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1987-03-14
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297 lines
Converting your RBBS to the File Management System (FMS)
By Loren D. Jones, Fargo IBM PC Users Group RBBS
RBBS-PC version 15.1A adds a significant enhancement to RBBS with
the new File Management System (FMS). FMS is a single fixed length
random access file containing all information normally contained in an
RBBS download directory (.DIR) with the addition of the specific
category information. Users may list all files or just those files
contained in a specific directory, just as they have always done. Use
of FMS is virtually transparent to the user, with the exception that
the S)can feature works significantly faster and they always see the
newest files on the system first!
To convert a non-FMS system to FMS requires several steps. I will
explain the steps and the basis for each, then will walk you through
it step-by-step. First, all of the current directories must be
converted into fixed length records and combined. The program
CNVDIR.EXE is provided for this purpose, although I will suggest a
slight deviation from the parameters suggested in CNVDIR.DOC. The
changes I suggest are due to FMS' fixed length directory file, which
means care must be exercised to maintain the integrity of the file by
assuring constant field (line) lengths. Any character mistakenly
added or deleted in careless editing will throw all the records off.
The easiest way to minimize the chance of this occurring is to
carefully structure your file such that the last character in each
record is a visible, non-space character and to use an editor that
makes such records readily visible. I use Norton's Editor (NE.COM)
which works well with fixed length records. Column 80 is the CR/LF,
allowing you to run the cursor up and down this column to quickly see
if any files exceed the limit. The Norton editor displays little
double-arrows if the line exceeds the 80 characters being displayed.
The beauty of FMS being set up in this manner is the fact that it can
be easily edited with many editors while having the benefits of being
a random access file.
I recommend using a 43 character description and a three character
category designation. If you use numbered directories, use a three
character string to represent the category, i.e. 001, 010, 015, 095,
etc. Avoid using any designation scheme that uses a space for the
last character in the record, as it is too easy to miss a truncated
line.
Once converted you must sort the master FMS directory. All files
must be in date sequence (earliest to latest) for the proper operation
of FMS, since it keys on dates when searching through the master
directory. I recommend using QSORT for the sort, since it handles
multiple key fields. You will need to key on the year, then the
month/day when sorting.
Finally, you must go into config and set certain options before
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running RBBS. Here are the steps to get FMS up and running on your
pre-15.1A system:
1. Get all your directory files together in your working
subdirectory, which should also include CNVDIR.EXE. Have access to
your favorite editor.
2. Create your DIR.CAT file, which is RBBS' translate table for
associating directory designations and descriptions with the category
code. Make sure your category code is three characters in length! If
you have directories with descriptive names, your DIR.CAT should look
like this:
"GAMES","GAM","Games and Entertainment"
"FILES","FUT","File Utilities"
"LOTUS","LOT","Lotus Spreadsheets & Utilities"
"RBBS","RBB","RBBS-PC Files & Utilities"
Of course, the designations are entirely up to you. If you use
numbered directories, your DIR.CAT should look something like this:
"1","001","Communications"
"2","002","Word Processing and Editors"
"10","010","Games and Entertainment"
"95","095","RBBS-PC System Files"
3. Invoke CNVDIR with the following command:
CNVDIR 43 dir.cat master.dir DIR
This translates as follows:
43 = Number of characters per description
DIR.CAT = The file you just created listing your categories
MASTER.DIR = Your master FMS directory, whatever you named it.
DIR = Your normal directory extension, i.e. GAMES.DIR, 1.DIR,
etc.
This will cause CNVDIR to go through all of your .DIR files,
strip unnecessary header lines, and place each directory entry into
the proper fixed length format, insert with category designation, and
add it to the master directory. The process is very quick!
4. You must now sort the master file into date order. I suggest the
program QSORT with the following format:
QSORT master.dir /30:2 /24:5
This tells QSORT to sort first by year, then the Month/Day. Make
sure you have plenty of disk space if your master.dir is large!
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5. Now you may want to go through and edit the listing of any
multi-part files. Since FMS reads the master.dir file from the last
record back to the first, multi-part files should be in a last-in,
first-out order. Your master file should look like this:
CIA.BAS 13786 11-23-82 Adventure game 010
MONITOR.ARC 27502 12-04-82 Aids in development of BASIC prgms 007
GRAF-PIX.ARC 24478 12-20-82 Create excellent graphics on PC 008
YAHTZEE.BAS 16356 01-01-83 The game - Nice! 010
PLAYMATE.PQC 2642 01-01-83 Another poster 008
NUDE1.PQS 7983 01-01-83 Poster 008
PCWRITE3.ARC 94871 01-01-83 PC-Write - 3 of 3 001
PCWRITE2.ARC 105021 01-01-83 PC-Write - 2 of 3 001
PCWRITE1.ARC 85983 01-01-83 PC-Write - 1 of 3 001
HOPPER.BAS 4995 01-01-83 Frogger look-a-like game 010
HANGMAN.BAS 3686 01-01-83 Fun hangman game - mono display 010
GUITAR.BAS 1152 01-01-83 Tune your guitar with this one 008
^
Note that the last visible character is in position 79 -----------------------|
THIS FORMAT IS CRITICAL! Your master.dir file MUST match this format
for this configuration of FMS to work properly!
6. Create a file called UPCAT.HLP. A couple of sample files are
included in the CNVDIR. You can probably just read in your DIR.DIR
file to create this, as it is simply the directory of categories which
is displayed for users following an upload right before they are asked
to categorize their upload. We will be referring to this file when we
get to Config.
7. Invoke CONFIG. There are several parameters that need to be
changed and we will go through these in order.
a) Parameter 67: Enter UPCAT, which is the name of the file we
just created. Do not add the .HLP as RBBS will
automatically add the extension. This file MUST reside with
the other .HLP files!
b) Parameter 181: Enter the drive of your upload directory. I
am not sure that RBBS uses this designation, but it won't
hurt to have it there!
c) Parameter 182: Enter your master directory name for the
file to contain recent uploads, i.e. MASTER (RBBS will add
the drive\path and extension).
d) Parameter 183: Enter the drive\path of the FMS master
directory. See paragraph n. below for more information on
this point.
- Page 3 -
e) Parameter 184: Enter the drives available for downloading.
This is ignored if running subdirectories, but it never
hurts to have them designated here!
f) Parameter 191: Enter the drive, path, and name of an
alternate directory for uploads to be recorded. This is
optional, but not a bad idea if you want a little
redundancy. This file is recorded in the standard non-FMS
upload directory format, with each entry appended to the end
of the file. Your entry should look something like:
C:\RBBS\UPLOAD.FIL
g) Parameter 192: Enter the name of your master directory,
without the DIR extension, i.e. MASTER
h) Parameter 193: Set the minimum security level required to
designate upload categories. I have set this to the minimum
upload security level, as I want all users to categorize
their uploads. If you want all files to go to category "99"
for recent uploads, set this to your Sysop security. Then
you will be the only one allowed to categorize on a remote
upload (which I suspect accounts for 2% of your total
uploads!)
i) Parameter 194: If you wish to have directories in addition
to FMS, set this to YES. There may be a reason to have
other directories in a specific format available.
Personally, I have turned all directory maintenance over to
FMS, so this is set to NO.
j) Parameter 195: Set the default code for FMS uploads. If
you do not allow users to set the category, this is the
designation given all files. If you want all uploads to be
categorized as a "099" or "NEW" until you get a chance to
set the category, enter that designation here. Make sure
this category is provided for in your DIR.CAT file! This is
the second field parameter in DIR.CAT, i.e. "099", not "99",
in my example. If you do allow users to set the upload
category, I would suggest putting your miscellaneous
category designation in this parameter just to have it set
to a legitimate value.
k) Parameter 196: Enter the drive and filename of your
category designation file, which is the DIR.CAT we created
earlier. You should see C:DIR.CAT, or whatever drive this
file will reside on. You could place it in your RAM disk if
you use one.
l) Parameter 198: Enter the length of your descriptions, which
in our case is 43, as described above.
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m) Parameter 199: While not specific to FMS, make sure you set
the security level needed to view new uploads.
n) Parameter 200: Also an optional parameter, but since you
are going with FMS, I would suggest putting it and all your
other .DIR files into one specific subdirectory.
o) Parameter 216: This should be UNRESTRICTED to avoid quirks
with the double listing of the FMS directory under certain
conditions.
8. Run it! And enjoy the extra hours you'll have now that directory
maintenance has been substantially reduced! Thanks, Ken Goosens, for
your efforts in putting together FMS. And thanks to Tom, Jon, Rod,
Gene, Rob, Terry, Dave and all the rest of the beta testers and
patient wives who have helped in bringing RBBS-PC 15.1A on-line!!
If you run into any snags, contact me, Loren D. Jones, at the
Fargo IBM PC Users Group RBBS in Fargo, North Dakota at 701-293-5973!
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