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┌─────────┐┌──────────┬┌────────────┐┌──────────┬───────┬───┐ │ ┌───┐ ││ ┌───┐ ││ ┌─┐ ┌─┐ ││ ┌───┐ │ │ │ │ │ │ ││ │ │ ││ │ │ │ │ ││ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └───┘ └┤ └───┘ ││ │ │ │ │ └┤ └───┘ │ │ │ │ │ ┌────┐ │ ┌────┐ ││ │ │ │ │ │ ┌────┐ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ││ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └──┘ └──┴──┘ └──┴┴──┘ └──┘ └───┴──┘ └──┴───┴───────┘ RAMAN - RemoteAccess Manager v2.10 Copyright (C) 1991-1993 By David Hickey, All rights reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS Features 1 License 1 Registration 2 System Requirements 3 Installation 4 Setup 4 Configuration/Features 5 Running RAMAN 19 Parameter Listing 19 Multi-Node Operation 21 Technical Notes 22 Credits 22 Bug Reports 23 Beta Testers 23 This and That 24 Registering RAMAN 24 The Future 25 RAMAN * Remote Access Manager v2.10 * April 22, 1993 1 FEATURES * DESQview and Multi-Line aware * Alphabetize file listings * Update download counters for downloads and file requests * Add customized headers to file listings * Clean up the location field in your user file * Create up to 5 allfiles listings * Create up to 5 newfiles listings * Archive up to 5 logfiles by date * Scan files for viruses * Re-archive files * Back up your user files * Generate a bulletin of message base usage * Generate a file area overview bulletin * Generate Top & Low user bulletins * Generate Most & Least popular file bulletins * Generate a bulletin of daily uploads * Generate a bulletin of daily downloads * Add comments to ARJ and ZIP files * Perform daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance * Remove files X days old * Remove files X days old if they have not been downloaded * Pick random screens/menus * Make backups of file listings * Post message to users who drop carrier * Post message to users who upload * Post message to new users * Remove orphaned entries in file listings * Add orphaned files to file listings * Pack the file database LICENSE The term "RAMAN" refers to the files contained in the RemoteAccess Manager distribution archive (RAMAN210.ZIP), and released by David Hickey. The following must be read, understood, and agreed upon BEFORE you use RAMAN: * RAMAN is Shareware. It is not FreeWare or Public Domain. * This program and the accompanying documentation are copyrighted material by David Hickey. * This program is provided AS IS! I have taken a great deal of precautions insuring RAMAN will work as this documentation states, but there is always the unknown. I provide NO warranty whatsoever. RAMAN * Remote Access Manager v2.10 * April 22, 1993 2 * The author, David Hickey, is not liable to you or anyone for, but not limited to, any direct, indirect, incidental, or consequential damages, including, but not limited to, any lost profits, damaged hardware or software, or loss of money resulting from the inability or abilitiy of this program to perform as stated. By using this program, you agree to these terms and release the author from any liablility or litigation whatsoever. * I am in no way obligated to provide future versions of or support for RAMAN. * You are hereby granted a limited license to use RAMAN up to 14 days before registering. After 14 days you are required to register this program as described at the end of this documentation. You may use and distribute this program provided it is not modified, reverse engineered, or in any way altered. REGISTRATION As stated in the license agreement, you are required to register RAMAN if you use it past the 14 day trial period. All options work in the unregistered version, but there are a few extra features within some options that will only work when registered. For example, header and footer text will not be added to Allfiles listings when unregistered, but the Allfiles listings WILL be created. When unregistered, RAMAN will remind you of this. It has no annoying pauses like 1.00 did, and it will not whistle Dixie while running. It will also stamp a nice UNREGISTERED message on things like the Allfiles listings, file headers, etc until you have registered. The end of this document contains registration information. If you like this program and intend to use it past the 14 day evaluation period, please register. RAMAN * Remote Access Manager v2.10 * April 22, 1993 3 REQUIREMENTS To date, this program has been tested with the following hardware configurations: 1) Packard Bell 80286 with 4Mb RAM under MS-DOS v4.01 2) 80386 SX Clone with 4Mb RAM under MS-DOS v5.00 3) 80286 with 1Mb RAM under MS-DOS v3.3 4) IBM XT clones with 640k RAM under MS-DOS 5.0 and 3.3 5) 80386 with 8Mb RAM under MS-DOS v5.0 6) 80486 clones 7) Lantastic network 8) 80386 clone under MS-DOS v6.0 Memory requirement is about 200k for options which do not require an external program to be called, and around 300k if something such as ARJ.EXE needs to be called. When swapping, RAMAN swaps itself out of RAM which leaves only about 7k resident. The 300k figure will vary depending on which external program needs to be called, with ARJ.EXE apparantly requiring the most memory (about 290k). The swapper used was written by Kim Kokkonen of TurboPower Software. A copy of RemoteAccess v2.00 is required. Previous versions RemoteAccess are not supported, and I can not guarentee that versions after 2.00 will not break RAMAN. This program is RemoteAccess specific and uses CONFIG.RA, FILES.RA, MESSAGES.RA, and your RemoteAccess logfile. For some of the functions, you will need to have a copy of some of the different compression and decompression programs. You will also need a copy of a virus scanner. All of these external programs MUST be in your path statement. For example: SET PATH=C:\UTILITY; This will include your C:\UTILITY directory in your path statement. RAMAN makes repeated calls to access the disk drive, and works extremely well while running under a disk caching system. This is not a requirement, but it significantly speeds up RAMAN's execution. RAMAN * Remote Access Manager v2.10 * April 22, 1993 4 INSTALLATION You MUST have the COMSPEC environment variable set to point to where COMMAND.COM is located, and your RA environment variable set. To do this, put the following line in either your AUTOEXEC.BAT file or your BBS batch file: SET COMSPEC=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM SET RA=C:\RA Edit these examples to suit your own system. Next, copy all the files in the distribution archive into any directory you want. This directory will become your RAMAN system directory. SETUP A setup program called RAMANCFG.EXE has been provided to configure RAMAN. The configuration file is a binary file and may NOT be edited with a simple text editor. To use, simply run: RAMANCFG <config file> Where <config file> is the name of the configuration file you wish to change. If the file is not present, RAMANCFG will ask you if you want to create one. The following sections will cover each of RAMAN's options in the order in which you will find it in RAMANCFG. RAMAN * Remote Access Manager v2.10 * April 22, 1993 5 MENU - "Options" : ITEM - "File Area Options" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ALPHABETIZE FILE LISTINGS - With this option enabled, the file listing of each selected file area will be alphabetized in a descending fashion (A - Z). This option fully recognizes comments and file headers. If it should encounter comments, it will alphabetize between the comments. PACK FILE DATABASE - When a file is deleted from one of your file areas, the file is physically deleted of course. However, the file may only be *marked* for deletion in the FDBxxxxx.HDR file. This option removes all records which have been marked for deletion. This is identical to what a program such as RAMSG does when packing your message base, but applied to the file database instead. UPDATE DOWNLOAD COUNTERS - This function will read your RemoteAccess logfile and pick out the files that have been downloaded. RAMAN will then update the download counter in the FDBxxxxx.HDR file. RAMAN will remember where it left off in your RA logfile and will know whether or not it is a new logfile. UPDATE COUNTERS FOR FREQS - Same as the above, but operates on your mailer's logfile and updates the counters of any files that were sent from your system. Currently, RAMAN recognizes FrontDoor, D'Bridge, and Binkley logging formats. ADD HEADERS TO FILE LISTINGS - This option will add a customized header to your file listings. The text for this header is in an ASCII file named RAMAN.HDR which must be in the RAMAN system directory. There are several macros which may be used in this file: %COST - The cost of the current file area. If the area is free, this will be replaced by "FREE". %MEDIA - The type of media the current file area is on: CD-ROM or HARD-DRIVE. %SYSOP - Name of the Sysop, or "Unregistered" if you have not yet registered RAMAN. %BBS - Name of your BBS. %FILES - Number of files in this file area. %BYTES - Number of bytes taken up by files in this area. %AREA - Name of the current file area. %AREA# - Number of the current file area. %LDATE - Date in a long format (i.g. January 01, 1993) %SDATE - Date in a short format (i.g. MM-DD-YY format) %12TIME - Current time in 12 hour format. %24TIME - Current time in 24 hour format. RAMAN * Remote Access Manager v2.10 * April 22, 1993 6 REMOVE ORPHANED RECORDS - If a file listed in the file database does not exist physically on disk, that entry will be marked for deletion. ADD ORPHANED FILES TO LISTINGS - This option will compare reality to the entries in your file database. If a file exists on disk but not in the database, RAMAN can do one of two things. First, it can simply import the file with the "Missing Description" string you specify in RAMANCFG. (covered later) Or, it can search the archive for a FILE_ID.DIZ and DESC.SDI file. (covered later) If either file is found, RAMAN will import that file into the description field, otherwise it will use the "Missing Description" string from RAMANCFG. If you have allfiles listings from other boards online, RAMAN can look through them and try to find a description for the files it is appending to your file listing. If an entry is found, RAMAN will use its file description. If it is not found, RAMAN uses the 'Missing Description' string defined in the configuration file. A list of these alternate files should be placed into a file in the RAMAN system directory called LISTINGS.CTL, the format of which is: <filename> <filename> ... Example: C:\LISTS\170-400.TXT C:\LISTS\FIRE.LST IMPORT FILE_ID.DIZ/DESC.SDI - If this is enabled, the above option will attempt to use a FILE_ID.DIZ or DESC.SDI file as the description for the file if it exists in the archive. MAKE BACKUPS OF FILE LISTINGS - This option will simply create a copy of your file database with the extension of .BAK. REARCHIVE FILES - This function re-archives all files in a given directory into an archive format of your choice. RAMAN recognizes and will convert an infinite number of nested archives (archives within an archive). Two support files may be used with this option. The first is NOREARC.CTL. In this ASCII file, you may enter a list of files you do NOT want rearchived. You would want to place names like RA_200G1.ARJ in here for example since Andrew asked that it not be rearchived. The second is TRASH.CTL. Some people like to add ads for their BBS in archives for some reason. If you have a list of files you do not want in your archives, specify them here. When RAMAN rearchives files, any file found which is listed in this file will be deleted. RAMAN * Remote Access Manager v2.10 * April 22, 1993 7 The format of NOREARC.CTL and TRASH.CTL are simple: <filename> <filename> You can specify an unlimited number of entries, case insensitive, but wildcards are NOT allowed at this time. RAMAN will look for these two optional files in the RAMAN system directory and use them if they exist. ADD COMMENTS TO ARJ AND ZIP FILES - This function will add a comment to archives compressed in either the ARJ or ZIP type. The comment is NOT added to any nested archives within the primary archive. RAMAN will look for a text file called COMMENT.TXT in the RAMAN system directory and, if found, the text in that file will be used as the comment. RAMAN also creates and maintains a file called RAMAN.CMT in the RAMAN system directory. This file contains a list of the files RAMAN has already added comments to so it does not waste time on future runs trying to add comments to the same files. After this option has finished, RAMAN will compare the contents of RAMAN.CMT to reality. Any file listed in RAMAN.CMT which no longer exists on disk (for whatever reason) will be removed from RAMAN.CMT to save space and time. KILL OLD FILES WHEN .TICs ARRIVE - This option is only of use to people who receive files via a .TIC file attach. If a new file arrives and the .TIC file has a 'REPLACES' string in it, RAMAN will look in the proper directory for that file. If it is found, it will be deleted. This is useful for people with large SDS areas who do not have time to look through them for old files. For example. If a .TIC that just came through says REPLACES RA_111.ARJ, RAMAN will look for the file called RA_111.ARJ. If it is found, it will be deleted. This function will only be useful to you if you use the TICK.EXE program as RAMAN needs information from it's configuration file. Many other .TIC processors have built in support for recognizing -REPLACES keywords, and you should not need this option anyway if that is the case. REMOVE FILES AFTER X DAYS - This option will check the filedate (not upload date) of files in the database. If a file is older than the number of days you define (covered later), the file will be deleted from disk and the entry in the database will be marked for deletion. REMOVE FILES AFTER X DAYS IF NOT DOWNLOADED - This is identical to the above option with the exception that files X days old will only be deleted if the download counter in the file database for that file is zero. (no downloads) RAMAN * Remote Access Manager v2.10 * April 22, 1993 8 MOVE FILES INSTEAD OF KILLING THEM - If this is enabled, files that would have been physically deleted in the previous two options will be moved to a temporary directory instead. (specified later) In addition, the entry for the file in the database will be marked as Offline instead of Deleted. MENU - "OPTIONS" : ITEM - "Bulletin Options" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CREATE REPORT OF DAILY DOWNLOADS - This option reads your RA logfile looking for downloads. A bulletin of the user name, the protocol used, and the name of the file will be written. CREATE REPORT OF DAILY UPLOADS - Same as the above, but applies to uploads instead. CREATE REPORT OF MESSAGE BASE ACTIVITY - This option scans your RA logfile to generate an ANSI and ASCII file bulletin showing the number of times someone has posted a message and the number of times someone has read a message in each sepearate message area. In unregistered mode, RA does not log message READS to it's logfile. Therefore, if your copy of RA is not registered, then you will see nothing but zeros for the Reads of each area. Since offline mail doors are in wide use, RAMAN also makes provisions for recording their activity as well. At the end of the report, RAMAN will tell you how many messages have been downloaded through the offline door and how many have been uploaded through the offline door. Note that it will NOT increment the actual Post/Read fields for each message area at this time. RAMAN recognizes the log formats of: RAMail, XRS, Silver Express, MkQwk, and BlueWave. RAMAN keeps a file called RAMAN.MSG. This file contains information about the RA logfile that RAMAN uses to make sure it doesn't count things more than once and also to determine if the RA logfile it's working on is a new one or an old one. If you would like to reset the counts for the message base report (I do this monthly), simply delete RAMAN.MSG. CREATE REPORT OF FILE AREAS - This option creates a bulletin with a general overview of your file areas. The bulletin will contain the area name, number of files, and number of bytes per area. At the end, the total number of files and bytes on your system will be recorded. RAMAN * Remote Access Manager v2.10 * April 22, 1993 9 The next 8 options are self-explanatory. RAMAN can create Top Uploaders, Downloaders, Callers, and Message Posters bulletins. In addition, it can create bulletins for Least Uploads, etc. CREATE MOST/LEAST POPULAR FILES BULLETIN - These two options will create a bulletin of the Most frequently and Least frequently downloaded files on your system, based on the internal download counter RA maintains for each file. MENU - "Options" : ITEM - "Message/Maintenance Options" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SEND MESSAGE TO USERS WHO UPLOAD - Posts a message to users who have logged on as new users. Usually this is a welcome message of some sort. The text for this message is found in NEWUSER.TXT in the RAMAN system directory. SEND MESSAGE TO USERS WHO DROP CARRIER - Posts a message to users who have dropped carrier instead of logging off properly. The text for this message is found in CARRIER.TXT in the RAMAN system directory. Be aware that many offline mail doors allow users to log off through the door. RA has no way of knowing this, and will record it as a dropped carrier. Use this option with care if you use an offline mail door. SEND MESSAGE TO USERS WHO UPLOAD - Posts a message to users who have uploaded. The text for this message is found in UPLOAD.TXT in the RAMAN system directory. RAMAN * Remote Access Manager v2.10 * April 22, 1993 10 PERFORM DAILY MAINTENANCE - This is a fairly straightforward feature. Instead of having all of your maintenance programs execute via a normal batch file, you can list them in a file called DAILY.CTL in the RAMAN system directory. The commands in this file will be executed each time RAMAN is run with this option enabled. The format of this file is simple: <path to change to> <program, command line> ... The number of entries is unlimited, and this is a straight ASCII text file. Lines may be commented out by using a ';' as the first character of the line. The <path to change to> is the drive/directory RAMAN should change to before executing the program. Some utilities require their configuration file to be in the same directory as the executables, so it is certainly a good a idea if RAMAN switches to the appropriate directory first! The <program, command line> is just that. Whatever you have in your batch file is what should be placed here. Example of DAILY.CTL: C:\RA\MBUTIL Mbutil Purge -File RemoteAccess C:\RA\MBUTIL Mbutil Pack -Force -Renumber -Delete C:\RA Rauser -s D:\DOORS\TW2 Extern -qbbs C:\FD\INBOUND Erase *.bad After all the programs are executed, RAMAN will return to the directory it was started from. Besides having a less cluttered batch file, executing your maintenance this way will let you know what happened when the program executed. If the program executes successfully, it is noted in the RAMAN logfile. If the program returns an errorlevel, that too is recorded in the RAMAN logfile. You can also see by the last line that any of DOS's commands are valid as well. Take notice that if you execute a program that requires some sort of user interaction, RAMAN will be "hung" until you give the program what it's asking for. PERFORM WEEKLY MAINTENANCE - Same format as the daily maintenance, but the commands are found in WEEKLY.CTL. Commands in this file are only executed on the first day of the week - Sunday. PERFORM MONTHLY MAINTENANCE - Same as the weekly maintenance, but the commands are found in MONTHLY.CTL and is executed on the first day of every month. *NOTE* It is perfectly valid to execute RAMAN inside one of these maintenance control files. This has been tested and fine-tuned as to cause no conflicts at all. RAMAN * Remote Access Manager v2.10 * April 22, 1993 11 MENU - "Options" : ITEM - "OTHER OPTIONS" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CLEAN UP USER FILE - This makes the location field of each users' record look better. For example: BaLTImoRE, md -----> Baltimore, Md lONDON, eNGLAND -----> London, England In addition to this, RAMAN also cleans up fields such as the 'Subscription Date.' For some reason or another, some of these fields end up with garbage characters that the Sysop can't edit. RAMAN would take a field like this: 09{23=92 and turn it into this: 09-23-92. SCAN FILES FOR VIRUSES (A) - This function calls a virus scanner to scan files for viruses. As part of the scanning, RAMAN will also create and maintain a file called RAMAN.SCN. This file contains the path and filename of files RAMAN has already scanned so it will not scan them twice. After each run, RAMAN checks this file against reality to make sure that the files logged in RAMAN.SCN are still present on disk. If they are not, their record is removed. This file is stored in the RAMAN system directory. SCAN FILES FOR VIRUSES (B) - This function calls a virus scanner to scan files for viruses in files that were uploaded. RAMAN will scan your RA logfile to see what files were uploaded. It will then scan only those files for viruses. The RAMAN.SCN file is used in this option in the same manner as with the 'A' method. This 'B' method is ideal to run in your batch file after a user logs off to scan any and all files that were uploaded. This option can also be used in conjunction with RA 2.0's new feature which can call a program to scan for viruses in uploaded files. If a virus has been found, RAMAN will return errorlevel 1 which will inform RA that something is wrong. Unlike many programs, RAMAN will not return a non-zero errorlevel on .GIF files or any other type of file that is not compressed. This will prevent false alarms caused by a user uploading a non-compressed file such as a .GIF file. *NOTE* If a virus is found, RAMAN will post a message to the Sysop about this. RAMAN * Remote Access Manager v2.10 * April 22, 1993 12 BACK UP USER FILES - This function will make an archive, in the format of your choice of your USERS*.BBS files. The filename of the archive that will be in the format of UFmmddyy.<extensin> where mm is the month, dd is the day, and yy is the year. Should a file exist with the same name (UF070492.ARJ for example), the name of the extension will be changed to reflect a different file. In this example, the filename of the second file would be UF070492.AR0. PICK RANDOM MENUS/SCREENS - This function allows you to specify, in a file called MENSCR.CTL, the names of files you want to switch around. This could be useful if you want a different WELCOME.A?? or LOGO.A?? screen to be displayed each time someone logs on. The best way to explain this file is to show an example of the control file: -c:\ra\txtfiles\welcome1.ans <---- Full path/filename to Target file c:\hold\welcome1.an1 \ Up to 50 files that are c:\hold\welcome1.an2 \ possible source files to be c:\hold\welcome1.an3 >randomly copied to the c:\hold\welcome1.an4 / Target path and filename c:\hold\welcome1.an5 / specified above. -c:\ra\txtfiles\welcome1.asc c:\hold\welcome1.as1 c:\hold\welcome1.as2 - Note the '-' at the end. This tells RAMAN that there are no more entries after that '-' DO NOT FORGET TO ADD THIS! The '-' in front of the filename tells RAMAN that this is the target filename, and the files listed after that are source files. You may specify up to 50 source files for each target file. The number of target files is unlimited, but a '-' MUST appear at the end of the file, and a '-' MUST appear before each target file. DELETE ALLFILES TEXT AFTER ARCHIVED - When your Allfiles listing is created, RAMAN automatically archives it. With this option set, RAMAN will remove the text listing of the allfiles list. When this option is disabled, both the text and compressed version will be left. DELETE NEWFILES TEXT AFTER ARCHIVED - Same as the above, but applies to your Newfiles listing. DELETE LOGFILES AFTER ARCHIVED - Same as the above, but applies to your Logfiles. RAMAN * Remote Access Manager v2.10 * April 22, 1993 13 USE HANDLES IN BULLETINS - By default, RAMAN will use the users' real name in all bulletins it creates. By enabling this option, the handle is used instead. ADD DAILY LOG ARCHIVES TO MONTHLY ARCHIVE - Having an archived logfile for each day can result in a very cluttered directory, needless to say. This option can help. If you turn this on, after making a normal logfile archive, RAMAN will add this archive to a monthly archive whose name is: <first two letters>MMYY.<extension> An example would be: RA0393.ARJ. This archive would contain all logfile archives for the month of March, 1993. As a result, you will only have 12 archives per year instead of 365! DELETE DAILY LOGFILE ARCHIVES - If you are using the above option, enabling this option will cause RAMAN to delete the daily archive after it has moved it into the monthly archive. It is recommended that you use this option since NOT doing so would be defeating the purpose of cleaning up the directory. The next two items are identical to the above two, but apply to the user file backups instead. The next two items on the Options menu are self-explanatory. They control which file/message areas you want included in each of the different options. When an area is active, a solid square will appear on the far right hand side. When not active, it will be clear on the right hand side. By default, all areas are active. You can toggle an area ON/OFF by pressing the space bar. RAMAN * Remote Access Manager v2.10 * April 22, 1993 14 MENU - "Paths" : ITEM - "System Paths" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ RAMAN SYSTEM PATH - Directory where your RAMAN executables are located, and basically a "home base" for RAMAN. RAMAN also looks for certain files such as RAMAN.SCN, COMMENT.TXT, etc. in this directory. This can be any directory, but it is advisable that this is not the same as your RA directory so you can keep things straight. RAMAN LOGFILE - Path and filename for your RAMAN logfile. RA LOGFILE - Path and filename of your RemoteAccess 2.0 logfile. MAILER LOGFILE - Path and filename of your mailer's logfile. USER FILE BACKUPS - Directory where you want the backups of your user files to go. This can be on a separate drive, such as A:\BACKUPS\. TIC FILES - Directory where your inbound .TIC files are located. If you do not use .TIC files, simply enter any directory. Nothing adverse will happen. TIC CONFIGURATION - Path and filename to your TICK configuration file. TEMP DIRECTORY - If you use the options that kill/move files older than x days, or older than x days which haven't been downloaded, and if you have specified that the files should be MOVED, this is the directory they will be moved to. WORK DIRECTORY - This is where RAMAN will create all of it's temporary work files, swap files, etc. This can be the same as the RAMAN system directory, any other directory, or a RAM disk for faster access. RAMAN * Remote Access Manager v2.10 * April 22, 1993 15 MENU - "Paths" : ITEM - "Bulletin Paths 1" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ************************************************************ * Do not append an extension to any of these filenames. * * RAMAN will create an .ASC and an .ANS version of each. * ************************************************************ MESSAGE BASE - Path and filename of the Message Base Usage Report. FILE AREA - Path and filename of the File Area Overview Report. DAILY UPLOADS - Path and filename of the Report Of Daily Uploads. DAILY DOWNLOADS - Path and filename of the Report Of Daily Downloads. MOST POPULAR FILES - Path and filename for the Top Files bulletin. LEAST POPULAR FILES - Path and filename for the Low Files bulletin. MENU - "Paths" : ITEM - "Bulletin Paths 1" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ************************************************************ * Do not append an extension to any of these filenames. * * RAMAN will create an .ASC and an .ANS version of each. * ************************************************************ These fields specify the path and filename of the Top/Low user bulletins. RAMAN * Remote Access Manager v2.10 * April 22, 1993 16 ***************************************************************** * If a listing/logfile is defined in any of these next three * * sections, it will be created/archived each time RAMAN runs * * with the configuration file. To disable any of these from * * being done, place NOT USED in the first field. If you put * * blanks or nothing at all, RAMANCFG will insert NOT USED for * * you. * ***************************************************************** MENU - "Manager" : ITEM - "Allfiles Listings" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This screen is where you define the Allfiles Listings to be created. If RAMAN finds a file called ALLHEAD.TXT in its system directory, the text in that file will be placed at the top of each allfiles listing. Text in a file called ALLFOOT.TXT will be appended to the end of the allfiles listing. These two files will NOT be appended if you have not registered. MENU - "Manager" : ITEM - "Newfiles Listings" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This screen is where you define the Newfiles Listings to be created. If RAMAN finds a file called NEWHEAD.TXT in its system directory, the text in that file will be placed at the top of each allfiles listing. Text in a file called NEWFOOT.TXT will be appended to the end of the allfiles listing. These two files will NOT be appended if you have not registered. You also specify the age criteria for files to be included in each individual listing. Files whose age is greater than this number will not be included. MENU - "Manager" : ITEM - "Logfiles Listings" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here, you may define up to 5 logfiles to be archived and optionally deleted. There are three fields to fill in here. The first one is the path and filename of the logfile itself. The second defines the first two letters of the archive name, and the third is the directory where the archived file should be placed. The naming convention for the archives is identical to that used by the option to back up the user files. RAMAN * Remote Access Manager v2.10 * April 22, 1993 17 MENU - "Compression" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The items on this menu are fairly self-explanatory and require only an explanation of what is expected. You only need to define the FILENAME of each (de)compressor, not the full path. RAMAN will search through your PATH setting to locate each of these. If it can not find one of these programs, it will be noted in the RAMAN logfile. Failure to locate one or more of these programs will NOT stop RAMAN from executing. As for the parameters for each of archivers, it is advisable that you LEAVE THE DEFAULTS ALONE unless you know exactly what you are doing. MENU - "Other" : ITEM - "Archive Types" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On this menu, you define which compression method to use for various options RAMAN performs. Currently, the following archive types are valid: ARC, ARJ, LZH, PAK, ZIP, ZOO, and SQZ. MENU - "Other" : ITEM - "Other Information" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DAYS DELETE - Number of days old a file has to be to be deleted by the option which deletes/moves files after X days. DAYS DELETE NO D/L - Number of days old a file has to be to be deleted by the option which deletes/moves files after X days which also have not been downloaded. MISSING DESC. - String RAMAN uses as the description for orphaned files that were added to the file database if no description file was found. AREA TO POST - Area number to which RAMAN should post messages to newusers, users who upload, users who drop carrier, and messages to the Sysop if a virus is found in a file. Note that at this time, only the HUDSON message base is supported. RAMAN * Remote Access Manager v2.10 * April 22, 1993 18 VIRUS SCANNER - The filename (not directory/path/filename) of the program you want RAMAN to use to scan files for viruses. VIRUS PARAMETERS - Parameters for the VIRUS SCANNER. TOP/LEAST USERS - Number of users to include in the Top/Low User bulletins. (Only up to 100 may be included in this release) TOP/LEAST FILES - Same as the above, but applies to the Most and Least popular files bulletins. RAMAN * Remote Access Manager v2.10 * April 22, 1993 19 Running RAMAN ------------- Running RAMAN can be done in one of two ways. First, you can run it with the configuration file as the first parameter. An example of this is RAMAN RAMAN.CFG. When it is run in this manner, all options that are enabled in the configuration file will be processed. If you have Allfiles/Newfiles/Logfiles defined on the Manager menu, they will be processed as well. The second way to run RAMAN is by specifying the configuration file as the first parameter and the keyword of the option(s) you want run as the second, third, fourth, etc parameters. When run in this mode, RAMAN will execute only the options you have passed on the command line. It will use information from the configuration file such as paths, filenames, and which areas you have toggled ON for the option. The syntax for the keywords is pretty lax. You can place a '-', '/', or nothing at all before the keyword. This is to accomodate users who are accustommed to different methods for passing parameters. Example: RAMAN RAMAN.CFG -ALLFILE1 -ALLFILE4 /ADDHEAD ABC FREQCOUNT PARAMTER LISTING ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Following is a list of all the parameters/keywords. This list may also be brought up by typing 'RAMAN ?' at the DOS prompt: CLEAN : Cleans Up The User Records ADDHEAD : Adds Headers To File Listings ABC : Alphabetize File Listings DLCOUNT : Updates Download Counters For Files Downloaded FREQCOUNT : Updates Download Counters For File Requests KILLORP : Removes Orphanded Files from the file database ADDMSNG : Adds Orphaned Files To File Listings XDAYS : Kills Files x Days Old XDAYSDL : Kills Files x Days Old If Not Downloaded BAK : Creates Backups Of File Listings ALLFILEx : Creates Allfiles Listing(s) where x is the number of the listing you want created NEWFILEx : Creates Newfiles Listing(s) where x is the number of the listing you want created SCANx : Scans Files For Viruses, where x is the method you want to use, which is A or B ARCLOG : Archive And Delete Defined Logfile(s) REARC : Re-Archives Files SWITCH : Switches Defined Menus/Textfiles - MENSCR.CTL DAILY : Perform Daily Maintenance - DAILY.CTL WEEKLY : Perform Weekly Maintenance - WEEKLY.CTL MONTHLY : Perform Monthly Maintenance - MONTHLY.CTL RAMAN * Remote Access Manager v2.10 * April 22, 1993 20 BACKUP : Back Up Your User Files COMMENT : Adds Comments To ARJ And ZIP Files KILLOLD : Kills Old Files When New TICs Arrive UPLOAD : Post A Message To Users Who Have Uploaded CARRIER : Post A Message To Users Who Drop Carrier NEWUSER : Post A Message To New Users MSGACT : Generate Report Of Message Base Usage FILERPT : Generate Report Of File Areas DAILYDL : Generate Report Of Daily Uploads DAILYUL : Generate Report Of Daily Downloads TOPUL : Create Top Uploaders Bulletin TOPDL : Create Top Downloaders Bulletin TOPPOST : Create Top Message Posters Bulletin TOPCALL : Create Top Callers Bulletin LOWUL : Create Low Uploaders Bulletin LOWDL : Create Low Downloaders Bulletin LOWPOST : Create Low Message Posters Bulletin LOWCALL : Create Low Callers Bulletin TOPFILE : Create most popular files bulletin LOWFILE : Create least popular files bulletin PACK : Packs the file database In addition, there are three other options which are available only from the command line. These are: IMPORTALL : This parameter will cause RAMAN to attempt to find a description file for all files on your system, even if they already have descriptions in the file database. If a description file is found, the current description will be changed to that, otherwise it is left untouched. This is something you would probably only want to run once. RESTORE : If you have made a backup of your file database by using RAMAN's BAK option, this option can restore your file database from those backups. Use this if your database has become corrupted severely for some reason. KILLHEAD : This option will remove headers from your file database. Use this if you decided you really don't want headers in your file listings after all, or to remove ones that another program has added. RAMAN * Remote Access Manager v2.10 * April 22, 1993 21 MULTI-NODE OPERATION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Running RAMAN in a multi-node environment is easy... just run it the same as you would if you were running a single line. The first parameter RAMAN takes is always the configuration file. For multi-line boards, you probably have more than one RA logfile and things of that nature. You can simply edit a different configuration file for each node. Each of these configuration files would contain the paths/filenames that apply to that particular node. Some multi-line sysops elect to have different .RA files. This is no problem. RAMAN first checks the current directory for the different .RA files. If one or more is not found in the current directory, it will look for them in the directory pointed to by your RA environment variable. Here are a couple examples: 1) 2 node board, all .RA files are in the main RA directory with different logfiles, and the same options enabled in the control file for each node. CD\RA rem Perform maintenance on line 1. The RAMAN1.CFG contains the rem proper paths/filenames pertinant to line 1 RAMAN C:\RA\LINE1\RAMAN1.CFG rem Perform maintenance on line 2. The RAMAN2.CFG contains the rem proper paths/filenames pertinant to line 2 RAMAN C:\RA\LINE2\RAMAN2.CFG 2) Same as number 1, but the .RA files are in the line directories. CD\RA\LINE1 rem Perform maintenance on line 1. The RAMAN1.CFG contains the rem proper paths/filenames pertinant to line 1 RAMAN RAMAN1.CFG rem Perform maintenance on line 2. The RAMAN2.CFG contains the rem proper paths/filenames pertinant to line 2 CD\RA\LINE2 RAMAN RAMAN2.CFG RAMAN * Remote Access Manager v2.10 * April 22, 1993 22 TECHNICAL NOTES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * RAMAN was written and compiled under Borland Pascal 7.0 using far calls. * RAMANCFG was developed using Turbo Vision. * All binary files, including RAMAN's configuration file, are opened in Read/Write/Deny-None mode for full file sharing capability. * The Hudson message base is accessed and locked according to the RA 1.10 locking specification. * When posting messages to the Hudson message base, RAMAN checks to ensure it will not exceed the Hudson's capacity, and will stop posting messages if this occurs. CREDITS ~~~~~~~ All product names mentioned in this document other than RAMAN are copyrighted (C) material, Trademarks (tm), or Registered Trademarks (R) of their respective holders: Arj.Exe, ARJ Robert K. Jung IBM International Business Machines Corporation Lha.Exe, LZH H. Yoshizak Mbutil.Exe Gerard J. van der Land MS-DOS MicroSoft Corporation Pkzip.Exe, ZIP Pkware, Inc. Pkunzip.Exe, ZIP Pkware, Inc. RemoteAccess, RA, and associated programs Andrew Milner and Continental Software Scan.Exe McAfee Associates Borland Pascal Borland International, Inc. RAMAN * Remote Access Manager v2.10 * April 22, 1993 23 BUG REPORTS ~~~~~~~~~~~ Any and all bug reports should be sent to me via netmail at 1:261/1108. If you do not have access to netmail, write them legibly on paper and mail them to me, or you can call my board at 1-410-974-9305 and leave a message. When reporting a bug please include the following: * Your computer type * Amount of RAM you are running RAMAN under * What you have tried, and a complete description of the problem you are having along with any runtime error and offset memory address it gives you. Please, do not send a bug report until you have gone over your configuration very carefully and made certain you have things set up properly. 80% of all so called "bugs" can be traced back to someone not reading the docs or some kind of silly mistake in the configuration. I can be reached on my board, via netmail, or through the RA_UTIL echo which is available from the FidoNet backbone. Do NOT report bugs in the RA_SUPPORT or RA_MULTI echos... that's not what those two echos are for. BETA TESTERS ~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is in recognition to those who voluntarily offered to test RAMAN while it was still in Beta stages. These people risked their entire system in testing unproven designs, and in a few instances spent a few weekends on reconstruction: Jim Henthorn - 1:261/1044 Bruce Shetrone - 1:261/1128 Joe Williams - 1:262/1099 Dave Martin - 1:280/43 Chuck Seehuetter - 1:3608/5 Bobby Posey - 1:388/20 Aaron Davis - 1:124/3103 Eric Clark - 1:151/70 Dave Walden - 1:151/811 Robert Burgett - 1:395/7 Mark Griggs - 1:395/20 Thanks guys, I couldn't have done it without you! RAMAN * Remote Access Manager v2.10 * April 22, 1993 24 THIS AND THAT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The latest version of RAMAN will always be requestable from my system, The North Star, at 1:261/1108 and from each of the Beta sites listed above. Magic name is RAMAN for the latest version. My board accepts file requests from anyone who can make a file request. Connect speeds are 1200-14400 V.32bis and 1200 - 16800 HST. File requests are honored at all hours except ZMH. If you are logging onto my board, the latest version is available for download on your first call. REGISTERING RAMAN ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When registering, please fill out REGISTER.FRM and mail it along with your registration fee to: David Hickey 304 North Glen Avenue Annapolis, MD 21401 United States Of America The registration fee is 10 U.S. Dollars, or 20 U.S. Dollars of equivalent currency. I'll gladly accept it in the form of cash, check, money order... just about anything except for a credit card or an I.O.U. When I receive your money I will generate a key file for you. If you have a FidoNet address, I will CRASHmail it to you. If you do not have a FidoNet address, I will create an account on my board for you, and leave a message to you with your keyfile attached for you to download. I used to call boards to deliver the keyfile, but after several Sysops failed to create an account for me and I had to go through LOOONG newuser procedures (running up my phone bill considerably), I've been forced to use this alternative. RAMAN * Remote Access Manager v2.10 * April 22, 1993 25 The Future ~~~~~~~~~~ This will be the last release of what is known as "RAMAN". Why? What you have right now in RAMAN 2.10 is going to be completely redesigned from the ground up. A new program which will be compatible with RemoteAccess, QuickBBS, SuperBBS, ProBoard, and possibly Maximus will take it's place. What you have now will become more user friendly and more powerful. Along with that, there will be a registration fee around $15 or $20. But if you have registered this version or any previous version of RAMAN, you will not need to pay an upgrade fee, and all you will need to do is rename your keyfile. (Hint, register now, save later...) That's about all I'm willing to commit to at this point, but be assured that while "RAMAN" will cease to exist, a much better program will be in it's place. EOF (RAMAN.DOC)