OS/2 Shareware BBS: 11 Util/11-Util.zip/ertime12.zip/ERRTIME.DOC

Text File | 1995-05-06 | 15KB | 447 lines

                         ┌─────────────────────┐
                         │ ErrTime version 1.2 │
                         └─────────────────────┘

Released to public domain by Phil Money, PGM Consulting, 6 MAY 95

Many more errorlevels have been added to ErrTime since v1.0 and v1.1

There are seperate versions of ErrTime for DOS, OS/2, Windows-NT and Novell
NetWare 386.  It was written and compiled in Watcom C++ v10.0a.

No warranty of any kind is offered.

    USAGE: ErrTime -h | -H | -d | -D | -w | -W | -m | -M | -s | -y

       Valid options are:
               -h   Return Hour as an errorlevel 0-23
               -H   Return Hour as an errorlevel 1-12
               -d   Return Day of month as an errorlevel 1-31
               -D   Return Day of week as an errorlevel 0-6 (Sunday is 0)
               -w   Return Week as an errorlevel 0-52 starting Sunday
               -W   Return Week as an errorlevel 0-52 starting Monday
               -m   Return Month as an errorlevel 1-12
               -m   Return Minute as an errorlevel 0-59
               -m   Return Second as an errorlevel 0-59
               -y   Return Year as an errorlevel 0-99


ErrTime exits with errorlevel 255 if invalid arguments are given.

You can only enter one argument on the command line.  If more than one argument
is given, ErrTime will use only the first argument.

This is a simple utility to assist scheduling events at specified times.
ErrTime returns an errorlevel equal to the time of day hour in 24 hour or 12
hour format, minute, second, day of month or day of week, week of year or month
of year, or year of century.  For example, if it's 2am it will return an
errorlevel of 2 or if it's 2pm (14:00) it will return an errorlevel of 14, etc.
The error level can then be used by a batch, CMD or NCF file to execute the
appropriate commands to run programs or just do nothing.

Of course, you can also schedule a block of time larger than just one hour, one
day or one month or even combine them all by running ErrTime more than once.
See the sample batch file below.

Errtime differs from some other errorlevel programs in that it doesn't evaluate
anything or require any complex command line parameters.  It simply returns the
errorlevel and lets your batch file do the rest.  This means you won't have to
run ErrTime 24 times to test for the hour of the day, or 12 times for the month
or 100 times for the year, etc.  You only need to run it once and let the batch
file do the testing.  This is much more practical than running a program
multiple times.  This might not be what your application needs though. If you
need a program that does complex "what-if" calculations look elsewhere.

ErrTime writes nothing to your drive, opens no files, requires no input or
changes anything about your computer except to return an errorlevel to the
operating system after it checks the time and date and exits.  All programs
return an errorlevel of some form.  ErrTime just returns them with the same
number as the hour of the day, day of month or month of year etc.  Pretty
simple stuff eh?  If you're not familiar with using errorlevels in batch,
CMD or NCF files, read your manual.  One of the sample files should be
enough to get you up and running even if you don't know anything about
errorlevels.


Note:

Batch files examine all errorlevels using a greater-than-or-equal-to operation.
In other words, the statement 'If ErrorLevel 1 echo Happy new year!' will
display the sentence 'Happy new year!' if the errorlevel was set to 1, but will
ALSO display 'Happy new year!' if the errorlevel was set to 2, 3, or above.
For this reason, if you have more than one errorlevel to check for, you should
always arrange the group of errorlevel statements in a DESCENDING order.  For
example, to check for errorlevels 0, 9 and 12, this would be the proper way to
place the statements in your batch file:

               ErrTime -h

               If ErrorLevel 12 Email.Exe
               If ErrorLevel  9 CashReg.Exe
               If ErrorLevel  0 BackUp.Bat

One other point to remember is that ALL programs modify the DOS errorlevel.  In
the example given above, if you were to run a program called ABC123.EXE for the
'If ErrorLevel 12' statement, ABC123 would RESET the DOS errorlevel after
ABC123.EXE terminated.  Since the batch file is executed one line at a time,
the errorlevel statements which follow would use the errorlevel set by the
ABC123 program, rather than the value set by ErrTime.  To get around this DOS
limitation, you must instead use a GOTO statement for the 'action' portion of
the errorlevel statement.

The GOTO command allows your batch file to jump to a completely different
location within the same batch file, and start executing commands from that
point.  This is accomplished by using a statement in the form of 'GOTO <l>',
where <l> is a LABEL.  A label is a unique, alphanumeric, ONE-WORD name, which
indicates where in the batch file you wish to jump to.  Some valid labels could
be called 'DoTape', 'Run_The_Cash_Register', and 'Shutdown'.  However, a GOTO
statement alone is not enough to complete the GOTO operation.  You must also
place the same label somewhere else within the batch file, which lets DOS know
where the GOTO statement should end up.  You can do this simply by placing a
colon (':') at the beginning of a line, simply followed by the label name.

For example, the following sample batch file:

          :Loop
          echo This will be shown over and over
          goto Loop

...would cause the line 'This will be shown over and over' to continuously
display on the screen, until the user hits control-C to abort.  When DOS starts
the batch file, it will process each line in sequence.  When DOS reads line 1,
it will recognize that 'Loop' is simply a label definition, and will ignore it.
Next, DOS will read line 2, and process the ECHO command, by displaying
'This will be shown over and over' on the screen.  Once DOS encounters line 3,
it will realize that it contains a GOTO statement, and look for the ':Loop'
label, and jump back to line 1, continuing the cycle.

However, the GOTO command does have practical applications.  The above example
could be re-written like this:

               ErrTime -h

               If ErrorLevel 12 Goto Email
               If ErrorLevel  9 Goto CashReg
               If ErrorLevel  0 Goto BackUp


               :Email
               REM * Run Email.
               Email.Exe
               goto End

               :CashReg
               REM * Run CashReg.
               CashReg.Exe
               goto End

               :BackUp
               REM * Run Tape Backup.
               Backup.Bat
               goto End

               :End


In this situation, DOS would first compare the errorlevel returned by ErrTime
to those listed in the 'If ErrorLevel' portion of the batch file, and then jump
down to the corresponding label.

For example, if ErrTime exited using errorlevel 10, DOS would jump down to
':CashReg', and process the statements which followed.  The REM statement is
simply a remark, and is ignored by DOS.  After skipping the REM command, DOS
then reads the next line of the batch file, and processes it.  The 'goto End'
statement is necessary, to make sure that DOS does not keep going, and execute
the commands for 'BackUp' as well.  (Remember that DOS just ignores LABEL
DEFINITIONS, such as ':BackUp'.  Without the extra 'goto End', the batch file
would just 'fall through' to the statements under Email, Backup, etc.  The
extra goto specifically instructs DOS to jump to the ':End' label, which is
located at the end of the batch file.

Some times you may WANT the batch file to 'fall through', since it allows one
to have several similar commands to be processed, when using the same
errorlevel.

Arranging the batch file like this allows for more than one command to be
executed for a certain errorlevel, and in addition, gets around the
above-mentioned problem of other programs changing the errorlevel.

A generic batch or .cmd file for ErrTime might look something like this:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

@Echo Off

cd \Bink
 Rem Check day of week
 errtime2 -D
   if errorlevel 1 goto monthday
   Rem The above line catches any fall-through errorlevels above errorlevel 0
   if errorlevel 0 goto sunday
 goto monthday

:sunday
 cd \max
msgpostp -Te:\bink\weekly.Rpt -Cmpsqrwk.cfg
if exist \bink\weekly.dat del \bink\weekly.dat

Rem The batch/CMD file automatically falls through to chkmonth after
Rem sunday since no goto statment sends it anywhere else.

:monthday
cd \Bink
 Rem Check day of month
 errtime2 -d
   if errorlevel 2 goto daily
   Rem The above line catches any fall-through errorlevels above errorlevel 1
   if errorlevel 1 goto day1
 goto daily

:day1
 cd \max
 msgpostp -T\bink\Monthly.Rpt -Cmpsqrmth.cfg
 if exist \bink\monthly.dat del \bink\monthly.dat
 cd \bink
 call notify
 cd \bink
 Rem Check month
 errtime2 -m
   if errorlevel 2 goto daily
   Rem The above line catches any fall-through errorlevels above errorlevel 1
   if errorlevel 1 goto january1
 goto daily

:january1
 msgpostp -T\bink\Yearly.Rpt -Cmpsqryr.cfg
 if exist \bink\yearly.dat del \bink\yearly.dat

:daily
 cd \max
 msgpostp -T\bink\daily.Rpt -Cmpsqrday.cfg
 if exist \bink\daily.dat del \bink\daily.dat

:end
 cd \bink
 REM * Re-Run BinkleyTerm
 Bink

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The included files are only examples of how one might use this program.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions you can contact me at the
following addresses:

[e-mail]
[e-mail]
Phil Money at FidoNet 1:3400/37.1

or you can write to:

Phil Money
PSC Box 11400
Malmstrom AFB, MT USA 59402-5000


More batch file examples follow:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
@echo off

REM An easy way to schedule an BBS door access and maintenance...

errtime -d

if errorlevel 2 goto daily
Rem The above line catches any fall-through errorlevels above errorlevel 1
if errorlevel 1 goto monthly
goto daily

:monthly
errtime -h
if errorlevel 1 goto endbat
Rem The above line catches any fall-through errorlevels above errorlevel 0
if errorlevel 0 call purge.bat

:daily
errtime -h
if errorlevel 23 goto closed
if errorlevel 22 goto open
if errorlevel 21 goto closed
if errorlevel 20 goto open
if errorlevel 19 goto closed
if errorlevel 18 goto closed
if errorlevel 17 goto closed
if errorlevel 16 goto open
if errorlevel 15 goto closed
if errorlevel 14 goto open
if errorlevel 13 goto open
if errorlevel 12 goto closed
if errorlevel 11 goto closed
if errorlevel 10 goto open
if errorlevel 9 goto open
if errorlevel 8 goto closed
if errorlevel 7 goto closed
if errorlevel 6 goto open
if errorlevel 5 goto open
if errorlevel 4 goto open
if errorlevel 3 goto open
if errorlevel 2 goto open
if errorlevel 1 goto open
if errorlevel 0 goto open
goto endbat

:open
c:
cd \bbs\doors\mydoor
mydoor.exe
goto endbat

:closed
display closed.bbs

:endbat
c:
cd \bbs
call cleanup.bat
bbs.bat

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
@echo off

REM A different program for every hour?...

errtime.exe -h

if errorlevel 23 goto hour23
if errorlevel 22 goto hour22
if errorlevel 21 goto hour21
if errorlevel 20 goto hour20
if errorlevel 19 goto hour19
if errorlevel 18 goto hour18
if errorlevel 17 goto hour17
if errorlevel 16 goto hour16
if errorlevel 15 goto hour15
if errorlevel 14 goto hour14
if errorlevel 13 goto hour13
if errorlevel 12 goto hour12
if errorlevel 11 goto hour11
if errorlevel 10 goto hour10
if errorlevel 9 goto hour9
if errorlevel 8 goto hour8
if errorlevel 7 goto hour7
if errorlevel 6 goto hour6
if errorlevel 5 goto hour5
if errorlevel 4 goto hour4
if errorlevel 3 goto hour3
if errorlevel 2 goto hour2
if errorlevel 1 goto hour1
if errorlevel 0 goto hour0
goto endbat

:hour23
 REM put command here if you want it to run during this hour
 goto endbat

:hour22
 REM put command here if you want it to run during this hour
 goto endbat

:hour21
 REM put command here if you want it to run during this hour
 goto endbat

:hour20
 REM put command here if you want it to run during this hour
 goto endbat

:hour19
 REM put command here if you want it to run during this hour
 goto endbat

:hour18
 REM put command here if you want it to run during this hour
 goto endbat

:hour17
 REM put command here if you want it to run during this hour
 goto endbat

:hour16
 REM put command here if you want it to run during this hour
 goto endbat

:hour15
 REM put command here if you want it to run during this hour
 goto endbat

:hour14
 REM put command here if you want it to run during this hour
 goto endbat

:hour13
 REM put command here if you want it to run during this hour
 goto endbat

:hour12
 REM put command here if you want it to run during this hour
 goto endbat

:hour11
 REM put command here if you want it to run during this hour
 goto endbat

:hour10
 REM put command here if you want it to run during this hour
 goto endbat

:hour9
 REM put command here if you want it to run during this hour
 goto endbat

:hour8
 REM put command here if you want it to run during this hour
 goto endbat

:hour7
 REM put command here if you want it to run during this hour
 goto endbat

:hour6
 REM put command here if you want it to run during this hour
 goto endbat

:hour5
 REM put command here if you want it to run during this hour
 goto endbat

:hour4
 REM put command here if you want it to run during this hour
 goto endbat

:hour3
 REM put command here if you want it to run during this hour
 goto endbat

:hour2
 REM put command here if you want it to run during this hour
 goto endbat

:hour1
 REM put command here if you want it to run during this hour
 goto endbat

:hour0
 REM put command here if you want it to run during this hour
 errtime -d
 if errorlevel 1 call monthly.bat

:endbat
 REM Put your cleanup routines here.
 call daily.bat
 echo.
 echo Done!
 echo.