The MacUpdate Automation Package consists of two programs: MUDDaemon, and MUDControl. MUDDaemon needs to go in your Extensions folder (then you'll have to re-start your Mac for it to load). Note MUDDaemon is *not* an INIT (extension), it is a Faceless Background Application, or application extension. It still *must* be in the Extensions folder to load properly. MUDControl is a Control Panel-like application used to control the automatic synchronization settings. Specifically, you can specify which Settings Files to synchronize, and when to do automatic synchronization. MUDControl can be installed anywhere. Personally, I keep it in my Control Panels folder, but you could leave it in the same folder as the MacUpdate application program if you desire.
MUDDaemon
----------
MUDDaemon simply runs unobtrusively in the background, waiting for an auto-synchronization time or event to come to pass. When it does, MUDDaemon tells MacUpdate to open up Settings Files. Note the Settings Files must be configured to "Synchronize All when Document is Opened" in order for this to work properly.
Be sure to put MUDDaemon in your Extensions folder, inside of the Sytem Folder, and re-start your Macintosh to get MUDDaemon to run.
MUDControl
----------
MUDControl is a program that is used to set the auto-synchronization times when MUDDaemon should tell MacUpdate to open one or more Settings Files. MUDControl also lets you specify the list of Settings Files to be opened.
Double-click on the MUDControl program icon to run the program. The MUD Control window that appears when you do this is shown below:
The list on the right contains the names of Settings Files to open when an auto-synchronization time or event comes to pass. Click on the Add button to add more Settings Files. Select a Settings File in the list and click on the Remove button to remove a Settings File from the list.
On the left side of the window are controls for when auto-synchronization is to occur. Check the Synchronize at Startup and/or Synchronize at Shutdown checkboxes to have MacUpdate Synchronize the list of Settings Files when your Mac is powered on or shut down. Note these are events, not specific times. Note also that this version cannot distinguish between a "Shutdown" and a "Restart". Additionally, MacUpdate will be instructed to Synchronize at Shutdown whenever the MUDDaemon application extension is "quit". This could occur if an installation program tries to quit all other running applications. Turn off Synchronize at Shutdown if you are using an installer program that tries to quit all running applications.
Use Synchronize at Date&Time for a "one-shot" Synchronization (non-recurring) at the specified time on the specified day. Note that times are MILITARY, so 14:00 is 2:00 PM, whereas 2:00 is 2:00 AM.
Use Synchronize at Intervals to Synchronize at the specified frequency. In the example window above, auto-synchronization will occur every hour. You can type any number from 0 to 99 in the Days, Hrs, and Mins text boxes.
Use Synchronize at Daily Time to auto-synchronize at the specified time every single day, or, by changing the popup menu from Every Day to a specific day of the week, auto-synchronize on that day every week at the specified time. Note that times are MILITARY, so 14:00 is 2:00 PM, whereas 2:00 is 2:00 AM.
Miscellanea
-----------
MUDDaemon checks if it is time to auto-synchronize every 5 seconds. Because of this, the time that an auto-synchronization occurs may be plus or minus 5 seconds from the specified time. If you specify 11:00 as a time to auto-synchronize, the synchronization may occur any time between 10:59:55 and 11:00:05. The actual time could even fall outside of this range if you are running another program that is "hogging" the processor, and not letting MUDDaemon determine if enough time has elapsed.
MUDControl does not check for valid input as well as it could/should. Most especially, it will let you enter 0 (zero) as the month or day under Synchronize at Date&Time. Also, MUDControl only checks if the Day value is between 1 and 31. Note you could enter 2/31/96 as the Date to synchronize. Obviously 2/31 is invalid (even in leap years, February only has 29 days). If you do this, the Mac OS will convert 2/31 to 3/3 (or 3/2 if the year is a leap year). This should not cause anything bad to happen, it just won't work as exptected (I guess this is debatable. What exactly *would* one expect by specifying a date of 2/31/96? In any case, MUDControl shouldn't allow this ambiguous condition to occur. A later version of MUDControl will fix these potentially annoying problems).
Changes made in MUDControl are not transfered to MUDDaemon until the MUDControl window is closed or the MUDControl program is quit. When the window is closed, MUDControl informs MUDDaemon that the user has specified new settings, and MUDDaemon will then use the new settings.
