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HEADXTRK.DOC
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HEADXTRK
December 1989
Erik A McBeth
DOCUMENTATION FOR HEADXTRK
What is it?
HEADXTRK is a utility for extracting a header record from a
dBase file (dBase II/III or IV). The header record contains
the structure of the database, i.e. the names, lengths, and
types of fields in the database.
When would I use it?
HEADXTRK is used in connection with such utilities as
HEADFIX and dBase File Recovery which help to rebuild
damaged header records and/or files. The utility HEADFIX
requires a clean header record in order to repair damaged
header records (it writes the clean over the bad). But what
if you don't know the structure of a damaged header and
dBase won't let you look at the file? This is where
HEADXTRK comes in. HEADXTRK will help you extract some form
of a header from a file (which you can then bring into dBase
and further clean up).
How do I use it?
DUE TO THE NATURE OF FILE CORRUPTION, CHKDSK /F SHOULD BE
RUN PRIOR TO THE RUNNING OF EITHER HEADXTRK OR HEADFIX.
SYNTAX:
HEADXTRK badheader goodheader file type [?]
You need to tell HEADXTRK the name of the file which
contains the header you want, a file to write the header to,
the type of dBase file (2 for dBase II, 3 for III, etc.),
and (optional) a '?' to tell HEADXTRK that it should guess
at which fields belong in the header.
EX:
HEADXTRK badfile.dbf good.dbf 3
This will extract a dBase III header from 'badfile.dbf' and
place it in 'good.dbf.' HEADXTRK will ask you (if you have
a dBase II file HEADXTRK will extract the first 32 fields it
finds) if the fields you see are valid fields that you want
in the header. Simply press RETURN and the field will be
added to the structure. Press 'N' and a RETURN when you
reach the first non-valid field (you may see garbage or
parts of your data if not valid). We could of course just
type a '?' after the '3' and HEADXTRK would have found the
fields on its own (except its guessing ability is not the
same as a humans).
You would then want to go into dBase and use 'good.dbf' and
clean up any further problems (bad field type, length, etc.)
with the header.
HEADXTRK ERROR MESSAGES
Unable to open ->
Couldn't find or open a file. Make sure you give the full
path name and extension to the good and bad file. Also make
sure that the output file is not READ ONLY.
Unable to seek BOF in ->
Couldn't find the beginning of the file.
Unable to seek field location in ->
Couldn't find the place where the field info starts in the
file.
Unable to write EOF marker to ->
Unable to write field info to ->
Unable to write header intro to ->
Either the output file is read-only or some other read/write
error occurred.
WARNING - Found xxx fields, number of fields may be incorrect
Some form of corruption may have caused HEADXTRK to extract
too many or too few fields. Examine the output file to
determine if all fields were found.