS AREA.DAT file, or (2) if not specified from the
-
-
- Internals 33
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- "DownLoad" specification (among the download files).
- -- Get file privilege 1) from area, 2) from FILES.BBS file if higher.
- -- When no orphan reporting is required, then drop orphan entries
- area-by-area.
-
- ■ For the ORP-list:
-
- If any orphan found, and the orphan-report is requested, create the
- orphan report, with the file-entries sorted on (1) area and (2)
- filename.
-
- ■ For the BBS-list:
- - Sort the files primarily on descending file-timestamp (and secundary
- on file-name and area-code).
- - Resort the first files on filename if requested.
- - Create output file for sorted list of filenames, -descriptions, etc.
- The file is placed in the current subdirectory (which generally will
- be the MAXIMUS directory) with the name DOWNSORT.BBS.
- - Copy a headerfile (for a customised MAXIMUS bulletin).
- - Put files in formatted outputfile (filename, area#, date, size,
- description), but only if description is found in FILES.BBS. Skip
- files with privilege higher than commandline (or default) parameter.
- Precede each line with a privilege-control sequence (^PLx string) so
- that MAXIMUS users below the specified max-priv-level do effectively
- see only the files they can download.
- - Include a trailerfile in the outputfile (for a custimised Bulletin).
- - Report non-listed files on standard output device (which might be
- re-directed to printer or disk-file).
-
- ■ If requested, put the above file collection in DOWNSORT.N~p with similar
- contents and layout as DOWNSORT.BBS, but without BBS-control sequences,
- and without including a header and trailer file. Produce a list for the
- default privilege (HIDDEN), or one for each specified privilege.
-
- ■ If requested, re-sort files on area and then filename or date, and
- create DOWNSORT.A~p, containing all files (respecting the privilege
- restrictions!). Area's with zero files within the applicable privilege
- limit will not be listed at all (will seem non-existing!). Produce a
- list for the default privilege (SYSOP), or one for each specified
- privilege.
-
- At the end of the list, an area summary report is generated.
-
- ■ If requested, re-sort files on filename or date only, and create
- DOWNSORT.GBL.
-
- ■ If requested, re-sort files on area, privilege and filename, and create
- for each area a FILES.BBS-type of file.
-
- ■ If requested generate a list of probably DUPlicate files.
-
- ■ If requested generate a list of download-paths: the OK-file (not: it
- will contain only the paths that participated in this run.
-
-
- Internals 34
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- NOTE: the program firstly reads a directory for existing files (not Hidden-
- or System-files, and not Subdirectory or Volumelabel), and then reads
- FILES.BBS to assign a description to each file. This means:
-
- ■ If more than 1 matching file-specification in FILES.BBS of the involved
- area is found (note that wild-card specifications in FILES.BBS are
- supported!), than the first matching description from FILES.BBS will
- appear in the lists (new in version 4.5, was 'last' in previous versions
- of Downsort).
- ■ Files for which no description is found in FILES.BBS will get "---no
- description available---" (or the replacement string you specified in
- DOWNSORT.CFG) in the user reports.
- ■ Files for which no matching filename in FILES.BBS is found will be
- listed in the Orphan report (DOWNSORT.ORP).
-
- Files for which there is an entry in FILES.BBS, but a corresponding file
- is not found in the directory will be reported as 'offline'.
-
- In special cases this might become a very large list. For example if
- you collect files in a single directory for different area's, all the
- files of 'the other' areas are reported as orphan. This will happen for
- every area, so each file might even be reported many times as orphan!
- Since the Orphan-list is now optional (from version 5.0 on), this list
- can be suppressed.
-
- Filenames of Orphans appear only in the other reports when the FileList
- request explicitly specifies the Hidden privilege.
-
-
-
- MAIN DATA ORGANISATION
-
- Data structure for access to file information via:
-
- 1. array of file-pointers (for file-sort!)
- 2. pointerchain in file-info structures
- 3. file structure contains pointer to file-description
- 4. file-structure contains pointer to area-information
- 5. Array of area-information
-
- The structures are shown in the following figure.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Internals 35
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
-
- ╔══════╗
- ║ dm ║
- ╚══════╝
- │ Array of pointers to structures with file info
- │ ╔═══════════╦════════════╦═════════════ . . . ══════╗
- (1) └─────>║ *file[0] ║ *file[1] ║ *file[2] ║
- ╚═══════════╩════════════╩═════════════ . . . ══════╝
- │ │ │
- (2) v v v
- ╔══════╗ ╔══════╗ ╔══════╗ ╔══════╗
- ║ ca ║ ──> ║ next ║ ──> ║ next ║ ──> ║ next ║ ──> . . .
- ╚══════╝ ╠══════╣ ╠══════╣ ╠══════╣
- (first- ║ file-║ ║ file-║ ║ file-║
- element) ║ info ║ ║ info ║ ║ info ║ . . .
- ║ [0] ║ ║ [1] ║ ║ [2] ║
- ╚══════╝ ╚══════╝ ╚══════╝
- │ │ │ │wildcards│ │
- │ └──┐ │ └──┐ │ │
- │ │ │ ┌──────────┘ │
- (3) v │ v v │ ┌──────┘
- ╔══════╗ │ ╔══════╗ │ │
- ║file- ║ │ ║file- ║ │ │(files of
- ║descr ║ │ ║descr ║ │ │ same area) . . .
- ╚══════╝ │ ╚══════╝ │ │
- │ │ │
- (4) v v v
- ╔════════════╦═════════════╦════════ . . . ══════╗
- (5) ┌────────>║ area[0] ║ area[1] ║ ║
- │ ╚════════════╩═════════════╩════════ . . . ══════╝
- │ array of structures of download info
- ╔══════╗
- ║ area ║
- ╚══════╝
-
- Schematic overview of DOWNSORT's in-storage database.
-
- Note: The area-array cannot be sorted itself: this would invalidate the
- pointers in the file-information records!
-
- The block character image is basically a 10x7 matrix (10 vertical and 7
- horizontal 'pixels'). The pixel-array takes two rows at a time, so that
- each character can be represented with 5 rows of 7 horizontal
- 'double-pixels'. Each pixel is displayed as a solid block.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Internals 36
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
- ╔═╦═╦═╦═╦═╦═╦═╗
- ║-║-║-║-║-║-║-║ line 1 (lower + upper)
- ╠═╬═╬═╬═╬═╬═╬═╣
- ║-║-║-║-║-║-║-║ 2 (lower + upper)
- ╠═╬═╬═╬═╬═╬═╬═╣
- ║-║-║-║-║-║-║-║ 3 (lower + upper)
- ╠═╬═╬═╬═╬═╬═╬═╣
- ║-║-║-║-║-║-║-║ 4 (lower + upper)
- ╠═╬═╬═╬═╬═╬═╬═╣
- ║-║-║-║-║-║-║-║ 5 (lower + upper)
- ╚═╩═╩═╩═╩═╩═╩═╝
-
- Each line is represented by a structure of seven 3-bit fields Each 3-bit
- field represents a basic element:
-
- value char description
- 0 (blank)
- 1 ▄ lower half
- 2 ▀ upper half
- 3 █ lower+upper halves
- 4 ▓ gray pattern
- 5 ▌ left part of upper and lower half
- 6 ▐ right part of upper and lower half
- 7 ░ gray pattern
- 8 ▒ gray pattern for not-supported characters
-
- The pitch is variable ('proportional font': a variable number of horizontal
- pixels). Three fonts are provided with different character-image and size:
-
- 1. 6x5 (three lines of max 5 characters)
- 2. 10x7 (five lines of max 7 characters)
- 3. 8x7 (four lines of max 7 characters)
- 4. 10x7 (reverse video image of the 8x7 font)
-
- Not all ASCII characters are represented in the font tables!
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Internals 37
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- APPENDIX A. HISTORY OF CHANGES
-
- The paragraphs below show a brief history of changes in DOWNSORT (most
- recent revisions on top of list!).
-
- DOWNSORT for MAXIMUS CBCS was developed from an OPUS equivalent (by the
- same author). Its pre-MAXIMUS history is not really important here and
- therefore has been omitted. However the name DOWNSORT has been maintained,
- so to prevent confusion, the version number is inherited (the last version
- for OPUS was 3.1).
-
-
- VERSION 5.6
-
- ■ In stead of the regular OKFile format (path\*.*), there is now also an
- option (/L) to produce a LONG format of the OKFile, containing
- explicitly all files within privilege with complete file-specification
- (path\filename.ext). Useful for file-requests at systems with large
- directories, and especially with CDROM's. With this option in effect,
- the *.* entries will not be generated, so file requests are only honored
- with EXACT filenames: wildcard specifications do not work anymore!
- ■ Improved display of long areanames (>3 char) in ALL- and IPF-lists.
- ■ Avatar codes may be stripped from comment lines in reports.
- ■ Missing include-files are now only reported when running Downsort in
- -V(erbose) mode.
- ■ Some bug fixes (some of them causing Trap 000D under OS/2):
- - If 'downsort.cfg' not found, return code 2 is reported, and
- downsort.cfg now closed at end of file.
- - Output of FILES.BBS could be erraneous when also IP2-list selected.
- - Limit of 217 active area's now relieved (this limit was not
- documented!).
- - Improved handling of parameters of FILFilePath-line in the sample
- Downsort.Cfg file. Also the explanatory comments are revised.
- ■ '-'-character now precedes the formfeed character in newly created
- FILES.BBS files (version 5.6h+).
- ■ Downsort source is now compilable with IBM C-Set/2 compiler and IBM OS/2
- 2.0 toolkit to obtain a real 32-bit version for OS/2 2.0+.
-
-
-
- VERSION 5.5
-
- ■ Finally(!) a sort capability for area-sequence. Areas can now be
- presented in order of AREA.DAT ('K'eep original sequence), sorted on
- areaname ('A'lphabetically), sorted in alphanumeric ('G'roup) sequence
- or in order of areaINclude ('I'). The group-sequence is useful with a
- popular naming convention whereby the areaname starts with one or more
- letters followed by one or more digits. Names starting with a digit
- will be sorted as if it were all numeric, and will be sorted
- accordingly.
- ■ NEW-, BBS-list and EMI-list (see below) can now also be limited in
- length by file-age (period specification in number of Days, Weeks or
- Months).
-
-
- Appendix A. History of changes 38
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- ■ A new list-type introduced: EMI-list (new file EMIsions). I is a simple
- list, comparable to NEW-list. It has a more compact format, and gives
- also file-time and the file-size (in exact bytes). It is especially
- useful to generate messages with file arrivals over the last period (in
- combination with a period specification).
- ■ Readability improvements in IP2-list.
- ■ Documentation extended with sample output for new users of Downsort.
- ■ Some bug-fixes:
- - Compares of path- and area-names now case INdependent
- - Memory allocation error during collection of comments in FILES.BBS
- - Index out-of-range in report preparation phase
- - Processing of /K-option for areas with FILES.BBS but otherwise empty.
-
-
-
- VERSION 5.4
-
- ■ Inline comments in FILES.BBS will be reproduced now! When AND ONLY WHEN
- the /K option is specified for All- or IPF-list, or for FILFilePath, the
- original existing comments in FILES.BBS are copied into All- or IPF-list
- or newly created FILES.BBS files. So note: /K means now: Keep sequence
- of FILES.BBS and Keep comments in FILES.BBS and other lists that support
- the /K option (ALL-, IPF and IP2-list).
-
- Note: /K is now the default sort parameter for FILFilePath, so that you
- do not loose your comments accidently.
- ■ Downsort's interpretation of the meaning of 'orphan' changed a little:
- an 'orphan' is from now on defined as a file for which there is no
- description in any FILES.BBS of all areas pointing to the same
- directory. This may reduce improper(?) orphan-reporting by previous
- versions of Downsort considerably when you have physically a single
- large directory of which the files are grouped logically in different
- areas with separate FILES.BBS files.
- ■ Duplicate download directories in OK-files will be suppressed.
- ■ Area-summaries in ALL- and IPF-lists are again sorted alphabetically on
- area-name.
- ■ A check during the data collection phase on maximum supported file
- entries (16350) has been added to prevent problems when exceeding this
- limit.
- ■ Orphan entries in FILES.BBS are now preceeded with '^PS' in stead of the
- unsupported '^PH' (bug fix).
- ■ Some specific adaptations for version 2.0:
- - All files conforming to filespec 'FILES.*' will not be reported
- anymore.
- - Area code will be handled as 9 character string: area-name! But in
- some reports it will be truncated to the first 3 or 4 characters.
- - AreaINclude and AreaEXclude are used as 'prefix'. Area-name
- specifications will be treated as group-names: you can include or
- exclude groups of areas starting with the same characters.
- - The /b, /t, /bt or /tb flag in FILES.BBS will not appear in the
- lists, but only when it appears immediately after the filename. It
- is not stripped from FILES.BBS.
- ■ As experiment a new list has been added: IP2FileList. It is a copy if
-
-
- Appendix A. History of changes 39
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- IPF-list, but uses some new formatting features offered by the
- IPF-compiler of the OS/2 2.0-beta toolkit (i.c. :table.). The result is
- a faster generation, but above al a faster compilation and a better
- VIEW. VIEWing under OS/2 1.2 or 1.3 is still possible!
-
-
-
- VERSION 5.3
-
- ■ New report added: DUP-list, a simple list, for SYSOP-use only, that
- shows (possibly) duplicate fileNAMES over the area's (the file-extension
- is not considered in the comparison).
- ■ Another new report: OKFile in BinkleyTerm style. A list of download
- paths within privilege, with option to include magic names.
- ■ IpfFileList line in Downsort.Cfg now also allows specification of the
- IPF pagesize (maximum number of file-entries per VIEW 'page' or 'part').
- ■ Progress signals streamlined, /Q is really silent now!
- ■ Fixed bug which caused Trap 000D under OS/2 (protection violation) under
- some rare conditions. The restriction that first area may not be empty
- or not contain only orphans has been removed with this change.
- ■ Support for MAXIMUS CBCS 1.00 removed: only version 1.02 is supported
- (and most likely 2.00 as well).
- ■ Downsort's change-history before version 5.0 removed from documentation.
- ■ Use of MicroSoft C Compiler 6.00a: more free memory for DOS users (also
- because of slightly improved program structuring).
-
-
-
- VERSION 5.2
-
- ■ Area selection is now possible within DOWNSORT. Two new keywords are
- provided in DOWNSORT.CFG: AreaINclude to make reports for selected
- download area's, AreaEXclude to omit area's from the reports. These
- keywords have only effect within the collection that would otherwise
- have been reported completely (restricted by AREA.DAT and report
- privilege).
- ■ FILES.BBS has now a peer relation with the directory in stead of being
- subordinate, in DOWNSORT terms of course. Filenames and their
- description in FILES.BBS for which there is no corresponding file in the
- download directory, are now NOT ignored anymore. In stead the file is
- reported as 'offline' (on the columns for file-date and -size). You may
- replace the word 'offline' with an alternative text.
- ■ Bug repaired that caused some files to be treated as orphan under
- certain rare circumstances. And a correction of an error in
- 'end-of-line' test/search on several places.
- ■ As already 'promised' in 5.1, the Area-summary in ALL-list is now in
- order of AREA.DAT.
- ■ Reorganised the documentation to obtain a more logical sequence of
- subjects. Due to the growing number of options of DOWNSORT, it became
- more and more difficult to see the trees through the wood. I added a
- number of paragraphs, especially for new users. It can be useful for
- YOU too!
-
-
-
- Appendix A. History of changes 40
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- VERSION 5.1
-
- ■ Since the ORPhan report is optional (changed with version 5.0), orphan
- entries could and now will be removed from internal storage during the
- information collection phase of DOWNSORT, but only when no orphan-list
- is requested! This is especially useful for the situation where a
- single large directory contains the files of several area's, and whereby
- the file descriptions are contained in different FILES.BBS files.
- Normally this will result in reporting lots of duplicate orphans
- (according to the definition of 'orphan' in DOWNSORT!). With this
- change memory utilisation is lower and sorting faster.
- ■ Another change of this kind: area's with a privilege exceeding any
- reporting privilege are not scanned anymore. Apart from lower memory
- utilisation, this might be useful for CDROM and slow disk(ette) systems.
- ■ The maximum number of Top-, Sub- and Bottom-Title lines has been
- extended to 20.
- ■ In addition all lists may now include a 'logo'-file with a new -I
- parameter on the individual report request specification (see sample
- DOWNSORT.CFG). The file will be copied into the list without any
- editing or translation. It will be positioned directly behind the
- block-title and before the subtitle (if any). For example: you may
- include your BBS-logo or a picture of your system configuration, or
- anything else you want to tell the file-requestors of FILES, ALLFILES
- and/or NEWFILES. The IPF-list may also include IPF tags, with artwork,
- etc. It may even include other files itself! For FILES.BBS the
- contents of this Include-file will immediately follow the 'standard'
- header.
- ■ All block-fonts have now a new special character <`> (reversed quote),
- which will be 'printed' as blank (space) with half the width of a normal
- character. This is useful for fine-alignment (e.g. manually centering)
- the BLOCK-title.
- ■ The chapter on 'titles and headers' has been rewritten to clarify the
- use of all title-options, please read it!.
- ■ In the SUMMARY of ALL- and IPF-lists the areas themselves are not sorted
- anymore, but presented in sequence of AREAS.CTL specification. This is
- based on the assumption that the file area's are in some kind of
- 'natural' order in AREAS.CTL (or maybe it is time to do that now!).
- ■ Descriptions in FILES.BBS are now (again) aligned on column 14 of the
- FILES.bbs file records.
- ■ IPF-list again a little more user-friendly (linking of area's).
- ■ A number of improvements have been applied to the executiontime messages
- (when running in VERBOSE mode).
-
-
-
- VERSION 5.0
-
- ■ Improved IPF-formatting: more colorful, builtin word-wrapping of VIEW
- used for file descriptions (better VIEWable under OS/2 1.3!). It should
- now also compile without errors/warnings. Compiling (with IPFC) takes
- significantly longer however!
- ■ The IPF-list of large filearea's (>200 files) split into parts of 200
- files to prevent files being left unlisted.
-
-
- Appendix A. History of changes 41
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- ■ Top-level title in FileLists shows file-count and byte-count as
- available within the privilege of the list. Thus it indicates what is
- really AVAILable to the user! Area-count omitted in lists which are not
- area-oriented.
- ■ ORPHAN report made OPTIONAL (must be specified to get it!).
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Appendix A. History of changes 42
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- APPENDIX B. WORLD-WIDE USE OF DOWNSORT
-
- PC-Square may be considered as the home-base of DOWNSORT. The most recent
- version is always available there (file-requests honoured between 07:00 and
- 24:00 local time).
-
- PC-Square Marcel Stikkelman Zoetermeer, Netherlands
- 2:512/4 31-79-424107
-
- The following SYSOPs have reported using DOWNSORT on their respective board.
-
- OS/2-MANiA Emmanuel Sandorfi Paris, France
- 2:320/5 33-1-64090640
-
- OS/2 TASK BBS Rene Carlsen Skagen, Denmark
- 2:231/910 45-98451070
-
- Grizzilus Maximus Collin Adams Preston, UK
- 2:250/121 44-772-828975
-
- Paradigmus Maximus John Taylor London, UK
- 2:253/68 44-81-566-5393
-
- Runnin' with the Devil Roberto Sonzogni Treviglio BG, Italy
- 2:331/205 39-363-302798
-
- Fernwood Emitt Dove Branford CT, USA
- 1:141/209 1-203-483-0348
-
- The Planet Earth Joel Lambert Bridgeport CT, USA
- 1:141/455 1-203-335-7742
-
- Bell's Theorem Jeremy Buhler Houston TX, USA
- 1:106/7674 1-713-777-0633
-
- OS/2 Shareware Pete Norloff Fairfax VA, USA
- 1:109/347 1-703-385-4325
-
- Singing Bear John Tarbox Wilmington DE, USA
- 1:150/130 1-302-984-2238
-
- La Jungle BBS Stephane Seguin Quebec, Canada
- 1:163/116 1-819-595-4917
-
- 3M Australia Graham Stair Sydney, NSW Australia
- 3:711/409 61-2-498-9184
-
- I have received reports from others. Too many for this list, which is just
- meant to point to a system in your neighbourhood(?). You may either logon
- to one of these boards, or perform a file-request of 'FILES' or 'ALLFILES'
- to get an impression of DOWNSORT's capabilities.
-
-
-
-
- Appendix B. World-wide use of DOWNSORT 43
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- APPENDIX C. SAMPLE LISTS
-
- Below follow a number of samples of list layouts and contents. Not shown
- are the BBS-, and IPF-lists, since these are screen- rather than
- paper-oriented, with their specific formatting and color settings.
-
- The dates and sizes in these lists have been manipulated!
-
-
- ALL-LIST
-
- ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
- █▀▀▀▀▀▀ █ ║ OS/2 - Fernwood - New Acquisitions
- █▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄█ ║ Available: 143 files (0.0 MB)
- ██ ██ ║ Privilege: Disgrace
- ██ ██ ║ Newest: XLIST233.ZIP 3-22-91 (avail: 7-26-91)
- ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
- Filename Size Date Description
- ──────────── ───── ───────── ──────────────────────────────────────────────────
- AAFONTS.ZIP 1K 3-22-91 Text from IBM regarding Anti-aliased Fonts.
- AFP_120.LZH 1K 3-22-91 Areafix 1.2 for OS/2. Permits systems that do
- echomail with yours to change their complement of
- areas independently.
-
-
-
- GBL-LIST
-
- (Sun Jan 05 15:05) Available: 508 files (0 MB)
- Maximum privilege shown: Sysop
- Newest: BIGBRO.ZIP 3-22-91 (avail: 7-26-91)
- Date flag: new on this system since: * = 1 week, + = 1 month
-
- Filename Area Size Date Description
- ──────────── ──── ───── ───────── ─────────────────────────────────────────────
- 2COLDIR.ZIP F3 1K 3-22-91 DoubleDir for OS/2
- 2MONITOR.ZIP F4 1K 3-22-91 Source and .EXE for running 2 monitors.
-
-
-
- NEW-LIST
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Appendix C. Sample Lists 44
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- (Sun Jan 05 16:14) Last 10 months newest of a total of 508 files (0 MB)
- Maximum privilege shown: Sysop
- Newest: BIGBRO.ZIP dd 3-22-91 (avail: 7-26-91)
- Date flag: new on this system since: * = 1 week, + = 1 month
-
- Filename Area Size Date Description
- ──────────── ──── ───── ───────── ─────────────────────────────────────────────
- 2COLDIR.ZIP F3 1K 3-22-91 DoubleDir for OS/2
- 2MONITOR.ZIP F4 1K 3-22-91 Source and .EXE for running 2 monitors.
- 8514.PAT F4 1K 3-22-91 Patch to get 32x32 icons on 8514/a
-
-
-
- EMI-LIST
-
- (Tue Jan 14 21:55) Last 44 weeks newest emissions
-
- --Filename-- --Date-- -Time- -Bytes- ---Description---
- DUMMY.DAT 10-11-91 9:45p 31 Dummy file for Downsort tests +
- continuation line
- PSOS2.ZIP 3-22-91 11:46p 2 View OS/2 Information on PM like
- Threads & Process, Memory used, and more.
-
-
-
- FILES.BBS
-
- - █▀▀▀▀▀▀ █ ║ OS/2 - Fernwood - New Acquisitions
- - █▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄█ ║ Available: 143 files (0.0 MB)
- - ██ ██ ║ Privilege: Disgrace
- - ██ ██ ║ Newest: XLIST233.ZIP 3-22-91 (avail: 7-26-91)
- -──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
- Filename Size Date Description
- -─────────── ─────── ───────── ────────────────────────────────────────────────
- AAFONTS.ZIP Text from IBM regarding Anti-aliased Fonts.
- AFP_120.LZH Areafix 1.2 for OS/2. Permits systems that do echomail with yours to change their complement of areas independently.
-
- Note: File date and size are provided dynamically by Maximus CBCS!
-
-
- OKFILE
-
-
-
- | SHORT FORMAT (DEFAULT)
-
- @files g:\file\file01\allfiles.zip
- @avail g:\file\file01\allfiles.zip
- @newfiles g:\file\file01\newfiles.zip
- G:\File\Fernwood\*.*
- G:\File\Max\*.*
-
-
-
-
- Appendix C. Sample Lists 45
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- | LONG FORMAT (-L)
-
- | @files g:\file\file01\allfiles.zip
- | @avail g:\file\file01\allfiles.zip
- | @newfiles g:\file\file01\newfiles.zip
- | G:\File\Fernwood\DWNSRT55.ZIP
- | G:\File\Fernwood\DWNSRT56.ZIP
- | G:\File\Max\MAXSRT10.ZIP
- | G:\File\Max\MAXSRT11.ZIP
-
-
-
- ORPHAN LIST
-
- ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
- Area Filename Date FilePath
- ──── ──────────── ───────── ───────────────────────────────────────────────────
- F1 123R3UPD.ZIP 3-22-91 G:\File\Fernwood\
- F1 4019DRVR.ZIP 3-22-91 G:\File\Fernwood\
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- Appendix C. Sample Lists 46
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- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
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-
-
- APPENDIX D. SAMPLE CONFIGURATION FILE
-
- ;
- ; ██▐███ █▐███ ██ ██ ██▐███ ██▐████ █▐███ ██▐███ ██▐████
- ; ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ▐██
- ; ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ █ ██ ██ ██ ██▐████ ██ ██ ██▐███ ▐██
- ; ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ █ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ █ ▐██
- ; ██▐███ █▐███ █▐███ ██ ██ ██▐████ █▐███ ██ ██ ▐██
- ; (font 2)
- ;
- ;
- ; ▄▀▀▀▄ ▄▀▀▀▄ █▄ █ █▀▀▀▀ ▀█▀ ▄▀▀▀▄ █ █ █▀▀▀▄ ▄▀▀▀▄ ▀▀█▀▀ ▀█▀ ▄▀▀▀▄ █▄ █
- ; █ █ █ █▀█▄█ █▄▄ █ █ ▄▄ █ █ █▄▄▄▀ █▄▄▄█ █ █ █ █ █ ▀▄█
- ; ▀▄▄▄▀ ▀▄▄▄▀ █ ▀█ █ ▄█▄ ▀▄▄▄▀ ▀▄▄▄▀ █ ▀▄▄ █ █ █ ▄█▄ ▀▄▄▄▀ █ █
- ; (font 1)
- ;
- ;
- ; █▀▀▀▀▀▀ █ █ █▀▀▀▀▀▀
- ; █▄▄▄▄▄▄ █▄ █▄ █▄▄▄▄▄▄
- ; ██ ██ ██ ██
- ; ██ ██ ██▄▄▄▄▄ ██▄▄▄▄▄
- ; (font 3)
- ; (font 4 is reverse video of 3)
-
- ; ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
- ; │ Sample Configuration File for DOWNSORT by Rob Hamerling │
- ; └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
- ;
- ; NOTES: Leading blanks are skipped.
- ; Lines with '%', '*' or ';' as first non-blank character are
- ; considered to contain comments only. So are empty lines and
- ; lines with a valid keyword, but without any parameter.
- ;
- ; ! Don't put a comment string after a parameter specification !
- ;
- ;
- ; AreaDat: Complete file-specification of your 'AREA.DAT'
- ; -------
- ; AREA.DAT is made by MAXIMUS' SILT(P) with -a or -x
- ; option the path is normally specified in MAX.CTL
- ; with the option AreaDat in Session Section.
- ; With the AreaDat you may specify any file that has
- ; the SILT(P)-format. For example you may make a special
- ; file for running DOWNSORT with a subset (selection)
- ; of the normal MAXIMUS file-area's.
- ; This might be useful for special usergroups.
- ; Another reason may be the memory usage of DOWNSORT
- ; under DOS. If you hit the boundary: make a subset.
- ; Standard OS/2 / DOS naming applies.
-
- AreaDat area5124.dat
- * AreaDat area3205.dat
-
-
-
- Appendix D. Sample Configuration File 47
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- ; AreaINclude Select area's to be INCLUDED in the reports.
- ; AreaEXclude Select area's to be EXCLUDED from the reports.
- ; ----------- Specify 1..9 character areanames to indicate which areas
- ; have to be INcluded or EXcluded. The selection applies to
- ; all areanames starting with the same characters (may be a
- ; GROUP of areas!). The selection is case-INsensitive.
- ; Use ONLY ONE operation: either AreaINclude or AreaEXclude!
- ; If all your selections do not fit on a single line
- ; (max 255 characters) take as many lines as you like.
- ; In total you may specify a maximum of 200 area's.
- ; Separate the areanames with one or more BLANKS.
- ; NOTE: A high area-privilege may overrule AreaINclude!
-
- AreaEXclude F
- * AreaINclude FD M3
-
- ; AreaOrder Order in which areas have to be sorted.
- ; Selection can be: K[eep] - Keep order of AREA.DAT
- ; A[lpha] - Alphabetic order of areaname
- ; G[roup] - Group order
- ; I[nclude] - order of areaINclude (above)
- ; Specify one of these orders (first letter is sufficient).
- ; 'Group'-order is a special sorting sequence for area names
- ; consisting of a group of letters followed by digits.
- ; See the documentation for details.
- ; Default: Group-order (also with invalid specifications)
-
- * AreaOrder Include
-
- ; TitleFont: Reference number of the BLOCK-font you want for your Title.
- ; ---------
- ; Valid numbers: 1 .. Simple font (5x6 pattern)
- ; 2 .. Pseudo-Stencil Font (7x10 pattern)
- ; 3 .. ROBoComputer Font (7x8 pattern)
- ; 4 .. Reversed Video RoboComp (7x8 pattern)
- ;
- ; NOTE: The fonts are based on the US-codepage (437).
- ; This will also work properly for 860 (Portugese),
- ; 863 (Canadian-French) and 865 (Nordic).
- ; If codepage 850 (Multilingual) is active, the pattern
- ; will be adapted a little, see if you like it or not.
- ; The differences apply mainly to Font2.
- ;
- ; The heading of this file shows font 2, 1 and 3 respectively.
-
- TitleFont 2
-
- ; Title: Short string that will be displayed in BLOCK-characters
- ; ----- on top of all FileLists (except BBS-list).
- ; You may specify this parameter also on the xxxFileList
- ; parameter.
- ; The BLOCK fonts are 'proportional', the following number of
- ; characters will generally fit on a line:
-
-
- Appendix D. Sample Configuration File 48
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- ;
- ; FontTitle 1 maximum characters: 13
- ; " 2 .. 4 " " 8
- ;
- ; No more than 20 characters are accepted as input.
- ;
- ; If Title isn't specified, it will be DOWNSORT by default.
- ; Not all characters are supported, and that may vary with
- ; the font itself. All fonts support:
- ;
- ; - UPPER case A..Z
- ; - LOWER case a..z , but will be translated to UPPER case
- ; - Digits 0..9
- ; - - (hyphen), blank
- ;
- ; In addition fonts 1 and 2 support the following characters:
- ;
- ; _ * - | . [ ] ( ) / \
- ;
- ; Not-supported characters are displayed as blank.
- ; The '~'-character (tilde) may be used as required blank,
- ; the '`'-character (reverse quote) as half width blank.
-
- Title `DownSort
-
- ; PreTitle Lines to be displayed immediately before the BLOCK-title.
- ; -------- The lines will be copied asis, however leading blanks are
- ; skipped, no wrapping or truncation will be applied for
- ; 'long' lines, '~' (tilde) characters are translated to
- ; blanks. You may specify 20 PreTitles, excess is ignored.
- ; Empty PreTitle lines are ignored and not counted.
- ; There is no default pretitle.
- ; To create empty lines in your header specify a PreTitle
- ; with a tilde.
-
- PreTitle ~
- PreTitle ~~~~~~~<═════:═════ p r e - t i t l e ═════:═════>
- PreTitle ~
-
- ; SubTitle Lines to be displayed immediately below the BLOCK-title.
- ; -------- Maximum 20 SubTitles are accepted, and exactly the
- ; same rules apply as for PreTitle.
- ;
-
- SubTitle ~
- SubTitle ~~~~~~~<═════&═════ s u b - t i t l e ═════&═════>
- SubTitle ~ Overview of downloadable files on this magnificent Board
- SubTitle ~ Node number 9.999/99, modemspeeds: V.99/V.99bis
- SubTitle ~~~~~~~<═════════════════════════════════════════>
- SubTitle ~
-
- ; BottomLine Lines to be displayed at the end of the filelist.
- ; ---------- Maximum 20 BottomLines are accepted, and exactly the
-
-
- Appendix D. Sample Configuration File 49
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- ; same rules apply as for PreTitle and Subtitle.
- ;
-
- BottomLine ~
- BottomLine ~~~~~~~<═══════ b o t t o m : t i t l e ═════════>
- BottomLine ~
- BottomLine ~~~~~~~<═══ How do you like DOWNSORT, folks? ════>
- BottomLine ~
-
- ; MaxNewFiles Limit the number of file entries in BBS-list and NEW-list(s).
- ; ----------- It specifies the actual number of file entries that may
- ; appear in NewFileList and BBSFileList.
- ; If you specify more than one privilege for NewFileList,
- ; then each list will contain (max) the MaxNewFiles number
- ; of file entries, but the collection of each may differ due
- ; to privilege considerations.
- ; Individual values for BBS-list and NEW-list may be specified
- ; on the corresponding xxxFileList line (see below)
- ; Optionally the value may be followed by a single letter.
- ; In stead of the number of files, the list will then be
- ; limited by the age of the files to be included:
- ; in days (D), weeks (W) or Months (M).
-
- MaxNewFiles 3W
-
- ; OrphanDesc Description text of Orphan files.
- ; NotFoundDesc Description text of files without description in FILES.BBS.
- ; ------------ The description will replace the default hard-coded text.
- ; Up to 45 characters may be specified.
- ; The '~' (tilde) character will not be translated here!
-
- OrphanDesc ~~~~~ !!!! Orphelin !!!! ~~~~~
- NotFoundDesc +++ Ce fichier défie toute description! +++
-
-
- ; OfflineDesc When a filespecification is found in FILES.BBS but not
- ; ----------- in the corresponding download directory, this text replaces
- ; the filesize and date (right aligned).
- ; Up to 14 characters are accepted.
-
- OfflineDesc -- archived --
-
- ; AVAstrip You may wish to strip off AVATAR graphics characters from
- ; -------- the contents of your FILES.BBS files.
- ; 5.6 Specify 'No' to deactivate stripping (default is 'Yes').
- ; 5.6 Will work ONLY for COMMENT LINES in ALL- and IPF-lists!
- ; 5.6 Remember: comments are only listed with KEEPSEQ (no sort).
-
- AVAstrip Yes
-
- ; ======================================================================
- ; Above were the parameters with a global effect: applicable to all
- ; lists or to the execution mode of DOWNSORT.
-
-
- Appendix D. Sample Configuration File 50
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- ; Below follow list-specific parameters, which might override some of
- ; the settings of the global parameters.
- ; Leave this sequence: first global, then specific parameters!
- ; ======================================================================
- ;
- ; xxxFileList: Create one or more File lists of type 'xxx'.
- ;
- ; xxx ───┐ ┌──────────── TWIT
- ; v │┌─────────── DISGRACE ┌─ FileName of the list
- ; ┌── ORP ││┌────────── LIMITED │ (without extension,
- ; ┌── BBS │││┌───────── NORMAL │ maximum 8 characters)
- ; ┌── NEW ││││┌──────── WHORTY │
- ; ┌── ALL │││││┌─────── PRIVIL │
- ; ┌── GBL ││││││┌────── FAVORED │
- ; ┌── DUP │││││││┌───── EXTRA │ ┌─ Additional options for
- ; ┌── IPF ││││││││┌──── CLERK │ │ each list individually:
- ; ┌── IP2 │││││││││┌─── ASSISTSYSOP │ │
- ; ┌── OK ││││││││││┌── SYSOP │ │ -W - Wrap Description
- ; ┌── EMI │││││││││││┌─ HIDDEN │ │ -T - Truncate Descr.
- ; │ ││││││││││││ │ │ -A - Alpha sort on name
- ; │ ││││││││││││ │ │ -D - Date sort
- ; │ ││││││││││││ │ │ -K - Keep FILES.BBS seq
- ; │ ││││││││││││ │ │ -If - Include_filespec
- ; │ ││││││││││││ ┌─────────┘ │ nnnP - max number of entries
- ; │ ││││││││││││ │ │ -Fn - Title font (0..4)
- ; │ ││││││││││││ │ │ -X - eXcl priv in headers
- ; v ││││││││││││ v v
- ; ═══─═══════ vvvvvvvvvvvv ════════ ════════════════════════════════
- ; xxxFileList TDLNWPFECASH FileName Option-1 Option-2 . . . Option-n
- ;
- ; If just xxxFileList is specified, the Level by default will be SYSOP
- ; and the filename will be DOWNSORT.
- ;
- ; For NEW-, GBL-, ALL-, IPF-, OK- and EMI-List up to 10 privilege letters
- ; can be specified and for each character a separate list-file will
- ; be generated with the following extension:
- ; NewFileList: N~p
- ; AllFileList: A~p
- ; IpfFileList: I~p
- ; GblFileList: G~p
- ; OKFileList: O~p
- ; EmiFileList: E~p
- ; where 'p' is the privilege character.
- ; For the BBS- and DUP-list only 1 privilege character will be accepted.
- ; The default filename (DOWNSORT) for each list can be overridden
- ; with the [optional] third parameter on the xxxFileList line.
- ;
- ; Additionally some other parameters may be specified (in any sequence).
- ;
- ; nnn[P] Limit the number of file-entries to a maximum of 'nnn':
- ; - for BBS-list and NEW-list the max size of the list
- ; - for IPF-list the maximum size of a VIEW-page
- ; If followed by Period-indicator ('d', 'w' or 'm') the list is
-
-
- Appendix D. Sample Configuration File 51
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- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- ; limited not by number, but by file-AGE in Days, Weeks or Months.
- ; NOTE: the Period-indicator is not valid for IPF-lists.
- ;
- ; -A Selects Alphabetic sort on filename
- ; -D Selects sort on Date/Time of the file
- ; -K Keep sequence of files in FILES.BBS
- ; (ALL- and IPF-list, and newly generated FILES.BBS files).
- ;
- ; -T Causes Truncation of long descriptions (to about 50 characters)
- ; so that only 1 line will appear per file-entry.
- ; -W Causes Wrapping of long descriptions: the report will contain
- ; as many lines as needed for the complete description.
- ;
- ; -L Long OKFile: explicit filenames in stead of wildcards (PATH\*.*)
- ; Applies only to OKFileList.
- ;
- ; -If Include userfile (f = file-spec) in report for NEW-, ALL-,
- ; IPF-, IP2-, GBL-lists and FILES.bbs files. The file is
- ; included without any translations, so beware of formatting
- ; (text-float) in the IPF- and IP2-list!
- ;
- ; -X eXclude privilege indications in NEW-, ALL-, IPF- and GBL-lists.
- ;
- ; -Fn ListTitle font. Choose for 'n': 1, 2, 3 or 4 (default is 2).
- ; See some samples of the fonts in the top of this file.
- ; If '0' (zero) specified, then NO BLOCK TITLE will be generated.
- ;
- ; If an asterisk (*) is used as parameter value character, the hardcoded
- ; default value will be used. If you specify mutually exclusive
- ; options (-A or -D) or (-T or -W), then the last value on the line
- ; will be effective.
- ;
- ; NOTES 1. For ORP-fileList the privilege parameter does not apply,
- ; ----- but at least 1 character must be specified!
- ; 2. Invalid or not-recognised sub-parameters are ignored without
- ; any warning!
- ; 3. You should specify maximum 1 line of each list-type, otherwise
- ; only the last specification will be accepted.
-
- AllFileList s Down_All -x -k -W -f1 -IDownsort.Inc
- * BBSFileList s Down_Bbs 3w -d -w -F1
- * DupFileList s Down_Dup -w
- * GblFileList s Down_Gbl -a -t -F3 -IDownsort.Inc
- * IpfFileList s Down_Ipf 200 -k -x -F4
- * Ip2FileList s Down_Ip2 200 -a -F3
- NewFileList s Down_New 10m -a -t -f2
- * EmiFileList s Down_Emi 22 -d -w -IDownsort.inc
- * OKFileList d Down_OKE -l -IDownsort.Mag
- * OrpFileList * Down_Orp -a -w -f4
-
- ; NOTE: The IPF-list has the format of an INPUT-file for the
- ; Information Presentation Facility Compiler (IPFC), which is
- ; part of the IBM OS/2 Program Development Toolkit and equivalent
-
-
- Appendix D. Sample Configuration File 52
-
- Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
-
-
-
- ; MicroSoft package. This inputfile has to be processed by this
- ; compiler. For the sample above with the command:
- ; IPFC DOWN_IPF.I~P /INF
- ; Be sure to have the file DOWNSORT.BMP in the default directory and
- ; set the IPFC environment-variable (e.g. SET IPFC=D:\TOOLKT13\IPFC).
- ; IPFC will produce a file called DOWN_IPF.INF, which is ready
- ; to be viewed with the command:
- ; VIEW DOWN_IPF
- ; See the Toolkit documentation for details of IPFC.
- ; IPFC is not distributed with the DOWNSORT package!
- ;
- ; IP2FileList has the OS/2 2.0 IPF format, you will need IPFC
- ; of the OS/2 2.0 toolkit!
-
- ; FILFilePath Specifications for the FILES.bbs type of output.
- ; ----------- Specifications are basically the same as for above lists.
- ; Second parameter is [optional] specification of
- ; destination directory of newly generated Files.BBS files.
- ; Use the format: drive:\directory\
- ; If second parameter specified, the output filename will
- ; be 'FILES', extension will be the first 3 characters of
- ; the areaname.
- ; If not specified the MAXIMUS path specification will be
- ; used (ListFile parameter if used in Maximus' AREA.CTL
- ; otherwise the Download directory).
- ; Not all parameters of other lists (see above) apply to
- ; the FILES.bbs lists (since it will not contain a TITLE
- ; as the other lists and the file-description will be
- ; kept on a single - looooong - line).
- ; Entries can be sorted, but then you loose your comments!
- ; So -K (Keep Sequence) is default and recommended!
-
- FILFilePath s d:\c2\downsort\filesbbs /k -x
-
- ;
- ; ═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
- ;
- ; Commandline parameters may supply additional options, and may
- ; (partly) override the specifications in this configuration file.
- ; Consider this file as your customised default setting for DOWNSORT,
- ; and use commandline parameters only to make other lists on the fly.
- ; For the reports there is nothing that you can specify with commandline
- ; parameters, that you cannot specify in this configuration file!
- ;
-
-
-
-
-
-
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-
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- Appendix D. Sample Configuration File 53
-