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██████┐ ██┐ ███████┐ ████████┐ ███████┐ ██┐ ████┐ ███████┐ ████████┐ ██┌─██│ ██│ ██┌──██│ └██┌──██│ ██┌────┘ ██│ └██┌┘ ██┌────┘ └──██┌──┘ ██│ ██│ ██│ ██│ ██│ ██│ ██│ █████┐ ██│ ██│ ███████┐ ██│ ██│ ██│ ██│ ██│ ██│ ██│ ██│ ██┌──┘ ██│ ██│ └────██│ ██│ ██│ ██████│ ███████│ ████████│ ███████┐ ██████┐ ████┐ ███████│ ██│ └─┘ └─────┘ └──────┘ └───────┘ └──────┘ └─────┘ └───┘ └──────┘ └─┘ ██┐ ██┐ ███████┐ ████████┐ ███████┐ ████████┐ ███████┐ ███████┐ ██│ ██│ ██┌──██│ └██┌──██│ ██┌──██│ └──██┌──┘ ██┌────┘ ██┌──██│ ██│ ██│ ███████│ ██│ ██│ ███████│ ██│ █████┐ ███████│ ██│ ██│ ██┌────┘ ██│ ██│ ██┌──██│ ██│ ██┌──┘ ██┌─██┌┘ ███████│ ██│ ████████│ ██│ ██│ ██│ ███████┐ ██│ ███┐ └──────┘ └─┘ └───────┘ └─┘ └─┘ └─┘ └──────┘ └─┘ └──┘ Nodelist Updater version 2.20+ Copyright (c) 1992-95 by Roland van der Put All rights reserved. Software and documentation written by Roland van der Put. M A D E I N H O L L A N D ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ You must register after a period of 30 days! │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────┘ USER MANUAL - 1 - Table of contents ║ ══════════════════╝ 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.1 What is Nodelist Updater? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.2 Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 1.3 System hardware and software requirements . . . . . . . 7 1.4 License and disclaimer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 2. FidoNet technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2.1 Network structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2.2 Nodelists and difference files . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 3. NUSETUP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3.1 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3.2 Starting NUSETUP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3.3 Command line options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3.4 Keys and mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3.5 Automatic installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 3.6 Enviroment variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 4. NUSETUP options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 4.1 System data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 4.1.1 Site information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 4.1.2 Pathnames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 4.1.3 Filenames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 4.1.4 Compression programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 4.1.5 External programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 4.1.6 Log options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 4.1.7 Other options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 4.2 Nodelist Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 4.2.1 View mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 4.2.2 Edit mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 4.2.3 Nodelist manager fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 4.3 Export data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 4.3.1 System data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 4.3.2 Nodelist Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 4.3.3 Entire configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 4.4 Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 4.5 Exit to DOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 5. Starting Nodelist Updater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 5.1 Commandline options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 5.2 Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 5.3 Errorcodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 5.4 Errorlevels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 - 2 - 6. Hints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 6.1 Using NU with a mailer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 6.2 Using NU with a fileprocessor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 7. Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 8. Address and latest versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 8.1 Contacting the author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 8.2 Latest versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 8.3 Support area's . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 8.4 Registering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 9. Biography of the author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 10. Technical notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 - 3 - 1. Introduction ║ ════════════════╝ 1.1 What is Nodelist Updater? │ ──────────────────────────────┘ Nodelist Updater is a fast, advanced and fully FTSC-compatible program which updates the nodelists using the difference files which are sent to you every week. Nodelist Updater is very easy to use, and lets you configure many options by using a full-screen mouse-driven setup utility. On-line help is just a keypress away whenever you want more information during the configuration of Nodelist Updater. I decided to write this program after I had problems with processing the difference files(I had a lot of batch files which did the job). Many times it went wrong. Nodelists and difference files got lost. My Boss and other SysOps also had troubles with the processing of the difference files. Many SysOps wanted to compress the updated nodelists with a compression program. The filename had to get an extension like: ".A59". As you will know, this is hardly possible in batch files. Nodelist Updater does this job for you, automatically! The first Beta version was released in January 1992 to a small group of beta testers. At the moment, Nodelist Updater has hundreds of registered users in The Netherlands, Germany, United Kingdom, Sweden, Spain, Australia, Switzerland, the United States of America, Denmark, Austria, Finland, Canada, Luxembourg, France, New Zealand, Israel, Italy, Panama, Ireland, Brazil, Russia, Poland and Greece. I released Nodelist Updater as a shareware program. If you use this program, you are required to register it. Also, commercial users have to register it (commercial users are schools, companies etc.). Nodelist Updater is released in a ZIP file with PKWare's PKZIP Authenticity Verification. When using PKUNZIP 2.0 or higher, you should see "-AV" after every file that is unzipped, and at the end it should display: Authentic files Verified! # AJB440 R.G.L. van der Put If you do not see this, then the files may have been tampered with. You should get a correct version from one of the support sites. Please do NOT change the contents of the ZIP or add files or comments! Please support this shareware program and register! The author, Roland van der Put - 4 - 1.2 Features │ ─────────────┘ I will give you a short impression of the program, so here are the most important features: ■ Fully FTSC compatible. ■ Support for all different kind of nodelists and difference files. ■ You can use a full-screen mouse-driven setup utility to configure all options. This utility includes on-line help. ■ Full-screen output, including a progress bar. ■ All nodelists are updated within only one Nodelist Updater session. You will have to start the program only once! ■ If one or more nodelists were updated, NU will exit with an errorlevel. One or more compilers can also be executed automatically by Nodelist Updater. ■ Nodelist Updater automatically detects 8 compression formats and decompresses nodelists and difference files whenever necessary. There is no need to do this in a batch file. ■ Support for all popular compression formats such as ARC, ARJ, LZH, PAK, RAR, SQZ, ZIP and ZOO. ■ Nodelist Updater can create a file containing lots of statistical information about any defined nodelist when this feature is enabled by the user. ■ Nodelist Updater lets you optionally compress the new nodelists, difference files and statistics files after processing them. ■ Automatic updating of your alias file definitions (magic names). Also supports the BinkleyTerm-style magic names. ■ Nodelist Updater can create a log file. You can easily see if new files have been processed. This is optional of course. ■ Nodelist Updater is DesqView, TopView, DoubleDOS, TaskView, OmniView, MultiDos Plus, VMiX, Windows, Windows NT and OS/2 aware. It will write directly in the screen buffer if one of these multitaskers is detected. ■ Nodelist Updater performs a check if the correct difference file has been found. Also the 16-bit CRC in the header is used. - 5 - ■ It is possible to let Nodelist Updater swap out of memory when executing an external program. Supported are XMS, EMS, EXTended memory and disk. ■ A complete program which is very compact and reliable. ■ Extremely fast, but not memory-hungry. ■ HIGH quality and performance, extremely LOW registration fee! ■ Good support from the author and the support sites by both netmail and echomail. Special support area's are available at all support sites and in several country's. FidoNet echo NU_SUPPORT is available from your uplink, providing worldwide user support for Nodelist Updater. ■ MANY international support sites. - 6 - 1.3 System hardware and software requirements │ ──────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ■ An IBM PC, XT, AT or 100% compatible PC with a hard disk. ■ MicroSoft MS-DOS, IBM PC-DOS or DR-DOS version 3.10 or later. Version MS-DOS 5.0 (or compatible) or later is strongly recommended. Also works very well with Novell v3.x and OS/2. ■ Your CONFIG.SYS file must contain at least "FILES=20". You will need at least this value, otherwise it's possible that Nodelist Updater may run out of file handles. ■ It's also wise to have a disk cache program such as PC-CACHE or HyperDisk. Such program can improve the performance of Nodelist Updater (especially one that can buffer disk writes). Of course it is not mandatory; Nodelist Updater has an internal buffer. ■ At least 225 KB of RAM available. NU will use about 225 KB of memory. If you want to decompress files and/or compress files, you may need more memory, but NU can also swap itself out of memory leaving just a few resident bytes in memory. ■ Of course you also need a raw or St. Louis style nodelist. ■ If you get your difference files in a compressed format you will need the decompression program which will be used to decompress the files. ■ Nodelist Updater was successfully tested with DOS 3.3, 4.0, 5.0 and 6.x, DR DOS 5.0 and 6.0, Novell DOS 7.0, 4DOS/NDOS 4.x, OS/2 1.3, 2.0 and 2.1, Windows 3.0 and 3.1, DESQview 2.3, 2.4 and 2.6, DESQview/X 1.0 and 1.1 on systems equipped with Intel/AMD 8086, 8088, 80186, 80286, 80386, 80486 and Pentium processors. It has also been tested on Novell and Lantastic networks. - 7 - 1.4 License and disclaimer │ ───────────────────────────┘ ■ Nodelist Updater and NU refer to all executables and manuals as distributed in the compressed file in which this package was released. ■ Nodelist Updater is copyrighted material by Roland van der Put (R.G.L. van der Put). This program may only be used in agreement with the conditions which are set out in this part of the manual. ■ Nodelist Updater is distributed as a shareware program: - You are allowed to use Nodelist Updater for an evaluation period of THIRTY days. After this period you MUST REGISTER or you MUST stop using this program. - You are allowed to distribute Nodelist Updater as long as you: 1. do NOT modify any files; 2. supply ALL files; 3. do NOT ask money for it. ■ Although care has been taken to write and test a program that does what this manual states, the program is provided "as is", without warranty or guarantee of any kind, either expressed or implied, as to the quality or performance of this program. ■ The author of Nodelist Updater, Roland van der Put, is NOT responsible for any (direct or indirect) damage or costs, including, but not limited to, lost savings, lost profits and loss of data, which may result from the use or the inability to use Nodelist Updater. ■ You are NOT allowed to do any disassembling, reverse engineering, creating patches for Nodelist Updater and things alike. ■ I (Roland van der Put) am NOT obligated to provide new versions or support for Nodelist Updater. ■ If you use this program, you will constitute your agreement to this disclaimer/license. ■ The source code or part of it, is NOT available or for sale. ■ Insufficient fees CAN and WILL NOT be accepted. Bounced checks will NOT be sent back to you, unless you pay for the costs. ■ All rights are reserved worldwide. - 8 - 2. FidoNet technology ║ ══════════════════════╝ 2.1 Network structure │ ──────────────────────┘ FidoNet is the biggest amateur network in the world. It was started in 1984 by Tom Jennings. Currently more than 35,000 nodes worldwide are connected. The network has a hierarchic tree (or star) topology: ┌──────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────> │ │ zone 1 zone 2 │ │ ┌────────┼────────┐ ┌────────┼────────┐ │ │ │ │ │ │ region region region region region region │ │ │ │ │ │ ┌──┴──┐ │ ┌──┴──┐ ┌───┼───┐ │ ┌──┴──┐ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ net net net net net net net net net net net │ ┌─────┼─────┐ │ │ │ node node node │ ┌───┴───┐ │ │ point point Zones are divided in Regions, which are divided in Nets. The Nets consist of Nodes, which are usually Bulletin Board Systems. Each node has a unique address which consists of four parts: Zone, Net, Node and Point, in text form expressed as "Zone:Net/Node.Point". Zone numbers 1 up to and including 6 are used by FidoNet: 1 = North America (United States of America and Canada) 2 = Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States 3 = Oceania (Australia and New Zealand) 4 = Latin America 5 = Africa 6 = Asia There are several other networks which occupy higher zone numbers. Many nodes have one or more points. Points are users who get mail from a node in compressed files. That way they can read and write messages off-line, saving time and money. The point address of the boss is 0, but the ".0" is usually omitted from the address. - 9 - 2.2 Nodelists and difference files │ ───────────────────────────────────┘ As you will know, a modem needs a telephone number to call another node. FidoNet and other networks (like SIGnet) have a huge list of phone numbers. In these, so called, nodelists you can find the BBS name of a node, the location, the name of the system operator, the phone number, opening hours, the speed of the modem and finally the flags for the system. These nodelists get inaccurate after a few weeks. Some nodes quit or change and nodes may be added. For this reason these networks create difference files. Every week all systems in the network will get this difference file. You can find all changes in this textfile. You will need a special program to process these files. Nodelist Updater will do this for you in an easy and convenient way. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ The difference files are weekly files, so you can't miss one! Make │ │ sure that you have all difference files (and do not miss one). │ │ Otherwise it will look as if Nodelist Updater does not work (but │ │ Nodelist Updater will give an error message in that case)! │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ The difference files were invented, because the complete nodelist would be too long (hundreds of KB or even several MB) to send it on a weekly base. Normally you would decompress the difference file, update the master nodelist, delete the unnecessary files, compress the new files and finally compile the nodelist(s) for use with a mailer etc. Nodelist Updater has integrated all this and more! Find out what's possible when you configure Nodelist Updater. Well, it is time to install everything. Please read the next part of this manual to get the information you will need to install Nodelist Updater. Most of the installation is completely automated, but there are still several options which should be configured. - 10 - 3. NUSETUP ║ ═══════════╝ 3.1 Installation │ ─────────────────┘ It is convenient if the directories which contain executable files are listed in the DOS PATH, so make sure that your AUTOEXEC.BAT contains a line that looks like this: SET PATH=C:\UTIL;C:\XENIA;C:\RA;C:\DOS;C:\XENIA\NU Copy the following files from the compressed distribution archive to your Nodelist Updater directory. NUSETUP.EXE This is the setup utility, used to create and update the system data files. It is full-screen and you can use a mouse and on-line help. NU.EXE The main program. It is responsible for compressing, decompressing, updating nodelists and all dozens of other features. NU.DOC The Nodelist Updater user manual. This is the file you are reading at the moment. This manual will be displayed when you request on-line help. This manual and all other files are formatted for printing. NU_DOC.IDX The index file of the manual for the on-line help. If this file doesn't exists, it will be created by NUSETUP when required. REGISTER.ZIP The archive containing the registration forms. Inside is a file which explains which form to use. WHATSNEW.220 A list of everything that has changed since version 2.11. Read this when you upgrade from an older version of NU. SETUP.NU The entire configuration of Nodelist Updater is store in this file. You'll be prompted to created this file when you execute NUSETUP for the first time. - 11 - 3.2 Starting NUSETUP │ ─────────────────────┘ Before Nodelist Updater can run, it needs to be configured using the setup utility NUSETUP. When you start NUSETUP, it will search for the system data file SETUP.NU in the current directory. The first time you run NUSETUP, it will not be able to locate the file and it will ask you if you want to create it. If you press the space bar, NUSETUP will create a new configuration file with example default values for most input fields. 3.3 Command line options │ ─────────────────────────┘ NUSETUP has some switches which can be used to force NUSETUP to use colors or not. Normally, NUSETUP will detect whether or not a color card is available, but you might wish to override this detection. Usage: NUSETUP [switch] Switches: -Mono Force monochrome mode -Color Force color mode 3.4 Keys and mouse │ ───────────────────┘ NUSETUP uses pop-up menus. You can use your mouse, the cursor up and down keys or Tab and Shift-Tab keys to move the menu bar up and down. You can select an option or command by pressing the left mouse button or by pressing Enter. The right mouse button or the Esc key will take you back to a previous level. At some places NUSETUP may ask you if you want to save the changes or discard them. Wherever this is the case, you may press F10 to save the changes unconditionally, ie. without getting this question. The last line on the screen contains useful help about the use of the selected function or help on keys that can be used. You can use the F1 key to get on-line case-sensitive help at any time. The on-help will allow you to jump to a specific page or to search for a string in the manual. - 12 - 3.5 Automatic installation │ ───────────────────────────┘ NUSETUP will automatically read the configuration of other programs when it can not find SETUP.NU. The correct environment variable has to be set to let this work. Supported are D'Bridge, FrontDoor, InterMail, GEcho and RemoteAccess. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Should something go wrong with this feature, then you can disable │ │ it by temporary removing the environment variable(s) of the above │ │ programs. You can restore the environment variable(s) after │ │ NUSETUP has created the configuration file SETUP.NU. │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ NUSETUP can also scan for nodelists and difference files and add them automatically to the configuration. You'll be prompted to do this when you enter the Nodelist manager the first time. 3.6 Environment variables │ ──────────────────────────┘ To make your configuration more flexible and dynamic, you can also use environment variables in the directory names. This makes it easier when you change your directory names. Using environment variables in Nodelist Updater is easy. You can use the string '$[var]', where 'var' is the environment variable you want to use. An example: '$[BBS]\FILES\' with the environment variable 'BBS' containing 'C:\XENIA' will be expanded to 'C:\XENIA\FILES\' on run-time. Thus, if the environment variable BBS changes to 'H:\XENIA' then you don't have to change the directory names in NUSETUP! - 13 - 4. NUSETUP options ║ ═══════════════════╝ 4.1 System data │ ────────────────┘ This menu enables you to enter miscellaneous system information, such as name, address, files, directories, compressions programs and external programs. 4.1.1 Site information Here you can enter all your personal information. This information will only be used for your key and in the statistics file which you can optionally create. Username The name of the System Operator of this system. In nearly all cases that is you. Access password The password required to access NUSETUP. With this password, you prevent other people to modify your setup accidentally. Don't forget the password, as you'll be unable to change the configuration, unless you delete the file SETUP.NU! 4.1.2 Pathnames Here you can specify the directory names used by Nodelist Updater. If you enter a path that does not exist, NUSETUP will ask if you want to create it. Read section 3.6 for more information about the use of environment variables. Nodelist path Where the mailer looks for the nodelists and where the new nodelists will be stored by Nodelist Updater. Swap path Path where the swap file is stored if there is insufficient XMS, EMS or extended memory available. Up to 225 KB disk space is required. It is recommended to use a RAM disk for this. Difference path Where incoming nodelists and difference files are stored by your mailer or file processor. - 14 - Statistics path Where the statistics files created by Nodelist Updater can be stored. Nodelist Updater will use the Nodelist path by default. You can leave this empty if you don't want NU to create any files containing statistics. Filebase path Where the RemoteAccess 2.0 filebase can be found. Nodelist Updater can add the files compressed by NU to the RA filebase. Leave empty if you don't use the RA 2.0 filebase. Semaphore path The path where your mailer creates it's semaphore files. Use this when you run 2 or more nodes. 4.1.3 Filenames Log file The name and location of the log file. In the "Log Options" menu you can determine which kind of messages should be logged. The string '$[TASK]' will be replaced with FrontDoor mL's TASK number. Actually, you can use any environment variable, see section 3.6 for more information about this. Magic file The name and location of the file containing the alias file definitions (magic names). Nodelist Updater can optionally update the file with newer information. Any passwords for a magic name will be preserved. 4.1.4 Compression programs Here you can specify up to 10 programs which can be executed to decompress nodelists and difference files. Nodelist Updater recognizes archives in ARC, ARJ, LZH, PAK, RAR, SQZ, ZIP and ZOO format. These programs can also be selected to compress a file. Program The name of the program to execute to compress files. This program has to be in your DOS PATH. Switches The switches for this program needed to compress files. Swap If Nodelist Updater should swap itself out of memory when executing this program. Try setting this option to 'No' if you experience strange problems, especially with ARC/PAK or use a different decompression program for ARC/PAK. - 15 - Output visible If you want to view the output of this program, then turn on this switch. Also turn on this switch, if Nodelist Updater is unable to suppress the output of this program (direct screen writes). Character All compressed files will be in the format NODELIST.A27. You can choose which character you want to use, in this case it is the 'A'. In general it's a good idea to use the first character of the compression program name. Program The name of the program to execute to decompress files. This program has to be in your DOS PATH. Switches The switches needed to decompress files. Swap See above. Output visible See above. 4.1.5 External programs Here you can specify up to 10 programs which will be executed after one or more nodelists have been updated by Nodelist Updater. You can put all your nodelist compilers here. Examples are FrontDoor's FDNC and GoldED's GOLDNODE. Program The name of the program to execute after updating one or more nodelists. This has to be the full path and filename of the executable file. Otherwise this program must be in your DOS PATH. An extension is not necessary, but can always be added. NU will first change to the directory in this program name. Switches The switches needed for this program. Swap If Nodelist Updater should swap itself out of memory when executing this program. Output visible If you want to view the output of this program, then turn on this switch. Also turn on this switch, if Nodelist Updater is unable to suppress the output of this program (direct screen writes). Ignore errors If NU should ignore any errorlevels other than 0 returned by this program. Useful when the program always return an errorlevel other than 0. - 16 - 4.1.6 Log options Here you can define what kind of messages should be written to the log file. The DEBUG setting allows you to log all messages, without losing your customized settings. 4.1.7 Other options Make noise after If Nodelist Updater detected a fatal error it will fatal error normally make a noise to notify you. You might want turn this off in some situations. Log file style Which log file should be used. You can use None or a FrontDoor style log file. Allow swapping If Nodelist Updater can use EMS memory for to EMS swapping. Allow swapping If Nodelist Updater can use XMS memory for to XMS swapping. Allow swapping If Nodelist Updater can use extended memory for to EXT swapping. Touch date of Nodelist Updater has the ability to touch the date compressed files of a compressed file and set it to the date and time of the file it contains. This can be useful in some BBS environments. Use fade in/out in Fade the screen in and out when entering or NUSETUP or NU leaving NUSETUP or NU. Only works for color EGA and VGA systems not running under a multitasker. Semaphore mode Which semaphore mode should be used when accessing the nodelists. Works with FrontDoor (C) 2.11+, FrontDoor (mL) 2.20a+, InterMail 2.20+ and Xenia. The maximum time NU will wait is 5 minutes. Binkley style If an '@' should be placed in front of the magic magic file file names, this is required for BinkleyTerm. - 17 - 4.2 Nodelist manager │ ─────────────────────┘ This manager is used to define the nodelists, their difference files, compression programs and many other options. You must add one or more entries to this database, otherwise Nodelist Updater can't work. 4.2.1 View mode In view mode you can walk through the areas with the cursor up/down or left/right keys. The index is sorted alphabetically by area name. Pressing Home will take you to the first area, pressing End will take you to the last area. You can press the A-Z keys to jump to the first record starting with this character. Enter Edit the current nodelist record. Ins Add a new nodelist. NUSETUP will use the defaults to initialize it. You can add up to 100 records in this database. Users who are NOT registered, can only use the first 2 entries! Del This will remove the current record from the database. You will be prompted for a confirmation. The record will be deleted at once, there's no need to pack the database afterwards. F2 Perform global maintenance on multiple records. This will allow you to change settings, set or clear options, change the paths and change the compression programs globally. This affects all records in the database. F3 Edit the default settings. Here you can enter all the default data that you want to be the default for a certain field. These default settings are used when adding new records to the database. F4 Scan the nodelist path for nodelists and add them to the Nodelist manager. You can use this command at any time to add new nodelists. NUSETUP will try to find a matching difference file and network using it's internal database. F5 Browse in through the records in the Nodelist manager. Use the cursor keys etc. to browse through the records and to select a certain record. - 18 - 4.2.2 Edit mode In edit mode you can move between input fields using the cursor up/down, Tab/Shift-Tab and Enter keys. The following function keys are available: Esc, F9 Save changes and return to view mode. If the nodelist name was already in use or no nodelist name was entered, then NUSETUP will exit without saving. F10 Save the changes unconditionally and exit immediately. Enter Toggles between the possible states of an option. 4.2.3 Nodelist manager fields The Nodelist manager has several fields which look the same. Nodelist name The basename of the nodelist you want to update. Nodelist Updater will automatically look for the extension (a daynumber) when updating the nodelist. Nodelist Updater will not interfere with temporary nodelists (*.999). It will just ignore them. Nodelist path The destination directory for the compressed nodelist created by NU. Every time the nodelist is updated, you can let Nodelist Updater compress it with a compression program of your choice. This directory defines where the compressed nodelist will be placed. Leave it empty if you don't want to compress the nodelist after updating. Nodelist The description of this nodelist for the Files.Bbs description in the directory mentioned above or the RA 2.0 filebase. If you don't want NU to add the description for this nodelist, then leave it empty. You can also add the daynumber of this nodelist by using "@@@". "$DATE" will be replaced by the date when the nodelist was created. Nodelist options This will bring you to a submenu where you enter some options for this nodelist. These options are described below. - 19 - Compression Specifies which program should be used to compress this nodelist. If you select "No compression", Nodelist Updater will not compress this nodelist. Keep How many compressed nodelists should be kept in this directory. This is only valid when you compress the nodelist. Nodelist Updater will start deleting the oldest nodelists first. This option only works for registered users. Magic name If Nodelist Updater should update the magic name for the compress nodelist. If a password was found behind the magic name then it will be copied by Nodelist Updater. Delete old If Nodelist Updater should delete the old nodelists (which are not compressed). This option only works for registered users. Del old cmp If Nodelist Updater should delete the old compressed nodelists in your inbound directory. This option only works for registered users. Filearea no The areanumber for the RemoteAccess 2.0 filebase. Only enter a number when you want Nodelist Updater to add this file to the RA filebase. Ignore comp Ignore this nodelist when deciding whether or not to execute the External programs. Set this option to 'No' if you want to execute the External programs when this nodelist is updated. Difference name The basename of the difference file which belongs to this nodelist. If no difference files are submitted then leave this empty. Difference others For an explanation of the other options for difference files, see above (nodelist). Statistics name The basename of the statistics file that will be created by Nodelist Updater. If you don't want Nodelist Updater to create any statistics files then leave this empty. Registered users will get a more complete statistics file than non-registered users. Statistics others For an explanation of the other options for statistics files, see above (nodelist). - 20 - 4.3 Export data │ ────────────────┘ The export function can be used to export the configuration of Nodelist Updater partly or entirely to an ASCII text file. NUSETUP will ask you if it should overwrite an existing file if the file already exists. 4.3.1 System data This will export the general configuration to a text file. All options found under the menu item System data will be written to a text file. 4.3.2 Nodelist manager This will export the configuration under Nodelist manager to a text file. 4.3.3 Entire configuration This will export the entire configuration of Nodelist Updater to a text file. This option combines the two options mentioned above and exports them all to one file. 4.4 Information │ ────────────────┘ This screen will show you some general information about Nodelist Updater. This includes the copyright message, version number, compilation date and time and the compiler and assembler name and version. 4.5 Exit to DOS │ ────────────────┘ If you select this or press Esc from the main menu, you can exit NUSETUP and return to DOS. NUSETUP will check if the configuration has been changed and ask if you want to save the changes. From anywhere in NUSETUP you can press Alt-Z to temporarily shell to DOS. Type 'EXIT' at the DOS prompt to return to NUSETUP. NUSETUP will try to free as much memory as possible, without swapping to EMS, XMS, extended memory or disk when shelling to DOS. - 21 - 5. Starting Nodelist Updater ║ ═════════════════════════════╝ It's very easy to use Nodelist Updater. Just type 'NU' on the command line and that's it! 5.1 Command line options │ ─────────────────────────┘ Nodelist Updater will automatically search for the file SETUP.NU in the directory in where NU.EXE is located. This means that Nodelist Updater can only use ONE setup file. Nodelist Updater has some switches which can be used to force Nodelist Updater to use colors or not. You can also make it execute the external programs at any cost. This is useful when you need to recompile your nodelists for some reason. Usage: NU [switch] Switches: -Mono Force monochrome mode -Color Force color mode -Force Forced execution of external programs -Stat [nodelist] Forced creation of the statistics for this nodelist -NoExt Disable the execution of external programs [nodelist] is the base filename of the nodelist (eg. 'NODELIST'). The statistics file will be created in the directory defined in the NUSETUP. Nodelist Updater also has a helpswitch. If you type NU /? or NU ? you will get a short help screen. This screen is the same as above. 5.2 Errors │ ───────────┘ If you have any troubles, please contact me and I will try to solve these problems for you. Please report bugs if you find them!! If you have found a bug, please give me all the information that may be necessary to solve the problem. This includes a description of the problem, your SETUP.NU and directory listings of your inbound directory and nodelist directory. - 22 - 5.3 Errorcodes │ ───────────────┘ When something goes wrong when executing an external program, then Nodelist Updater will write some additional information to the log file. The error messages will tell you what went wrong. 5.4 Errorlevels │ ────────────────┘ If an error occurred, Nodelist Updater will exit with an errorlevel. In the following table you see what all errorlevels mean. 0: No nodelists updated and no errors. 1: One or more nodelists updated, but no errors. 2: One or more nodelists updated and one or more errors. 3: No nodelists updated, but one or more errors. 4: Fatal error during program startup. 5: Run-error detected. Please, contact the author. You can use these errorlevels to take special measures or to run a program that fixes that error. - 23 - 6. Hints ║ ═════════╝ On this page, you will find some hints about using Nodelist Updater in combination with a mailer and/or a fileprocessor. 6.1 Using NU with a mailer │ ───────────────────────────┘ Basically, there are two ways of invoking Nodelist Updater. The first method is to execute Nodelist Updater after every call. A disadvantage is that it will take some time before your system is on-line again. An advantage is that your nodelists are always up-to-date. All nodelists will be compiled if one or more nodelists have been updated. The second method is to execute Nodelist Updater once or maybe a few times a day on fixed times. The disadvantage of this method, that your nodelists are not very up-to-date, but always within about 24 hours. A big advantage is that you can update and compile your nodelists during a quiet time of the day. I personally prefer this method. NOTE: Make sure that any other lines you have (if you have a multiline configuration) are not active. Otherwise they can cause big troubles when they can't find the nodelist any more. Use the semaphore support or take down any other nodes before executing Nodelist Updater. 6.2 Using NU with a fileprocessor │ ──────────────────────────────────┘ Nodelist Updater can optionally delete and/or compress nodelists, difference files and statistics files. There are a few possibility's to combine this with a fileprocessor like AllFix. Most people who forward files to downlinks use the following setup. Create a 'waitlist' directory and let your fileprocessor (e.g. AllFix) copy all difference files etc. to this directory. Then insert this directory name into NUSETUP as the inbound directory. You can let Nodelist Updater compress the new nodelists and/or difference files and/or statistics files and place them into a BBS download directory (with a description). If you are a point or don't forward files to downlinks, then forget about the 'waitlist' directory and let Nodelist Updater use you inbound directory. There are more possibility's, but these two are the most common ones. - 24 - 7. Credits ║ ═══════════╝ At this point, I would like to thank some people. I especially would like to thank my beta testers. They came with many suggestions and ideas. Thanks guys! Special thanks go to all support sites for opening their systems for my product. Many thanks also go to all registered users. I really appreciate your fee! It is mainly the money and the gratitude that keeps me going (I use the money for my education at the university). NO thanks go to all unregistered people who still use Nodelist Updater after 30 days without registering it!! The following programs/names mentioned are copyrighted material: Borland Pascal Turbo Assembler : Borland International, Inc. ARC : Systems Enhancements Associates ARJ : Robert K. Jung LHA : Haruyasu Yoshizaki PAK : NoGate Consulting PKZIP : PKWARE, Inc. RAR : Eugene Roshal SQZ : Jonas I Hammarberg ZOO : R. Dhesi D'Bridge : Chris Irwin FrontDoor : Advanced Engineering SARL Luxembourg Remote Access : Andrew Milner and Continental Software QEMM, DESQview, DESQview/X : Quarterdeck Office Systems, Inc. MultiDos Plus : Nanosoft Inc. VMiX : Commercial Software Associates Microsoft, MS-DOS, Windows (NT) : Microsoft Corporation DR DOS : Digital Research IBM, PC-DOS, OS/2 : International Business Machines Corp. PC-CACHE : Central Point Software, Inc. 4DOS : JP Software Inc. AllFix : Harald Harms FileMgr : Erick van Emmerik GEcho : Gerard van der Land MulAware : ABSoft Pentium : Intel ZyXEL : ZyXEL Communications Corp. Nodelist Updater : Roland van der Put - 25 - 8. Address and latest versions ║ ═══════════════════════════════╝ 8.1 Contacting the author │ ──────────────────────────┘ If you have any questions, suggestions, ideas or whatever you can contact me in several ways: Send netmail to 'Roland van der Put' at 2:285/320 or contact me via internet at 'roland@dlink.idn.nl'. Link into the worldwide FidoNet echo NU_SUPPORT and send echomail to me addressed to my name. 8.2 Latest versions │ ────────────────────┘ The LATEST release of Nodelist Updater is always available to you by: ■ Logging on at a Main Support Site. Country: System operator: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Belgium Tony van den Bogaert Denmark Richard Hansen Finland Thomas Raehalme France Marlene Steinmann Germany Boris Huertgen Luxembourg Michel Burens Poland Piotr Mamak Russia Oleg Ramazanov Sweden Martin Alexanderson Switzerland Raphael Schmidiger The Netherlands Roland van der Put United Kingdom & Eire Darren Parker USA Jim Smoot USA Mike Jordan USA Dave Hansen USA Thom Kirby Look at the registration forms in REGISTER.ZIP for more information! ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── You can use "NU" as the magic name to frequest the LATEST release. - 26 - ■ Logging on at a registered BBS: You can also try to frek the filename (NU_V???.ZIP) at one of the systems who registered NU. These registered users will nearly always have the latest version available for file request and/or download. ■ Logging on to a FileGate: Nodelist Updater is distributed through the FileGate/FileBone. New releases will be submitted through the FileGate HQ in the USA. ■ Logging to your favorite BBS You can also try to download Nodelist Updater at your favorite BBS, but it is possible that you'll get an older release. So I suggest that you to call one of above. ■ Logging on at a node in RANet: New versions will also be hatched in RANet, so these users will automatically get new versions of Nodelist Updater. Try downloading it from a RANet node. 8.3 Support area's │ ───────────────────┘ The international support area NU_SUPPORT is available worldwide. You can use this area to ask questions etc. These area's are not only meant for registered users. It is allowed to link other people to these area's. 8.4 Registering │ ────────────────┘ Programming, documenting, testing and supporting Nodelist Updater took a lot of time. I am still working on Nodelist Updater, so it will be improved in the future. You can find more information in the archive REGISTER.ZIP. - 27 - 9. Biography of the author ║ ═══════════════════════════╝ The author of Nodelist Updater, Roland van der Put, was born in Dordrecht (The Netherlands) on June 28, 1974. His full name is Robertus Gerardus Laurentius van der Put. Since 1975 he lives in Papendrecht, close to Dordrecht. He bought his first computer in 1986 and immediately started programming. He is a fully self-taught programmer. At the very beginning of 1992 he started to write Nodelist Updater. Other people were very interested, so the program was expanded to the current version you are examining at the moment. In June 1993 he graduated from the VWO. He started a Computer Science study at the Delft University of Technology in September 1993. He passed his P-exam (the exam after the first year) in September 1994. - 28 - 10. Technical notes ║ ════════════════════╝ ■ The swapper used is SPAWNO by Ralf Brown. It can swap to disk, XMS, EMS and extended memory. ■ Multitasker detection is done by the MulAware 4.00 unit by ABSoft. ■ NU is DesqView, TopView, DoubleDOS, TaskView, OmniView, MultiDos Plus, VMiX, Windows, Windows NT and OS/2 aware. It will write directly in the screen buffer if one of these multitaskers is detected. ■ NU performs a check if the correct difference file has been found. Also the 16-bit CRC in the header is used. ■ When you execute Nodelist Updater, it will perform a self check. If the file has been altered, a warning message will be displayed and the program will be terminated immediately. - 29 -