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Text File | 1993-08-18 | 21.4 KB | 525 lines

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ DLMASTER v2.60 - The RBBS Download File Listing Utility │ │ │ │ (c) 1990-93 by Bob Hampton │ │ │ │ S3-Technologies BBS (703)451-9509 300-9600bps 24-hr │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ RBBS-PC copyright 1990 by D. Thomas Mack SuperFMSL copyright 1989 by Ethan Poole PKZIP copyright 1990 by PKWare INTRODUCTION: DLMASTER was created to make a professional-looking list of all files available for download on an RBBS-PC bulletin board. It was inspired by Ethan Poole's fine SuperFMSL program, but is being distributed free of charge, in the spirit of the RBBS-PC tradition. I have included the C source code for those who wish to examine and possibly modify the program to suit their own purposes. I ask only that the program not be distributed with modifications I have not approved and incorporated, since there would be no way for me to offer support for such a modified program. DLMASTER is written to make use of both disk and memory in order to sort out and create the listing in the most expedient manner. I think you will find that DLMASTER runs almost twice as fast as other such programs with it's sorting capabilities, and I am working on ways to increase that speed even more. DLMASTER 2.60 Page 2 FILES INCLUDED: Enclosed in this distribution should be the following files : DLMASTER.C - Source code for DLMASTER DLMASTER.EXE - The executable file DLMST260.DOC - What you're reading DOSWDW.ASM - Assembly source code for DOSWDW DOSWDW.DOC - Documentation on DOSWDW DOSWDW.OBJ - Object file for linking DOSWDW.H - Include file for DOSWDW FMSCHK.C - Source code for FMSCHK FMSCHK.EXE - The executable file FMSCHK.TXT - Info on the FMSCHK program README.NOW - Late-breaking info DLMASTER is now distributed in ZIP format using PKWare's Authenticity Verification. When unzipping the file, you should see the following: Searching ZIP: DLMST260.ZIP Exploding: DLMASTER.C -AV Exploding: DLMASTER.EXE -AV Exploding: DLMST260.DOC -AV Exploding: DOSWDW.ASM -AV Exploding: DOSWDW.DOC -AV Exploding: DOSWDW.H -AV Exploding: DOSWDW.OBJ -AV Exploding: FMSCHK.C -AV Exploding: FMSCHK.EXE -AV Exploding: FMSCHK.TXT -AV Exploding: README.NOW -AV Authentic files Verified! # MIQ538 S3-Tech If you do not see the verification number, then you have not received an authentic copy of the program. DLMASTER 2.60 Page 3 FEATURES: - Supports FMS files of virtually unlimited size. - Supports multiple category codes per category. - Includes FMSCHK utility to check your FMS directory structure for proper format. - Sorts files by name or date, in ascending or descending order. - Supports \FMS CH and \FMS TOP parameters. - Supports FMS security levels. - Supports FMS comments and category headers. - Supports formatted (non-standard) filenames in the FMS directories. - Automatically detects the width of the FMS line. - Can add user-specified text files to the head and/or tail of the list. - Can automatically link to your choice of compression utility to to produce compressed output. REQUIREMENTS: - Requires approx. 128K of memory, plus 28K per 1000 files in your largest single or multiple-code category. Will work faster on larger files with more memory. - Requires approx. 28K of free disk space per 1000 files to create the temporary work files, plus space for the output file and the ZIPped file (if created). DLMASTER 2.60 Page 4 THE DLMASTER CONFIG FILE: DLMASTER uses a configuration file, which you can create with any text editor, in order to specify parameters required for the sort and output. The name of this config file will be included on the command line when running the program. The default name for the file is DLMASTER.CFG, and the program will look for this file if you do not specify one on the command line. The configuration file must contain at least 6 lines, and can contain up to 10, in order to specify the following parameters: line description example ==== ============================ ===================== 1 full path of master FMS file C:\RBBS\MASTER.DIR 2 full path of DIR.CAT file C:\RBBS\DIR\DIR.CAT 3 full path of file to create F:\SEND\S3FILES.TXT 4 name of BBS S3-Technologies BBS 5 sort type - A)lpha or D)ate A 6 reverse sort? - Y or N N 7 header file to include (optional) C:\TXT\S3HEADER.TXT 8 footer file to include (optional) C:\TXT\S3FOOTER.TXT 9 path\filename for compression util C:\PKWARE\PKZIP (optional) 10 lowest and highest security levels 5,46 (MUST INCLUDE BOTH !!) to process (optional) It is worth noting a couple of points here. First, you can create different types of listings by using different config files (to create output sorted by date or name. for instance). Second, you can also create different listings by using different DIR.CAT files. Only the categories listed in the DIR.CAT file will be included in the final output. Also, no files marked as "private for sysop" (those with category code "***") will be included in the output. The last notes pertain to using the optional parameters: numbers 7, 8, 9 & 10. DLMASTER will read the config file to the end-of-file. It must find at least six lines for the first six parameters. You do not need to add any blank lines for parameters 7-10 if you do not intend to use any of them, but if you wish to use say, parameter 9, you MUST include a blank line (carriage return ONLY) for each of lines 7 and 8. If you wish to use just parameter 8, you would include a blank line for parameter 7, but would not need one for parameter 9. If using parameter nine, you must specify the name of the compression utility you wish to use. I have tested DLMASTER with PKZIP, ARJ, and LHARC with success. The only limitation here is that if not using one of these utilities, the program you select must support the use of an 'a' parameter to indicate that it is adding files to the compressed output. If using parameter 10, the FMS seecurity levels, you must specify both parameters or DLMASTER will not function correctly. You may use any valid number from 0 to 32767. You can pick just one security level to process by choosing it as both the lowest and highest level to process. DLMASTER 2.60 Page 5 SPECIAL NOTES: A request was made to handle FMS files where the filename was formatted in a non-standard way. You may therefore have filenames in your FMS files formatted in any of four ways: 1) FILENAME.EXT (standard) 2) FILENAME EXT (formatted) 3) FILENAME .EXT (dot formatted) 4) FILENAME (no extension) The number of spaces between the filename and the extension is variable, as long as it does not conflict with RBBS-PC requirements. There must, however, be no spaces between the dot (if used) and the file extension. The final output will show the filename exactly as it is in the FMS file. RUNNING THE PROGRAM: The syntax for executing DLMASTER is as follows: DLMASTER <config file> where <config file> is the name of the configuration file you have created. If you do not specify a config file, DLMASTER will look for DLMASTER.CFG by default. LIMITATIONS: The following are known limitations of DLMASTER at the present time: - Supports no more than 50 chained FMS files. - Does not display comment lines (beginning with '\' or '*'). - All FMS files must use the same line width. DLMASTER 2.60 Page 6 THE FMSCHK PROGRAM: Up to now, I have spent many hours helping people debug problems with DLMASTER that were related to errors in the format of certain lines of their FMS directories. Such errors included improper format/characters in the filesize or date fields, and extraneous characters between the various fields. These errors apparantly did not disturb RBBS, but wreaked havoc with DLMASTER. I have therefore included a small utility, FMSCHK.EXE, to scan your FMS directory files to ensure that they are in a proper format to work with DLMASTER. If you have a problem with DLMASTER, I suggest you first double check your DLMASTER.CFG file, then run the FMSCHK program against your FMS. Please refer to FMSCHK.TXT for further information. FUTURE PLANS: The best-laid plans often go astray. I have thought of a few things that I might like to add, but would prefer to get your input on what you feel would be useful additions or enhancements to DLMASTER. Please make your suggestions within the scope of DLMASTER's intended purpose - I'm not trying to make it a "Swiss Army Knife" of FMS utilities! <grin> SUPPORT: I will attempt to provide support for any questions that arise regarding the use of DLMASTER. Please leave me a message on my bulletin board, and I will respond within 24 hours. If there is a bug report, I will try to have a fix available within 3 days. The number for the board is: Bob Hampton S3-Technologies BBS Burke, VA (703) 451-9509 300-9600bps 24-hr Enjoy the program, and let me know if you have ideas for other useful RBBS-PC utilities! DLMASTER 2.60 Page 7 NOTES ON COMPILING: With the introduction of the DOSWDW module, recompiling DLMASTER has grown to become a C Project, as opposed to a simple compile. Included in this distribution are the DOSWDW.H and DOSWDW.OBJ files necessary for your Turbo C MAKE utility. Using these files requires that you temporarily comment out the current declarations for the setvect() function in your DOS.H file. Interestingly enough, I found setvect() to be declared twice in this file, so double-check yours before starting the compile. Also remember to switch to the Large memory module for compiling DLMASTER, or you'll get an error during the linking process. If you want an additional example of how to use this function in a program, download a copy of DOSWDW.ZIP, available on my board of you can't find it elsewhere. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: I would like to thank the following sysops for helping me to test and debug DLMASTER: Dan Shore The Shoreline (301) 946-2771 Walter Ames The World of Greyhawk (301) 461-9943/465-3891 John Palazzolo JP's Place (703) 237-5786 Sam Coleman Port-of-Call (301) 249-4193 Bruce Marusich Street Noise (301) 601-8710 Their time and efforts have been invaluable in providing me the feedback necessary to bring you the most bug-free and user-oriented program possible. SPECIAL THANKS: I would like to thank Thomas Mack, Ken Goosens, Doug Azzarito, Jon Martin, and the countless others who have strived to make RBBS-PC the best and best-supported BBS program around. Their continuing commitment to excellence, and their unselfish devotion to public service is a refreshing change in this otherwise commercialized world. Their attitude of "users helping users" is one that I hope will continue to thrive and grow within the PC community, and one that I am happy to do my part in propagating. DLMASTER 2.60 Page 8 REVISION HISTORY: (note: 'ß' suffix indicates beta version) 2.60 08-18-93 Added true support for FMS security levels on files. Added new config parameter to allow of security levels to be processed - default being all. 2.52ß 08-15-92 Corrected bug where multiple entries using RBBS security symbol '=' caused DLMASTER to crash with various messages. 2.51 10-09-92 Double Oops! Changed some code in preparation for an upcoming feature which affected the compilation of the compressed file so that the extension was concatenated. Fixed. 2.50 10-02-92 Oops! Forgot that DOS would only allow you to have 20 files open at once for any given process. This caused DLMASTER to bomb out when using more than 15 chained FMS files (DOS automatically uses 5 of the available 20). Thanx to Bob Kiernan from the Beehive BBS for pointing me towards this one. This release also supports the compression utility of your choice, and changes the way progress is reported during final output by using a graph. Also adds windowed output to observe the compression utility in progress. 2.41 6-29-92 Corrected small bug that caused lockup when DIR.CAT file used spaces between category codes in multi-code categories. Also includes version 1.04 of FMSCHK program. 2.40ß 4-20-92 At Last!! I have learned (hopefully) how to properly manage HUGE arrays in memory (over 64K). Have eliminated annoying bug of lockups when a single category was too large. Also reintroduced ability to handle multiple category codes per category. Also now the only supported version of DLMASTER (v1.32 rescinded). 2.30 (never released) 2.20 8-4-91 Improved the way that the final output file is created in order to reduce disk thrashing. Added proper support for monochrome monitors (finally!). Also fixed a memory bug that had crept in between versions 2.00b and 2.10b. 2.11 8-3-91 A cute one! Had changed the way DLMASTER named the temp files, which caused a strange error. If FMS category code was "PRN", DLMASTER tried to create a temp file called "PRN.DL$". Trying to write to the file would cause a DOS error "Unable to write to device: PRN", as if it was accessing the printer. Thanx to Sam Coleman for pointing out this one. 2.10ß 8-3-91 A small oversight corrected. DLMASTER would not handle FMS category headers, lines that began with '*'. Thanx to Peter Skorupsky of the Freedom Infonet BBS for pointing this out. DLMASTER 2.60 Page 9 Also fixed a bug in 2.01b whereby private files to Sysop (category code = "***") were not being processed correctly. 2.01ß 7-28-91 Fixed a bug that had crept in around version 1.20 which caused chained FMS directories not to work. 2.00ß 7-27-91 A MAJOR CODE REWRITE!! DLMASTER now supports FMS files of virtually unlimited size. Thanx again to Bruce Marusich for forcing my programming skills beyond their previous limitation. Had to give up the ability to handle multiple category codes per category, but hope to add this back in. Introduction of the FMSCHK utility, to help identify errors in the format of the FMS. 1.41ß 7-14-91 Okay - so it was late and I was tired, and I forgot to increase the stack size.... 1.40ß 7-13-91 Fixed problem of stack overflow when more than approx. 1200 files in one category. This should have been done at the same time as the fixes in 1.10b, but hadn't run into a .DIR file with that many files in one category. Thanks to Bruce Marusich of the Street Noise BBS for pointing this out. 1.32 3-29-92 Cleaned up bug of not properly deleting all the temporary files. Also allowed parsing multi- code category definitions in DIR.CAT with spaces in between codes. 1.31c 3-23-92 This actually released after version 2.20, in order to satisfy the needs of those who did not have large FMS files (over 1200 files/category, or over 2700 files in total FMS), but needed the ability to handle multiple category codes. fixes problem of not properly handling chained FMS files, and increases maximum category codes per category to 20. 1.30 6-11-91 DLMASTER could not work with files that had no extension. An oversight which I was surprised not to have turned up earlier. Thanx to Jim Mayor of the HUG BBS for bringing this to my attention. 1.20 4-27-91 First general release since fixes in 1.10b - also added code to strip "Uploaded by" lines when using BAMAWHO.MRG or RBBSWHO.MRG merges. 1.10ß 3-24-91 Fixed problem with memory management to work with arrays larger than 64K. Problem occurred when more than 2973 files were listed in an FMS directory(ies). Thanx to Dan Shore of SPPT and Tom Hansen of Church DLMASTER 2.60 Page 10 Chatters for helping me find this one. Also reformatted docs to print correctly on laser printers. Thanx to JP of JP's Place and Sam Coleman of Port-of-Call for pointing out the benefits of this. 1.01 1-5-91 Fixed bug causing certain \FMS header lines to not be parsed correctly. 1.0 1-3-91 First public release. Another rewrite of documentation. A couple of minor code trims to remove code used while debugging the beta versions. 0.95ß 1-1-91 Corrected bug causing filenames not to show correctly on the screen display. Improved error-handling code. Major rewrite of documentation. New 3-D display interface added. 0.94ß 12-25-90 Added capability to add user-specified text files at the head and/or tail of the output file. Modified screen colors slightly, and added additional information to documentation. 0.93ß 12-24-90 A quick fix. Allows use of formatted file names in FMS directories, and corrects problem that caused work files not to be deleted. This was due to the fact that DLMASTER read ALL files listed in the FMS directories, and created temp files for such, but did not include files in the output for directory categories not listed in the DIR.CAT file. This situation also caused the total file and byte counts to be off. 0.92ß 12-24-90 Added colorful display. Added capability to automatically ZIP the output file (new config parameter). 0.91ß 12-22-90 Corrected problems with stack overflow that resulted in program crashes with larger FMS files. Corrected code so that files that were for sysop only (cat code = "***") would not be included in the listing. 0.90ß 12-20-90 Initial beta release.