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MANUAL.ACS
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==============================================================================
PROGRAM MANUAL - Archive Converter/Scanner
▌
▌▌▌
▌▌ ▌▌ (C) 1990, Vikram Rao
▌▌▌▌▌▌▌ ▌▌▌▌▌
▌▌ ▌▌ ▌▌ ▌▌
▌▌ Documentation (C) 1990, Nick Itsou
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▌▌▌▌▌ ▌▌
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Version 1.0α ▌▌▌▌▌
(July 1st, 1990)
==============================================================================
i
Table of Contents
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Agreement Notice..............................................iii
Disclaimer....................................................iii
Support BBS...................................................iii
Introduction to A.C.S.........................................iv
Seting up A.C.S...............................................1
Usage.........................................................3
Thanks........................................................4
Copyrights....................................................4
ii
Agreement Notice
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This software may be freely distributed in the Public Domain so long as
the software and accompanying documentation remain unmodified and *NO* fee
or consideration has been paid to obtain the ACS Software Package. All we
ask is that you take the time to give the ACS Support BBS a call and leave
us (Vic Rao or Nick Itsou) a message containing your comments/suggestions!
Disclaimer
~~~~~~~~~~
We are NOT responsible for any damage caused by your use (or inability
to use) ACS. Use this software at your own risk! Read these Docs FULLY!!.
Support BBS
~~~~~~~~~~~
Call the support BBS: Helicon BBS
(416)282-0701
1:250/490
Sysop: Nick Itsou
Direct all questions to Nick Itsou or Vic Rao.
File request magic name ACS for latest versions of the
Archive Converter/Scanner
iii
Introduction to A.C.S.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What is A.C.S.? Well, A.C.S. is short for Archive Converter/Scanner. It
has been in existence for about one or two years, and only now, do we
realize the actual potential of this program, and have decided to
distribute it. The purpose behind A.C.S. is to allow a Sysop, or user, to
check on any directory which has unscanned files in it. This allows the
user to relieve himself of the time it would take to manually check
through all the files, and allow the computer to do it all automatically.
After the program unarchives the file, it does a viral scan of the
unarchived files, and then after successful scanning, re-archives the file
into any desired archive format.
How did it come about? Well, to put it shortly, I'm very lazy, actually,
I like to sleep at reasonable hours (By the way, I'm writing this at 3am).
Being a Sysop, however, has certain responsibilities, which include
checking up on daily uploads for viruses. This can be a long and tedious
process, especially if you re-archive all new files into a standard
preference, as I do. I found this would take at least two hours a night
to do, so tended to leave all the work until the weekend. However, by
that time, the workload was just too great to handle, and I had wished
that I had done it when I should have.
Now, to make life simpler, I asked a friend of mine, Vic, who I knew was
just dying to write a program for me (yah right =) to whip something up
that could unarchive all the new files I had received, check them for
viruses, and then re-archive them to a specified format. Well, it so
happened, that Vic had a skeletal version of the final product lying
around, that he had been using for his own personal use (isn't he greedy?
=)
After we had sat down and discussed in depth what we both wanted in the
program, Vic sat down to write a final product. And thus came about
A.C.S.
Requirements
~~~~~~~~~~~~
This program can be run on any IBM class machine, PC upward with a minimum
of 256 kb Ram and a Hard Drive. It is NOT recomended that this program be
used in a multi-tasking environment, as the environment may be
tremendously slowed, due to intense disk access and interrupt calling,
which may cause a computer lock-up.
iv
Setting Up A.C.S
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Setting up A.C.S is a very simple task. All that it requires is that you
use the command line: acs -c
Upon entering this command line, A.C.S. will open with a disclaimer sceen.
The second screen presented to you is the actual configuration menu. This
is what it looks like:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Actual ACS Program/Code (C) 1990. Vikram Rao +Call The ACS Support Board+
Documentation Copyright (C) 1990. Nick Itsou +(416)282-0701 (1:250/490)+
Archive Converter/Scanner vxx -=[Official PD Release]=- Compiled On [xxxx]
ACS CONFIG: (ESC To Save & Exit or # To Modify Directory Value)
~~~~~~~~~~
1 ...Directory To Use For a Temporary ACS Working Directory
> C:\ARCFILES\TEMP
2 ...Directory To Find The Archives To Be Converted/Scanned
> C:\ARCFILES
3 ...Directory To Find The Main ACS.EXE & The ACS.CNF Files
> C:\ACSFILES
4 ...Directory To Back-Up The 'Old' Arcs To As A Precaution
> C:\BACKUPS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
To configure A.C.S., you must enter the directories you wish for the
A.C.S. program to use. There are only four directories required, and of
those four, you are only required to create two.
Directory one is the Temporary Work Directory. This is where A.C.S. does
all it's un-archiving, scanning, and re-archiving. This is a required
directory, but A.C.S. constructs this directory as it runs and removes it
after completion.
Directory two is the Supply Directory where all the files to be converted
and scanned are found. This directory is mandatory, and MUST exist before
A.C.S is executed. If this directory does not exist, A.C.S. will exit
with an apropriate error message, or possibly do worse. Vic has tried to
make it as graceful as possible, but it might screw up. (This hasn't yet
happened in the 15 meg of testing that I've performed on it though. =)
Directory three is the Main Program Directory where ALL the A.C.S. files
must be located. A.C.S. requires and depends on various external files.
These files must exist for A.C.S. to work flawlessly, and MUST be included
in this directory. No path may be given to use these files, as the A.C.S.
doesn't utilize a path. This directory MUST exist before execution of
A.C.S., as it is where the computer finds ACS.EXE, the ACS-WORK.LOG, and
ACS.CFG. This directory, however, can be used in a path, so that you can
start A.C.S. from anywhere in your hard drive.
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**** WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING ****
A.C.S. runs in conjunction with several programs. If you are missing at
least one of those programs A.C.S will not execute, as it checks to make
sure those files are in the A.C.S directory. If you wish to run A.C.S.
without one of these files, you can fudge, and create a dummy file with
the appropriate filename which is at least 1 byte in size. (Via Copy Con)
The files A.C.S. requires for use are as follows:
Scan.exe
Pkzip.exe/Pkunzip.exe
Lharc.exe
Zoo.exe
Pkpak.exe/Pkunpak.exe
Pak.exe
These files, along with ACS.EXE and ACS.CNF, MUST exist in directory three,
as this is the directory which is read to find the files to execute the
operation.
***************************************************************************
Directory four is the Backup directory. This is where all ORIGINAL files
to be checked are copied. The files backed up are in original format, and
have NOT been scanned or converted. This is for your own safety, and is
a feature which we encourage you to use. Don't blame us if you don't, and
end up losing all your files. This directory does not need to exist, and
will be created if the backup option is selected. If this directory
already exists, A.C.S. will use the existing directory.
After you configure the directories to your own personal setup, you press
ESC and exit the configuration set up. A.C.S. will create a configuration
file called ACS.CNF, which is a simple text file with the directories
listed in it.
**** WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING ****
ACS is capable of using a directory nesting as deep as DOS will allow, so
it is possible for you to use several sub-directories. Your best bet is
to use the default configuration, and create the required directories.
ACS has the capability to totally erase a hard drive, IF the root
directory is used as the temporary work directory, so BE CAREFUL in your
configuration.
***************************************************************************
2
Usage
~~~~~
Usage of A.C.S. is very simple, and similar to many Archiving programs.
The basic command line for A.C.S. is:
acs -[option] -[option] -[option] -F[filename.ext]
The options available to A.C.S. are labeled as follows:
-A Execute the A.C.S. program. This MUST be included to run
A.C.S. or it will display a usage screen and an error message, then fall
back to DOS.
-B Backup original archives to specified backup directory. This
is a safety precaution for all you paranoid types who don't trust us. =)
Actually, this can come in handy so that you know exactly what on your HD
must still be backed up to floppy. This only backs up the ORIGINAL format
of the file before A.C.S. starts working on the file.
-C Configure A.C.S. This is the option you add to run the
configuration program. If you include this with any other options, A.C.S.
will allow you to configure it, then fall back to DOS, making sure that
you have indeed configured it. If included A.C.S. will not scan and
re-archive any files.
-K Kill files containing viruses. This option allows you to
configure A.C.S. to destroy a file if it finds a virus, as noted by SCAN,
within it. It also notifies you in the ACS-WORK.LOG, if the log option is
enabled.
-L Enable ACS-WORK.LOG. This causes A.C.S. to write into a log
all successful and unsuccessful operations, as well as including error
messages and virus warnings. This option is encouraged, as it keeps you
up to date with what has been verified. The file is a straight ASCII text
file called ACS-WORK.LOG.
-1 Final method of re-archiving -- ARC.
-2 Final method of re-archiving -- LZH.
-3 Final method of re-archiving -- PAK.
-4 Final method of re-archiving -- ZIP.
-5 Final method of re-archiving -- ZOO.
Options 1 through 5 are the final method which A.C.S. uses to re-archive
the file. The final method is chosen for personal preference, and should
reflect the method which you like your archives to be stored. This option
is mandatory, as is option -A, or A.C.S. will exit with the usage screen
and error message, and fall back to DOS. This is how you tell A.C.S. what
the final method will be in re-archiving the file it has just checked.
-F[filename.ext] This is used to run A.C.S. for specific files
only. Filename.ext may consist of any wildcards. For instance, if you
wanted to run A.C.S. on LZH files only, you would include this option in
the command line: -F*.lzh There may be NO spaces between -F and the
filename. The Default is -F*.*, if no -F[Wildcard] is given by the user.
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Some examples of use:
ACS -C [configure A.C.S.]
ACS -A -1 [execute A.C.S. with final archives in ARC format]
ACS -A -B -L -4 [execute A.C.S. backup original files, append to
ACS-WORK.LOG, and re-archive in ZIP format]
ACS -A -K -4 -F*.ZOO [execute A.C.S. on ZOO files only, erasing
infected files and re-archive in ZIP format]
Thanks
~~~~~~
We thank you deeply for your support, and depending on the response, new
versions will be created for distribution. If no response is met, then no
further versions will be developed for Public Distribution. We'd
appreciate any comments and suggestions, directed to us (Vic Rao or Nick
Itsou) through the A.C.S. Support BBS, mentioned above.
Copyrights
~~~~~~~~~~
In NO way, does A.C.S. change the coding of the software it works in
conjunction with. All versions tested with are listed. Many thanks to
the writers of the programs for creating excellent archive and virus
detecting utilities.
Scan 3.1v60 (c) 1989-1990 McAfee Associates
PK[un]zip v1.1 (c) 1989-90 PKWARE INC.
Lharc 1.13 (c) Yoshi 1988-1989
Zoo 2.01 (c) 1988 Rahul Dhesi
PK[un]pak v3.61 (c) 1986-1988 PKWARE INC.
PAK v2.1 (c) 1988-1989 NOGATE Consulting
A.C.S. and Archive Converter/Scanner are (c) 1990 Vic Rao
A.C.S. Documentation is (c) 1990 Nick Itsou
4
NI (Smile, it wasn't THAT bad =)
-EOF-