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OS/2 Shareware BBS: 35 Internet
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1993-09-07
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DUMPGRP Beta 1
This is a quick and dirty hack program with one purpose in life. For
those using OS/2 2.x and IBM TCP/IP, who have access to an NNTP server,
this program provides the ability to get messages from a news group into
a flat file on your OS/2 machine. Personally, I use this in combination
with John Steven's (jstevens@csn.org) excellent unpost utility to
download binaries groups such as comp.binaries.os2 and unpack all the
executables in the background. Ain't OS/2 wonderful?
Note: the most recent version of DumpGrp and a version of the above
mentioned unpost utility compiled for OS/2 are available via anonymous
ftp from my desktop machine (elvis.wicat.com, 192.150.148.53). Note that
this is my development machine, so it may be down or intolerably slow at
any point. I will also send updates to hobbes (ftp-os2.nmsu.edu,
128.123.35.151).
Using DUMPGRP:
To start up DUMPGRP, you will need OS/2 2.0 or higher, IBM TCP/IP 1.2.1
(preferably with the most recent CSD), and access to an NNTP server. If
you have all these things, you must first create a configuration file.
The default name for this file is DUMPGRP.CFG, but you can make it
anything you like. This should be a plain text file, with the following
information on each line:
<group name> <file name> <last message read>
The group name is (strangely enough) the name of the group you wish to
download. The file name is the name of the file new messages in the
group will be dumped to. The last message read is maintained by DUMPGRP;
you should initially set it to 0 (which means that all messages will be
read on the first run.)
For example, the following is a portion of my DUMPGRP.CFG:
comp.binaries.os2 c:\incoming\cbos2.uue 0
comp.binaries.ibm.pc c:\incoming\cbibmpc.uue 0
DUMPGRP is not very clever about the configuration file; do not insert
blank lines or anything but lines in the above form.
Once you have a configuration file, you may run DUMPGRP. The program
takes the following parameters:
-s<server name> : this is required, and specifies the name of your NNTP
server.
-p<port number> : this is optional, and specifies the NNTP port on the
above server. The default value is 119, which should
work pretty much everywhere.
-c<configuration file> :this is optional, and specifies the full name
and path of a configuration file (as described
above). If this is not specified, DUMPGRP will
look for DUMPGRP.CFG in the current directory
only, and will abort if it is not found.
-t<temporary file> : this is optional and specifies the full name and
path of a temporary file DumpGrp will use while
running. If this is not used, the path will be
the value of the TEMP or TMP environment
variable (or the root directory of the current
drive if neither is defined), and the filename
will be DUMPGRP.TMP.
-l<separator line> : this is optional, and specifies the line of text
which will separate messages in the output file.
The string you specify may contain any ASCII
characters. The default is a line of asterisks.
-a : this is optional, and specifies Append mode. In
append mode, DumpGrp appends the new messages in
a group to the file specified in the
configuration file. By default, DumpGrp will
overwrite the output file each time it is run.
-r : this is optional, and specifies receive header mode.
In this mode, the line
X-Received: MM:DD:YYYY HH:MM
will be written to the file before each message,
giving the date and time the message was
received by DumpGrp. The only real reason for
this is to allow the Expire utility to work (see
EXPIRE.DOC).
For example, the following command:
DUMPGRP -snntp.bogus.com -cc:\tcpip\etc\dumpgrp.cfg -l---END-ARTICLE---
will make DUMPGRP attach to the server nntp.bogus.com at the default
port of 119 and use the specified configuration file rather than looking
in the current directory.
If all is well, DUMPGRP will fill the files specified in the
configuration file with all the messages since the last time DUMPGRP was
run. The line "---END-ARTICLE---" will appear after each message rather than
the default line of asterisks.
Any existing files will be overwritten since the -a switch was not
passed to DumpGrp.
This program is copyrighted but free. Use it however you see fit, distribute
it however you see fit. You may not, however, charge anything beyond a
reasonable media or handling fee for the distribution of this program.
5/23/93, Kevin Vigor
kevin@elvis.wicat.com
kevin@wicat.com
72500.3705@compuserve.com