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GAP_Verify v1.2 5/7/93
GAP_Verify - The External Filebase Verifier for GAP
Copyright (c) 1993 RoboSoft Systems.
All Rights Reserved.
GAP_Verify is a batch mode maintenance tool for the GAP
filebase. It's primary functions are:
1. Verify the size, date, and location of files in
the filebase.
2. Word-wrap the enhanced descriptions to fit the
72-character line allowed by GAP.
3. Extract and use FILE_ID.DIZ descriptions if found
in .ZIP files.
4. Re-parse the keywords using a sysop-defined list
of words to be excluded from use as indexed
keywords.
5. Look for "lost" files on the hard drive. These are
files that exist on the hard drive but aren't in
the GAP filebase.
There are many options available to control exactly what gets
done and how it is accomplished, but these are the base
functions.
To provide for extremely fast operation, GAP_Verify makes use
of advanced virtual memory techniques. If you have a couple
megabytes of EMS/XMS memory available, GAP_Verify should just
about fly on your machine. The verify process should run
anywhere from twice as fast to upwards of ten times as fast as
the GAPFILE UPDATE function, depending on exactly what is
being updated.
GAP_Verify can word-wrap the enhanced descriptions to
72-character lines, optionally filtering out the high-ASCII
characters often used to draw cute boxes around the
descriptions.
You can have GAP_Verify look for a FILE_ID.DIZ in each .ZIP
file it verifies. If found, the DIZ description will be
extracted and used to replace the current description.
Related to this function is the ability to specify a list of
words which should not be indexed as keywords if found in the
DIZ description. This can cut down tremendously on the size
of your FILEKEY files by eliminating nonsense keywords.
GAP_Verify can re-parse the existing keywords using the
keyword exclusion list mentioned above. The parsing
algorithm used by GAP_Verify is slightly different than that
used by GAP itself and should result in a slight improvement
in the resulting list of keywords.
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GAP_Verify v1.2 5/7/93
GAP_Verify can also print out a list of the files encountered
in the directories it searched during the verification process
that did not show up in the filebase. If used correctly, this
can help find a lot of dead wood on your hard drives (or locate
files that fell into the cracks).
One particularly handy use for GAP_Verify is to periodically
scan your upload area and extract the FILE_ID.DIZ descriptions
from the files uploaded in non-batch mode. It will also update
the file sizes to correct for comments added to the ZIP during
UPCHECK processing.
Because the whole idea behind GAP_Verify is speedy
verification of your filebase, it allows a great degree of
control over which files are verified and which directories
are searched when looking for files. You can tell GAP_Verify
to ignore one or more partitions during its scan of the
filebase. Any files that reside on those partitions,
according to the location in the filebase, will be completely
skipped.
You can tell GAP_Verify to scan entire partitions, specific
directories, or any combination of the two. So if you want it
to scan all of drive D:, but only a couple directories on
drive E:, GAP_Verify can handle it.
You can provide a list of specific files that should be
skipped. This list gives you complete control over exactly
which characteristic of the file (size, date, location,
description, DIZ, keywords) should be skipped/ignored during
the verification. Because this list might be rather lengthy,
GAP_Verify can even generate one for you.
If you use the parameter file method to tell GAP_Verify which
partitions and/or directories to scan, it will automatically
create a file containing the names of the directories it
scanned. If, on a later run, you haven't modified the
parameter file, GAP_Verify will simply load the directory
names from the file it previously created. If your directory
structure changes infrequently, this technique can save quite
a bit of startup time.
GAP_Verify will automatically create a log file listing
information about all the filebase entries it modified.
All the GAP_Verify parameters can be specified on the command
line. If you missed one or more required parameters,
GAP_Verify will prompt you for those parameters. Because
there are so many control parameters whose command-line
versions are a bit cryptic, you can set up an environment
variable with a default set of parameters and specify
overrides or additions, if necessary, on the command line.
If you don't want to mess with the command line, just put
GAP_Verify in your GAP default directory and run it. It will
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GAP_Verify v1.2 5/7/93
prompt you for each required parameter and give you a complete
explanation of what each is for. There are a few of the "fine
tuning" features of GAP_Verify that are only available from the
command line, but you'll probably never miss them if you really
don't want to mess with the command line.
Before we get into the details, here's the legal stuff.
Disclaimer
----------
GAP_Verify is provided AS IS without any warranty, expressed or
implied, including, but not limited to, fitness for any purpose.
Use of GAP_Verify, and the consequences thereof, are entirely
your risk. In no event will RoboSoft Systems be liable for any
damages whatsoever resulting from the use of GAP_Verify.
Shareware
---------
GAP_Verify is a Shareware product. As such, it is made available
to the GAP sysop community for evaluation. Users are licensed to
operate this program on their computers for the purpose of test
and evaluation on a trial basis for 30 days. If GAP_Verify is
used after the first 30 days, registration with RoboSoft Systems
is required.
Registration
------------
Registered users are those users who elect to pay for GAP_Verify
and register that payment with RoboSoft Systems. By virtue of
registration and payment for the program, registered users are
granted a license to continue to utilize the program on their
personal computer for as long as they choose. This license
authorizes the registrant to use the program on any personal
computer system he or she may own or use so long as the program
is operated on only one computer system at a time.
The registration fee for GAP_Verify is $20. Please make
checks payable to:
RoboSoft Systems
P.O. Box 2221
Orange, CA 92669-0221
The payment of this registration fee to RoboSoft Systems entitles
the user to full use of GAP_Verify for an unlimited period of
time. Registration includes a key file that unlocks all features
of GAP_Verify. See the file REGISTER.DOC for additional
information on GAP_Verify registration.
Updates/Upgrades
----------------
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GAP_Verify v1.2 5/7/93
In-version upgrades to GAP_Verify (e.g. v1.1 -> v1.2) will be
provided via BBS free of charge to registered users. There is
currently no charge for version upgrades (e.g. v1.2 -> v2.0) to
GAP_Verify, however RoboSoft Systems reserves the right to
institute such a charge at some point in the future. If you
would like to receive an update on diskette, there will be a
nominal charge to cover materials and handling.
Support
-------
Support for GAP_Verify is available on The Cookie Jar BBS at
714-997-0350. Registered users will be granted access to the
private node of the BBS and will be given priority in having
their questions answered.
Distribution
------------
GAP_Verify may be freely distributed on any Bulletin Board System
(BBS), including commercial systems such as CompuServe (CIS),
Genie, and BIX. GAP_Verify may be distributed by diskette by any
organization or disk distributor as long as the fee for this
distribution is no greater than $5 and it is made clear to the
purchaser that the distribution fee is NOT the same as the
registration fee.
Feel free to pass around copies of GAP_Verify, however, please
distribute all of the original files and do not modify any of the
files.
How Do I Use This Thing?
------------------------
The simplest way to use GAP_Verify is to just copy it to your
GAP default directory and run it. It will prompt you for all
the required information and then go about its task. There
are a couple parameters that can only be specified on the
command line, but they're fairly advanced features that you'll
probably never miss. If you prefer to keep GAP_Verify in a
separate directory, just specify the path to the GAP default
directory as the first parameter.
Since GAP_Verify will interactively prompt you for any missing
parameters and give a full explanation of what is being
requested, we'll just cover the command line parameters here.
Here is the definition for the command line:
GVERIFY [<path to GAP default>] [/P<parmfile>] [/V<a>[<a>]]
[/D|d] [/Z|z] [/O|o] [/R|r] [/F|f] [/W|w] [/H|h]
[/E|e] [/X|x] [/L|l] [/K|k] [/T|t] [/M|m]
[/An] [/Sn[,n]] [/Nn] [/Y[Pn]|y]
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GAP_Verify v1.2 5/7/93
The brackets, [], indicate optional parameters. The vertical
bar, |, indicates a choice between one of the parameters on
either side of the bar.
With the exceptions of /P, /V, /A, /N, and /S, the parameters all
indicate whether an action should or should not be taken, with
the upper case letter indicating that it should be taken and
the lower case letter indicating that it should not be taken.
An attempt was made to make the parameter letters somewhat
mnemonic, but there was a serious overlap with a lot of the
function names so some are a bit more mnemonic than others.
Because this command line can get a bit lengthy, GAP_Verify
will look for the environment variable V_PARMS and use the
parameters included there as defaults. Any V_PARMS parameters
can be overriden on the command line.
Running GAP_Verify with the parameter /? will print out a
short help list for the options.
[/P<parmfile>]
--------------
The /P parameter is used to specify a Parameter file
containing a list of the partitions and/or directories that
GAP_Verify should scan when looking for files. The
partitions/directories should be listed one per line in this
file. If not specified on the command line, GAP_Verify will
prompt for the partitions to be scanned. Directory-level
control is not available via the interactive interface.
Example:
GVERIFY /Pdirs.prm
This will read in a list of partitions/directories from the
file DIRS.PRM.
[/V<a>[<a>]]
------------
The /V parameter is used to specify Volumes (partitions) that
should be skipped when verifying files. If the filebase
indicates a file resides on one of the specified partitions,
that file will be completely skipped. No update whatsoever
will be done on it. This parameter is handy for use with
CD-ROMs where the file information never changes.
Example:
GVERIFY /VFG
This will exclude from update all files residing on partitions
F: and G:. Notice that there is no space between the F and
the G.
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GAP_Verify v1.2 5/7/93
[/D|d]
------
The /D parameter is used to indicate whether file Dates should
be updated during the scan of the filebase. An upper case 'D'
indicates to include dates in the scan. A lower case 'd'
indicates that dates should be ignored.
Example:
GVERIFY /d
This tells GAP_Verify to ignore file dates during the filebase
update.
[/Z|z]
------
The /Z parameter is used to indicate whether file siZes should
be updated during the scan of the filebase. An upper case 'Z'
indicates to include sizes in the scan. A lower case 'z'
indicates that sizes should be excluded.
Example:
GVERIFY /Z
This tells GAP_Verify to update file sizes to reflect the
actual size on disk during the filebase update.
[/O|o]
------
The /O parameter is used to indicate whether files that are
not physically found on the disk should be deleted from the
filebase or made OFFLINE. An upper case 'O' indicates that
files not found should be made OFFLINE. A lower case 'o'
indicates that files not found should be deleted. Files that
are already marked as OFFLINE are not affected by this
parameter.
Example:
GVERIFY /o
This tells GAP_Verify to delete from the filebase all files
not physically found on the disk.
[/R|r]
------
The /R parameter is used to force a Rebuild of the directory
list maintained by GAP_Verify (GVERIFY.DIR). If you've
changed your directory structure but have not modified the /P
parameter file, you can use this parameter to force GAP_Verify
to rescan the directory structure. An upper case 'R'
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GAP_Verify v1.2 5/7/93
indicates that the directory list should be rebuilt. A lower
case 'r' indicates that the directory list should not be
rebuilt.
If the /P parameter file has been updated since the directory
list was written, GAP_Verify will ignore this parameter and
always rebuild the directory list.
This command line parameter has no analagous parameter in the
interactive mode. If the /P parameter file is not specified
on the command line, GAP_Verify will automatically build an
internal directory list. This internal list will not affect
the list normally maintained on the disk.
Example:
GVERIFY /Pdirs.prm /r /V /D /Z /o /f /W /H /E /x /t /A0 /S
This tells GAP_Verify to use the directory list that's already
been created and to not rescan the directory structure of the
partitions specified in DIRS.PRM.
[/F|f]
------
The /F parameter is used to run GAP_Verify in "saFe" mode. In
"safe" mode, GAP_Verify will do all of its normal functions,
but it will make NO changes to the GAP filebase. This allows
you to do a dry run to see what GAP_Verify thinks should be
done to the filebase. An upper case 'F' indicates that saFe
mode should be used. A lower case 'f' indicates that the
filebase should actually be updated.
Example:
GVERIFY /F
This tells GAP_Verify to operate in saFe mode. No changes
will be made to the GAP filebase.
[/W|w]
------
The /W parameter indicates whether GAP_Verify should word Wrap
the enhanced descriptions. An upper case 'W' indicates that
all enhanced descriptions should be word Wrapped to a
72-character line. A lower case 'w' indicates the enhanced
descriptions should be left as is.
Example:
GVERIFY /W
This tells GAP_Verify to word wrap all enhanced descriptions
to a 72-character line.
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GAP_Verify v1.2 5/7/93
[/H|h]
------
The /H parameter indicates whether GAP_Verify should filter
out high-ASCII characters from the enhanced descriptions.
While this option operates independent of the /W option, it is
intended for use with the word wrapping enabled by the /W
option. An upper case 'H' indicates that high-ASCII
characters should be removed from the enhanced description.
A lower case 'h' indicates that high-ASCII characters should
be left as is.
Example:
GVERIFY /W /H
This tells GAP_Verify to remove all high-ASCII characters
from the enhanced description and to then word wrap all
the descriptions to a 72-character line.
[/E|e]
------
The /E parameter indicates whether GAP_Verify should Extract
FILE_ID.DIZ descriptions from .ZIP files and replace the
current keywords and description with the ones from the .DIZ
file. An upper case 'E' indicates that GAP_Verify should look
for and Extract FILE_ID.DIZ descriptions. A lower case 'e'
indicates that no scan for FILE_ID.DIZ should be performed.
Since each file must be physically scanned and PKUNZIP run to
extract any FILE_ID.DIZ files, specifying that GAP_Verify
should extract FILE_ID.DIZ descriptions will significantly
increase the time required to run GAP_Verify. Depending on
the speed of your disk and/or network and the size of your
filebase, a scan with the /E option specified could take
anywhere from a few hours to a few days.
Since GAP_Verify has to scan the entire .ZIP file looking for a
FILE_ID.DIZ, it collects data about the files in the .ZIP and
adds a contents line of the form "Files: xx Oldest: xx/xx/xx
Newest: xx/xx/xx" to the end of the enhanced description. If the
enhanced description appears to already contain such a contents
line, a new one will not be added.
Because of the possibility of FILE_ID.DIZ extraction taking
many hours, it is strongly recommended that you have
GAP_Verify generate an Exclude file during a FILE_ID.DIZ run.
If you need to interrupt GAP_Verify before it has completed
the entire run, you will be able to resume the run at a later
time and all the files in the Exclude file will be ignored.
This is not the same as picking up exactly where you
interrupted the process, but it's not too far off.
GAP_Verify will create and/or use a temporary directory to
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GAP_Verify v1.2 5/7/93
UNZIP the FILE_ID.DIZ files into. If you set up an
environment variable V_DIR specifying the path to a work
directory, GAP_Verify will UNZIP into that directory. A small
RAM disk can be used in this fashion to speed up the process.
If no V_DIR environment variable exists, GAP_Verify will
create a temporary directory, VERIFY.$$$, off of the current
directory. This directory will be deleted, if it didn't exist
prior to starting GAP_Verify, after completion of the filebase
verification.
Also used in conjunction with the /E parameter is the
KEYWORDS.XCL file. This file is assumed to contain a list of
words, one word per line, that are not be be indexed as
keywords. This allows you to filter out some of the more
common words (like "the", "and", "of") that are meaningless as
keywords. These words will still show up in the "keywords"
that are displayed in the condensed listings, but they will
not be indexed as keywords. A sample KEYWORDS.XCL is included
with the GAP_Verify package.
Example:
GVERIFY /E
This tells GAP_Verify to look for and extract FILE_ID.DIZ
descriptions for any .ZIP files that are scanned. The
FILE_ID.DIZ description is used to replace the existing
description and keywords. Descriptions extracted from
FILE_ID.DIZ files are automatically filtered for high-ASCII
and word wrapped to a 72-character line.
[/X|x]
------
The /X parameter indicates whether GAP_Verify should generate
an exclude file from the files scanned. GAP_Verify will
automatically look for the file GVERIFY.XCL and read in the
list of files contained within it. These files will be
excluded from the verification process. See below for more
details on the format of GVERIFY.XCL.
An upper case 'X' indicates that GAP_Verify should append to
the eXclude file the names of all files verified in this run
of GAP_Verify. A lower case 'x' indicates that GAP_Verify
should not generate an exclude file.
Example:
GVERIFY /X
This tells GAP_Verify to append all newly updated files to the
end of the exclude file.
Each line of the GVERIFY.XCL file has the following format.
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GAP_Verify v1.2 5/7/93
<filename> [<area> [<subject>]] [S] [D] [L] [P] [Z] [K]
An area may be specified without a subject, but a subject MUST
be preceded by an area. The letters at the end of the line
indicate from which portion of the verification and
reformatting the file should be excluded.
S indicates that Size should not be considered.
D indicates that Date should not be considered.
L indicates that Location should not be considered.
P indicates that the descriPtion should not be reformatted.
This option also activates the Z option.
Z indicates that no attempt should be made to extract
a FILE_ID.DIZ from the file.
K indicates that the Keywords should not be re-parsed.
If you've indicated that GAP_Verify should append to the
exclude file, it will add a line with the filename, area,
subject, and a 'P' for each file it scans, exclusive of those
that are excluded for other reasons. Note that the exclude
file is appended to, not written over. It can be re-used
on subsequent runs of GAP_Verify without difficulty.
[/L|l]
------
The /L parameter instructs GAP_Verify to pre-Load information
about the files in all the directories that will be scanned.
Whenever GAP_Verify scans a directory to verify the location
of a file, it hangs onto the information about all the other
files in that directory. This means it only has to scan a
given directory once, regardless of how many files in the
filebase reside in that directory. Ordinarily, GAP_Verify
scans directories only as needed, discarding the collected
file information at the end of each filebase subject.
An upper case 'L' indicates that GAP_Verify should collect at
the start of the program information about all the files in
the list of directories to be scanned. This essentially gets
all the physical disk scanning out of the way up front. A
lower case 'l' indicates that GAP_Verify should collect file
information only as needed.
Example:
GVERIFY /L
This instructs GAP_Verify to pre-Load all file information
before beginning to verify the filebase.
This option is available only from the command line.
If you have lots of EMS/XMS memory available and have moved
files all over the place or if you use the same physical
directory to store files from many subject, pre-loading the file
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GAP_Verify v1.2 5/7/93
info may save some time. Do not attempt to use this option
unless you have at least 500k of conventional memory and several
megabytes of EMS or XMS available.
[/K|k]
------
The /K parameter instructs GAP_Verify to Keep file information
across subjects. As mentioned above, GAP_Verify normally
discards the file information it has collected at the end of
each subject. An upper case 'K' will force GAP_Verify to hang
onto the file information it has collected. A lower case 'k'
tells GAP_Verify to behave normally and discard the file
information at the end of each subject.
If you have several subjects that share the same physical
directory space on your hard disk, the /K option can save a
bit of time that would otherwise be spent rescanning the same
directories.
Example:
GVERIFY /K
This tells GAP_Verify to Keep the collected file information
until the end of the run instead of discarding it at the end
of each subject.
[/T|t]
------
The /T parameter indicates whether GAP_Verify should do a losT
file search at the end of the run. As mentioned above, when
GAP_Verify encounters a file from a directory it hasn't
scanned, it collects information about all the files in that
directory. As it encounters other files in that directory, it
marks those files as "found" in its list of file information.
At the end of the run GAP_Verify can print out a list of the
files that weren't "found" in the filebase. This will be a
list of files that are physically on the disk in the
directories that were scanned, but were not found in the
filebase during the verification. This list may or may not be
helpful in finding files that have fallen through the cracks.
The /T option does not interract with GVERIFY.XCL exclude
list, so it may indicate that many files are "lost" when they
were actually on the exclude list and simply not processed by
GAP_Verify. If you want to do a thorough "lost" file scan,
you should delete (or rename) GVERIFY.XCL before running
GAP_Verify.
This option requires quite a bit of storage and may have an
adverse effect on performance if you don't have lots of free
EMS/XMS.
An upper case 'T' indicates that GAP_Verify should do a "losT"
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GAP_Verify v1.2 5/7/93
file search at the end of the run. A lower case 't' indicates
that a "lost" file search should not be done.
Example:
GVERIFY /T
This tells GAP_Verify to do a "lost" file search.
[/M|m]
------
The /M (suMmary) parameter indicates whether GAP_Verify should
pause at the end of the run and wait for a keypress before
exiting. Normally, when run entirely from the command line,
GAP_Verify will pause for 15 seconds at the end of the run and
then exit. If you specify the /M parameter (with an upper
case 'M') on the command line, GAP_Verify will wait for a
keypress before exiting at the end of the run. The point of
this is so you can view the summary statistics displayed at
the end of the run. If you don't care about this or are
running GAP_Verify from an event, the standard 15 second pause
is the way to go. A lower case 'm' specifies the standard
behavior of a 15 second pause and then an automatic exit.
When run in interactive mode, the /M parameter is ignored. In
interactive mode, GAP_Verify always waits for a keypress at
the end of the run.
[/An]
-----
The /A parameter indicates which file area (forum) GAP_VERFIY
should process.
Example:
GVERIFY /A0
This tells GAP_Verify to verify the files in forum 0, the main
board.
[/Sn[,n...]]
------------
The /S parameter indicates which file subjects within the
previously specified area should be processed. Multiple
subjects can be specified by separating the subject numbers
with commas.
Example:
GVERIFY /A0 /S1,2,3,4
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GAP_Verify v1.2 5/7/93
This tells GAP_Verify to verify the files in forum 0, subjects
1, 2, 3, and 4.
[/Nn]
-----
The /N parameter is used to specify a "nice" delay factor
(multi-user version only). (Nice is a take-off on a Unix
command that establishes a process priority.) Because of
the heavy amount of disk I/O performed by GAP_Verify, it can
bring a multi-user system to its knees if run while users are
still online. The "nice" parameter is used to specify a number
of milliseconds to delay after processing each file. This
delay gives other nodes a window of access to the filebase
without competition from GAP_Verify. The system response will
appear a bit jerky to the users, but it's better than getting
no response at all. A good starting point for the delay factor
is 250. This will cause GAP_Verify to pause for a quarter
second after each file. This will obviously make the
GAP_Verify run take longer than it otherwise would, but at
least the other nodes in your system can be online during this
time.
You can adjust the "nice" factor interactively while GAP_Verify
is running by pressing the '+' and '-' keys. Each press of '+'
will add 50ms to the delay time. Each press of '-' will subtract
50ms from the delay time. These keys are active even if you
didn't use the "nice" parameter on the command line.
Example:
GVERIFY /N250
This tells GAP_Verify to pause for 250 milliseconds after
processing each file.
[/Y[Pn]|y]
----------
The /Y parameter indicates whether GAP_Verify should re-index
the keywords. GAP_Verify uses a different keyword parsing
algorithm than GAP itself and should produce a greater number
of unique keywords. It also allows you to specify a list of
words that will not be indexed as keywords. This can be used
to eliminate a lot of words that don't make sense as keywords,
such as "the", "and", "of", etc. The same KEYWORDS.XCL file
mentioned under the /E parameter is used for excluding words
parsed by the /Y parameter.
Associated with this re-indexing of the keywords is the
ability to pre-load all the keywords into virtual memory.
Whether this provides better performance depends largely on
how your system is configured. Do not attempt to pre-load the
keywords unless you have at least several megabytes of EMS/XMS
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GAP_Verify v1.2 5/7/93
available. (Nothing terrible will happen, but you'll get worse
performance than if you didn't pre-load the keywords.) As the
keywords are being loaded, each keyword is displayed in the lower
right status window. If the words in this window are not flying
by so fast you have no chance of reading them, you'd probably be
better off to terminate that run and restart, specifying that
keywords should not be pre-loaded. Press any key to terminate
the run.
The 'n' after the P is used to specify how many keywords per
file GAP_Verify should allow for. The default is 10. If you
have more keywords associated with a file than the number
specified here, the program will abort. (The abort happens
during the pre-loading, before any filebase updates are made
so there's no danger of any kind of filebase corruption. All
you'll lose is the time it took to get to that point in the
pre-loading.) It's unfortunate that this parameter was
necessary, but it's the only way to accomodate those who have
a lot of small keywords for some of their files while not
penalizing everyone with massive virtual memory requirements.
Example:
GVERIFY /YP15
This tells GAP_Verify to re-index the keywords and to pre-load
the existing keywords into virtual memory, allowing for up to
15 keywords per file.
General Operation
-----------------
As GAP_Verify does its thing, it will print out status
information to the screen. Fairly complete information about
the current run is displayed. In the upper middle of the
screen are the major parameters affecting the behavior of this
run along with the current area and subject. On the left side
of the screen are various counts that are displayed primarily
for the sake of curiosity. (The "Content Bytes" field will
only display a meaningful value if you are extracting
FILE_ID.DIZ descriptions in the current run.) Toward the
bottom left of the screen is the expected and actual data for
the current file. If expected and actual are the same, you
probably won't be able to actually read these fields because
they'll be changing too fast.
On the right side of the screen is the History window. The
names of files that were updated are scrolled in this window.
Following the file name are one or more letters, displayed in
fixed positions, indicating what was changed for that file.
The letters, their position and meaning are as follows:
DSLDKZ
^^^^^^
Date ┘││││└ DIZ
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Size ─┘││└─ Keywords
Location ──┘└── Description
At the bottom of the screen are two status windows. The one
on the left is used to display messages about the current
operation. The one on the right is used to display progress
information, usually a quickly changing list of filenames or
keywords. It's primary purpose is to let you know the program
is actually doing something during time-consuming operations.
GAP_Verify will also write to a log file the information about
any file that was changed. The default name for this log file
is GVERIFY.LOG. You can specify a different log file name by
using the environment variable V_LOG. The log file will
always be appended to, so you should keep an eye on the size
to be sure it doesn't grow too big.
You can interrupt GAP_Verify at almost any time by pressing
any key. GAP_Verify will finish up the file it's currently
working on and then ask if you really want to terminate the
run.
A Few Words About Files
-----------------------
GAP_Verify makes use of quite a few different files. They've
all been mentioned individually, but a quick recap is probably
in order.
GVERIFY.DIR - This file contains a list of all the
directories in the partitions GAP_Verify
scanned.
GVERIFY.XCL - This file contains a list of files that should
be ignored during the verification. GAP_Verify
can generate this file automatically for use on
subsequent runs.
GVERIFY.LOG - Log of all changes made to the filebase. The
name of this file can be changed with the V_LOG
environment variable.
KEYWORDS.XCL - This file contains a list of words the sysop
does NOT want indexed as keywords.
GAP_VRFY.TMP - Virtual memory overflow file. This should be
automatically deleted on program exit and can
be safely deleted if it exists following a run
of GAP_Verify.
VERIFY.$$$ - Temporary directory created by GAP_Verify for
use with the FILE_ID.DIZ extraction. Can be
overridden with the V_DIR environment
variable.
Environment Variables
---------------------
GAP_Verify recognizes a number of environment variables.
These can be used to alter normal program execution or as a
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GAP_Verify v1.2 5/7/93
convenience for specifying parameters. See your DOS manual if
you don't know what an environment variable is or how to set
one. (Look for the SET command.)
V_PARMS - Used to specify default command line parameters
for GAP_Verify.
V_DIR - Used to specify an alternate location for the
temporary directory used when extracting
FILE_ID.DIZ descriptions from a ZIP file.
V_LOG - Used to specify an alternate filename for the
GAP_Verify log file.
Limitations
-----------
GAP_Verify gets much of its speed from its ability to use
virtual memory to store massive amounts of information about
your filebase and disk contents. The virtual memory manager
will make use of all available EMS/XMS memory, and will
overflow onto disk if there is not enough faster storage
available. If you are tight on EMS/XMS (or don't have any at
all), much of the data required by GAP_Verify will be stored
on disk. In a tight memory situation, be sure to run GAP_Verify
from a disk partition that has at least several megabytes
available.
If you normally run with a large disk cache, you may find you
get better performance by reducing the size of the cache and
allowing GAP_Verify to use the memory otherwise devoted to
the cache. (GAP_Verify does not use raw extended memory. You
need to have some kind of EMS/XMS memory manager running in
order for GAP_Verify to access memory beyond 640k. QEMM,
386MAX, and HIMEM.SYS will all provide the type of memory
required by GAP_Verify.)
Non-registered Demonstration Version
------------------------------------
The non-registered demo version of GAP_Verify has a number of
restrictions not present in the registered version. It will
word-wrap and re-index only the first 50 files in any filebase
subject. It will extract a maximum of 50 FILE_ID.DIZ files in
any filebase area. The non-registered version will not write
an exclude file or pre-load directory information or keywords.
It will also not do a "lost" file search.
The multi-node version of GAP_Verify is available to registered
users only. You can use the single-node version with a
multi-node version of GAP, but all nodes must be offline before
you begin the run. Failure to bring all nodes down will most
likely result in sharing violations.
All other program functions work without restriction. The date,
size, and location of all files in the filebase can be updated
with the non-registered version.
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We regret having to place these restrictions on the demonstration
version, but maintenance utilities of this sort have a poor
registration rate unless there are persuasive registration
encouragements provided. We hope these restrictions will not
prevent you from getting a good idea of what GAP_Verify can
do for you.
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