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1992-08-11
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TakeDown 1.0
A BBS Node TakerDowner
Copyright (c) 1992 By Mark D. Goodwin
-------------------------------------
TakeDown is a copyrighted program that is distributed on the shareware
basis. The registration fee for registered TriBBS sysops and TriBBS
sysops still in their 30 day evaluation period is $0. The
registration fee for sysops who run any other type of BBS software is
$5. Registrations should be sent to: Mark Goodwin, 366 14th St.,
Bangor, ME 04401.
WHAT TAKEDOWN DOES
------------------
On a multinode BBS, there are many times when you want to take down
the whole system during an event in order to perform an operation,
such as message base packing, that could cause damage to your BBS's
data files if the operation was performed when one or more BBS nodes
are still up and running. If your BBS software, such as TriBBS, is
capable of each node running its own events, TakeDown will make
bringing a whole system down a very easy process. Additionally, any
nodes brought down by TakeDown will not be brought up until the
desired event has completed its task.
HOW TAKEDOWN WORKS
------------------
TakeDown performs this rather nifty feat by simply creating a zero
byte file (a dummy file whose length is 0 bytes). After creating the
zero byte file, TakeDown will check once every 15 seconds to see if
the file still exists. If the file still exists, TakeDown will
continue monitoring the file's status. Otherwise, TakeDown will stop
running and return control back to the event batch file that executed
it.
AN EXAMPLE
----------
Let's suppose you have a three node system and you want to pack your
message base using a node 1 event that's scheduled for 00:01. The
first thing you would want to do is set up events for the other two
nodes that will run a few minutes before the node 1 event. So for our
example you would set up events for both nodes that would be executed
at 23:58. The node 2 batch file would appear as follows:
takedown node2.dwn
Yes, that one line batch file is all you need. This tells TakeDown to
create a file called NODE2.DWN in the current directory and
continuously loop as long as the file exists. NOTE: Your event batch
file may need an additional line to restart the BBS. For example, a
TriBBS board would need a line that contains BOARD.BAT to restart the
BBS software.
The event batch file for node 3 would be similar to node 2's:
takedown node3.dwn
The batch file for node 1 would be a little more complex, but it's
still pretty simple:
if not exist \node2\node2.dwn goto end
if not exist \node3\node3.dwn goto end
tripack /p
:end
del \node2\node2.dwn
del \node3\node3.dwn
Let's examine the above batch file a line at a time:
if not exist \node2\node2.dwn goto end
The above line checks to see if TakeDown successfully created its
zero byte file for node 2. Note that this assumes that node 2's
main directory is NODE2. If the zero byte file doesn't exist,
the batch file will abort the event by branching to the label at
the "end" of the batch file.
if not exist \node3\node3.dwn goto end
The above line checks to see if TakeDown successfully created its
zero byte file for node 3. Note that this assumes that node 3's
main directory is NODE3. If the zero byte file doesn't exist,
the batch file will abort the event by branching to the label at
the "end" of the batch file.
tripack /p
The above line packs a TriBBS BBS's message base. Obviously you
can put anything else at this point in the event file.
:end
The above line is simply a label that the batch file uses to
abort if TakeDown wasn't successfully run by either Node 2 or
Node 3.
del \node2\node2.dwn
The above line deletes node 2's zero byte file and will cause
TakeDown to stop running within 15 seconds.
del \node3\node3.dwn
The above line deletes node 3's zero byte file and will cause
TakeDown to stop running within 15 seconds.
YOUR AUTOEXEC.BAT FILE
----------------------
It is probably a good idea to have commands in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file
that will delete any zero byte files that you have TakeDown create.
If your system crashes during an event, the zero byte files may not be
removed properly and TakeDown will abort whenever it finds that the
zero byte file it is supposed to create already exists. This is to
prevent overwriting existing files by accident.
SUPPORT
-------
Support can be obtained for TakeDown by calling The Lobster Buoy at
207-941-0805 (V.32bis) or 207-945-9346 (HST/V.32bis). Additionally, I
can be reached on FidoNet at 1:328/104, on RelayNet at LOBSTER, and on
Intelec.