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BRUCEINI.DOC
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1996-01-20
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BRUCEINI.DOC 1 Revised: 01/20/96
This text file describes what INI files are and how they are supported by this
program and other programs by the same author. INI files are always optional
but they can be very useful.
An INI file is a way of specifying parameters for a program that you don't want
to have to respecify from the command line each time. This allows you to
override the program defaults automatically.
This is very useful if you disagree with the defaults I've established for the
routines. It is also useful in cases where you typically use the command one
way but in fairly regular cases you need to run the command using a whole bunch
of different parameters. You can set up one INI file for your standard usage
and then provide a different INI file when it's time to run the lesser used
versions.
Each of the programs reads an INI file if it can find one. By default, the INI
file that is searched for is based on the executable's name but not always. This
is shown below (block declarations and environmental variables are described
later):
Routine INI file Block Env variable
AV.EXE AV.INI [AV] AV
BFIND.EXE BFIND.INI [BFIND] BFIND
CHANGE.EXE CHANGE.INI [CHANGE] CHANGE
CONVERT.EXE CONVERT.INI [CONVERT] CONVERT
COPSINCE.EXE COPSINCE.INI [COPSINCE] COPSINCE
DATES.EXE DATES.INI [DATES] DATES
DIRCOMP.EXE DIRCOMP.INI [DIRCOMP] DIRCOMP
DIRTOTAL.EXE DIRTOTAL.INI [DIRTOTAL] DIRTOTAL
FILL.EXE FILL.INI [FILL] FILL
FILUPDAT.EXE FILUPDAT.INI [FILUPDAT] FILUPDAT
FIXTEXT.EXE FIXTEXT.INI [FIXTEXT] FIXTEXT
FORTUNE.EXE FORTUNE.INI [FORTUNE] FORTUNE
HTMSTRIP.EXE HTMSTRIP.INI [HTMSTRIP] HTMSTRIP
ISAMFIND.EXE &
ISAMMAKE.EXE ISAMFIND.INI [ISAMFIND] ISAMFIND
PAGINATE.EXE PAGINATE.INI [PAGINATE] PAGINATE
READ.EXE &
READINIT.EXE &
READMAKE.EXE &
READY.EXE READ.INI [READ] READ
TXTABLE.EXE TXTABLE.INI [TXTABLE] TXTABLE
The INI file is an ASCII text file that can be created maintained by hand. The
commands in the INI file should begin in column 1. It can consist of:
(a) Command-line parameters
(b) Comments
(c) Block declarations
(d) Special items (vary by routine)
BRUCEINI.DOC 2 Revised: 01/20/96
(a) Command-line parameters: The INI file can consist or one or more command
line parameters. In most cases, it can *only* include command line
parameters that begin with a slash ("/"). These will vary by routine of
course but, in READ for example, your INI file might appear like this:
/MONO
/-DOS
/COLOR=123 134 145 156
(b) Comments: The INI file can also contain comment lines. These are defined
as any lines that are either blank or contain any of the following
characters in column 1:
(space) (any line that is indented is a comment)
; (semi-colon)
: (colon)
' (quote)
(c) Block declarations: You can combine INI files if you'd like. This saves
some disk space. Typically, this is done in connection with the SET
BG=inifile environmental parameter (described below). Blocks are declared
by using the name of searched-for routine in brackets. (See the table
above to see what blocks are searched for for each routine.) Any
statements between one block and the next are assumed to be associated with
the first routine. For example:
; ALL.INI -- contains all of the INI statements
[DATES]
/SORT
[FILL]
/ON
/SPLIT
[READ]
/MONO
(d) Special items: Some routines allow the INI file to include statements that
cannot be specified from the command line. These special statements are
described in the specific routine's documentation.
BRUCEINI.DOC 3 Revised: 01/20/96
Where does each program look for the INI file?
Each program here looks for an INI file unless instructed otherwise. The logic
used is as follows. Note that the first "hit" wins:
(a) No INI file is checked for if any of the following is true:
- /-I or /INULL is passed in from the command line
- /-I or /INULL is passed in from the routine's environmental parameter
(e.g. SET READ=/-I)
- the environmental variable BG is set to the value of /-I or /INULL
(e.g. SET BG=/-I)
Most programs accept either /-I or /INULL. However, several routines
(BFIND and CHANGE) accept /-I to mean do a case-insensitive search. For
these programs, you *have* to use /INULL instead.
(b) If a /Iinitfile setting is passed in, the routine uses this to determine
the name of the INI file to look for. Note that the file name must include
a period (e.g. "/ICHANGE.INI") or the program will skip it.
(c) The routine looks for an environmental variable BG. If this variable is
defined (and it's not set to /-I), then the routine takes this to be the
name of the INI file to look for.
(d) The routine looks for the INI file under the "INI file" name shown in the
table at the start of this documentation.
If the INI file name does not include either a drive or path specification
(e.g., you don't pass in something like /IC:\ALL.INI), the routine will search
for the named file. It will check for it in the following places in the
following order. The first place that it finds it wins:
- Your default subdirectory (where you were when you executed the command)
- The subdirectory that contains the EXE that you're executing
- Your regular DOS path
If you do not have an INI file, this searching can take awhile especially if you
have any networked drives in your path. In this case, specifying "/-I" will
save some time. Passing in a fully qualified filename also helps.
BRUCEINI.DOC 4 Revised: 01/20/96
Personally, I have a common INI file named WAYNE.INI in the root of my C: drive.
I put it there so I don't run out of environmental space by specifying some huge
path. I have the following statement in my AUTOEXEC.BAT:
SET BG=C:\WAYNE.INI
Currently, my C:\WAYNE.INI file looks like this:
[AV]
/on
[bfind]
/-empty
[COPSINCE]
/def text=*.bas *.bi *.c *.diz *.doc *.h *.ref *.sas *.sc *.txt
/def prg=*.bas *.bat *.bi *.c *.h *.sas
/to c:\temp
/replace
/-beep
/text
/copy -0
[DATES]
/cc:\mine\datemine.txt
/sort
/day
/-i
[FILL]
/letter
[htmstrip]
/lc:\vbdos\htmstrip.ini
/-symbols
/warnings
[paginate]
/overwrite
/cc:\bat\brucedoc.ctl
[txtable]
/debug
If I ever need to override the WAYNE.INI settings, it's easy to do by passing
them in from the command line or by specifying /-I from the command line.