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DOWNSORT
Maximus CBCS DOWNload file SORT and List Utility
Version 5.6 (OS/2 and DOS)
February 20, 1993
Rob Hamerling
Vianen, The Netherlands
Phone: ++31-3473-72136 (voice)
FIDO-net: 2:512/4.1098
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
CONTENTS
About DOWNSORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Registration and Shareware Fee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Warranty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Purpose and Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
User's Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Initial setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Data Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
List Type Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Data Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
List Customisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Miscellaneous report information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Parameter Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Commandline parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Hints for specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Configuration file Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Sample of Getting organised . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
DOWNSORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
BinkleyTerm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Packaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
RUN-time material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Source material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Dependencies and restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Storage and Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Wishlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Internals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Development Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Program Organisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Main Data Organisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Appendix A. History of changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Version 5.6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Version 5.5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Version 5.4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Version 5.3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Version 5.2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Version 5.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Version 5.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Appendix B. World-wide use of DOWNSORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Contents ii
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
Appendix C. Sample Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
ALL-list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
GBL-list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
NEW-list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
EMI-list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
FILES.BBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
OKfile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
ORPhan list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Appendix D. Sample Configuration File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Contents iii
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
ABOUT DOWNSORT
DOWNSORT was originated in 1987 as a program for my own use when I was
SYSOP of the Bulletin Board PC-Square (2:512/4), to automatically generate
daily overviews of my download material for the users. The program name is
related to the SORTing of the collection of DOWNloadable files, in DOWNward
time-stamp sequence and an online Bulletin was the only list that was
produced at that time. PC-Square was running BinkleyTerm and OPUS under
DOS, and file-requesting was not so popular then.
Now PC-Square runs with OS/2, BinkleyTerm and MAXIMUS CBCS. I'm not SYSOP
anymore but still strongly involved. As a contribution to PC-Square and
the large international Bulletin Board community of MAXIMUS CBCS boards,
and in the highly appreciated spirit of BinkleyTerm, I decided to upgrade
my DOWNSORT program to the current software. During the past years a lot
of improvements and extensions have been made: many user-configurable
options for many more output formats then the original DOWNSORT.
The only dependency of DOWNSORT on MAXIMUS CBCS is a parameter-file
AREA.DAT, which is usually created with a MAXIMUS utility (SILT(P)), which
itself can be used without actually running MAXIMUS! This is the way I
work for testing of DOWNSORT.
"Appendix A. History of changes" on page 38 gives an impression of recent
history.
DOWNSORT is now developed in an OS/2 environment, but it is distributed as
'family'-application: it runs under OS/2 and DOS.
REGISTRATION AND SHAREWARE FEE
DOWNSORT is a $ 0.00 Shareware Program. This means (to me) that you
respect the commonly known rules for shareware, but you don't have to pay
me anything.
Registration is voluntary: please send me a netmail message with your name
and (net-)address if you are a regular user of DOWNSORT as SYSOP. That
gives me an impression of the usage and the impact of changes to DOWNSORT.
If you tell me that you are running DOWNSORT on your Bulletin Board as
service to your users, and you appreciate to be mentioned, I'll add your
name to the reference list in "Appendix B. World-wide use of DOWNSORT" on
page 43.
WARRANTY
For this price? You must be kidding! But I'll listen to your complaints
and suggestions, and if time permits, I'll work on the improvements you
suggest.
About DOWNSORT 1
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank all users that contributed with constructive remarks
and encouraging appraisals. Without doubt Emmanuel Sandorfi of 2:320/5
holds the record in number of suggestions and amount of additionally
required programming effort. He also provided some additional title-fonts
(2 and 3).
I also would like to thank the regular users (SYSOP's of Bulletin Boards)
who made DOWNSORT much more popular than I ever dreamed of! A collection
of geographically dispersed Boards can be found in "Appendix B. World-wide
use of DOWNSORT" on page 43.
About DOWNSORT 2
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
OVERVIEW
DOWNSORT is a program to make lists of available download files for
Bulletin Board Systems, especially MAXIMUS CBCS. The different types of
lists are each for a specific audience (online bulletin board user,
file-requestor, SYSOP) and purpose (all files, recent acquisitions).
Within each type there are many ways to customise the contents (selection
on user-privilege or user-interest), and format (sort-sequence of files,
titles, logo, etc).
DOWNSORT can produce the following report-types 1 for you:
(all these can be produced in one run).
■ user-lists
- BBS-list, a colorful overview for online users of MAXIMUS CBCS
- NEW-list of the most recent files (as a response to a file-request of
'NEWFILES')
- ALL-list for a complete overview in a file-group per area (as a
response to a filerequest of 'FILES' of 'ALLFILES')
- IPF-list similar contents as ALL-list, but in a different
presentation format (VIEW-able under OS/2)
- GBL-list for a complete overview over the area-boundaries, as an
alternative for ALL-list if you don't want to bother file-requestors
with your area-structure
■ SYSOP lists:
- ORPHAN-report as a help with management of the contents of your
area's and directories, and to correct possible upload problems or
inconsistencies
- DUP-list for a list of duplicate filenames as a help to control your
| disk-space and with management of versions of different files
| - OKFile for (Binkley) File Requests.
- EMI-list for a list of new file arrivals to be included in an
announcement message.
- Updated FILES.BBS files
The lists can be generated for different privilege levels, and be
customised to a very high extend to present your system as you like it to
be seen by your users (headers, log, etc). At the same time Maximus (and
OPUS) conventions are reflected in the way the file information is
presented.
A sample of most of these lists can be found in "Appendix C. Sample Lists"
on page 44.
In short: DOWNSORT is a very versatile tool to manage your database of
files, both in an OS/2 and DOS environment.
─────────────────────
1 For the target audience the distiction between 'user' and 'sysop' is
strictly the author's view!
Overview 3
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES
DOWNSORT is designed for the following purposes:
1. Produce different overviews of files which are available for download by
online users of the Bulletin Board and by File Requestors. QUICK and
EASY file retrieval is the main goal for the lists. Therefore many
lists-types and within a type several variations should be available for
SYSOP and users.
2. Should not disclose files to users (file-requesters) without positive
agreement by SYSOP.
3. Detect discrepancies between the contents of FILES.BBS and the
corresponding download directory, such as:
■ The directory contains so called orphan-files, which have no
descriptive entry in FILES.BBS.
■ FILES.BBS contains entries of which the file in not in the directory
(is 'offline'). This may be on purpose!
4. Must be able to be run unattended (typically overnight). The
file-access privilege system of a Bulletin Board System like Maximus
CBCS should be respected by the reports.
Overview 4
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
USER'S GUIDE
This chapter explains the possibilities of DOWNSORT. Parameter
specifications will be covered in "Parameter Specifications" on page 18.
INITIAL SETUP
When you are going to use DOWNSORT for the first time, you have to make a
number of decisions. Below you'll find a kind of check-list, which is
setup to help you with a logical sequence of tasks to make the use of
DOWNSORT succesful. It does NOT give detailed specifications, these can be
found in "Parameter Specifications" on page 18.
The specifications will be put into a configuration file DOWNSORT.CFG,
which may contain information about:
1. Data Collection
File information will be collected from:
■ Privilege and download path-information from AREA.DAT
■ Actual file-information from download directories
■ FILES.BBS files for file descriptions
2. List Type Selection
DOWNSORT can produce the following report types for you (all in one
run).
■ ORPHAN-report for SYSOP use only
■ BBS-list for online users of MAXIMUS CBCS
■ NEW-list(s) for a list of the most recent files
■ ALL-list(s) for a complete overview in a file-group per area
■ IPF-list(s) same as ALL-list, but in a different presentation format
(VIEW-able under OS/2, there is a special IP2-list for OS/2 2.0).
■ GBL-list(s) for a complete overview over area-boundaries
| ■ DUP-list(s) for a list of duplicate filenames
| ■ OKFile(s) for (Binkley) File Requests
■ EMIFile(s) to for a list of file arrivals over the last period
■ Updated FILES.BBS files
3. File selection
Reporting of file-information can be limited by:
■ Reporting privilege: only those files up to a certain privilege level
will be listed
■ Area INclude or EXclude: for sub-selection for special interest
groups
■ Number of files or period (days, weeks or months) to be reported
4. List Customisation
The layout of the lists can be jazzed-up with:
■ BLOCK-title and its font
User's Guide 5
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
■ TopTitle, SubTitle, BottomTitle, Include (logo-) file
■ Sorting sequence of area's in ALL-list (unsorted, name, include)
■ Sorting sequence of files (unsorted, date, filename)
■ Truncation or wrapping of file descriptions
■ Area- or file-privilege information
■ Message and Warning texts
All in the language which suites your audience best.
The sample DOWNSORT.CFG file (see "Appendix D. Sample Configuration File"
on page 47) contains defaults and a brief information to help you with the
parameter specifications.
Below you can find some more explanation.
DATA COLLECTION
AREA.DAT
A MAXIMUS file 'AREA.DAT' is absolutely required by DOWNSORT. It is
however not necessary to run MAXIMUS itself, the AREA.DAT file is created
with SILT(P) from the MAXIMUS package. You can use this utility without
the other MAXIMUS stuff. In fact I do that myself (NOT running a MAXIMUS
board)! If you run DOWNSORT in a directory without AREA.DAT, then you
should use specify the filespec for AREA.DAT. It allows also to specify a
different AREA.DAT file than the one that is used by your MAXIMUS.
With SILT(P) you may build a special AREA.DAT for exclusive use by
DOWNSORT, with different, less, or even more directories! Probably much
more convenient is the use of AreaINclude or AreaEXclude in DOWNSORT.CFG to
limit the contents of the lists to a group of area's, that you want to
report together, while you use the regular AREA.DAT. A combination of a
'special' AREA.DAT and AreaIN/EXcludes is another option to obtain
areagroups.
Remember: The combination of area privilege in AREA.DAT and the
report-privilege specification in DOWNSORT.CFG may restrict the contents of
reports. AreaINclude is subordinate to this and will work only for the
collection of area's within these privilege limits.
If DOWNSORT reports a memory constraint (see also "Storage and Performance"
on page 31), you may use these techniques as circumvention: exclude one or
more of the file area's and rerun DOWNSORT.
User's Guide 6
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
FILES.BBS
DOWNSORT uses the information in AREA.DAT to locate the description files,
usually called FILES.BBS. So either the ListFile specification in
AREA.DAT, or the download directory to locate them (Maximus default).
LIST TYPE SELECTION
DOWNSORT can produce several types of output reports, indicated by type of
list. The following list types are available:
ORPHAN REPORT
This is a list of all files in download directories for which there is no
entry in any FILES.BBS file of all areas which have this directory
specified as download path. The report contains date, area-name and
area-path of the orphan. The entries are sorted on area and filename. Not
reported are MAXIMUS system files like: FILES.*, *.BAK, DIR.?BS and
SYSTEM*.?BS.
If you have more than 1 area pointing to the same download directory, but
with different FILES.BBS files, the orphans are reported for the first of
these areas only.
Note: If there is an entry for a file in FILES.BBS without a description,
the file is NOT considered to be an Orphan!
BBS-LIST
This is a list of downloadfiles that became recently available on your
system. File selection is on date, but for presentation the list may be
sorted on date, newest first or on filename.
The list contains compiled MECCA control sequences, for direct use in
MAXIMUS bulletins: a user-privilege sensitive list! It might be a good
idea to put a translated [onexit] string, which translates into: ^OFpath.
When a user exits from the BBS-list bulletin, it will fall back to the
exit-bulletin.
The length of the file (number of file-entries) may be limited by
parameters:
■ file-count
■ file age in days, weeks or months (30 days)
■ maximum privilege
(never more than available within the privilege limit). If neither
specified it will contain all available files in all download directories.
User's Guide 7
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
To make it easy for you to build a complete MAXIMUS bulletin-file a
user-provided header is included preceding the list and a trailer at the
end of the list. Header and trailer can be built by SYSOP, and may contain
any information and bulletin-control sequences (a sample is provided).
NEW-LIST
Basically the same list as above, but in simple ASCII format. This list is
suitable for regular file-requestors as brief overview of the latest
additions, updates or replacements.
EMI-LIST
Basically the same as NEW-list, but more compact:
■ contains file also file-time and exact filesize in bytes.
■ Description wrapping (if used) is overlapping the file-details except
filename.
The EMI-list is especially suitable to generate file-arrival messages (the
output should be included by another program).
ALL-LIST
A list of all downloadfiles by area. Files of the same area are listed in
groups, separated by imbedded headers with area-name, -description, and
-privilege. Actual status information is provided in the area-header as
well: area-filecount and -bytecount, and latest acquisition (date and
file-name).
At the end a SUMMARY report shows per area: area-title, file-count,
byte-count, and totals.
The size of this list is limited only by the privilege parameter. The
numbers in area-header and summary report show only what is available for
the particular privilege.
You may generate several ALL-lists in one run!
IPF- AND IP2-LIST
Same contents as ALL-list but in a different format. Only useful for users
that run OS/2 (OS/2 version 1.2+ under Presentation Manager). This file
has the format of an input-file for the Information Presentation Facility
Compiler (IPFC).
There is a separate form of this list (called IP2-list) for OS/2 2.0. It
produces information that can be compiled only with the accompanying IPF
Compiler of the OS/2 2.0 Toolkit. The result however can be VIEWed under
User's Guide 8
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
OS/2 1.3!
GBL-LIST
Similar to ALL-list, but where ALL-list gives the files in groups per area,
the GBL-list ignores area-boundaries and gives a single group. It contains
an extra column with the area-code for each file, there is no area-summary.
SYSOP may choose which of both is suitable to make available to users, and
which to use for himself (or even both).
The GBL-list can be used in stead of the ALL-list if your users prefer
searching in the list without having to bother about area-organisation.
Although one of the original purposes of the GBL-list was checking for
duplicate files, there is now also a special report for this particular
purpose (see "DUP-list").
DUP-LIST
Simple report of possibly duplicate files over the area's. The format is
the same as the GBL-list, but only files with the same filename are
reported. 'Offline' files are included in the check.
Note: The extension is not considered in the name comparison. This might
be inconvenient, like for area's where you keep your NODEDIFF.Ann files.
Please note:
■ You may exclude area's from the lists.
■ You may specify a privilege, but Downsort completely ignores area's with
a higher privilege than any report asked for.
These two circumstances may hide duplicates!
All duplicate files within this privilige-range will be reported, even when
a counterpart has a higher privilege (and thus will not be reported in the
DUP-list)! You may need a file-finder-utility to search for the
'partner'-file in one of the directories with a higher privilege. So
'SYSOP' is really the only useful privilege, I would say.
There are very few other parameters applicable to this list. File
descriptions may be specified as truncated or wrapped. All user-titles are
left out and only an alphabetic sort of filename is supported.
User's Guide 9
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
OKFILE
List filespecifications for file-requests in BinkleyTerm style. The
generated paths in the list obey the following rules:
■ the area-privilege is within the privilege limit of the report
■ the area is not excluded (by areaEXclude)
■ the area has at least 1 file within the privilege limit of the report
The paths are sorted on area-name (although the area-name is not part of
the list). There is no check on duplicate paths.
The list is not jazzed-up with titles, etc, but a file may be included in
front of the list if specified on the OKFileList in DOWNSORT.CFG (see
"Appendix D. Sample Configuration File" on page 47). This option allows
| you to insert 'magic filenames' in the OKFile.
| The list may be in short format (path\*.*), or in long format: all files
| are listed explicitly (no generic filespecifications).
FIL-LIST
New "FILES.BBS" type of file may be (re-)created, one for every area. The
contents of the file-information will be about the same as the original
FILES.BBS, but with the following notes:
■ A header is generated with area-name, -title, and -privilege. Also the
total amount of files and bytes and the most recently acquired new file
in this area is part of the header information.
■ Files with a privilege up to and including the area-privilege are listed
first.
■ Files can have a privilege other than the area-privilege when the
original FILES.BBS file contains ^Pp-sequences ('p' being a privilege
letter). This construction will be rebuilt by DOWNSORT. Files with a
higher privilege than the area-privilege will follow after a compiled
MECCA-sequence (^Pp) in the new FILES.BBS. DOWNSORT respects these
indicators when reading FILES.BBS, so all file-privilege information is
retained. This ensures no accidental loss of file-information, and the
regular user won't see more than he should.
■ Wild-card specifications in the original FILES.BBS are not propagated to
the new FILES.BBS.
■ The file description is kept internally as a single string of maximum
240 characters. When creating FILES.BBS files, this will be the file
format (single record per file-entry). The original FILES.BBS may
contain a (long) single string description, or multiple (short)
multiline descriptions. When encountering multiline descriptions in
input-FILES.BBS, DOWNSORT concatenates the separate description lines
with a single intermediate space up to a maximum of 240 bytes. This
will be the output format if the FIL-list is requested.
■ Comments in FILES.BBS will be preserved only when the Keep-Sequence
User's Guide 10
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
option is used (specify /K on the FilFileList line of Downsort.Cfg).
Note: Comments before line 8 are discarded (are assumed to be the
standard FILES.BBS header of Downsort).
The destination of FILES.BBS-files is not by definition the same as the
origin! When specified with the "FIL:"-parameter (or in the configuration
file), the output may be located in a different directory than the original
input FILES.BBS. Manual checking or post-processing by some other program
may follow DOWNSORT, after which the files might be put back on the MAXIMUS
specified position.
DATA SELECTION
PRIVILEGE CONTROL
The default file privilege to be shown in the lists is SYSOP. All files
with a higher privilege than the specified (or defaulted) report-privilege
will not appear in the report.
Files without a matching filename-entry in FILES.BBS are treated as Hidden.
That means that by default these files will not be listed, unless the 'H'
privilege is used on the report-request specification.
If you run a mailer like BinkleyTerm and support file-requests, you lack
the extensive privilege system like Maximus. The only distiction
BinkleyTerm makes with file-request is 'unknown', 'known' and
'password-protected'. You may generate multiple download lists with
different privilege indictor, depending if you allow these categories to
request different file collections a sample of this kind of environment is
given in "Sample of Getting organised" on page 26.
This is not needed for DOWNSORT.BBS, since this file has imbedded privilege
control sequences for MAXIMUS users. But you should specify a sufficiently
high privilege for the BBS-list to satisfy your most valuable users!
AREA SELECTION
When you need file selections on subject, you can use AreaINclude or
AreaEXclude to limit the lists to files that are part of certain
area-groups. You should realise that this is the latest selection phase:
privilege selection has taken place already before AreaINclude or
AreaEXclude are processed. So make sure you specified a sufficiently high
report-privilege to get the proper areas into the group.
User's Guide 11
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
REPORT LENGTH
For lists that are meant to show the latest file-information only (BBS-list
and NEW-list), the length of the list can be limited to a maximum number of
file-entries or to file-age in days, weeks or months.
LIST CUSTOMISATION
HEADERS, TITLES AND INCLUDE FILES
There are several ways to custimise the appearance of the lists for
DOWNSORT. All items in the following list are optional, but the sequence
in the reports is fixed and as listed:
Pre-Title Up to 20 lines as very first lines of your lists. Any text may
be specified. Leading '~'-characters (tilde) will be treated
as full-size required blanks, mainly to manually align (center)
the text in these lines. There is no automatic centering. You
may have to experiment a little.
TITLE A short title (8-12 characters), that will be magnified to big
BLOCK-letters. There are 4 block-fonts to choose from. Not
all characters are supported and lower-case will be translated
to upper-case. The '~'-character (tilde) will be treated as
full-size required blank, the '`'-character (accent-grave) as
half-size required blank.
If not specified, a default title is generated as DOWNSORTxy,
where xy stands for the current version of DOWNSORT.
TitleFont Number of the font to be used for the BLOCK title. If
specified as 0, the BLOCK-title will NOT be generated at all.
Include-file A text-file to be included. There will be no manipulation of
the contents of this file. This include-file may be all you
need to obtain a fully custimised list. For the IPF-list this
include file will most likely have to contain IPF tags for
proper formatting, for the OK-file it will be a list of 'magic'
filename entries.
Sub-Title Up to 20 lines. These are treated like the Pre-Title lines.
BottomTitle Up to 20 lines as very last lines of the lists. These follow
my 'signature'. The lines follow the same treatment as
Pre-Title lines.
The BLOCK-title and Pre-, Sub-, and Bottom-titles are used for all reports
identically, there is no such thing as an 'individual' title specification
for each report. However the Include-file may be different for each
report. If you want to build more than 1 list but with different
User's Guide 12
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
'headings' or no headings at all, you better forget the Title-options. In
stead make heading-files and use the Include option of the individual list
specifications.
Note: Exceptions:
1. None of the above does apply to the BBS-list. As it will generally be
desirable to imbed (compiled) MECCA control sequences in this type of
lists, this report will include dedicated top and bottom files (if
available in the current default directory). These files must be called
DOWNSORT.HDR (header) and DOWNSORT.TRL (trailer).
2. The ORPHAN report will not contain any user-titles.
3. The FILES.bbs files will not use any of the title-specifications, but
may use an Include-file.
Recommendation: File-requestors appreciate a header with a clear indication
of the source of the reports. Many Bulletin Boards use FILES or ALLFILES
as 'magic' name, but that is not very distinctive if you collect lists of
different boards! So use Downsort's facilities to generate a block-title
with your system-name, or an include file with some kind of logo.
Note: Specification details and samples can be found in DOWNSORT.CFG.
Some SYSOPs do not like to confront their users with privileges. In most
headers there will be a line with the reporting privilege. This may be
suppressed.
FILE SORTING
The file-entries in the lists can be sorted on different keys:
■ Filedate
■ Filename
■ Sequence of FILES.BBS
The default sorting sequence depends on the type of list. Some lists do
not support some of these sorting keys.
Note: File sorting has a local scope. It can be specified for to each
listtype individually.
AREA SORTING
The order in which the areas are presented in the lists can be specified:
■ Order of AREA.DAT
■ Sorted alphabetically on areaname
User's Guide 13
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
■ Order of areaINclude statement in Downsort.Cfg
■ Groupname-order
The Groupname-order is a special order based on a popular naming convention
for areas. Many SYSOPs use areanames with a group-name or -letter followed
by a sequence number. With groupname sorting the areaname is split - if
possible - into a groupname (if the first character is not be numeric) and
a sequence number (if the last part of areaname is numeric). Primary sort
key is groupname, secundary sortkey is sequence number. If the first
character of the area-name is numeric, the groupname is empty, and if the
last part of the areaname is not numeric, the second key is empty.
If the ordering does not match your more complicated area naming
convention, you can always fallback on a properly sequenced AREA.DAT, or on
areaINclude sequence.
If Include-order is specified, but AreaINclude is not, then the order falls
back to Group-order.
The area-order specification has a global scope. It applies to every lists
where the areaname is significant, including summaries in ALL- and
IPF-lists.
Default sorting order is 'Group'.
WARNINGS, INDICATIONS, DESCRIPTIONS AND COMMENTS
■ There are two options for long file descriptions (those that do not fit
on a 80-character line):
- Truncation at end-of-line
- Wrapping to multiple lines
Both options are available for all lists, but the defaults vary with the
type of the report.
■ Orphan description: Text that will be reported in the description column
of a file, when for this file no entry in FILES.BBS could be located.
Default: "--- Orphan ---".
■ Not-Found description: Text for the description column when the
file-entry was found in FILES.BBS, but there was no description present.
Default: "--- no description available ---".
■ Offline description: Text that will replace file-size and file-date,
when an entry for this file was found in FILES.BBS, but the file could
not be located in the download directory.
Default: "** offline **".
■ Comments in FILES.BBS (mostly used for additional description for groups
User's Guide 14
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
of files) will be listed when no sorting is specified (the /K option for
ALL-, IPF- and FIL-lists).
■ Size of a VIEW-page in IPF-list: The IPF-list of area's with more than
250 file entries will be splitted into 'parts' to prevent the
IPF-compiler message 'page size exceeded'. But if you have many long
descriptions, or wish smaller parts, the page-size can be altered with a
parameter on the IpfFileList line in DOWNSORT.CFG.
Default: 250.
MISCELLANEOUS REPORT INFORMATION
FILE INFORMATION IN LISTS
1. Dates are marked with a 'new'-indicator: a '*' if the file is only since
a week on this system, and a '+' if it is since a month. Filedates
later than the current system date are marked '-' (negative age).
2. In every outputfile the filename, MAXIMUS-area name, file-size and
-date, and file-description from FILES.BBS is listed. A report-line
will never display more than 79 characters.
The file-description will be multi-line in ALL-, IPF- and GBL-list if it
is longer than would fit on the standard 79-position line, a
word-wrapping technique is used for readability (line-split on word
boundary). The description is truncated at end of line in BBS-list and
NEW-list.
The -T option will force truncation of the description in all reports,
the -W option will allow multi-line descriptions in all reports.
If a filename is found in FILES.BBS, but no accompanying description, a
"--- no description available ---" will be put in place. An alternative
text may be specified with DOWNSORT.CFG.
Files for which there is no entry in the FILES.BBS (Orphans) are treated
as Hidden files, which are only listed in the reports if the Hidden
privilege is specified.
Note: If you want the orphans to appear in FILES.BBS (or in any other
report), you MUST also request an ORP-list!
3. 'OFFLINE" in stead of file-size and file-date is reported if FILES.BBS
contains an file-entry while the file is not in the corresponding
directory.
4. The BBS-list contains MAXIMUS authorisation controls (^PLp-sequences),
corresponding to the privilege of the area or the individual file. So
User's Guide 15
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
it is not necessary to make different files for different categories of
MAXIMUS users, even with the default privilege-limit SYSOP a user will
not see the files he/she is not supposed to know about.
Other lists do not contain any privilege information, the files (or
complete area's) above the specified privilege are simply not listed,
however multiple lists can be produced for different categories of users
(based on privilege).
FILE DATES
One of the function of DOWNSORT is sorting on file date. Since the
introduction of HPFS in OS/2 version 1.2, there is not one single file-date
anymore! A file on an HPFS volume has different values for:
■ Creation date
■ LastAccess date
■ LastWrite date
The date you see normally in DIR-listings is the LastWrite date. Most
SYSOPs will have noticed that ZMODEM uploads and file-attaches give
file-dates corresponding to the (LastWrite-) date of the sending system.
And most utilities handle only this 'single' date. That means that old
ZMODEM-uploaded files are generally not on top of the acquisition lists.
But HPFS stores the date of arrival on your system (Creation) as well.
DOWNSORT handles the Creation date for sorting, but the lists (see below)
contain the 'old fashioned' LastWrite date. This has the following
consequences:
■ A new acquisition is on top of lists, if that list is sorted on date,
and are marked in the lists as new by a flag for an 'age' of a week or a
month.
■ The listed file-date is the 'ordinary' date. So users can judge for
themselves if the file is 'new' for them as well.
Note: The LastAccess date is not very relevant for the purposes of
DOWNSORT, although SYSOP may see when it was last downloaded.
Downsort is delivered with a simple DIR-like utility 'HPFSDATE' to show the
three dates of a file on a HPFS volume.
DUPLICATES
Duplicate filenames are checked if the DUP-list is requested, and they will
be reported only in the DUP-list. So duplicates may appear in the regular
user-lists, which means:
■ If a filename.ext is encountered more than once in different
subdirectories of FILES.BBS files, it will appear that many times in the
User's Guide 16
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
outputlist. The file-privilege reflects that of the area where the file
belongs to, unless overridden by a ^Px modifier in FILES.BBS.
■ It may happen that a file is reported as orphan in one area, and as
duplicate in another. It is likely that the file is found in a common
download directory of more than one area but it is described in the
FILES.BBS of a 'secundary' area, but with the wrong extension.
User's Guide 17
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
PARAMETER SPECIFICATIONS
This chapter tells you how to customise the configuration file and what you
might specify on the commandline.
A sample configuration file (in "Appendix D. Sample Configuration File" on
page 47) is part of the package. It contains a brief comments (in Binkley
and MAXIMUS style) to help you.
COMMANDLINE PARAMETERS
This paragraph deals only with the commandline parameters!
NOTE: Parameters from DOWNSORT.CFG are processed first, commandline
parameters may complete and (partly) override those in the configuration
file.
An explanation of how to read the command syntax diagram can be found in
the (online) OS/2 Command Reference manual.
Parameter Specifications 18
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
┌────────────────────────┐
v │
──┬─────────┬─┬────────┬─ DOWNSORT ────┬────────────────────┬─┴─────┤
└─ drive ─┘ └─ path ─┘ ├─ @filespec ────────┤
├─ BBS ─┬──────┬─────┤
│ └─ :p ─┘ │
├─ NEW ─┬───────┬────┤
│ └─ :pp ─┘ │
├─ EMI ─┬───────┬────┤
│ └─ :pp ─┘ │
├─ ALL ─┬───────┬────┤
│ └─ :pp ─┘ │
├─ IPF ─┬───────┬────┤
│ └─ :pp ─┘ │
├─ GBL ─┬───────┬────┤
│ └─ :pp ─┘ │
├─ DUP ─┬──────┬─────┤
│ └─ :p ─┘ │
├─ OK ──┬──────┬─────┤
│ └─ :p ─┘ │
├─ ORP ──────────────┤
├─ FIL ─┬──────────┬─┤
│ └─ :fpath ─┘ │
├─ nnn ─┬────────────┤
│ └── D|W|M ───┤
├──┬─ /T ─┬──────────┤
│ └─ /W ─┘ │
├──┬─ /A ─┬──────────┤
│ ├─ /D ─┤ │
│ └─ /K ─┘ │
| ├──── /L ────────────┤
├──┬─ /H ─┬──────────┤
│ ├─ /Q ─┤ │
│ └─ /V ─┘ │
└──── /X ────────────┘
@filespec The character '@' followed by a complete file specification of
the DOWNSORT configuration file (see "Configuration file
Parameters" on page 24 for details). This file will be used to
specify processing parameters. If the file cannot be read,
only the commandline parameters are used.
NOTE: The use of a configuration file is mandatory when the
file AREA.DAT is not in the default directory when running
DOWNSORT.
Default: DOWNSORT.CFG in current default directory.
BBS Create the BBS-list: DOWNSORT.BBS.
Default: DOWNSORT.BBS will not be created.
Parameter Specifications 19
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
NEW Create NEW-list(s): DOWNSORT.N~p, where 'p' is the appropriate
privilege class (see below).
Default: DOWNSORT.N~p will not be created.
EMI Create EMI-list(s): DOWNSORT.E~p, where 'p' is the appropriate
privilege class (see below).
Default: DOWNSORT.E~p will not be created.
ALL Create ALL-list(s): DOWNSORT.A~p, where 'p' is the appropriate
privilege class (see below).
nnn-limit does not apply to ALL-list.
Default: DOWNSORT.A~p will not be created.
IPF Create IPF-list(s): DOWNSORT.I~p, where 'p' is the appropriate
privilege class (see below).
nnn-limit does not apply to IPF-list.
Default: DOWNSORT.I~p will not be created.
GBL Create GBL-list(s): DOWNSORT.G~p, where 'p' is the appropriate
privilege class (see below).
nnn-limit does not apply to GBL-list.
Default: DOWNSORT.G~p will not be created.
DUP Create DUP-list(s): DOWNSORT.DUP.
Only the privilege-specification and WRAP/TRUNC flag apply to
DUP-list.
Default: DOWNSORT.DUP will not be created.
OK Create OKFile(s): DOWNSORT.O~p.
Only the privilege(s) and include-file specifications apply to
the OKFile.
Default: DOWNSORT.O~p will not be created.
ORP Create ORP-list: DOWNSORT.ORP (orphan report, if any orphans).
If an orphan report is not requested, no other report will
contain any orphan information, even when 'Hidden' is specified
as reporting level.
Default: DOWNSORT.ORP will not be created.
Parameter Specifications 20
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
FIL Create FILES.BBS type of files for each area.
The specification does not apply to FILES.BBS, a
privilege-limit cannot be specified and defaults to SYSOP.
Another privilege limit can be specified however by means of
the configuration file.
For each individual area the following convention will be used
for the name and place of the FILES.BBS list (in this
sequence):
1. If the "FIL:" parameter specifies a directory-path, then for
each area the output file "FILES.ac" is put in the specified
directory ('ac' is 1 or 2 char area-code). Previous files
with the same name will be discarded.
2. If "ListFile" is specified in AREA.CTL, then that name and
path will be used.
3. Otherwise the file FILES.BBS: will be put in the directory
with the download files.
For situations 2 and 3 existing files will be renamed to .BAK
(older .BAK files will be discarded).
Default: FILES.BBS-type of files will not be generated.
fpath Optional directory path specification for FILES.BBS-output.
See the "FIL:" parameter for usage.
Default: none
nnn[P] If 'nnn' is specified sec (without a trailing letter), then it
is the maximum number of files to be reported in the BBS- and
NEW-list(s). When followed by a character (only D, W and M are
allowed), then 'nnn' specifies the maximum age of the files in
number of Days, Weeks or Months, to be included in NEW- and
BBS-lists. A maximum value of 32767 can be specified.
Default: all files up to and including the (specified or
default) privilege class will be listed..
p Single privilege character.
Lists only download files with a privilege of up to and
including privilege 'p'. The indicator must be the first
character of an existing MAXIMUS privilege level (T, D, L, N,
W, P, F, E, C, A, S, H). No error-message is given for an
invalid privilege character, there will simply be no file-list
for an invalid character!
For the BBS-list and DUP-list only a single privilege character
is allowed, the files lists will get the extension of BBS and
DUP respectively.
Parameter Specifications 21
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
Default: S (SYSOP): files of all privilege levels will be
listed, except HIDDEN files (with real Hidden privilege or
files for which no entry could be found in FILES.BBS).
pp Multiple privilege characters (minumum 0, maximum 10).
Make for every valid specified privilege level a download-list
with files of a privilege of up to and including privilege 'p'.
The indicator must be the first character of an existing
MAXIMUS privilege level. No error-message is given for an
invalid privilege character, there will simply be no file-list
for an invalid character!
Applies to ALL-, GBL-, IPF-, NEW- and OK-lists, these are
called DOWNSORT.A~p, DOWNSORT.G~p, DOWNSORT.I~p, DOWNSORT.N~p
and DOWNSORT.O~p respectively, were 'p' represents the
applicable privilege character.
Default: S (SYSOP): files of all privilege levels will be
listed, except HIDDEN files (with real Hidden privilege or
files for which no entry could be found in FILES.BBS).
/T /W Action to be taken if the file description would cause the
reportline to exceed 79 characters:
■ T - truncate the description
■ W - wrap the description and provide as many reportlines as
needed to show the complete description.
Default: -T for NEW-list and BBS-list, -W for ALL-, IPF- and
GBL-list.
/A /D /K Sorting method.
■ A - Sort the files alphabetically on filename.
■ D - Sort the files on reversed date sequence (newest file on
top of list).
■ K - keep lines in sequence of FILES.BBS and keep the
interfile comment lines.
When the -A option is selected, an additional header-line will
appear in the BBS-list and NEW-list, indicating the latest
acquisition. This line is not needed and will not be done when
these lists are sorted on date, since the the latest
acquisition will be on top of the list!
The -K option is useful in situations where the files are
primarily grouped on AREA, i.c. ALL-, IPF- and FIL-list.
If and only if this option specified, any imbedded comments in
FILES.BBS are copied to the ALL-, IPF- and/or FILES.bbs-files.
Default: -K for FILES.BBS, -D for BBS- and NEW-files, -A for
| other.
Parameter Specifications 22
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
| /L Generate a LONG OKfile with explicit filenames, rather than a
| list with generic filespecifications (path\*.*).
/H /Q /V Operating mode
■ H - help: display screen with essential information about
running DOWNSORT, such as the command syntax. In that case
the program will not undertake any other action.
■ Q - quiet: display only start and finish-message, and error
messages which prevent the program from proceeding normally.
■ V - verbose: display a lot of progress messages.
If neither -Q nor -V is specified, than the number of console
messages will be 'intermediate': more than -Q, but less than
-V.
Default: none
/X Exclude Privilege Indications
■ X - exclude privilege indications in all list-types. Some
SYSOPs want to hide any kind of privilege-system for users
and file-requesters of their Bulletin Board System. With
the -X option specified all privilege indications will be
suppressed.
Note: This does not apply to the compiled MECCA privilege
controls in the BBS-list!
Default: none (privilege indications will be reported).
HINTS FOR SPECIFICATIONS
1. All commandline parameters are optional, may be specified in any
sequence and are case independent.
2. Parameters from the configuration file are processed before those from
the commandline. This has some side-effects, like:
■ If you specify a specific list in DOWNSORT.CFG, it will be created
anyhow, whatever you specify on the commandline.
■ However, if you specify privilege values on the commandline, only the
commandline values will be used, and none from the configuration
file.
■ Commandline parameters have a global meaning, and are applied to all
lists (if applicable). For example: if you specify '-A' on the
commandline, all lists will be sorted alphabetically on filename.
3. Parameters that can be specified with the configuration file only, and
cannot be overridden with a commandline parameter are:
■ BLOCK title-text and -font
■ Other titles
■ Filename and individual list-options
■ Privilege for FILES.BBS output
■ Replacements of some warnings and messages that may appear in the
Parameter Specifications 23
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
lists.
4. Even when specified on the commandline, or in DOWNSORT.CFG, the
Orphan-report will be generated only if there are any orphans, and then
the specified parameters apply.
5. The IPF-list has to be processed by the Information Presentation
Facility Compiler (IPFC). This compiler is part of the IBM Programmers
Development Toolkit version 1.2 and 1.3 (maybe also in some other
toolkit). The following command has to be issued:
IPFC DOWNSORT.IPF /INF
The option "/INF" is essential (but not documented!) to obtain a
viewable file. Be also sure to have the file DOWNSORT.BMP in your
current default directory, or in DPATH, as this will be imbedded by the
IPF-compiler. The result of the compilation is a file DOWNSORT.INF,
which can be VIEWed with the following command:
VIEW DOWNSORT
Note:
■ The names "DOWNSORT", "IPF" and "INF" are used here as sample,
actually the filename depends on the specification in the DOWNSORT
configuration file, the extensions are the IPFC defaults.
■ If VIEW gives garbled columns and hardly readable block-titles, then
it is most likely that you did not install (or removed) the standard
fonts that are delivered with OS/2. Start the 'control panel
utility', select 'installation', 'add fonts'. Specify in the
'from'-field C:\OS2\DLL (see HELP of control panel). Now choose at
least 1 non-proportional font.
CONFIGURATION FILE PARAMETERS
Almost all processing options may be specified in a configuration file.
This is a somewhat more convenient way to specify processing parameters,
and provides even more customisation posibilities for the lists. It is a
good place for the more static parameters of your environment. Commandline
parameters are nice to create quickly 'another' list or a different format
(for example wrapped or truncated descriptions). The parameters are only
mentioned here for completeness, see "Appendix D. Sample Configuration
File" on page 47 for a documented specification sample of a configuration
file.
PARAMETERS WITH GLOBAL SCOPE
The parameters below influence the execution of DOWNSORT, or have impact on
every list (if it is applicable for that list).
■ File Specification of the MAXIMUS CBCS file 'AREA.DAT'.
Parameter Specifications 24
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
■ Area Selection
■ Sorting order of areas
■ List title with BLOCK-characters.
■ Font for the BLOCK title.
■ Pre-titles, Sub-titles and Bottom-lines in 'text' format
■ Descriptive text of orphans, files without a description and files for
which an entry is found in FILES.BBS, but could not be found in the
corresponding download directory.
■ Maximum number of entries in NEW-list and BBS-list.
PARAMETERS WITH LOCAL SCOPE
The parameters below are sub-parameters of the xxxFileList keyword.
■ Up to 10 privileges for NEW-, GBL-, ALL- and IPF-list (each resulting in
a separate list).
■ Alternate output filename (in stead of the default DOWNSORT).
■ Directory for the output FILES.BBS-lists
■ Maximum number of file entries in NEW-list and BBS-list
■ File-entry sort sequence (filename or date).
■ Wrap or Truncate long file descriptions.
■ Title Font selection.
■ Suppression of privilege indications in NEW-, ALL-, IPF- and GBL-lists.
■ Include textfile in NEW-, ALL-, IPF- and GBL-lists, and in FILES.bbs.
DOWNSORT can generate several lists in a single run, but processes only the
specifications of a single xxxFileList of the same type. If you need
different layouts, for example an ALL-list with files sorted on date, and
another ALL-list with files sorted on filename, then you would need 2
invocations of Downsort with different configuration files.
If you specify more than one xxxFileList line of the same type, then the
paramaters of each of the lines are 'mixed': some will be overwritten, some
others will remain there from previous specifications. It will probably
give unwanted effects!
A sample configuration file is provided. A listing of this file is
imbedded as "Appendix D. Sample Configuration File" on page 47. It
contains a complete specification with comments on:
■ which options are available
■ how to specify the options
Read and modify the file as you like. Copy the sample file to a save place
before you start modifying the original DOWNSORT.CFG!
NOTE: The parameters from DOWNSORT.CFG are processed first, then
commandline parameters, which may complete and will (partly) override those
in the configuration file.
Parameter Specifications 25
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
SAMPLE OF GETTING ORGANISED
Assume you are runnung MAXIMUS with BinkleyTerm as front end mailer.
Suppose you make a distinction for file-requestors between Unknown, Known
and Password-Protected (e.g. corresponding to Disgrace, Normal and
Privileged MAXIMUS users).
DOWNSORT
You might have a specification like this:
DOWNSORT bbs:p new:dnp all:dnp 100
In addition to or in place of the specifications in DOWNSORT.CFG, this
specification produces the following lists:
■ Orphan report (only if there are any orphans).
■ DOWNSORT.BBS with 100 entries for MAXIMUS users of category Privil.
Users with a lower privilege will actually see a shorter list if the
file contains Privil entries.
■ For file requestors of the magic filename FILES a list, a list with all
files (with optional titles via DOWNSORT.CFG specifications):
- DOWNSORT.A~D for UNKNOWN file-requestors
- DOWNSORT.A~N for KNOWN file-requestors
- DOWNSORT.A~P for Password Protected file-requestors
Note that each list is a complete list of what is available to the user
of the specific privilege class, but your system will generally contain
more files than listed for UNKNOWN and KNOWN users!
■ For file requests of the magic filename NEWFILES a list of the 100 most
recent additions to your system (with optional titles via DOWNSORT.CFG
specifications):
- DOWNSORT.N~D for UNKNOWN file-requestors
- DOWNSORT.N~N for KNOWN file-requestors
- DOWNSORT.N~P for Password Protected file-requestors
Note that each list is 100 entries long, but the contents will generally
not be quite the same (depending on your privilege strategy).
In general: files, which the requestor is not supposed to know about due to
his privilege status, will not be on his/her list!
Note: The counters on top of the lists indicate what your system has
available in total (including higher privileges), so a clever
user/file-requester may come up with the question how that is possible:
explain that he/she has to earn a higher privilege level!
Sample of Getting organised 26
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
BINKLEYTERM
In Binkley.Cfg you should specify for requests of FILES:
Avail Downsort.A~d
KnownAvail Downsort.A~n
ProtAvail Downsort.A~p
Furthermore you may need to specify different OKFILEs:
OKFile Download.N
KnownReqList Download.K
ProtReqList Download.P
And in each of the appropriate filerequest authorisation files you should
specify the appropriate file-spec:
╔═══════════╦══════════════╦═══════════════╦═══════════════╗
║ in: ║ OKFile ║ KnownReqList ║ ProtReqList ║
║ ║ (Download.N) ║ (Download.K) ║ (Download.P) ║
║ for: ║ ║ ║ ║
╠═══════════╬══════════════╬═══════════════╬═══════════════╣
║ ..... ║ ......... ║ ........... ║ ........ ║
║ @NEWFILES ║ Downsort.N~d ║ Downsort.N~n ║ Downsort.N~p ║
║ @FILES ║ Downsort.A~d ║ Downsort.A~n ║ Downsort.A~p ║
║ ..... ║ ......... ║ ........... ║ ........ ║
╚═══════════╩══════════════╩═══════════════╩═══════════════╝
This will result in sending of the appropriate NEW-list to every requester
of the magic filename: NEWFILES. If you use the second magic filename,
then the Avail-lines in Binkley.Cfg are not needed, and you might prefer
this way.
Of course if the privilege level of all download area's is the same, this
construction is not needed, but in that case it is unlikely that you have
specified KnownAvail and ProtAvail!
DOWNSORT may create a set of OK-files for you. The privilege system of
MAXIMUS CBCS is used to select the download paths in this list.
Sample of Getting organised 27
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
PACKAGING
AVAILABILITY
The most recent version of DOWNSORT is always downloadable and
file-requestable from Bulletin Board "PC-Square" of the Dutch IBM employee
PC club. Search or request DWNSRT??.* to be independent of the version and
compression method!
FIDO-net address: 2:512/4; phone: 31-79-424107 (USR HST-DS).
DOWNSORT is distributed in area SDSMAX of the international Shareware
Distribution System.
There is a fair chance you may find a recent version on one of the other
bulletin boards, listed in "Appendix B. World-wide use of DOWNSORT" on
page 43.
DOWNSORT is distributed in 2 archives:
■ A file "DWNSRTxy.ZIP", containing all material you need to run DOWNSORT,
including documentation, formatted for browsing or printing (formfeed is
the only printer-control).
■ A file "DWNSRSxy.ZIP", containing all SOURCE material.
Note: 'xy' is the version indication, for example DWNSRT56.ZIP is the
version 5.6 runtime package.
RUN-TIME MATERIAL
WHATSNEW.56 Summary of amendments to version 5.6 of DOWNSORT.
DOWNSORT.EXE Execution module for OS/2 and DOS (Family Application)
DOWNSORT.DOC Documentation (this file!).
DOWNSORT.CFG Sample configuration file. This file contains comment
lines with extensive instructions how to specify the
parameters in the file.
DOWNSORT.HDR Sample BBS-list header. You may use this header, which
is only imbedded in the BBS-list, to imbed text and/or
MECCA-sequences. A good candidate for the latter would
be [onexit], which translates to ^OFpath. See the
sample DOWNSORT.HDR file!
DOWNSORT.TRL Sample BBS-list trailer.
DOWNSORT.BMP Bitmap for the IPF-list, to be included by the IPF
compiler.
DOWNSORT.INC Sample Include-file for the reports, referenced in
DOWNSORT.CFG.
DOWNSORT.MAG Sample list of magic names to be included in OKFile(s).
See BinkleyTerm documentation for details of its format
and contents.
Packaging 28
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
HPFSDATE.EXE Program to display all three timestamps of a file on an
HPFS volume, and optionally reset the CREATION date to
LASTWRITE date (helpful after moving or copying of
files). Start the program without options to display
command syntax and help.
PACKAGE.LST The actual contents of the package (produced with
PKUNZIP -V), added to the ZIP-file after this was
created with the foregoing files of this archive. This
gives at least some authentication!
SOURCE MATERIAL
DOWNSORT.C Mainline.
DOWNCOL.C Data collection functions.
DOWNFNT.C Font definition and formatting functions.
DOWNPAR.C Processing functions for commandline and DOWNSORT.CFG
parameters.
DOWNRPT1.C Functions for NEW-, BBS- and EMI-list.
DOWNRPT2.C Functions for the IPF-lists.
DOWNRPT3.C Functions for the SYSOP-oriented lists, like ORPhan-,
OK-, and DUPlicate-lists, as well as FILES.BBS files.
DOWNRPT4.C Functions for the ALL- and GBL-lists.
DOWNSRV.C Miscellaneous services functions.
DOWNVARS.C Constants and global variables.
DOWNSORT.H Header file, with external definitions of global
variables.
DOWNFPRO.H Common (global) function prototypes.
DOWNSORT.SCR Unformatted documentation file. This file includes
formatting tags in BOOKMASTER style for printing on
whatever devices are supported (like IBM page
printers). This format is compatible and can be
formatted on an IBM host system with DCF (SCRIPT) as
well. The file can also processed by the IPF-compiler
(just ignore the warnings and error-messages!).
DOWNSORT.DEF LINK definition file.
DOWNSORT.MAK MAKE file for DOWNSORT.EXE. Via the MAKE-file a
compiler variable may be specified. With a variable
'DEBUG' defined, several pieces of debugging code are
activated to ease trouble shooting (especially finding
the location of a TRAP 000D!). When DOWNSORT is run in
'DEBUG-mode', a DOWNSORT.LOG file will contain
intermediate progress information: info about the data
collection phase (where the most problems have been in
the past). It is then not very useful to let the
compiler perform code optimization.
DOWNZIP?.* A number of CMD-files and ZIP-lists, used to create the
packages.
PACKAGE.LST The actual contents of the package (produced with
PKUNZIP -V), added to the ZIP-file after this was
created with the foregoing files of this archive. This
gives at least some authentication!
Packaging 29
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
INSTALLATION
With the following directions you should be able to setup and run DOWNSORT
in a very short time.
1. Make a separate directory for DOWNSORT, and make it the current default
directory every time you run DOWNSORT. The separate directory is a
recommendation, not a requirement!
2. Copy the files DOWNSORT.EXE and DOWNSORT.CFG from the DOWNSORT package
into this directory.
3. Modify (edit) the file DOWNSORT.CFG to specify your environment and list
requirements. The sample file contains comments to help you with this
process. Most specifications are obvious. AreaDat is the most
important parameter: DOWNSORT won't do anything useful if it cannot find
this MAXIMUS file. See "Appendix D. Sample Configuration File" on page
47 for a printed sample.
4. You may give DOWNSORT a first shot by just using its name on the
commandline, with the parameter -H. This will show a brief HELP-screen
with the possible commandline parameter specifications.
5. All reports will be created in the DOWNSORT directory (unless you
specified 'fpath' for the FILES.BBS output). Browse the lists to see if
you like the contents and titles, and modify the CFG-file to your
convenience.
DEPENDENCIES AND RESTRICTIONS
■ Applies to MAXIMUS CBCS 2.00.
■ Requires OS/2 or DOS 3.0+.
■ To convert the IPF-list into VIEW-able format, the IPF-Compiler of the
OS/2 Program Development Toolkit is required (for the IP2-list the
corresponding OS/2 2.0 version of this compiler)
■ The input FILES.BBS files are assumed to contain only filename.ext (the
regular 8.3 format, no support for OS/2 1.2+ HPFS format), the remainder
of the line is considered as file description. The filename should be
left-aligned (start in position 1).
If a privilege modifier (^Px) is encountered in FILES.BBS then 'x' will
become the privilege of all subsequent files (it assumes ^Px on a
SEPARATE line, the REST OF THE LINE IS IGNORED!). Heading, comments and
blank lines in FILES.BBS are ignored, unless /K is specified on the
FilFileList line of Downsort.Cfg. In that case comments following line
8 (the standard header created by DOWNSORT) are preserved. The modified
privilege might be higher (generally the case) or lower than the
area-privilege.
Packaging 30
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
STORAGE AND PERFORMANCE
As a rough estimate of the memory requirements of DOWNSORT, use sum of the
following elements:
■ Program: about 80KB
■ Each area: 300 Bytes
■ Each file: 48 Bytes for each download file (excluding file descriptions
and excluding orphans if no orphan-list requested)
■ The sum of the file description texts (average 80 bytes/file?)
■ The sum of the comments in FILES.BBS if -K option specified
| The maximum number of area's for reporting is 217. Your system may have
| more, but Downsort can currently not work properly when more than 217
| area's will have to be scanned for files.
There is a limit on the number of files that can be processed by DOWNSORT:
about 16350. I suppose you'll reach other limits first, for example
available memory (under DOS). But might you reach this limit, then you
could do one or more of the following:
■ Use AreaEXclude or AreaINclude to make a selection of groups (for
example make separate OS/2 and a DOS file-lists). Downsort will not
collect information of 'excluded' areas.
■ If you have many orphans: get rid of them or do not generate an orphan
report. Downsort releases orphan-memory during the data collection
phase as soon as it knows that a file is an orphan.
■ If you have many comment-lines in your FILES.BBS: do not specify /K for
ALL- and IPF-lists AND do not activate the FILFilePath parameter in
Downsort.Cfg. Downsort will skip comments in FILES.BBS when it does not
need them for reporting.
DOWNSORT has been built with a 'guess' about needed stack space. The
author would appreciate to receive a report for a better estimate.
Processor performance was an issue for large file-area's before version 4.5
of DOWNSORT in the data-collection process. That has been partly rewritten
in version 4.5 and significantly improved. Fastest execution will always
be obtained when the input FILES.BBS is already sorted on filename.
PROBLEMS
Although I try to prevent the cause of them, there are some unresolved
problems in the current version of DOWNSORT:
■ One user reported unidentified characters in titles.
Packaging 31
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
WISHLIST
DOWNSORT is not finished! There are a number of wishes and requirements of
users and myself to include in future releases. I list them below not in
any particular order, but some seem to be more important than others, that
differs from SYSOP to SYSOP. And some are more easy to implement than
others, which depends mainly on the author! Some wishes don't even make it
to be listed below and are implemented immediately!
■ Follow the MAXIMUS development (changing AREA.DAT and other structures),
and support several versions simultaneously.
■ Automatic removal of 'bad' files (like .BAK-files, obsolete files, files
that are not in FILES.BBS), maybe move them to a special BAD_FILE
directory.
■ User-configurable options for:
- week and month indicators
- indicator for continuation lines in wrapped descriptions
- font in AREA-header and Summary in ALL-list, and in FILES.BBS
■ Add [selectable] MECCA control in FILES.BBS, like in the BBS-list.
■ Logging to file in stead of stdout to obtain a history file of DOWNSORT
usage.
■ File-selection with MAXIMUS CBCS key/lock parameters in addition to or
in stead of area privilege levels.
■ Support for use of 'barricaded' areas and key/lock.
■ Another list: with the format of IPF-list but the contents of NEW-list.
■ FILES.BBS should [optionally] contain file-date and/or size.
■ Generate [optionally] Avatar codes in FILES.BBS headers.
■ Option for private headers in FILES.BBS in stead of the standard
headers.
■ Option to specify right margin (line length) and left margin for
continuation lines of long descriptions, and an optional 'indent' for a
download counter.
■ Remove files from directories and FILES.BBS when they reach a certain
age and are specified to be eligible for removal.
■ Do not report filename.SDN and filename.SDA as duplicates.
■ Remove previous include-file in FILES.BBS (if any) before including a
specified new(?) include-file.
Remember: Was there ever a time that all your wishes were fulfilled? That
was the most boring time of your life, wasn't it?
Packaging 32
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
INTERNALS
DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT
DOWNSORT has been developed with MicroSoft C compiler version 6.00a, and
the IBM OS/2 Programming Tools and Information (generally called the OS/2
| toolkit) under IBM OS/2 Extended Edition 1.3 as COMPACT memory model.
| DOWNSORT has been tested with MAXIMUS CBCS 2.0, with the following
| Operating Systems:
| ■ IBM PC/DOS versions 4.0 and 5.0
| ■ IBM OS/2 versions 1.3 and 2.0
| ■ DOS-box of IBM OS/2 versions 1.3 and 2.0
The generated code is at 80286 level (Compiler option /G2), since I believe
| that only very few Bulletin Boards do use an XT these days.
| Downsort is now also compilable with the IBM C-Set/2 compiler in
| combination with the IBM OS/2 2.0 toolkit to obtain a real 32-bits version.
| A compiler variable takes care of the selection between 1.3 and 2.0 calls
| where necessary. The 32-bit version has no yet been tested extensively and
| there is no 32-bit EXE-file distributed with this version of the Downsort
| package.
PROGRAM ORGANISATION
The program is organised as follows:
■ Initialisation:
- Read configuration file.
- Process commandline parameters.
Commandline parameters may override configuration file parameters.
■ Read AREA.DAT file to collect download pathnames (only of those area's
that will participate this time).
■ For each file-area with a privilege not exceeding any list-request:
- Read subdirectory (with find-file-first/next function). Take only
Normal files: ignore directory entries, Hidden and System files and
volume labels. Also ignore files with the following specifications:
FILES.*, *.BAK, DIR.?BS and SYSTEM*.?BS.
- For all regular file-entries found in subdirectory:
-- Get filename.ext, attribute, date, time, size.
-- Get file-description from FILES.BBS file. The path to the
FILES.BBS file is (1) obtained from the "ListFile" specification
in MAXIMUS AREA.DAT file, or (2) if not specified from the
Internals 33
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
"DownLoad" specification (among the download files).
-- Get file privilege 1) from area, 2) from FILES.BBS file if higher.
-- When no orphan reporting is required, then drop orphan entries
area-by-area.
■ For the ORP-list:
If any orphan found, and the orphan-report is requested, create the
orphan report, with the file-entries sorted on (1) area and (2)
filename.
■ For the BBS-list:
- Sort the files primarily on descending file-timestamp (and secundary
on file-name and area-code).
- Resort the first files on filename if requested.
- Create output file for sorted list of filenames, -descriptions, etc.
The file is placed in the current subdirectory (which generally will
be the MAXIMUS directory) with the name DOWNSORT.BBS.
- Copy a headerfile (for a customised MAXIMUS bulletin).
- Put files in formatted outputfile (filename, area#, date, size,
description), but only if description is found in FILES.BBS. Skip
files with privilege higher than commandline (or default) parameter.
Precede each line with a privilege-control sequence (^PLx string) so
that MAXIMUS users below the specified max-priv-level do effectively
see only the files they can download.
- Include a trailerfile in the outputfile (for a custimised Bulletin).
- Report non-listed files on standard output device (which might be
re-directed to printer or disk-file).
■ If requested, put the above file collection in DOWNSORT.N~p with similar
contents and layout as DOWNSORT.BBS, but without BBS-control sequences,
and without including a header and trailer file. Produce a list for the
default privilege (HIDDEN), or one for each specified privilege.
■ If requested, re-sort files on area and then filename or date, and
create DOWNSORT.A~p, containing all files (respecting the privilege
restrictions!). Area's with zero files within the applicable privilege
limit will not be listed at all (will seem non-existing!). Produce a
list for the default privilege (SYSOP), or one for each specified
privilege.
At the end of the list, an area summary report is generated.
■ If requested, re-sort files on filename or date only, and create
DOWNSORT.GBL.
■ If requested, re-sort files on area, privilege and filename, and create
for each area a FILES.BBS-type of file.
■ If requested generate a list of probably DUPlicate files.
■ If requested generate a list of download-paths: the OK-file (not: it
will contain only the paths that participated in this run.
Internals 34
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
NOTE: the program firstly reads a directory for existing files (not Hidden-
or System-files, and not Subdirectory or Volumelabel), and then reads
FILES.BBS to assign a description to each file. This means:
■ If more than 1 matching file-specification in FILES.BBS of the involved
area is found (note that wild-card specifications in FILES.BBS are
supported!), than the first matching description from FILES.BBS will
appear in the lists (new in version 4.5, was 'last' in previous versions
of Downsort).
■ Files for which no description is found in FILES.BBS will get "---no
description available---" (or the replacement string you specified in
DOWNSORT.CFG) in the user reports.
■ Files for which no matching filename in FILES.BBS is found will be
listed in the Orphan report (DOWNSORT.ORP).
Files for which there is an entry in FILES.BBS, but a corresponding file
is not found in the directory will be reported as 'offline'.
In special cases this might become a very large list. For example if
you collect files in a single directory for different area's, all the
files of 'the other' areas are reported as orphan. This will happen for
every area, so each file might even be reported many times as orphan!
Since the Orphan-list is now optional (from version 5.0 on), this list
can be suppressed.
Filenames of Orphans appear only in the other reports when the FileList
request explicitly specifies the Hidden privilege.
MAIN DATA ORGANISATION
Data structure for access to file information via:
1. array of file-pointers (for file-sort!)
2. pointerchain in file-info structures
3. file structure contains pointer to file-description
4. file-structure contains pointer to area-information
5. Array of area-information
The structures are shown in the following figure.
Internals 35
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
╔══════╗
║ dm ║
╚══════╝
│ Array of pointers to structures with file info
│ ╔═══════════╦════════════╦═════════════ . . . ══════╗
(1) └─────>║ *file[0] ║ *file[1] ║ *file[2] ║
╚═══════════╩════════════╩═════════════ . . . ══════╝
│ │ │
(2) v v v
╔══════╗ ╔══════╗ ╔══════╗ ╔══════╗
║ ca ║ ──> ║ next ║ ──> ║ next ║ ──> ║ next ║ ──> . . .
╚══════╝ ╠══════╣ ╠══════╣ ╠══════╣
(first- ║ file-║ ║ file-║ ║ file-║
element) ║ info ║ ║ info ║ ║ info ║ . . .
║ [0] ║ ║ [1] ║ ║ [2] ║
╚══════╝ ╚══════╝ ╚══════╝
│ │ │ │wildcards│ │
│ └──┐ │ └──┐ │ │
│ │ │ ┌──────────┘ │
(3) v │ v v │ ┌──────┘
╔══════╗ │ ╔══════╗ │ │
║file- ║ │ ║file- ║ │ │(files of
║descr ║ │ ║descr ║ │ │ same area) . . .
╚══════╝ │ ╚══════╝ │ │
│ │ │
(4) v v v
╔════════════╦═════════════╦════════ . . . ══════╗
(5) ┌────────>║ area[0] ║ area[1] ║ ║
│ ╚════════════╩═════════════╩════════ . . . ══════╝
│ array of structures of download info
╔══════╗
║ area ║
╚══════╝
Schematic overview of DOWNSORT's in-storage database.
Note: The area-array cannot be sorted itself: this would invalidate the
pointers in the file-information records!
The block character image is basically a 10x7 matrix (10 vertical and 7
horizontal 'pixels'). The pixel-array takes two rows at a time, so that
each character can be represented with 5 rows of 7 horizontal
'double-pixels'. Each pixel is displayed as a solid block.
Internals 36
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
╔═╦═╦═╦═╦═╦═╦═╗
║-║-║-║-║-║-║-║ line 1 (lower + upper)
╠═╬═╬═╬═╬═╬═╬═╣
║-║-║-║-║-║-║-║ 2 (lower + upper)
╠═╬═╬═╬═╬═╬═╬═╣
║-║-║-║-║-║-║-║ 3 (lower + upper)
╠═╬═╬═╬═╬═╬═╬═╣
║-║-║-║-║-║-║-║ 4 (lower + upper)
╠═╬═╬═╬═╬═╬═╬═╣
║-║-║-║-║-║-║-║ 5 (lower + upper)
╚═╩═╩═╩═╩═╩═╩═╝
Each line is represented by a structure of seven 3-bit fields Each 3-bit
field represents a basic element:
value char description
0 (blank)
1 ▄ lower half
2 ▀ upper half
3 █ lower+upper halves
4 ▓ gray pattern
5 ▌ left part of upper and lower half
6 ▐ right part of upper and lower half
7 ░ gray pattern
8 ▒ gray pattern for not-supported characters
The pitch is variable ('proportional font': a variable number of horizontal
pixels). Three fonts are provided with different character-image and size:
1. 6x5 (three lines of max 5 characters)
2. 10x7 (five lines of max 7 characters)
3. 8x7 (four lines of max 7 characters)
4. 10x7 (reverse video image of the 8x7 font)
Not all ASCII characters are represented in the font tables!
Internals 37
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
APPENDIX A. HISTORY OF CHANGES
The paragraphs below show a brief history of changes in DOWNSORT (most
recent revisions on top of list!).
DOWNSORT for MAXIMUS CBCS was developed from an OPUS equivalent (by the
same author). Its pre-MAXIMUS history is not really important here and
therefore has been omitted. However the name DOWNSORT has been maintained,
so to prevent confusion, the version number is inherited (the last version
for OPUS was 3.1).
VERSION 5.6
■ In stead of the regular OKFile format (path\*.*), there is now also an
option (/L) to produce a LONG format of the OKFile, containing
explicitly all files within privilege with complete file-specification
(path\filename.ext). Useful for file-requests at systems with large
directories, and especially with CDROM's. With this option in effect,
the *.* entries will not be generated, so file requests are only honored
with EXACT filenames: wildcard specifications do not work anymore!
■ Improved display of long areanames (>3 char) in ALL- and IPF-lists.
■ Avatar codes may be stripped from comment lines in reports.
■ Missing include-files are now only reported when running Downsort in
-V(erbose) mode.
■ Some bug fixes (some of them causing Trap 000D under OS/2):
- If 'downsort.cfg' not found, return code 2 is reported, and
downsort.cfg now closed at end of file.
- Output of FILES.BBS could be erraneous when also IP2-list selected.
- Limit of 217 active area's now relieved (this limit was not
documented!).
- Improved handling of parameters of FILFilePath-line in the sample
Downsort.Cfg file. Also the explanatory comments are revised.
■ '-'-character now precedes the formfeed character in newly created
FILES.BBS files (version 5.6h+).
■ Downsort source is now compilable with IBM C-Set/2 compiler and IBM OS/2
2.0 toolkit to obtain a real 32-bit version for OS/2 2.0+.
VERSION 5.5
■ Finally(!) a sort capability for area-sequence. Areas can now be
presented in order of AREA.DAT ('K'eep original sequence), sorted on
areaname ('A'lphabetically), sorted in alphanumeric ('G'roup) sequence
or in order of areaINclude ('I'). The group-sequence is useful with a
popular naming convention whereby the areaname starts with one or more
letters followed by one or more digits. Names starting with a digit
will be sorted as if it were all numeric, and will be sorted
accordingly.
■ NEW-, BBS-list and EMI-list (see below) can now also be limited in
length by file-age (period specification in number of Days, Weeks or
Months).
Appendix A. History of changes 38
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
■ A new list-type introduced: EMI-list (new file EMIsions). I is a simple
list, comparable to NEW-list. It has a more compact format, and gives
also file-time and the file-size (in exact bytes). It is especially
useful to generate messages with file arrivals over the last period (in
combination with a period specification).
■ Readability improvements in IP2-list.
■ Documentation extended with sample output for new users of Downsort.
■ Some bug-fixes:
- Compares of path- and area-names now case INdependent
- Memory allocation error during collection of comments in FILES.BBS
- Index out-of-range in report preparation phase
- Processing of /K-option for areas with FILES.BBS but otherwise empty.
VERSION 5.4
■ Inline comments in FILES.BBS will be reproduced now! When AND ONLY WHEN
the /K option is specified for All- or IPF-list, or for FILFilePath, the
original existing comments in FILES.BBS are copied into All- or IPF-list
or newly created FILES.BBS files. So note: /K means now: Keep sequence
of FILES.BBS and Keep comments in FILES.BBS and other lists that support
the /K option (ALL-, IPF and IP2-list).
Note: /K is now the default sort parameter for FILFilePath, so that you
do not loose your comments accidently.
■ Downsort's interpretation of the meaning of 'orphan' changed a little:
an 'orphan' is from now on defined as a file for which there is no
description in any FILES.BBS of all areas pointing to the same
directory. This may reduce improper(?) orphan-reporting by previous
versions of Downsort considerably when you have physically a single
large directory of which the files are grouped logically in different
areas with separate FILES.BBS files.
■ Duplicate download directories in OK-files will be suppressed.
■ Area-summaries in ALL- and IPF-lists are again sorted alphabetically on
area-name.
■ A check during the data collection phase on maximum supported file
entries (16350) has been added to prevent problems when exceeding this
limit.
■ Orphan entries in FILES.BBS are now preceeded with '^PS' in stead of the
unsupported '^PH' (bug fix).
■ Some specific adaptations for version 2.0:
- All files conforming to filespec 'FILES.*' will not be reported
anymore.
- Area code will be handled as 9 character string: area-name! But in
some reports it will be truncated to the first 3 or 4 characters.
- AreaINclude and AreaEXclude are used as 'prefix'. Area-name
specifications will be treated as group-names: you can include or
exclude groups of areas starting with the same characters.
- The /b, /t, /bt or /tb flag in FILES.BBS will not appear in the
lists, but only when it appears immediately after the filename. It
is not stripped from FILES.BBS.
■ As experiment a new list has been added: IP2FileList. It is a copy if
Appendix A. History of changes 39
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
IPF-list, but uses some new formatting features offered by the
IPF-compiler of the OS/2 2.0-beta toolkit (i.c. :table.). The result is
a faster generation, but above al a faster compilation and a better
VIEW. VIEWing under OS/2 1.2 or 1.3 is still possible!
VERSION 5.3
■ New report added: DUP-list, a simple list, for SYSOP-use only, that
shows (possibly) duplicate fileNAMES over the area's (the file-extension
is not considered in the comparison).
■ Another new report: OKFile in BinkleyTerm style. A list of download
paths within privilege, with option to include magic names.
■ IpfFileList line in Downsort.Cfg now also allows specification of the
IPF pagesize (maximum number of file-entries per VIEW 'page' or 'part').
■ Progress signals streamlined, /Q is really silent now!
■ Fixed bug which caused Trap 000D under OS/2 (protection violation) under
some rare conditions. The restriction that first area may not be empty
or not contain only orphans has been removed with this change.
■ Support for MAXIMUS CBCS 1.00 removed: only version 1.02 is supported
(and most likely 2.00 as well).
■ Downsort's change-history before version 5.0 removed from documentation.
■ Use of MicroSoft C Compiler 6.00a: more free memory for DOS users (also
because of slightly improved program structuring).
VERSION 5.2
■ Area selection is now possible within DOWNSORT. Two new keywords are
provided in DOWNSORT.CFG: AreaINclude to make reports for selected
download area's, AreaEXclude to omit area's from the reports. These
keywords have only effect within the collection that would otherwise
have been reported completely (restricted by AREA.DAT and report
privilege).
■ FILES.BBS has now a peer relation with the directory in stead of being
subordinate, in DOWNSORT terms of course. Filenames and their
description in FILES.BBS for which there is no corresponding file in the
download directory, are now NOT ignored anymore. In stead the file is
reported as 'offline' (on the columns for file-date and -size). You may
replace the word 'offline' with an alternative text.
■ Bug repaired that caused some files to be treated as orphan under
certain rare circumstances. And a correction of an error in
'end-of-line' test/search on several places.
■ As already 'promised' in 5.1, the Area-summary in ALL-list is now in
order of AREA.DAT.
■ Reorganised the documentation to obtain a more logical sequence of
subjects. Due to the growing number of options of DOWNSORT, it became
more and more difficult to see the trees through the wood. I added a
number of paragraphs, especially for new users. It can be useful for
YOU too!
Appendix A. History of changes 40
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
VERSION 5.1
■ Since the ORPhan report is optional (changed with version 5.0), orphan
entries could and now will be removed from internal storage during the
information collection phase of DOWNSORT, but only when no orphan-list
is requested! This is especially useful for the situation where a
single large directory contains the files of several area's, and whereby
the file descriptions are contained in different FILES.BBS files.
Normally this will result in reporting lots of duplicate orphans
(according to the definition of 'orphan' in DOWNSORT!). With this
change memory utilisation is lower and sorting faster.
■ Another change of this kind: area's with a privilege exceeding any
reporting privilege are not scanned anymore. Apart from lower memory
utilisation, this might be useful for CDROM and slow disk(ette) systems.
■ The maximum number of Top-, Sub- and Bottom-Title lines has been
extended to 20.
■ In addition all lists may now include a 'logo'-file with a new -I
parameter on the individual report request specification (see sample
DOWNSORT.CFG). The file will be copied into the list without any
editing or translation. It will be positioned directly behind the
block-title and before the subtitle (if any). For example: you may
include your BBS-logo or a picture of your system configuration, or
anything else you want to tell the file-requestors of FILES, ALLFILES
and/or NEWFILES. The IPF-list may also include IPF tags, with artwork,
etc. It may even include other files itself! For FILES.BBS the
contents of this Include-file will immediately follow the 'standard'
header.
■ All block-fonts have now a new special character <`> (reversed quote),
which will be 'printed' as blank (space) with half the width of a normal
character. This is useful for fine-alignment (e.g. manually centering)
the BLOCK-title.
■ The chapter on 'titles and headers' has been rewritten to clarify the
use of all title-options, please read it!.
■ In the SUMMARY of ALL- and IPF-lists the areas themselves are not sorted
anymore, but presented in sequence of AREAS.CTL specification. This is
based on the assumption that the file area's are in some kind of
'natural' order in AREAS.CTL (or maybe it is time to do that now!).
■ Descriptions in FILES.BBS are now (again) aligned on column 14 of the
FILES.bbs file records.
■ IPF-list again a little more user-friendly (linking of area's).
■ A number of improvements have been applied to the executiontime messages
(when running in VERBOSE mode).
VERSION 5.0
■ Improved IPF-formatting: more colorful, builtin word-wrapping of VIEW
used for file descriptions (better VIEWable under OS/2 1.3!). It should
now also compile without errors/warnings. Compiling (with IPFC) takes
significantly longer however!
■ The IPF-list of large filearea's (>200 files) split into parts of 200
files to prevent files being left unlisted.
Appendix A. History of changes 41
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
■ Top-level title in FileLists shows file-count and byte-count as
available within the privilege of the list. Thus it indicates what is
really AVAILable to the user! Area-count omitted in lists which are not
area-oriented.
■ ORPHAN report made OPTIONAL (must be specified to get it!).
Appendix A. History of changes 42
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
APPENDIX B. WORLD-WIDE USE OF DOWNSORT
PC-Square may be considered as the home-base of DOWNSORT. The most recent
version is always available there (file-requests honoured between 07:00 and
24:00 local time).
PC-Square Marcel Stikkelman Zoetermeer, Netherlands
2:512/4 31-79-424107
The following SYSOPs have reported using DOWNSORT on their respective board.
OS/2-MANiA Emmanuel Sandorfi Paris, France
2:320/5 33-1-64090640
OS/2 TASK BBS Rene Carlsen Skagen, Denmark
2:231/910 45-98451070
Grizzilus Maximus Collin Adams Preston, UK
2:250/121 44-772-828975
Paradigmus Maximus John Taylor London, UK
2:253/68 44-81-566-5393
Runnin' with the Devil Roberto Sonzogni Treviglio BG, Italy
2:331/205 39-363-302798
Fernwood Emitt Dove Branford CT, USA
1:141/209 1-203-483-0348
The Planet Earth Joel Lambert Bridgeport CT, USA
1:141/455 1-203-335-7742
Bell's Theorem Jeremy Buhler Houston TX, USA
1:106/7674 1-713-777-0633
OS/2 Shareware Pete Norloff Fairfax VA, USA
1:109/347 1-703-385-4325
Singing Bear John Tarbox Wilmington DE, USA
1:150/130 1-302-984-2238
La Jungle BBS Stephane Seguin Quebec, Canada
1:163/116 1-819-595-4917
3M Australia Graham Stair Sydney, NSW Australia
3:711/409 61-2-498-9184
I have received reports from others. Too many for this list, which is just
meant to point to a system in your neighbourhood(?). You may either logon
to one of these boards, or perform a file-request of 'FILES' or 'ALLFILES'
to get an impression of DOWNSORT's capabilities.
Appendix B. World-wide use of DOWNSORT 43
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
APPENDIX C. SAMPLE LISTS
Below follow a number of samples of list layouts and contents. Not shown
are the BBS-, and IPF-lists, since these are screen- rather than
paper-oriented, with their specific formatting and color settings.
The dates and sizes in these lists have been manipulated!
ALL-LIST
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
█▀▀▀▀▀▀ █ ║ OS/2 - Fernwood - New Acquisitions
█▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄█ ║ Available: 143 files (0.0 MB)
██ ██ ║ Privilege: Disgrace
██ ██ ║ Newest: XLIST233.ZIP 3-22-91 (avail: 7-26-91)
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Filename Size Date Description
──────────── ───── ───────── ──────────────────────────────────────────────────
AAFONTS.ZIP 1K 3-22-91 Text from IBM regarding Anti-aliased Fonts.
AFP_120.LZH 1K 3-22-91 Areafix 1.2 for OS/2. Permits systems that do
echomail with yours to change their complement of
areas independently.
GBL-LIST
(Sun Jan 05 15:05) Available: 508 files (0 MB)
Maximum privilege shown: Sysop
Newest: BIGBRO.ZIP 3-22-91 (avail: 7-26-91)
Date flag: new on this system since: * = 1 week, + = 1 month
Filename Area Size Date Description
──────────── ──── ───── ───────── ─────────────────────────────────────────────
2COLDIR.ZIP F3 1K 3-22-91 DoubleDir for OS/2
2MONITOR.ZIP F4 1K 3-22-91 Source and .EXE for running 2 monitors.
NEW-LIST
Appendix C. Sample Lists 44
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
(Sun Jan 05 16:14) Last 10 months newest of a total of 508 files (0 MB)
Maximum privilege shown: Sysop
Newest: BIGBRO.ZIP dd 3-22-91 (avail: 7-26-91)
Date flag: new on this system since: * = 1 week, + = 1 month
Filename Area Size Date Description
──────────── ──── ───── ───────── ─────────────────────────────────────────────
2COLDIR.ZIP F3 1K 3-22-91 DoubleDir for OS/2
2MONITOR.ZIP F4 1K 3-22-91 Source and .EXE for running 2 monitors.
8514.PAT F4 1K 3-22-91 Patch to get 32x32 icons on 8514/a
EMI-LIST
(Tue Jan 14 21:55) Last 44 weeks newest emissions
--Filename-- --Date-- -Time- -Bytes- ---Description---
DUMMY.DAT 10-11-91 9:45p 31 Dummy file for Downsort tests +
continuation line
PSOS2.ZIP 3-22-91 11:46p 2 View OS/2 Information on PM like
Threads & Process, Memory used, and more.
FILES.BBS
- █▀▀▀▀▀▀ █ ║ OS/2 - Fernwood - New Acquisitions
- █▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄█ ║ Available: 143 files (0.0 MB)
- ██ ██ ║ Privilege: Disgrace
- ██ ██ ║ Newest: XLIST233.ZIP 3-22-91 (avail: 7-26-91)
-──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Filename Size Date Description
-─────────── ─────── ───────── ────────────────────────────────────────────────
AAFONTS.ZIP Text from IBM regarding Anti-aliased Fonts.
AFP_120.LZH Areafix 1.2 for OS/2. Permits systems that do echomail with yours to change their complement of areas independently.
Note: File date and size are provided dynamically by Maximus CBCS!
OKFILE
| SHORT FORMAT (DEFAULT)
@files g:\file\file01\allfiles.zip
@avail g:\file\file01\allfiles.zip
@newfiles g:\file\file01\newfiles.zip
G:\File\Fernwood\*.*
G:\File\Max\*.*
Appendix C. Sample Lists 45
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
| LONG FORMAT (-L)
| @files g:\file\file01\allfiles.zip
| @avail g:\file\file01\allfiles.zip
| @newfiles g:\file\file01\newfiles.zip
| G:\File\Fernwood\DWNSRT55.ZIP
| G:\File\Fernwood\DWNSRT56.ZIP
| G:\File\Max\MAXSRT10.ZIP
| G:\File\Max\MAXSRT11.ZIP
ORPHAN LIST
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Area Filename Date FilePath
──── ──────────── ───────── ───────────────────────────────────────────────────
F1 123R3UPD.ZIP 3-22-91 G:\File\Fernwood\
F1 4019DRVR.ZIP 3-22-91 G:\File\Fernwood\
Appendix C. Sample Lists 46
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
APPENDIX D. SAMPLE CONFIGURATION FILE
;
; ██▐███ █▐███ ██ ██ ██▐███ ██▐████ █▐███ ██▐███ ██▐████
; ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ▐██
; ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ █ ██ ██ ██ ██▐████ ██ ██ ██▐███ ▐██
; ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ █ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ █ ▐██
; ██▐███ █▐███ █▐███ ██ ██ ██▐████ █▐███ ██ ██ ▐██
; (font 2)
;
;
; ▄▀▀▀▄ ▄▀▀▀▄ █▄ █ █▀▀▀▀ ▀█▀ ▄▀▀▀▄ █ █ █▀▀▀▄ ▄▀▀▀▄ ▀▀█▀▀ ▀█▀ ▄▀▀▀▄ █▄ █
; █ █ █ █▀█▄█ █▄▄ █ █ ▄▄ █ █ █▄▄▄▀ █▄▄▄█ █ █ █ █ █ ▀▄█
; ▀▄▄▄▀ ▀▄▄▄▀ █ ▀█ █ ▄█▄ ▀▄▄▄▀ ▀▄▄▄▀ █ ▀▄▄ █ █ █ ▄█▄ ▀▄▄▄▀ █ █
; (font 1)
;
;
; █▀▀▀▀▀▀ █ █ █▀▀▀▀▀▀
; █▄▄▄▄▄▄ █▄ █▄ █▄▄▄▄▄▄
; ██ ██ ██ ██
; ██ ██ ██▄▄▄▄▄ ██▄▄▄▄▄
; (font 3)
; (font 4 is reverse video of 3)
; ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
; │ Sample Configuration File for DOWNSORT by Rob Hamerling │
; └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
;
; NOTES: Leading blanks are skipped.
; Lines with '%', '*' or ';' as first non-blank character are
; considered to contain comments only. So are empty lines and
; lines with a valid keyword, but without any parameter.
;
; ! Don't put a comment string after a parameter specification !
;
;
; AreaDat: Complete file-specification of your 'AREA.DAT'
; -------
; AREA.DAT is made by MAXIMUS' SILT(P) with -a or -x
; option the path is normally specified in MAX.CTL
; with the option AreaDat in Session Section.
; With the AreaDat you may specify any file that has
; the SILT(P)-format. For example you may make a special
; file for running DOWNSORT with a subset (selection)
; of the normal MAXIMUS file-area's.
; This might be useful for special usergroups.
; Another reason may be the memory usage of DOWNSORT
; under DOS. If you hit the boundary: make a subset.
; Standard OS/2 / DOS naming applies.
AreaDat area5124.dat
* AreaDat area3205.dat
Appendix D. Sample Configuration File 47
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
; AreaINclude Select area's to be INCLUDED in the reports.
; AreaEXclude Select area's to be EXCLUDED from the reports.
; ----------- Specify 1..9 character areanames to indicate which areas
; have to be INcluded or EXcluded. The selection applies to
; all areanames starting with the same characters (may be a
; GROUP of areas!). The selection is case-INsensitive.
; Use ONLY ONE operation: either AreaINclude or AreaEXclude!
; If all your selections do not fit on a single line
; (max 255 characters) take as many lines as you like.
; In total you may specify a maximum of 200 area's.
; Separate the areanames with one or more BLANKS.
; NOTE: A high area-privilege may overrule AreaINclude!
AreaEXclude F
* AreaINclude FD M3
; AreaOrder Order in which areas have to be sorted.
; Selection can be: K[eep] - Keep order of AREA.DAT
; A[lpha] - Alphabetic order of areaname
; G[roup] - Group order
; I[nclude] - order of areaINclude (above)
; Specify one of these orders (first letter is sufficient).
; 'Group'-order is a special sorting sequence for area names
; consisting of a group of letters followed by digits.
; See the documentation for details.
; Default: Group-order (also with invalid specifications)
* AreaOrder Include
; TitleFont: Reference number of the BLOCK-font you want for your Title.
; ---------
; Valid numbers: 1 .. Simple font (5x6 pattern)
; 2 .. Pseudo-Stencil Font (7x10 pattern)
; 3 .. ROBoComputer Font (7x8 pattern)
; 4 .. Reversed Video RoboComp (7x8 pattern)
;
; NOTE: The fonts are based on the US-codepage (437).
; This will also work properly for 860 (Portugese),
; 863 (Canadian-French) and 865 (Nordic).
; If codepage 850 (Multilingual) is active, the pattern
; will be adapted a little, see if you like it or not.
; The differences apply mainly to Font2.
;
; The heading of this file shows font 2, 1 and 3 respectively.
TitleFont 2
; Title: Short string that will be displayed in BLOCK-characters
; ----- on top of all FileLists (except BBS-list).
; You may specify this parameter also on the xxxFileList
; parameter.
; The BLOCK fonts are 'proportional', the following number of
; characters will generally fit on a line:
Appendix D. Sample Configuration File 48
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
;
; FontTitle 1 maximum characters: 13
; " 2 .. 4 " " 8
;
; No more than 20 characters are accepted as input.
;
; If Title isn't specified, it will be DOWNSORT by default.
; Not all characters are supported, and that may vary with
; the font itself. All fonts support:
;
; - UPPER case A..Z
; - LOWER case a..z , but will be translated to UPPER case
; - Digits 0..9
; - - (hyphen), blank
;
; In addition fonts 1 and 2 support the following characters:
;
; _ * - | . [ ] ( ) / \
;
; Not-supported characters are displayed as blank.
; The '~'-character (tilde) may be used as required blank,
; the '`'-character (reverse quote) as half width blank.
Title `DownSort
; PreTitle Lines to be displayed immediately before the BLOCK-title.
; -------- The lines will be copied asis, however leading blanks are
; skipped, no wrapping or truncation will be applied for
; 'long' lines, '~' (tilde) characters are translated to
; blanks. You may specify 20 PreTitles, excess is ignored.
; Empty PreTitle lines are ignored and not counted.
; There is no default pretitle.
; To create empty lines in your header specify a PreTitle
; with a tilde.
PreTitle ~
PreTitle ~~~~~~~<═════:═════ p r e - t i t l e ═════:═════>
PreTitle ~
; SubTitle Lines to be displayed immediately below the BLOCK-title.
; -------- Maximum 20 SubTitles are accepted, and exactly the
; same rules apply as for PreTitle.
;
SubTitle ~
SubTitle ~~~~~~~<═════&═════ s u b - t i t l e ═════&═════>
SubTitle ~ Overview of downloadable files on this magnificent Board
SubTitle ~ Node number 9.999/99, modemspeeds: V.99/V.99bis
SubTitle ~~~~~~~<═════════════════════════════════════════>
SubTitle ~
; BottomLine Lines to be displayed at the end of the filelist.
; ---------- Maximum 20 BottomLines are accepted, and exactly the
Appendix D. Sample Configuration File 49
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
; same rules apply as for PreTitle and Subtitle.
;
BottomLine ~
BottomLine ~~~~~~~<═══════ b o t t o m : t i t l e ═════════>
BottomLine ~
BottomLine ~~~~~~~<═══ How do you like DOWNSORT, folks? ════>
BottomLine ~
; MaxNewFiles Limit the number of file entries in BBS-list and NEW-list(s).
; ----------- It specifies the actual number of file entries that may
; appear in NewFileList and BBSFileList.
; If you specify more than one privilege for NewFileList,
; then each list will contain (max) the MaxNewFiles number
; of file entries, but the collection of each may differ due
; to privilege considerations.
; Individual values for BBS-list and NEW-list may be specified
; on the corresponding xxxFileList line (see below)
; Optionally the value may be followed by a single letter.
; In stead of the number of files, the list will then be
; limited by the age of the files to be included:
; in days (D), weeks (W) or Months (M).
MaxNewFiles 3W
; OrphanDesc Description text of Orphan files.
; NotFoundDesc Description text of files without description in FILES.BBS.
; ------------ The description will replace the default hard-coded text.
; Up to 45 characters may be specified.
; The '~' (tilde) character will not be translated here!
OrphanDesc ~~~~~ !!!! Orphelin !!!! ~~~~~
NotFoundDesc +++ Ce fichier défie toute description! +++
; OfflineDesc When a filespecification is found in FILES.BBS but not
; ----------- in the corresponding download directory, this text replaces
; the filesize and date (right aligned).
; Up to 14 characters are accepted.
OfflineDesc -- archived --
; AVAstrip You may wish to strip off AVATAR graphics characters from
; -------- the contents of your FILES.BBS files.
; 5.6 Specify 'No' to deactivate stripping (default is 'Yes').
; 5.6 Will work ONLY for COMMENT LINES in ALL- and IPF-lists!
; 5.6 Remember: comments are only listed with KEEPSEQ (no sort).
AVAstrip Yes
; ======================================================================
; Above were the parameters with a global effect: applicable to all
; lists or to the execution mode of DOWNSORT.
Appendix D. Sample Configuration File 50
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
; Below follow list-specific parameters, which might override some of
; the settings of the global parameters.
; Leave this sequence: first global, then specific parameters!
; ======================================================================
;
; xxxFileList: Create one or more File lists of type 'xxx'.
;
; xxx ───┐ ┌──────────── TWIT
; v │┌─────────── DISGRACE ┌─ FileName of the list
; ┌── ORP ││┌────────── LIMITED │ (without extension,
; ┌── BBS │││┌───────── NORMAL │ maximum 8 characters)
; ┌── NEW ││││┌──────── WHORTY │
; ┌── ALL │││││┌─────── PRIVIL │
; ┌── GBL ││││││┌────── FAVORED │
; ┌── DUP │││││││┌───── EXTRA │ ┌─ Additional options for
; ┌── IPF ││││││││┌──── CLERK │ │ each list individually:
; ┌── IP2 │││││││││┌─── ASSISTSYSOP │ │
; ┌── OK ││││││││││┌── SYSOP │ │ -W - Wrap Description
; ┌── EMI │││││││││││┌─ HIDDEN │ │ -T - Truncate Descr.
; │ ││││││││││││ │ │ -A - Alpha sort on name
; │ ││││││││││││ │ │ -D - Date sort
; │ ││││││││││││ │ │ -K - Keep FILES.BBS seq
; │ ││││││││││││ │ │ -If - Include_filespec
; │ ││││││││││││ ┌─────────┘ │ nnnP - max number of entries
; │ ││││││││││││ │ │ -Fn - Title font (0..4)
; │ ││││││││││││ │ │ -X - eXcl priv in headers
; v ││││││││││││ v v
; ═══─═══════ vvvvvvvvvvvv ════════ ════════════════════════════════
; xxxFileList TDLNWPFECASH FileName Option-1 Option-2 . . . Option-n
;
; If just xxxFileList is specified, the Level by default will be SYSOP
; and the filename will be DOWNSORT.
;
; For NEW-, GBL-, ALL-, IPF-, OK- and EMI-List up to 10 privilege letters
; can be specified and for each character a separate list-file will
; be generated with the following extension:
; NewFileList: N~p
; AllFileList: A~p
; IpfFileList: I~p
; GblFileList: G~p
; OKFileList: O~p
; EmiFileList: E~p
; where 'p' is the privilege character.
; For the BBS- and DUP-list only 1 privilege character will be accepted.
; The default filename (DOWNSORT) for each list can be overridden
; with the [optional] third parameter on the xxxFileList line.
;
; Additionally some other parameters may be specified (in any sequence).
;
; nnn[P] Limit the number of file-entries to a maximum of 'nnn':
; - for BBS-list and NEW-list the max size of the list
; - for IPF-list the maximum size of a VIEW-page
; If followed by Period-indicator ('d', 'w' or 'm') the list is
Appendix D. Sample Configuration File 51
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
; limited not by number, but by file-AGE in Days, Weeks or Months.
; NOTE: the Period-indicator is not valid for IPF-lists.
;
; -A Selects Alphabetic sort on filename
; -D Selects sort on Date/Time of the file
; -K Keep sequence of files in FILES.BBS
; (ALL- and IPF-list, and newly generated FILES.BBS files).
;
; -T Causes Truncation of long descriptions (to about 50 characters)
; so that only 1 line will appear per file-entry.
; -W Causes Wrapping of long descriptions: the report will contain
; as many lines as needed for the complete description.
;
; -L Long OKFile: explicit filenames in stead of wildcards (PATH\*.*)
; Applies only to OKFileList.
;
; -If Include userfile (f = file-spec) in report for NEW-, ALL-,
; IPF-, IP2-, GBL-lists and FILES.bbs files. The file is
; included without any translations, so beware of formatting
; (text-float) in the IPF- and IP2-list!
;
; -X eXclude privilege indications in NEW-, ALL-, IPF- and GBL-lists.
;
; -Fn ListTitle font. Choose for 'n': 1, 2, 3 or 4 (default is 2).
; See some samples of the fonts in the top of this file.
; If '0' (zero) specified, then NO BLOCK TITLE will be generated.
;
; If an asterisk (*) is used as parameter value character, the hardcoded
; default value will be used. If you specify mutually exclusive
; options (-A or -D) or (-T or -W), then the last value on the line
; will be effective.
;
; NOTES 1. For ORP-fileList the privilege parameter does not apply,
; ----- but at least 1 character must be specified!
; 2. Invalid or not-recognised sub-parameters are ignored without
; any warning!
; 3. You should specify maximum 1 line of each list-type, otherwise
; only the last specification will be accepted.
AllFileList s Down_All -x -k -W -f1 -IDownsort.Inc
* BBSFileList s Down_Bbs 3w -d -w -F1
* DupFileList s Down_Dup -w
* GblFileList s Down_Gbl -a -t -F3 -IDownsort.Inc
* IpfFileList s Down_Ipf 200 -k -x -F4
* Ip2FileList s Down_Ip2 200 -a -F3
NewFileList s Down_New 10m -a -t -f2
* EmiFileList s Down_Emi 22 -d -w -IDownsort.inc
* OKFileList d Down_OKE -l -IDownsort.Mag
* OrpFileList * Down_Orp -a -w -f4
; NOTE: The IPF-list has the format of an INPUT-file for the
; Information Presentation Facility Compiler (IPFC), which is
; part of the IBM OS/2 Program Development Toolkit and equivalent
Appendix D. Sample Configuration File 52
Maximus Download File Sort and List Utility (OS/2 and DOS)
; MicroSoft package. This inputfile has to be processed by this
; compiler. For the sample above with the command:
; IPFC DOWN_IPF.I~P /INF
; Be sure to have the file DOWNSORT.BMP in the default directory and
; set the IPFC environment-variable (e.g. SET IPFC=D:\TOOLKT13\IPFC).
; IPFC will produce a file called DOWN_IPF.INF, which is ready
; to be viewed with the command:
; VIEW DOWN_IPF
; See the Toolkit documentation for details of IPFC.
; IPFC is not distributed with the DOWNSORT package!
;
; IP2FileList has the OS/2 2.0 IPF format, you will need IPFC
; of the OS/2 2.0 toolkit!
; FILFilePath Specifications for the FILES.bbs type of output.
; ----------- Specifications are basically the same as for above lists.
; Second parameter is [optional] specification of
; destination directory of newly generated Files.BBS files.
; Use the format: drive:\directory\
; If second parameter specified, the output filename will
; be 'FILES', extension will be the first 3 characters of
; the areaname.
; If not specified the MAXIMUS path specification will be
; used (ListFile parameter if used in Maximus' AREA.CTL
; otherwise the Download directory).
; Not all parameters of other lists (see above) apply to
; the FILES.bbs lists (since it will not contain a TITLE
; as the other lists and the file-description will be
; kept on a single - looooong - line).
; Entries can be sorted, but then you loose your comments!
; So -K (Keep Sequence) is default and recommended!
FILFilePath s d:\c2\downsort\filesbbs /k -x
;
; ═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
;
; Commandline parameters may supply additional options, and may
; (partly) override the specifications in this configuration file.
; Consider this file as your customised default setting for DOWNSORT,
; and use commandline parameters only to make other lists on the fly.
; For the reports there is nothing that you can specify with commandline
; parameters, that you cannot specify in this configuration file!
;
Appendix D. Sample Configuration File 53