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Text File | 1990-08-26 | 29KB | 650 lines

Telegard File Manager 2.6 -- Page 1 Telegard File Manager 2.6 (Turbo C) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright 1990, by Todd Bolitho All rights reserved. Promises ~~~~~~~~ I promise that this program will take up space on your disk or hard drive. No, come to think of it, I don't even promise that! Seriously, I am a HOBBYIST. I am NOT a professional programmer, nor do I ever intend to become one. I do this because I love it, not because I am a well trained professional. I use File Manag- er, and it works fine on my system. On your system, it may format your hard drive for all I know. It may utterly and total- ly destroy your computer, cause a short circuit, and burn your house down. I didn't create it for the purpose of doing harm to anyone or anything, but I don't promise you anything. I don't warrantee anything. I owe you nothing. I shall not be responsi- ble for any damages, direct or consequential, resulting from File Manager, or its use. Raison D'Etre ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ File Manager was originally conceived as a simple program to allow SysOps to take files on and offline in Telegard without having to log on and manually change the file listing for each file. Soon afterwards, Phil Katz came out with his new and improved compression method, so a routine to adjust file size in the listing was also added. These early versions were simple commandline programs that ran through all the file bases on the system correcting all the listings as it went, much like the AUTO mode in this new version does now. These older versions were slow, but they did the job. It became apparent that a DOS level management system for TG *.DIR files was also needed. I decided to write the utility using some of the concepts and ideas in my early File Manager versions. While I kept some of the same concepts, I did not try to maintain compatibility, so if you are still using the old File Managers, you will need to redo your batch calls to the new, and simpler, "FILEMAN AUTO" command. Telegard File Manager 2.6 -- Page 2 Money ~~~~~ I want some. This program is "shareware". While I encourage you to send the complete ZIP file to any and all of your friends to try, you are given a 15 day trial period to evaluate File Manag- er. If you have not "registered" your File Manager by then, your free trial period is over. Registration is $25. I have tried to make your registration as painless as possible by providing a separate program to handle your registration for you. REG.EXE ~~~~~~~ REG.EXE is a registration program designed to make your registra- tion as simple and painless as possible. Simply turn on your printer, and run the program. Alter the fields to reflect the correct information, and press <CTRL-ENTER> or just hit <ENTER> all the way through the last field. REG.EXE will print your registration form, ALREADY FILLED OUT for you! If you do not have a printer, run the program anyway, and write down all the information presented on a piece of paper. Just mail that paper along with a check, money order, or cashier's check for $25 to: Todd Bolitho 1504 N. Vermont Royal Oak, MI 48067 New Features ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ v2.6 Tagged operations are finally added! You can now manipulate whole groups of tagged files very quickly. v2.5 Small Changes - New documentation, new registration system, multiple monotor support in "REG.EXE", File Manager no longer dependent on "STATUS.DAT" encoded information. Telegard File Manager 2.6 -- Page 3 TG Structure ~~~~~~~~~~~~ A little background information might be helpful in understand- ing all the power and uses of File Manager. Telegard looks for the files you have in your bases, on your hard drive or floppy, according to the DL Path. Perhaps you have wondered how Telegard keeps track of all those files. Telegard stores all the information on these bases in separate files with a *.DIR extension, one "DIR" file for each base. In other words, to find out information about the SysOp Directory on your system, Telegard must look in the file most likely named (by you) "SYSOP" with a "DIR" extension - "SYSOP.DIR". It is these DIR files that File Manager is most concerned with altering and modifying, according to your wishes. File Manager must also work with several other files used by Telegard, but most of these are not important for you to under- stand. The only exception might be "UPLOADS.DAT" which stores the DL Paths and UL Paths for the various file bases. File Manager has a very powerful feature that allows you to move entire bases to other drives or directories. The significance of UPLOADS.DAT and the file paths is explained elsewhere in the help system under "Move Files" and other functions. File Manager - How To Set It Up ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Place REG.EXE, FILEMAN.EXE, and FILEMAN.HLP anywhere you like in your system's PATH. As long as your main BBS directory, and FILEMAN.HLP are somewhere in the path, File Manager will find them, and can run from anywhere. If your main BBS directory is not in your path, place File Manager, and it's associated files in the main BBS directory. This is the directory with BBS.EXE and STATUS.DAT. I strongly urge you to also install, in your path, IFL.COM, which can be called by File Manager to view the interiors of all known compression formats. See also: ^Function Keys^ ^Special Keys^ ^Command Line Help^ Function Keys ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <F1> Online Help <F2> Smartload - Loads UPLOADS.DAT and DIR <F3> Direct Load - Loads DIR only <F4> Execute a single DIR <F5> Execute all DIRs in system <F6> Interior File List (IFL) <F7> Dos Shell <F8> Sort Method <F9> Write DIR file to disk <F10> Accept Listing Editor's current fields See also: ^TG Structure^ ^Special Keys^ Telegard File Manager 2.6 -- Page 4 Special Keys <T> = Tag Functions ~~~~~~~~~~~~ <Spacebar> Tag Selected File Listing <Tab> Invert All Tags <Alt - T> Tag All File Listings in DIR <Alt - C> Clear All Tags In DIR <Alt - D> Delete Listings/Files With Prompt On Each <T> <Ctrl- D> Delete Listings Only Without Prompts <T> <Shft- D> Mass Delete Tagged Listings And Files <T> <Alt - M> Move Listings/Files (Registered Versions Only) <T> <Alt - I> Insert New Listing (Registered Versions Only) <Alt - F> Filespec Upload (Registered Versions Only) <Alt - R> Registration Info (Registered Versions Only) <Alt - U> User Choose <Alt - X> Fast Exit See also: ^TG Structure^ ^Function Keys^ Smartload ~~~~~~~~~ The Smartload function can be called by selecting the "File" menu, moving the cursor to "Smartload" and pressing <ENTER>, or by simply pressing F2. Smartload places UPLOADS.DAT into memory, and then offers the user a choice of file bases to operate on. Smartload is the method you should use to put your files into memory 99% of the time, which is why it is first in the menu choices. Smartload allows File Manager to know where files are actually kept, because UPLOADS.DAT is in memory and supplies the DL Paths needed to find the actual files listed in each DIR file. When DIR files are Smartloaded, all of File Manager's features are fully functional. The ONLY disadvantage is that UPLOADS.DAT takes up space in memory, so if your system has limited memory, and if you are working on extremely large DIR files (over 1000 listings), you may wish to opt to Direct Load instead. See also: ^Direct Load^ ^Move Files^ ^TG Structure^ Direct Load ~~~~~~~~~~~ Also called by pressing F3, Direct Loading offers the raw DIR filenames as choices for loading. Direct Loading is only used when working under severely constrained memory requirements. In cases where File Manager functions require a DL Path to operate, these functions have been disabled or modified to discard the DIR file in memory, and Smartload the base instead. See also: ^Smartload^ ^Move Files^ ^TG Structure^ Telegard File Manager 2.6 -- Page 5 Move Files ~~~~~~~~~~ The Move Files command Smartloads a DIR file and allows the user to alter the DL Path. File Manager knows where the current DL Path is by looking where this information is stored by Tele- gard: UPLOADS.DAT. This is the reason for File Manager MUST Smartload a DIR if you have not already done so, whenever this function is called. Once the Smartload is done, File Manager will ask you for a NEW DL PATH. When the new path has been entered, this function will move all listings in the DIR file to the new location you have specified. If the physical path does not exist, it will first parse the path given, creating all necessary directories, and then complete it's task. It will REWRITE your UPLOADS.DAT with the new DL Path so that Telegard will know where to find all the files you just moved! WARNING: The UL PATH will also be reset to the same as the newly entered DL Path. If you wish to have files uploaded to a separate directory, you MUST reset the path in Telegard. Again, the UL Path is automatically written to be exactly the same as the DL Path whenever this function is called. Additional Information: If the drive of the new path is the same as the drive in the old path, File Manager is able to simply rebuild the directory structure to each file, and thus does not have to physically copy each file to it's new location, then delete the old files. If the drive specifier in the new path is different than the old one, File Manager will dutifully copy and delete as described above. It is therefore wise to always include the COMPLETE pathname, including the drive speci- fier. It won't hurt anything not to do this, but it will slow File Manager down as it copies and deletes every single file, instead of just rebuilding the directory structures underneath the listings. See also: ^Smartload^ ^Direct Load^ ^TG Structure^ Write*.DIR ~~~~~~~~~~~ Selecting this function from the menu, or calling it with F9 will cause the DIR file in memory to be written to your drive. It is necessary to call this function each time you are done working on a DIR, and wish to save the work to disk. See also: ^Function Keys^ Telegard File Manager 2.6 -- Page 6 Erase *.DIR ~~~~~~~~~~~ This function should be called with EXTREME CAUTION! It is used to DELETE a DIR file. If you use this, and then attempt to view the listings in the base serviced by the now deleted DIR file, the base will contain NO LISTINGS. This function has limited value, but is valuable when one wishes to erase old DIR files no longer used. DOS Shell ~~~~~~~~~ "Drops To DOS", keeping File Manager in memory. Also called with F7, it is used when one wishes to operate on the DOS level, without losing place in File Manager. Memory available to DOS will be sharply reduced, as File Manager is still in place, and taking up space in your machine's memory. See also: ^Function Keys^ Modify ~~~~~~ Simply select "Modify" to enter File Manager's DIR file editing system. If no DIR file is present in memory, File Manager will Smartload the DIR of your choice before entering the editor. Use the regular PgUp/PgDn, Home, End, and arrow keys to move the Edit Bar to various listings in your DIR. See also: ^Edit DIR^ ^Edit Listing^ <SPACEBAR> - Tagging Files ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Use the <spacebar> to tag or untag the selected file for later manipulation in a group of files. "Move" and "Delete" functions have the ability to use tags. <ENTER> - The Listing Editor ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Place the Edit Bar on a listing, and press <ENTER>. Voila! You are in the Listing Editor. Remember, this is an editor within an editor. Here you may alter all aspects of the listing EXCEPT it's "Status". Since "Status" is done automatically for you when you "Execute" File Manager's "Services", you have no need to do it manually. <ALT-T> ~~~~~~~ Tag all the file listings in the currently loaded DIR. <ALT-C> ~~~~~~~ Clear all tags in the currently loaded DIR. Telegard File Manager 2.6 -- Page 7 <TAB> ~~~~~ Inverts tags. All tagged files become untagged, while untagged files become tagged. A good tool for large DIRs! <ALT-D> ~~~~~~~ Use this to <D>elete tagged or single listings from your DIR. File Manager will ask you whether or not you would like to delete EACH ACTUAL FILE as well. <SHIFT-D> ~~~~~~~~~ Deletes all tagged listings AND THE ACTUAL FILES FROM THE DISK. You get one chance to back out, then they're gone! Be careful. <CTRL-D> ~~~~~~~~ Deletes tagged file listings only. NEVER erases physical files. <ALT-F> (Registered Versions Only) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Use Filespec Upload to bring whole groups of files into your DIR according to the wildcard specs you supply! If you wish, you may also use this to upload single files by simply specifying the exact filename to upload. <ALT-I> (Registered Versions Only) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Insert Newfile - Selecting this function will insert a new entry in your DIR that looks like this: "*NEWFILE.NEW". If you do not edit this name with the Listing Editor, File Manager will remove the entry before saving your DIR back to disk. <ALT-M> (Registered Versions Only) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Use this function to move a single listing/file by simply call- ing it. If you wish to move entire groups of files, tag them first. This command will prompt you for the base to move to, and then proceed to move both listing and physical file. <ALT-A> (Registered Versions Only) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Add To End - Selecting this function will create a new entry at the end of your DIR that looks like this: "*NEWFILE.NEW". If you do not edit this name with the Listing Editor, File Manager will remove the entry before saving your DIR back to disk. Telegard File Manager 2.6 -- Page 8 <F6> ~~~~ This function key, when in either the DIR Editor, or the Listing Editor, will call IFL.COM to show you what files are contained in the listing selected. IT should be obvious that if the listing is not a compressed format such as ZIP, ARC, ZOO, etc., IFL will not be able to show that any files are contained within the listing. For instance, if your Edit Bar is on FILE.TXT, there are no files compressed in text files, so IFL will not show any (duhhhhhh). Also, if you have not Smartloaded your DIR, the DL Path is not available to File Manager, so it would not be able to call this function. See also: ^Modify^ ^Edit Listing^ <PgDn/PgUp> ~~~~~~~~~~~ By pressing either of these keys, the Listing Editor will ad- vance to the next listing in the base. All modifications done thus far become part of the DIR in memory and will be saved when you press <F9> to save your work. <F6> ~~~~ This function key, when in either the DIR Editor, or the Listing Editor, will call IFL.COM to show you what files are contained in the listing selected. IT should be obvious that if the listing is not a compressed format such as ZIP, ARC, ZOO, etc., IFL will not be able to show that any files are contained within the listing. For instance, if your Edit Bar is on FILE.TXT, there are no files compressed in text files, so IFL will not show any (duhhhhhh). Also, if you have not Smartloaded your DIR, the DL Path is not available to File Manager, so it would not be able to call this function. <ALT-U> ~~~~~~~ This command works ONLY when the cursor has been placed on the User NUMBER entry in the form. Pressing <ALT-U> will provide a list of all the users on your system, choosing one of these users will place the user's name in the Uploader's Name & User # entries of the form. You may of course edit them manually. This is provided as a quick and helpful aid to the SysOp. Verbose Descriptions ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Due to a limitation in Telegard itself, when creating a Verbose Description, File Manager must immediately save the DIR file or the Verbose entry could be lost forever. Telegard File Manager 2.6 -- Page 9 <CTRL-ENTER> or <F10> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These functions place the alterations made to the current list- ing into the DIR memory and return to the DIR Editor. The alterations will be saved to disk with the DIR file if you choose the <F9> function. See also: ^Modify^ ^Edit DIR^ Execute ~~~~~~~ These functions will execute all the "Services" provided by File Manager in it's automatic modes. You are allowed to choose between executing a single DIR, or ALL DIRs in your system. When Executing, File Manager displays each listing, file sizes (in blocks), whether or not the listing is correct, the ONLINE/OFFLINE "Status" of each listed file, and again, whether or not that is correct. The far right column shows whether or not File Manager has altered the listing on your behalf. File Manager will only alter these listings if you have specifically asked it to, by selecting the appropriate "Services". See also: ^Single Execute^ ^All Execute^ Single DIR Execution ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This function executes File Manager's services on the DIR in memory. It will NOT save the changes to disk, and will not affect any DIR other than the one you are working on. If you wish to save the DIR after execution, press <F9>. See also: ^Execute^ ^All Execute^ All Execute ~~~~~~~~~~~ File Manager's Auto Mode. This will execute File Manager's Services on all the DIRs in your system. Once started, it is not possible to stop without rebooting. All changes are saved to disk, memory is then cleared, and you may work on whatever DIRs you wish. See also: ^Execute^ ^Single Execute^ Services ~~~~~~~~ "Services" are "Executed" to make changes in a DIR. If you choose not to execute these services, File Manager will not provide these services to you! Check-mark each service by moving the cursor bar onto it, and pressing <ENTER>. Telegard File Manager 2.6 -- Page 10 Correct File Sizes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If this flag is check-marked, File Manager will find the actual sizes of each file listed in a DIR, compute it's correct size (in blocks), and then alters each listing to reflect that. Fix "Request Only" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If this flag is check-marked, File Manager will determine wheth- er or not a physical file corresponding to each listing actually exists. File Manager compares this to each listings' ONLINE/OFFLINE status, and if the listing is incorrect, it alters the listing to reflect the true condition. This is a VERY handy feature. Using this feature, you may remove entire GROUPS of files, run File Manager, and ALL the listings will be corrected to show what files have been made "Offline"! Like- wise, when you again place those files back onto your drive, you may run File Manager to restore all the listings to "Online". Verbose Packing ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Through a complex series of procedures, File Manager is able to reduce the amount of disk space used by VERBOSE.DAT. Check-mark this flag to select this service. This maintains your VERBOSE.DAT in top condition each time you run it. Sort Type ~~~~~~~~~ Selected through the menu, or by pressing F8, this is used to pick the type of sorting you would like performed each time you Execute the Services in File Manager. If you select "None", the check-mark will disappear from this item. Backwards Sorting ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Duhhhhhh, what could this be? Telegard File Manager 2.6 -- Page 11 Delete OLD *.DIRs ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When File Manager saves your DIR files back to disk, it does not overwrite the old DIR file. Rather, it RENAMES the old DIR file to *.OLD, and then writes the new DIR file. This is a built-in protection provided in case you decide you have made an error while working on your directories. IF such an error were to occur, you could drop to dos, go into your GFILES directory, delete the *.DIR file you just wrote, and RENAME the *.OLD file to a DIR extension. Since many people are willing to risk the errors in favor of having more available disk space, a function has been provided to AUTOMATICALLY DELETE *.OLD files each time File Manager writes a DIR. Theoretically, one could still drop to dos, and use Norton or another disk utility to unerase the *.OLD file, and still save the day, but not when File Manager has executed ALL the DIRs. It's a judgment call. File Manager defaults to preserving the *.OLD files. Use it with caution. Kill "Offline" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you are not in the habit of keeping files "Offline" on your system, you may wish to select this service. Check-marking this flag will cause File Manager to AUTOMATICALLY DELETE listings that do not have physical files on the drive to correspond with each listing. This is handy for "Spring Cleaning" your hard drive. If the listing is marked as "Offline", File Manager will not delete it the listing until it first checks to see if the physical file is on the drive. If the file exists, File Manager will NOT delete the file. Report To File ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When File Manager is run in AUTO mode, you may opt to get an ASCII text file report. The report will appear in the same directory as FILEMAN.EXE and will be named FILEMAN.RPT. See also ^Report To Printer^ Report To Printer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When File Manager is run in AUTO mode, you may opt to get a printed report. MAKE SURE your printer is ON before running File Manager! See also: ^Report To File^ Telegard File Manager 2.6 -- Page 12 Write Data File ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After you figure out which "Services" you would like performed for you, select this option to write a data file to your disk containing all this information. The file is named FILEMAN.DAT, and will be referred to each time File Manager runs, thus allowing you to customize the services performed for you on a daily basis. See also: ^Command Line Help^ No Help Needed! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Aw, c'mon... you can figure this out if you really try! Commandline Arguments ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ File Manager accepts the following commandline arguments: FILEMAN AUTO ~~~~~~~~~~~~ File Manager loads each DIR and Executes according to the Serv- ices you have specified in FILEMAN.DAT. IF FILEMAN.DAT is not present on the drive, File Manager executes according to it's built-in defaults. Commandline Screen ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The following commandline arguments are used to set File Manager's Screen characteristics. You must "Write Data File" FILEMAN.DAT to preserve these settings for future use. FILEMAN 25 ~~~~~~~~~~ Sets normal 25 Line mode (default). FILEMAN 43 ~~~~~~~~~~ Sets EGA 43 Line mode. FILEMAN 50 ~~~~~~~~~~ Sets VGA 50 Line mode. FILEMAN BIOS ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sets BIOS Screen Writing mode. Telegard File Manager 2.6 -- Page 13 FILEMAN MONO ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sets File Manager to MonoChrome (black-and-white) mode. FILEMAN COLOR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sets File Manager to Color mode (default). FILEMAN SNOW ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sets CGA Direct Screen Write mode with snow checking. FILEMAN CGA/EGACARD ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Adjusts the screen size to allow for systems uiltizing CGA monitors with EGA cards. FILEMAN NORM ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Used to reset File Manager's screen characteristics to the original 25 line, color direct screen write mode. If you have not saved a FILEMAN.DAT file, you will never need this command. You may achieve the same goal by simply deleting FILEMAN.DAT.