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CD-ROM Aktief 1995 #3
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GATHER.TXT
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1995-03-03
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The GATHER.TXT Page 1
Version 3.01 March, 1995
_______
____|__ | (R)
--| | |-------------------
| ____|__ | Association of
| | |_| Shareware
|__| o | Professionals
-----| | |---------------------
|___|___| Member
Gather gathers specified files from specified directories and
copies, archives, or moves, them to a destination directory.
This allows one to collect copies of crucial files, such as
the AUTOEXEC.BAT, or database files, into a central directory
for transfer to another computer as a backup and for ongoing
remote maintenance and diagnosis. You can also use gather as
a form of ongoing BACKUP, MOVE, or ERASE program by running it
as a TSR or resident program. When run as a TSR you can
direct GATHER to periodically gather files as specified in a
response file, or on the command line, to a specified
directory and/or a diskette. You may discover that gather
occupies too much ram to be generally kept resident. If so,
consider periodically using it in a batch file instead, you
should find that it is MUCH faster than other software that
you use for similar purposes. Gather is command line
oriented, but the telemenu remote menu program provides a
mousy menuing (SAA/CUA if you prefer) alternate interface. If
you use the resident or tsr option with the remote menu
program, you can be in a very large program like dBASE IV and
the menu program will swap dBASE out of RAM and swap itself in
when you use its hotkey. See the TELEMENU.TXT for information
on the remote menu programs.
Please also note that gather is designed so it CAN copy files
over themselves, which effectively destroys them. If you wish
to avoid destroying files, do not copy them over themselves.
Please note that you can use the Query switch to make gather
ask before it acts.
The Gather command line:
The GATHER.TXT Page 2
Usage Gather -time -show -clock -tsr @name -fname -d\A_DIR\ ...
-ARCHIVE Archive by default, instead of copying.
-CLOCK to display the time.
-DAYS10 to gather files within the given number of days.
-D\DIR\ the destination directory (and file when archiving).
-ERASE Erases files. See also Move.
-Fname to copy the NAMEd file. You may use * as in *.dbf.
-H this help. See also the GATHER.TXT.
-MOVE Move instead of copy files.
-N reName copied files by inserting a number.
-PATH to search for files along the PATH.
-Q Query. Ask before acting. -Q- avoids a query.
-REDIR for screen REDIRection to a file.
-SCATTER to (re)install a list of files, used with @filelist.
-SHOW to show filenames during processing.
-TIME60 the repeat time or delay in seconds between file copying.
-TSR to run as a TSR or resident program.
-UNLOAD to unload the TSR from RAM.
[S] [R] Send or Receive files by serial connection.
@some_file use a response file listing the files to copy/move...
If there is 'extra' material left on the command line after
the above checks, gather tries to use it as a destination
directory. You can use "GATHER @FILELIST C:\SOMEDIR\". If
you are archiving you can use "GATHER @FILELIST
C:\SOMEDIR\BACKUP" to specify that the archive filename will
be "BACKUP".
Gather also accepts / as the switch character instead of -.
These switches are explained further below:
-ARCHIVE to force the default behaviour to archiving instead
of copying. This allows you to supply a response file without
[archive] at the top of the file and have gather archive
instead of trying to copy the files. Gather actually also
accepts -ARCH.
-DAYS10 the number of days to the oldest file to gather. If a
file was last changed 9 days ago, and gather is run with
-DAYS10, the file will be gathered.
-D\dir\ the destination directory. This tells gather to copy
the file(s) to that directory. Its a good idea to include the
The GATHER.TXT Page 3
drive as in -dD:\TRANSFER\. It will yell and quit if the
destination directory does not exist. It will also yell if
the destination file is write protected, hidden, or a system
file. Also, if there is 'extra' material left on the command
line after checking for other switches, it will be checked for
a destination directory (and filename when archiving).
-Fname to copy the named file. You may use * as in *.dbf.
Use this to copy a specific file, such as -fADDRESS.DBF, or a
group of files, as in -f*.DBF. Use the @response_file method
when you want to gather more files or be more specific. If
the source file does not exist, gather will silently continue
to the next file.
-H this help. You may also use /H -? and ?, or even a blank
command line.
-N to reName copied files to minimise overwriting previous
copies. The renaming inserts a number into the file name,
with consecutive files having a consecutive number inserted.
The seed number is based on the current second at the time of
the start of the copying. Files ROSTER, SALARY.DBF, and
WORKS.WKS will be renamed to ROSTER.20, SALARY21.DBF, and
WORKS22.WKS if copying starts at 11:30:20. If LASTNAME.DBF
was the 180th file copied, it would become LASTN200.DBF, since
20+180 = 200. Numbers above 999 restart at 0. Using this
scheme might appear attractive but it can consume disk space
rapidly.
-PATH to search along the PATH for one or more files. This
instruction tells gather to look through every directory along
your machine's current path for the file(s). Some uses of
this switch are incompatible with other switches, with the
idea that if you use *.* or the like, then you do not really
mean to copy every file along the path to the destination
directory.
-REDIR DOS screen display, to allow redirection to a file. If
you are also using -clock, the clock will continue to write
using the bios, with the program dynamically changing screen
drivers back to dos after each time update. A side effect of
this setting may be a change in gather colours. The default
is to use bios output.
-SCATTER can be considered a form of uninstall, reinstall, or
install. For example, you might GATHER the AUTOEXEC.BAT,
CONFIG.SYS, and all the various .INI files in a computer to
one directory before installing some trial software. The
The GATHER.TXT Page 4
trial software might alter one or more files, but -SCATTER can
be used to replace the original files. Gather uses a
@response_file that indicates the file's original drive and
directory with the SCATTER command. Such a file is easily
created with DIRDBF (as in DIRDBF -path -xf