BBS Toolkit/BBS Toolkit.iso/wildcat/w3euti24.zip/UTI.HIS

Text File | 1992-11-22 | 9KB | 223 lines

                     Enhanced UTIs History

Enhanced UTIs v2.40 -- Releasd 11/22/92

New Features:

1.  Added an option to create more detailed log files which will
    show memory usage, processing results, start and stop times,
    etc. as an aid for troubleshooting.  See the section on the
    UTILOG environment variable.

2.  Added an option to override the MAKEWILD message line limit
    during imports.  This allows long messages to be imported in
    larger (150 line) sections, while preventing online callers
    from posting long messages.  See the section on the MAXLINES
    environment variable.

3.  UTIEXPRT speed increased by 50-70%.  Since PostLink scans all
    imported messages for possible exports, the UTIs are able to
    speed up the scanning process by retrieving only the first
    part of each message.  Once a valid export is detected, the
    UTIs switch to full message reads.

4.  Removed the End-of-file mark message.  It was useful for
    showing the differences between Enhanced and Regular UTIs,
    but it is not really necessary.

5.  Added the version number to error messages, ie:
      UTIIMPRT v2.40:  Unable to open ALLUSERS.DAT
    This will make my trouble-shooting easier.

Durability Upgrades:

1.  If there is an error updating user records (User Database Error),
    imports will continue and a message will be written to the log.
    This prevents a user database error from halting the entire
    mail run.

2.  UTIIMPRT is now much stricter about the text file format that
    PostLink creates for processing.  Several more validity checks
    are performed on imported messages; this should catch more
    invalid/corrupted messages.

3.  Modified the invalid message section, allowing a better chance
    for message recovery.  There's a greater chance of skipping
    a bad message section and continuing with message imports.

4.  All failed attempts to run the UTIs (even those with not enough
    command line parameters) will be logged to the UTI.LOG file.

5.  If a Subject, From, or To line is blank, the UTIs will insert
    the word 'BLANK' in that message field.  It is better to have
    a message from 'BLANK' than to have possible problems crop up
    with other programs.

6.  Reduced the number of file handles required to no more than
    13 (8 nominal files).

Bug Fixes:

1.  Fixed runtime errors with the UTINET?.DAT file and in UTIEXPRT.

2.  Added error catching code to some spots that could cause
    QEMM errors.  This will prevent execution of certain loops
    when there is no information to process, ie: blank messages.

3.  When the message size did not match the message record, the
    corrupted message was causing the UTIs to lock up in a loop.


Enhanced UTIs v2.30 -- Released 9/5/92

1.   Conference names in UTILIST are now truncated at 15 characters,
     as PostLink requires.

2.   Banners have been eliminated in most cases.  The UTIs will only
     write to the screen when there is an error, or to remind the
     Sysop that the UTIs have not been registered.

3.   Memory Requirements:
     UTIEXPRT and UTIIMPRT now use 32K less memory than before.
     The file buffer for each was cut in half, resulting in only
     a slight increase in processing time.  The reduction was
     needed because of PostLink's memory requirements.

4.   While I have not been able to duplicate the 205 runtime error,
     the UTI programs have been modified so that they cannot return
     a 205 error -- There was only one command that could have
     returned a 205, and that command has been eliminated.

5.   BTree error messages have been removed from the program files,
     and placed it a seperate text file: UTI-ERR.TXT.


Enhanced UTIs v2.20 -- Released 8/6/92

1.   UTIRFLAG was not finding the correct user name keys to clear
     mail-waiting flags.  Corrected.

2.   UTILSTRD now supports manual conference overrides, such as when
     using WC Pro.

3.   UTIIMPRT ensures that AUTONODE default is off at start of program.


Enhanced UTIs v2.10 -- Released 7/9/92

1.   Error log message was cleaned up and is now easier to read.

2.   Modified the error log control structure.

3.   If there is an error updating NODEINFO.DAT, a message will be
     logged, but the program will not halt.  The master message
     counters are kept in NODEINFO.DAT.

4.   Added new routine that allows both implicit and explicit paths
     in MAKEWILD.  ie: both 'C:\WC30\DATA\' and 'C:DATA\' are
     allowed.

5.   The message thread key is now handled properly when subject
     lines are greater then 25 characters -- only important when
     crossing FidoNet messages with other networks.

6.   UTILSTRD has been modified to:
     A.  Use only the CONFDESC.DAT in the MakeWild directory.
     B.  Report 'unsubscribed' conferences correctly.
     C.  Update 'unsubscribed' conferences correctly.

7.   When exporting messages, ASCII (255) is converted to ASCII (0).
     This will avoid situations where PC Relay sometimes gets confused.

8.   Autonode selection was corrected.

9.   Some routines were rewritten in Assembler.


Enhanced UTIs v2.00 -- Released 6/17/92

1.   The UTIs automatically detect either the 3.0 or 3.5 record
     formats.  Depending on the version, there are different
     routines for adding and deleting keys, and creating a new
     message database.

2.   Locked database delays now match the online user delays,
     limiting the number/length of online delays.  The mail import
     event will now pause longer when a lock is encountered (1/2 to
     1 second) but offline delays are preferable to online delays.

3.   Automatic node ID selection is supported when the autonode
     option is enabled in MAKEWILD.  If WCNODEID is specified in
     the DOS environment, the WCNODEID value will be used in place
     of an autonode selection.  If the WCNODEID value is currently
     in use by another workstation (according to the AUTONODE.DAT
     file), then the program will halt with an error.

4.   If there are two or more blank spaces between an addressee's
     first and last names (etc.) then the extra spaces will be
     removed.  This allows the "mail waiting" flag to be set
     properly for a user.

5.   If there is any error opening a message database, a message
     will be sent to the error log, but PC Relay will continue to
     function.


Enhanced UTIs v1.20 -- Released 5/12/92

Memory:   To run PC Relay 4.10/4.11 with the UTIs, you will need at
          least 400K of memory.  If the UTIs do not have enough
          memory, they will stop with an error message and halt the
          PC Relay event.  The error message will indicate how much
          additional memory is needed.

          By providing up to 75K more memory to the UTIs, you may
          see some added speed improvement.

Errors:   Some "hard" errors in UTI v1.0 have been changed to
          "soft" errors.  Soft errors do not halt the entire PC
          Relay event; they cause the current message conference to
          be skipped and a reminder is written to the UTI.LOG for
          later correction.  Some of these errors are:

          1.   Unable to lock the database.
          2.   Message conference is not defined.
          3.   Error in the conference database.
          4.   Unable to open/create a conference database.

Locks:    The UTIs have been fine-tuned so that fewer file lock
          errors are encountered.  They can now pass this import
          stress test:

          ==>  3 nodes, each adding and deleting 1000 messages to
               the same conference at the same time.  No file
               locks are encountered.


                          Other Errors

1.   There was a file handle problem when running the UTIs in
     DESQview, with SHARE.EXE loaded and in WildCat's Single-line
     mode.  This has been corrected.

2.   There was a problem (mainly confusion) when two or more nodes
     tried to create a conference database at the same time, or
     when the UTIs were run in two windows at the same time.  This
     was mistaken for a disk cache/delayed writing error, but
     turned out to be a problem with the conference status record.

3.   Disk Caches -- Since correcting error #2 above, I no longer
     have problems with delayed disk writes.  My earlier warning
     against them is withdrawn.


Questions or comments should be directed to Jim Metzler in the:

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