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1994-11-20
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11KB
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219 lines
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4Cat Utility Programs |
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Version 1.40 |
Released November 20, 1994 |
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by Earl R. Davidson |
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Program and Documentation Copyright (c) 1991 - 1994 |
by Earl R. Davidson |
249 West Doublegate Drive |
Albany, GA 31707 |
All rights reserved |
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Portions Copyright (c) 1989 - 91 Microsoft Corporation |
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Notice
These programs are not in the public domain. These utility
programs for 4CAT are included as part of the 4CAT140 program
and may not be used for any other purpose.
Disclaimer
4Cat is distributed without warranty, expressed or implied,
including without limitation the warranties of merchant-
ability and of fitness for a particular purpose. You, the
user, assume full responsibility for the selection and use of
4Cat to achieve your desired results.
Introduction
The Utilities programs described in this documentation file
allow you to pack and repair the 4CAT-DB4.MDB database file.
Packing the database physically removes deleted records and
frees up disk space. Repairing the database can help restore
files that have become corrupted.
Installation
The 4CAT140 Archive file should contain the following files:
4CATPACK.BAT Batch file to pack database
4CATREPR.BAT Batch file to repair database
4CATUTIL.DOC This documentation file
ISAMPACK.EXE Pack program used by 4CATPACK.BAT
ISAMREPR.EXE Repair program used by 4CATREPR.BAT
Simply copy the files to the subdirectory which contains your
4CAT-DB4.MDB file.
Warning!
Always make a backup copy of your 4CAT-DB4.MDB file before
using either of these utilities!
4Cat Utility Programs - Version 1.40 Page 1
Usage
Using the utility programs is as simple as typing the file
name for the appropriate batch file: 4CATPACK or 4CATREPR.
The batch file simply supplies the database filename to the
appropriate program. Do not interrupt either process once it
has begun.
The REPAIR Utility
The Repair Utility can only restore physical integrity to a
database (i.e., consistency among the tables in the database).
It systematically goes through every table and index and
recreates the database, using every piece of internally
consistent information in the file. If anything is found that
cannot be reconciled with the other information in the file, it
is deleted. This restores consistency to the database. It is
possible that some blocks of data will never be reconciled with
the rest of the database, and will therefore be lost. Listed
below are messages that may be given by the Repair Utility:
Message Explanation
-------------------- ---------------------------------------
Repair of 4CAT-DB4.MDB Repair process completed.
completed successfully
Cannot repair Repair process has been aborted because
4CAT-DB4.MDB: Not a the file was not recognizable as a
database file database file.
Table was truncated: During structural analysis of the
data lost table's data pages, an inconsistent
page caused the table to be truncated
as of the last uncorrupted page. File
is probably unusable.
Cannot repair Database file is unusable.
4CAT-DB4.MDB: Uncor-
rectable problems
A repair may also be aborted for reasons having nothing to do
with the state of the database. Messages resulting in such
cases include (but are not limited to): Disk full, Out of
memory, and File not found.
4Cat Utility Programs - Version 1.40 Page 2
All messages are redirected to a file named 4CATREPR.RPT as the
Repair Utility runs. This file is then typed to the screen by
the batch file. You may delete 4CATREPR.RPT if you like.
When you use the Repair Utility it requires additional space
within your database to accomplish its work. This adds at
least 32K to the size of the database. Do not run the utility
if your disk does not have this amount of space available in
the current working directory. The Repair Utility deletes
inconsistent records in tables, but does not compact after
doing so. Compacting is described in the next section.
The PACK Utility
When records are deleted from a database (either by 4CAT itself
or the Repair Utility), the size of your disk file does not
change. Instead, the deleted data is marked, and 4CAT begins
to reuse the space in the file as you add to the database. The
Pack Utility performs two functions. First, if there is a
total of 32K of data marked for deletion, the disk file shrinks
in 32K increments. If there is not 32K of data marked for
deletion, the Pack Utility has no effect on the size of the
disk file. However, any time you run the Pack Utility, it
removes records marked for deletion and then copies the
database, table by table, and index by index, into a database
having the same name (the old database is renamed 4CAT-DB4.BAK.
The effect of compaction is improved performance, in the same
way that defragmenting a hard disk improves performance.
As it compacts the database the Pack Utility creates a report
in a file named 4CATPACK.RPT. This file is then typed to the
screen by the batch file. You may delete 4CATPACK.RPT if you
like.
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Thanks for using 4CAT. I hope it serves you as well has it is
serving me.
Earl R. Davidson
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4Cat Utility Programs - Version 1.40 Page 3