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1989-08-29
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199 lines
Truth In Advertising!
True Date Conversion Utility
For Archive Files
R E V I S I O N 1 . 0 1
written by Bill Auclair
(C) 1989 XanSoft Development, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
NOTICE:
This software is offered as Shareware. It may be freely used and
distributed, as long as all files within the package are complete
and unmodified. If you find this program useful, a contribution
in the amount of $15 may be sent to the author at this address:
Bill Auclair
XanSoft Development, Inc.
P.O. Box 3162
Danbury, CT 06813
If this package is used within a corporate or government environment,
the contribution should be considered a requirement.
Files within this package:
TIA.EXE - The TIA true date conversion utility.
TIA101.DOC - The documentation file you're reading now.
DISCLAIMER:
Users of this software do so at their own risk. The author is not
liable for damages of any kind arising from the operation, or failure
to operate, of TIA. Damages include, but are not limited to, loss or
erasure of any files, archived or unarchived.
The following programs are necessary for the proper operation of TIA:
LHARC.EXE (C) Haruyasu Yoshizaki
ARCE.COM (C) System Enhancement Associates, Inc.
PAK.EXE (C) NoGate Consulting, Inc.
PKZIP.EXE (C) PKWare, Inc.
ZOO.EXE (C) Rahul Dhesi
These programs are not included within this archive.
WHAT IS TIA?
Have you ever downloaded or file-requested a file with an interesting
name or description, only to discover after you de-archived it on your
system that it dated back to the "prehistoric" age of personal computing
(pre-1985)? I have. That's the main reason why I wrote this utility.
TIA will search for archive files with .ARC, .PAK, .ZIP, .ZOO or .LZH
extensions in a subdirectory. When it finds a file meeting its search
criteria, it will de-archive the contents of that file to a user-
specified work directory. TIA will then examine the datestamps of each
file within the work directory, and attach to the archive file in the
original directory the date stamp of the NEWEST, OLDEST or LARGEST
file within the archive. Time and date stamp selection criteria are
defined via command-line switches.
This means that the date stamp of any archive file processed with
TIA will correspond to the creation date of one or all of the files
contained within the archive, letting downloaders and FREQers know if
they're getting a late-model program or yesterday's news.
That's what I call "Truth In Advertising"....
WHAT TIA CAN BE USED FOR:
TIA.EXE can be used by BBS sysops to perform a "one-shot" conversion to
"true date" archive files. The program can also be run from a batch
file to periodically convert any new archive files received to a
"true date" status. TIA may defeat the purpose of certain "new files"
utilities that rely on file datestamps to indicate recent uploads to
a bulletin board system. It's best to experiment to see if this is the
case with your setup.
USING TIA:
TIA supports parameter-passing via the command line. The following
are examples of valid command line syntax:
TIA ----> No parameters. Generates a help screen.
TIA [<workdir><-date switch><hour min sec>]
----> where <workdir> is a user-specified work
directory. If the directory does not
exist, TIA will exit with an error
message. IMPORTANT! The work directory
should be empty before TIA is invoked.
If any files are in the work directory
before TIA is invoked, the program will
exit with an error message. If an attempt
is made to use the root directory of any
drive as a work directory, TIA exits with
an error message. If an attempt is made
to use the current directory as a work
directory, TIA also exits with an error
message.
----> where <-date switch> is one of the
following command-line switches:
-N Use datestamp of NEWEST file within
the original archive.
-O Use datestamp of OLDEST file within
the original archive.
-L Use datestamp of LARGEST file within
the original archive.
Use of the LARGEST file (-L) is the
default selection, and does not have to be
specified on the command line.
----> where <hour min sec> is a user-specified
timestamp value to be attached to each
processed archive file. Attachment of
this stamp is necessary to avoid
re-processing the same archive files
each time TIA.EXE is run. The program
will examine each archive file's time
stamp and will not process the file if
timestamp values match those specified
on the command line. There is a VERY
slim chance (1 in 43200) that an un-
processed archive file will have the
same time stamp as that specified on the
command line, but with those kind of
odds, it's not much to worry about.
The default time stamp is 11:28:58, which
does not have to be entered on the
command line. 11/28/58 happens to be my
birthdate, by the way (hint hint).
NOTE: Time stamp resolution is 2 seconds,
which means that if you want to re-
process files for any reason, you'll
have to change the time stamp value
originally specified on the command
line by at least 2 seconds.
INSTALLATION STEPS:
1. Install TIA.EXE in the DOS subdirectory of your choice. Make sure
the directory is included in your DOS path.
2. ALL of the following programs must be available within your DOS path:
LHARC<tm> by Haruyasu Yoshizaki
ARCE<tm> from System Enhancement Associates
PAK<tm> from NoGate Consulting, Inc.
PKUNZIP<tm> from PKWare, Inc.
ZOO<tm> by Rahul Dhesi
REVISION HISTORY:
5/5/89: Version 1.00-- first public release of TIA.
7/1/89: Version 1.01-- got rid of a few nasty bugs, including one
which caused TIA to generate strange date stamps on archive
files unable to be processed correctly (bad archive, etc.)
Thanks to Don Dawson of 1:141/730 for his debugging efforts.
Please send all compliments, criticism, advice and bug reports to:
Bill Auclair
Xanadu BBS
Opus/Fido Node 1:141/545.0