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OS/2 Shareware BBS: 11 Util
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11-Util.zip
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kill2.zip
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1993-06-17
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KILL2 is a file maintenance utility that can be used, for example, to
get rid of old files from BBS download directories. Type KILL2 with no
arguments (or KILL2 -?) to get help. It's simple to use, and I've tried
to make it relatively safe (a command line switch is required to cause
file deletion to occur; otherwise KILL2 will only list the files it
would have deleted). KILL2 runs under both OS/2 and MS-DOS.
The basic format of a KILL2 command line is:
KILL2 -<switches> <file>
There may be many -<switches> and many <files> given. Anything not a
-<switch> (i.e. not prefaced by a hyphen) is considered a <file>. If
any invalid switches are encountered, KILL2 stops. Killing files is
serious business, and KILL2 won't proceed if it thinks you've goofed.
A <file> argument is the name of a file. It may contain wildcards and
paths. "C:\STUFF\*.*", "*", "?C?D?S?A.*" and "AFILEN.AME" are all valid
<file> arguments. A <file> can begin with the '@' character to indicate
that it is a file containing a list of files. If you need to use a file
that actually begins with '@', double it: @@AFILEN.AME results in the
filespec @AFILEN.AME being used.
A switch begins with the hyphen character and is followed by a letter.
The following switches are valid:
A Must be followed immediately by a <number>. This <number> is used to
affect all but the <number> of newest files. For instance,
KILL2 -A1 *.* kills all but the newest file in the default directory.
KILL2 -A2 \NODELIST\NODEDIFF.* kills all but the two newest files
matching the pattern NODEDIFF.* in the directory \NODELIST on the
default drive. It's probably not useful to use the -R and -D
switches with the -A switch. Warning: arbitrarily chooses files if
several files with the same date exist at the "border." In other
words, if there are three files with the same date and two must be
deleted to pare the directory to the correct number, KILL2 will
usually whack them off in directory order. The usual use of -A is to
kill all but one or two newest matching files; perhaps nodelists or
newsletters.
D Days of age to kill files at. -D30 kills files older than 30 days.
The default is 0, meaning all files are fair game.
E Prefaces an excluded file pattern. Wildcards are allowed. Paths
won't work as you might expect; don't use them. You can give many -E
arguments. -E*.DAT would exclude all files matching *.DAT, for
example. Exclude file patterns may also use @list files.
K Kill files. If this switch isn't present, KILL2 will only list
files. This lets you test a command line to see what the results
would be before actually deleting files.
L List only. This is the default action. Lists can be redirected to a
file on the command line. This can be useful for creating bulletins
showing which files will be deleted ahead of time. It's also useful
for verifying the action of a command line before actually deleting
files.
R Recurse. KILL2 will recurse into subdirectories working on files.
T Touch. KILL2 will touch files instead of deleting them. "Touching"
means setting their time stamp to the current date.
- Since the hyphen is a legal filename character under MS-DOS and OS/2,
use a second hyphen to preface filenames beginning with a hyphen.
--AFILEN.AME would produce the filespec -AFILEN.AME.
? Gets you brief help on KILL2. Nothing else is done.
KILL2 is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Kimes, who can be reached at the
address at the end of this file. KILL2 is free for use in
non-commercial environments (i.e. non-business, non-government,
non-religious). Commercial users must pay $10.00 US.
There is no (nil, none, nada) warranty whatsoever for KILL2. If it eats
your hard drive (no, it shouldn't do that), tough luck. If it breaks,
you got both pieces.
Touching didn't work under MSDOS (boo hoo :-). I've got an old FDEL.LZH
lying around, a QuickBASIC program I wrote years ago that does much of
what KILL2 does, if you need it. But I hacked KILL2's source a bit and
think I have it working now (thanks to Dan Updike for pointing it out).
Mark Kimes
1:380/16.0@Fidonet
542 Merrick
Shreveport, LA USA 71104
(318)222-3455 data