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1994-12-02
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Lock Tools Administration Manual
Steve Clarke
May 1994
Lock Tools Administration Manual Page 2
INTRODUCTION
The Lock suite of programs is provided to give network
administrators the ability to control the number of copies
that a peice of software may be run at any one time. The
software has no network specific calls, and therefore should
work an any network where file read/write sharing can be
performed.
There are three types of lock, DOS, Windows, and Windows
Stub. DOS locks can be applied to any DOS application;
Windows locks can be applied to any Windows 3.1 application.
Windows Stub locks are special, and intended purely for the
WIN.COM program.
The programs have been tested on MS DOS 3.3, 5.0, 6.0 and
6.2, Windows 3.1, and Windows 3.11.
The Windows lock program requires the use of TOOLHELP.DLL
(which is distributed with Windows).
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Lock Tools Administration Manual Page 3
INSTALLING
The installation program uses four separate areas:
o A program area. This area must be made read only by
users, and must exist in the PATH.
o An administration program area. This area is in a
subdirectory under the program area, and is called
ADMIN. It contains the lock management tools and
documentation. This subdirectory should not be
accessible to users (apart from the system manager).
o A control directory. This directory holds information
about how many applications of each type are allowed to
be run. This directory should be made read only to
users.
o A Lock directory. This directory is where all of the
locks are stored. It should be made read/write to
users. When locks are taken out, the attributes are
changed to read-only through DOS; this will cause the
lockrm program to behave differently on different types
of network.
To install the program, put the installation disk into a
disk drive (A:, say), then type A:INSTALL. (Note that it is
possible to install from any drive or subdirectory).
Once the install program has read in its configuration data,
you will be asked which is the destination directory for the
programs. Once entered, this directory will be created (if
possible). If at any time, you wish to abort the install
procedure, simply press the Escape key.
You will then be prompted for the Control Directory. Enter
the full path name for this directory.
You will then be prompted for the Lock Directory. Enter the
full path name for this directory.
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Lock Tools Administration Manual Page 4
The installation procedure will continue, and all of the
files will be copied into their respective directories. In
addition, the installation procedure will create a LOCK.INI
file in the program directory. IF YOU ARE UPGRADING FROM A
PREVIOUS VERSION, THE LOCK.INI FILE WILL BE OVERWRITTEN.
When the istallation procedure is complete, you will be left
in the program directory. As the software is network
independant, it is not possible to change any of the network
file permissions. You should do this now, manually.
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Lock Tools Administration Manual Page 5
CONFIGURING A MACHINE
To enable a machine to identify which locked applications
belong to it, each machine is given a host reference. This
should be a one, or two letter identification string. To
set the string, add a line to the machine's boot file
(AUTOEXEC.BAT) as follows:
set HOSTID=xx
Where xx is a one or two character sequence which is unique.
Note that 'AA' and 'aa' are treated as the same HOSTID by
the lock tools.
CONFIGURING A USER
To enable the correct reporting of which user has taken out
which application, each user should have an identification
string. Ideally, this should be unique. To set the string,
add a line to the user's login file (or to the system login
file) as follows:
set USR=uuuuuuu
Where uuuuuuu is the username. Note that this username is
used for outputting information only (up to 32 characters
will be displayed), so there are only practical limits on
its size and contents.
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Lock Tools Administration Manual Page 6
THE LCONFIG UTILITY
To create a blank LOCK.INI file in the current directory,
lconfig may be used. Type the following:
lconfig CreateIni path_to_lockdir path_to_controldir
The LOCK.INI file should be edited manually to include user
name and registration data.
To take out locks on an application, the program lconfig
should be used (with no parameters). Once started, you will
be shown a screen with a menu bar, and an empty box.
At any time when using this program (apart from when
entering a string), pressing Escape (or x) will cause the
program to end.
To select an item off the menu bar, press the highlighted
letter.
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Lock Tools Administration Manual Page 7
LOCKING AN APPLICATION
To lock an application, start up lconfig, and press 'I'.
You will be asked for an application name. Enter the full
pathname (and filename) of the application (including the
extension). For example:
Enter Application to Lock:
L:\APPS\PROGRAM\BORLANDC\BIN\BC.EXE
Note that if the application is already under lock, the
locking stub will be updated.
If this is a new lock, you will be asked for a one line
description of the application. You will then be asked
whether the application is (D)OS, (W)indows, or a Windows
(S)tub. Select the appropriate response by pressing either
D,W, or S. The lock for the application will then be
created, and the application should be added to the top
window.
Locking an application involves the following process:
Rename PROGNAME.EXE to PROGNAM_.SLP
Copy Appropriate Locking Stub to PROGNAME.EXE
Create a control file called PROGNAME.0
CHANGING NUMBER OF COPIED OF AN APPLICATION
To change the nubmer of copies of an application which are
available, simply use the arrow keys to move the cursor to
the appropriate application, and type in a new number. Afer
pressing Enter, you will be asked to confirm the change,
then the change will be made.
The change procedure involves the following:
Rename Control file PROGNAME.xx to PROGNAME.yy
(where xx = old number of copies, and yy = new number of
copies)
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Lock Tools Administration Manual Page 8
UNLOCKING AN APPLICATION
To remove the lock from an application, use the arrow keys
to move the cursror to the application which requires
unlocking, and press 'D' (for lock delete). You will then
be asked for the full pathname of the application (including
the extension). This pathname is used to re-create the
original file name, so be sure to get the .COM or .EXE
extension correct.
Once entered, the lock will be removed. Note that an extra
layer of security has been added into the program with this
release, to remove the possibility of file deletion. File
contents are checked, and a file will only be removed if it
is a valid lock stub. This means that locking stubs from
previous versions of lock, and files that have been renamed
without the use of lconfig may cause errors.
If these errors arise, it is up to the administrator to
ensure that the correct files are given the correct names.
Unlocking an application involves the following procedure:
Delete PROGNAME.EXE
Rename PROGNAM_.SLP to PROGNAME.EXE
Delete control file PROGNAME.yy
GETTING INFORMATION
To receive information about the user (registration), press
'I'. The user and registration inforation is stored in the
LOCK.INI file.
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Lock Tools Administration Manual Page 9
POTENTIAL HAZZARDS
Problem: Because the lock program PROGNAME.EXE always looks
for the original program (now named PROGNAM_.SLP),
the lock program will be unable to lock two
applications in the same directory with only the
last character in the filename different. It will
also be unable to lock a .EXE and a .COM file in
the same directory.
Example:
PROGA.EXE Will all be renamed to PROG_.SLP
PROGB.EXE
PROGA.COM
PROGB.COM
Symptoms: LCONFIG will give an error saying that it cannot
delete what it thinks should be a lock stub.
Solution: Rename any potential problem files. so that no two
programs in the same directory can cause this
problem.
Problem: Users crash an application, reboot the machine,
then walk off. Depending on the network, this can
be a problem. Some network configurations will
insist on the original user running lockrm on the
original machine, Some configurations will allow
any user to run lockrm on the original machine.
Symptoms: Lockrm refuses to remove locks on a machine.
Solution: As there are may problems here, there is not one
solution. One possible solution is for the
network administrator to remove the locks manually
(ie attrib, then delete *.%MACHID% and *._%MACHID%
in the control directory) - this is only possible
if the network administrator can attrib other
user's files. (check AD0001.BAT in the ADMIN
directory).
A Second solution is for a job to run on the file
server, searching for machines which are not
turned on, and removing any files which belong to
that machine. (check AD0002.SH in the ADMIN
directory).
05/17/94
Lock Tools Administration Manual Page 10
ERROR MESSAGES
The following error messages are due to an inconsistency in
the system configuration, they are intended for the System
Administrator.
Unrecognised Machine Identification
This means that the HOSTID environment variable has not
been set. Set the environment variable.
Unable to Find Overlay Application
PROGNAME.EXE could not find PROGNAM_.SLP. This could
be due to the file missing, or a network permissions
problem. Restore this file (It is the original
PROGNAME.EXE and retry).
Unable to Create Application Lock
The user does not have write permission to the lock
directory.
Unable to Remove Application Lock
Either the user has been denied write access to the
lock directory whilst running an application, or his
lock has been removed before the application has
finished.
Unable to Execute Application
- Invalid Program Path
- Invalid or Corrupt Program
- WinExec Error nn
These error messages are reported by Windows, and
intended to help give a better indication of as to why
the child program cannot be run.
05/17/94
Lock Tools Administration Manual Page 11
Unable to Access INI Data
The lock program cannot find the LOCK.INI file. This
is either the INI file is not in the PATH, or the INI
file does not have read permissions.
INIFile Error: No CONTROLDIR Entry in LOCK.INI
INIFile Error: No LOCKDIR Entry in LOCK.INI
INIFile Error: EXEFLAGS option on LOCK.INI should be X or A
A line in the LOCK.INI file is not syntactically
correct (or is missing). Correct the line (or re-
create the INI file with lconfig).
This Application is Already Running on This Machine
Either the application is running on the machine (another
Windows application, a DOS application in a DOS Window, or a
DOS application in an application DOS shell), or the machine
has crashed when an application was running. Either use the
running application, or use LOCKRM to remove the incorrect
locks.
Too Many Copies. Try Again Later
You have attempted to book out one more copy of an
application than has been allowed. Use LOCKINFO to find out
who and where the applications are being used, and wait.
05/17/94
