OS/2 Shareware BBS: InfoMgt/InfoMgt.zip/uudbz003.zip/install.doc

Text File | 1997-08-21 | 9KB | 204 lines

This is the installation documentation for the Mome Raths BBS package
dbz for UUPC/Extended.  This package is not part of the UUPC
distribution, but is based upon their work.  UUPC/Extended is
copyrighted, trademarked software, and every effort has been made to not
knowingly infringe upon either one.

However, the dbz.c and dbz.h that are in this distribution are original
works.  It has been made public domain by myself, the author.

The patched expire.exe, however, is a copyrighted program, covered
by the UUPC/Extended copyright.  The diff files contain all of the
necessary entries, should you wish to recompile it yourself (assuming
that you are using emx, at any rate).

Please read the README file for a more thorough explanation of what dbz
is, why it is public domain and what it is used for.


Unpacking:

I suggest that you make a copy of your UUPC source files, if you wish to
recompile it, and use the copy rather than the originals.  Unzip this
file into your new source directory (assuming SOURCE for the following
examples and explanations).  Files will be put into the SOURCE\NEWS
and SOURCE\LIB directories as well as into SOURCE itself.

If you do not wish to recompile, you may unzip into a temporary
directory, then move the executables to your OS2BIN directory, or
some other directory in your path.

Once you unzip the package, these are the files you should have:

README -- explains the prerequisites, what dbz is, what it is used for,
what NoCEM is, why dbz is but isn't public domain and why I wrote it.

Install.doc -- this file, tells you how to install and use dbz.  How it
may differ from other dbz programs.  How to recompile it using emx.

Change.log -- A list of changes made to the package.

Makefile.dbz -- for using dmake to recompile dbz.

dbz.exe -- a compiled executable, ready-to-go.

expire.exe -- a patched replacement for UUPC's expire program.
The original 1.12s version almost always seemed to crash by
attempting to delete nonexistent files.  Note that if you are
running dbz.exe for NoCEM on spool, you will have deleted files.

dbzMake.Cmd -- a REXX script that sets up the correct paths to compile
dbz.

dbz_mksetup.cmd -- a supporting REXX script called by dbzMake.Cmd, if
necessary.  If the path has already been setup, then this does not get
called.

patchme.cmd -- a rather brainless batch file that can be used to patch
the sources.

testDBZ.Cmd -- a batch file used to test dbz errorlevel returns.

lib/lib.diff -- diff file for library files.

news/news.diff -- diff file for news files.

news/dbz.c -- source file for dbz executable.

news/dbz.h -- header file for dbz.


Installation:

The binaries will come out at the root of the directory where you unzipped
this package.  Move the binary into the \UUPC\OS2BIN directory.  If you
wish to keep the documentation, move them into \UUCP\DOCS.  I suggest
renaming them to avoid potential naming conflicts.

If you have your spool directory in an odd place, check UUPC.RC to make
sure that the spool directory is specified.  However, it is unlikely
that anything would work if it were incorrect.

That's basically it.  Now, test to make sure it is working correctly.


Testing the installation:

To test, open an OS/2 window, and type:
    dbz

It will give you an error that you typed it without parameters.  Now, try:
    dbz -x "<1234>"

Note the quotes!  Without the quotes, it will interpret the '<' and '>'
characters as redirection symbols.

The above command should not have given you any output.  Now, try:
    dbz -m "<1234>"

It should spit <1234> back out at you.

If you have the GNU file utilities installed, try:
    head g:\uucp\news\history.pag {or, wherever you have news installed}

You should get some somewhat human-readable stuff on the screen.  Using
the handy OS/2 Warp window functions, find one between the '<' and '>'
characters on one line, then click and hold the left mouse button down
on the '<' character, drag it to the '>' character, and then let go.
Now, you should have the section you want highlighted on the screen.
Next, click on the highlighted section with the right mouse button, and
a popup menu appears.  Choose "copy" from the menu, and the highlighting
goes away.  Now, type:
    dbz -x "

Next, press and release the [Alt] key, then press the [P] key.  The text
will be pasted into the line.  Lastly, press ["] to finish the quote, so
that the line looks simiar to:
    dbz -x "<A0000009.$[e-mail]>"

Now, press return.  You should get something like:
    <A0000009.$[e-mail]> 869834698 1388 news.software.readers:365

If you can see both, then compare to make sure that they are the same.
If not, something is definitely wrong.  Run expire and then genhist,
then try again.  If the problem continues, do not use this program any
further.  Do copy the entire screen to a file, send it and
\UUPC\SPOOL\DBZ.LOG via email to [e-mail].


Differences:

I can only guess what the output of dbz on an actual C-News feed looks
like.  However, from what I do know, there are some differences.  The
quotes being required around the key are the biggest and most important
difference.  This version of dbz has been altered to output the key and
data, instead of just the data.  This was done to make it easier to work
with NoCEM or NoCEM on spool.  It will also return an errorlevel of 1 if
it could not add/find existing/find missing the database key input.

Not all functions are implemented, as I saw very little need.  You can
append a record, extract (see) a record or extract (see) a missing
record.  You cannot delete or modify a record (note that the original
C-News dbz does not delete records either).  Apparently, the UUPC
routines do not modify records, either, so it would have taken a
rather large effort for little return.  In any event NoCEM will only do
those three functions, so they were the only ones implemented.

Another difference is that there is no provision for specifying the
filename.  Since this is a narrowly targetted program, again, I did not
see the need.  It also would have required a little more rewriting of
various routines, and I wanted to change the actual UUPC source code as
little as possible.  It could be done easily enough, however, by calling
the functions directly, rather than going through open_history() and
close_history().


Recompiling:

The following instructions assume the emx development environment, and
the prerequisites in the README.  If you are using a different compiler,
follow the appropriate instructions for it.  The diff files are for
emx/gcc.  UUPC is currently compiled with IBM's C-Set (as far as I
know), so very little modification should be necessary (expire being
the obvious example).

In general, I tried to make the Makefile as general purpose as possible.
It should make all of the applicable UUPC libraries, but you will need
to add files that are specific to another executable. It should save
anyone some work, at least.  To compile the entire UUPC package under
emx/gcc would still take some work.

Follow the installation instructions above, unzipping the package into a
copy of the source.

Next, you want to patch the source code for compiling under emx, using
GNU's patch program.  The latest one is named "patchos2.exe".  I
apologize for the size of the diffs, but whenever I tried using -b, it
would fail a lot.  So, I supplied the unified diffs without spacing
considerations.

I put a batch file in the package that can be used to run patchos2, if
you so desire.  I created it simply because I got tired of typing.
Otherwise, the following manual procedures will do the exact same thing.

Open an OS/2 command window, change into the LIB directory, then type:
    patchos2 <lib.diff

Next, change into the NEWS directory, then type:
    patchos2 <news.diff

Open an OS/2 command window and change to the directory you setup (if
you are not already there).  Don't attempt to run it from an editor's
command environment, unless you can specify the REXX program to call
(which would probably require changes to your menu, and probably not
worth it).

Now, run:
    dbzmake

*Everything* should make and be fine.  Unfortunately, it will build
*everything* *every* time.  If you are adventurous, you can try to
disable the RCS information and recompile.  Sorry, not my code, nothing
I can really do about it except point you in the right direction or
providing very large diff files (and chance breaking something).