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SHARE2.TXT
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1991-05-18
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The following discussion is taken from Burton L. Alperson.
"Fully Powered Windows: Getting the Most Out of Your 386
Computer." (New York: Brady Books, 1991). The text has been
reformatted for electronic distribution. Footnotes are indicated
by angle brackets (< >).
I grant permission for electronic distribution of this material
as long as it is passed along without modification.
Burton L. Alperson
_______________________________________________________________
SHARE Problems
DOS 4.x introduced the ability to use hard disks greater than
32MB in size. In order to handle larger disk partitions,
Microsoft borrowed some of the functions of a program normally
used for networks, SHARE.EXE.
When you have a partition larger than 32MB, DOS 4.x expects
SHARE.EXE to be loaded. If it cannot load this program, you will
see an error message at boot time, indicating that the program
must be loaded for large media.
If you are using DOS 4.x and you have a large partition, you may
be running SHARE.EXE without even knowing it. DOS searches the
root directory and installs the program at boot time whether or
not you have given explicit instructions to load it.
This strategy produced few problems until Windows 3 came
along.<1> Unless you take special steps, you can run into
unexpected conflicts because of the interaction of SHARE.EXE and
Windows. Two common symptoms of the problem are inappropriate
"Resource busy" messages on networks and "Sharing violation
. . ." messages on stand-alone machines. At best, these messages
are accompanied by a program lock up. At worst, your whole
machine may freeze. This is not a happy prospect.
One solution you will see frequently is simply to remove
SHARE.EXE from your root directory and ignore the error message
you see at boot time. DO NOT FOLLOW THIS ADVICE! SHARE.EXE is,
in fact, required for safe operation of large media under DOS
4.x. Even though your machine may appear to function normally,
YOU ARE TAKING A CHANCE ON CORRUPTING YOUR HARD DISK AND LOSING
ALL YOUR DATA!
There are two parameters you can set for SHARE.EXE, and once they
are set properly, sharing problems generally disappear. If you
install SHARE.EXE in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file as a TSR, the syntax
is
share [/f:space] [/l:locks]
If you install the program in your CONFIG.SYS file, the syntax is
install=share.exe [/f:space] [/l:locks]
It is rarely necessary to adjust the /f:space parameter, and you
can usually omit it.<2> The /l:locks parameter is the critical
one. "Each open file . . . requires at least one lock but could
have dozens. Each time an application requests a portion of a
file (such as a record in a database) a lock on only that portion
of the file that contains the desired information is issued. The
lock remains in effect until the application program specifically
removes it."<3>
The default value for /l:locks is 60. This value is frequently
inadequate for a stand-alone computer running Windows, and it is
definitely inadequate for a network. If you are encountering
sharing problems, try issuing the command
share /l:500
in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file or
install=share.exe /l:500
in your CONFIG.SYS file. If you still encounter sharing
problems, try changing locks to a higher value (say 1000).
_______________________________________________________________
FOOTNOTES
<1>The discussion of this problem is based on research by Richard
Fink and reported on BIX. The solution to the problem is based
on research by Tom Filliman and reported on CompuServe.
<2>The /f:space parameter specifies the amount of space to be
reserved for the storage of filepath information. Each open file
requires space for the path + 11 bytes. Microsoft estimates the
average path length to be 20 characters. Thus the default value
of 2048 bytes is sufficient for 66 simultaneously open average
files (2048 / (20 + 11)). If your files= statement specifies
more than 66 files, or your average path length is longer than 20
characters, you may wish to adjust the parameter. For most, the
default value is more than adequate.
<3>From Tom Filliman's research, posted in the MSWIN library of
CompuServe as SHARE.TXT.