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Monster Media 1994 #1
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PCBOARD
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TAPEFLAG.ZIP
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1994-03-05
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10KB
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230 lines
* * * * * * ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
* * * * * █████████████████████████████████████████████████████
* * * * * *
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* * * * * * █████████████████████████████████████████████████████
* * * * * TapeFlag
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* * * * * █████████████████████████████████████████████████████
* * * * * * A PPE for flagging files to restore from
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████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
a Colorado Tape drive.
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████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
An adaptation of David Terry's Flag PPE Ver. 3.0
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████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
Written & Compiled by Steve Prater
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This PPE is released as is, with no warranty expressed or implied.
This PPE is also being released as Freeware, so you may use it for as
long as you like. I'd like to know if you are using it, and if you need
a modified copy I'd be glad to take care of that too.
I'd like to thank David Terry of Clark Development Company for his insight
and ingenuity in the creation of FLAG30.PPE. This TAPEFLAG PPE was created
using his source code and a few of my adaptations to make it work as a
tape restore program. This PPE is being distributed along with the original
FLAG.PPE v3.0 in accordance with the requirements set forth in David Terry's
FLAG.PPE v3.0 doumentation, and because YOU NEED IT!
Why another FLAG PPE?
Having just bought a Colorado Jumbo 250 tape drive, I was all set to
use it as extra storage space for my downloadable files. I have a 486SLC-40,
4 megs of ram, and one 210 mb hard drive. I use QEMM and DesqView 2.42.
Unfortunately, I couldn't get any of the current tape doors to operate
reliably under DV, so I started out to create my own door. I didn't have much
luck, and then I found the power of PCBoard's PPL!
What exactly does TAPEFLAG.PPE do?
TAPEFLAG is a drop-in replacement for FLAG30.PPE. After you set up a
Tape specific conference (explained later), TAPEFLAG works just like the
original except when the user is in the TAPE conference, TAPEFLAG goes to
work! After gathering the appropriate data, it shells out to your tape
drive software and restores the file. When it returns from restoring the
file, it stuffs the keyboard just like the original, and leaves the caller
back in the DIRx he was scanning before the restore.
INSTALLATION: STEP 1
You MUST have, and install, David Terry's FLAG30.PPE. It is included
in this package for your convenience.
Next, you must either rename TAPEFLAG.PPE to FLAG.PPE
or
your must locate prompt #549 in your PCBTEXT file and have it call
TAPEFLAG. PPE instead of FLAG.PPE. Either way should work.
INSTALLATION: STEP 2
You now have to either assign one of your existing conferences as a
tape specific conference, or create a new conference to be tape specific.
A tape specific conference should have it's own separate DLPATH.LST, DIR,
and DIRx files. It cannot point to any files that are stored on the hard
drive, or on a CD. Any files found to be available for download within
this conference MUST be located on your tape.
Here's the Why and How that the system of file restoring works this way:
I have one CD drive. My loving wife bought me a 4 disk CD set from
Night Owl for our anniversary. So now, I have to rotate my CD's weekly
so the users can get all of them. Not good! So, I backed up my Night
Owl Games CD to tape and made my GAMES conference Tape specific.
My DIR for the games conference shows only the 18 file areas that are
contained on the CD. My DIR1 thru DIR18 files correspond to the matching
\00xA\ directories found on the CD, ie. DIR1 is for the files located in
\001A\, DIR2 is for the files located in \002A\, etc.
THIS IS IMPORTANT!!!
One of the drawbacks I found with other tape restore doors\PPEs is that
they want ALL files in one directory on your tape! Well, guess what?
DOS only lets you have a little over 500 files (I forgot exactly) per
directory. My full tape has THOUSANDS of files! I couldn't fit them
all into one subdir of my hard disk prior to backing them up on tape.
Then, if I tried to do 500 hundred at a time, I ended up with mutiple
volumes on tape! Other tape doors want just one volume or they want
the USER TO KNOW THE VOLUME NUMBER! Really not Good!! They get confused
easy enough as it is!
So now the whole CD is backed up in one volume, with individual subdirs
separating all the file areas. Much better! But much harder for you to
set up at first! Your backed up subdirs MUST be in a 3 digit\1 alpha
character pattern, that correspond to the DIRx. Example:
BACKED UP SUBDIR CORRESPONDING DIRx FILE
g:\001A\filename.zip DIR1
| |
| |
g:\018A\filename.zip DIR18
When the user "tags" a file, he is then prompted with:
"What file area are you looking in?"
His answer is critical. If he's scanning DIR1 and answers "1", this
is the key to tape software restore line. It tells the software to
restore from \001A\ and not \006A\ or any of the other subdirs found on
tape. If he's scanning DIR1 and answers "2", the tape software will
abort with a "File not found" error.
This is the only way I could come up with that would restore from
multiple subdirectories, and still have just one volume on tape.
INSTALLATION: STEP 3
You must create a TAPEFLAG.CFG file and place it in the same dir as
TAPEFLAG.
TAPEFLAG.CFG is as follows. Here's where setup may get tricky.
18
C:\TAPE\TAPE.EXE
RESTORE
G:\00
D:\WORK\
1
d:\pcb\ppe\flag\warning.PCB
1
*************************************************************************
Line 1: The number of file directories you have in your tape specific
conference (i.e., DIRx). I have DIR1 thru DIR18, so for my setup
I have 18 in line 1.
Line 2 The complete drive, path and file name for your tape backup
software.
Line 3 The command needed to run your tape backup in RESTORE mode, as
if from a .BAT file.
Line 4 This is the directory structure as it is on your tape. The PPE
will append the user's input (i.e., 1 thru 18) AND the "A\" to
the end of this line! If the user enters a 2 or 3 character
digit, the PPE will strip the appropriate number of zeros!
Line 5 The complete drive and path to where you want the files restored.
Include the trailing "\". I have my files restored to a temporary
called D:\WORK\. This path must be included in your BBS download
paths list. Since the restored files have the RO attribute turned
on, I have my $LOGOFF.BAT run a
"if exist d:\work\*.* attrib -r d:\work\*.zip"
Line 6 This is the tape volume number.
*** NOTE ***
The Colorado Tape software command line has been broken
up in the config file in preparation of future releases of
this PPE. I plan to try to use these bits of information
to parse together restore strings for other tape drive
software.
Line 7 Complete path and file name of your warning file. The warning file
is what displays to your user, the length of time required to
restore the file. Included is WARNING.PCB as an example. You
may edit this file as you see fit.
Line 8 Conference Number of your Tape Specific Conference. If the user's
current conference is the same conference as listed here,
TAPEFLAG.PPE will allow the user to tag a file and it immediately
goes into the restore mode. If the current conference is anything
other than what is listed here, the PPE acts just like SaltAir's
FLAG30.PPE
INSTALLATION: STEP 4
I have to following line added to my $$LOGON.BAT file:
@echo off
copy d:%PCBDIR%\pcboard.sys d:\work\pcboard%PCBNODE%.sys
This sets he stage for what's coming up in the $$LOGOFF.BAT:
@echo off
if exist d:\work\*.* attrib -r d:\work\*.*
if exist d:\work\pcboard2.sys goto end
if exist d:\work\*.zip delf d:\work\*.zip
:end
if exist d:\work\pcboard2.sys del d:\work\pcboard2.sys
Here's why. We already talked about the attributes of the restored files.
Line 2 changes them to allow you to delete the files.
Line 3 looks to see what node is logginf off. I Only allow node 1 to
restore files. I don't want a caller logging off of node 2 to
delete the files restored by node 1, so if PCBOARD2.SYS exists in
the restore, it skips Line 4.
Line 4 will delete all the files found in the restore directory when
node 1 logs off. You'll need the DELF.COM utility or something
similiar.
After all that, you should be ready to start restoring from tape.
I'll be more than willing to help any and all that need it when it
comes to setting the stage for this PPE.
I'll also make a modified copy for other tape software if someone will
provide me with the command lines!
Steve Prater
Le'Cess Poole BBS
Fallon, Nevada
(702)423-6531 14.4
(702)423-6546 14.4