Collection of Tools & Utilities/Collection of Tools and Utilities.iso/bbsutil/qlist2.zip/QLIST.DOC

Text File | 1989-03-03 | 18KB | 389 lines

                              Q L I S T
                     QuickBBS On-Line File Lister
                             Version 2.0

              (c) Copyright 1988, 1989 by Richard Lovett
                           Kansas City, Mo.

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      This program is public domain.  No fee is requested,  and
      QLIST can be freely copied and distributed as long as it is
      not sold or used in a commercial application.  However, the
      author retains a copyright and all of its associated rights
      and privileges.

      I wish to acknowledge the work of Dan Barrett of CORE BBS
      (619-295-2912), whose QFL (QuickBBS File Lister) inspired me
      to write QLIST.  I have made liberal use of concepts from QFL,
      but have put several additional features into QLIST that I hope
      make it more useful.

      Files that should be in this .ARC or .ZIP file are:
         QLIST.EXE ----- The executable program
         QLIST.DOC ----- This file

     If you would like to repay me for the use of this program, let me
     know how you like QLIST or what changes you'd like to see. Worse
     than no payment for a program is no feedback.

     VERSION HISTORY:

       Ver. 1.0 -- Sept. 88 -- First public release.

       Ver. 1.1 -- 9/19/88 --- Added features to generate statistics
                               on total files, total bytes and bytes
                               free in a file list.

       Ver. 2.0 -- 3/1/89 ---- Made the file compression commands more
                               flexible to accomodate PKZIP and
                               future file compression programs. Fixed a
                               bug that caused filenames beginning with
                               a digit to be dropped from lists.

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QLIST produces an on-line list of all or part of the files on a
QuickBBS or Fido-Net bulletin board system.  By means of a QBBS
or Fido event (in which the BBS exists to DOS at a predetermined
time and errorlevel and triggers a batch file), QLIST can be
set to produce this list -- or several different lists -- automat-
ically as often as you wish.  My QBBS board executes QLIST at 1 a.m.
daily.

QLIST is keyed to security levels.  Users will get a list of only
the  files they have access to.  You can have QLIST create lists for
as many different access levels as you want, and QLIST will store
each of them in whatever directory you specify.  QLIST also can
compress the lists for easier downloading, using the file compres-
sion program of your choice.

QLIST requires three external files:

   1.  FLSEARCH.CTL.  If you are a QuickBBS sysop, you know the purpose
       of this file and how to create it.  For the non-QBBS sysop,
       FLSEARCH.CTL is a text file you create that contains paths and
       privilege levels for each of the QBBS files subdirectories.  If
       you are a Fido-Net sysop, read below for instructions on
       creating FLSEARCH.CTL.  QLIST must be in the same directory as
       FLSEARCH.CTL.

   2.  QLIST.CTL.  This is another text file you create.  It is a
       setup file that tells QLIST what to do.  QLIST.CTL must be in
       the same directory as QLIST.

   3.  FILES.BBS.  You probably have one of these files in each of
       your BBS files subdirectories.  QLIST uses FILES.BBS to know
       what files are in each subdirectory, and also uses the
       descriptions you have given to each file.

If QLIST cannot find FLSEARCH.CTL or QLIST.CTL, it will halt with an
error message.  If it cannot find a FILES.BBS file in a particular
directory, it won't stop, but it won't produce a list of the files
in that directory.  Conversely, QLIST will not include any files in
the output file that aren't listed in FILES.BBS.

You can run QLIST from the DOS command line by making sure the directory
containing QLIST and QuickBBS is the default and then typing "QLIST"
(without the quote marks) at the DOS prompt.  Or, as indicated earlier,
you can include QLIST in a batch file.

When run, QLIST reads data from QLIST.CTL in order to know what lists
you want created, what privilege levels each list is associated with,
and the name and path of the output file for each list.  QLIST then
reads data from FLSEARCH.CTL and matches security levels in each of
its file areas with the security levels you specified in QLIST.CTL.

For each list you specify in QLIST.CTL, QLIST creates a list of
all files with a security level equal to or less than the level you
desire, gives it a filename you specify, and puts it in whatever
subdirectory you want.  You also have the option for QLIST to
compress the output file, and to erase the original afterward.


------------------
CREATING QLIST.CTL
------------------

QLIST.CTL is an ASCII text file that consists largely of keywords
(special commands), some followed by other text or commands.  The
sample QLIST.CTL file below should make it clear how to write one.

There are 14 keywords.  (As of Ver. 2, these include three new keywords
-- COMPRESS, COMMAND and COMPFILE -- and the keyword ARC has been
dropped.)  The keywords can be typed in uppercase or lowercase, but
they should be flush left (no leading spaces) and should have at least
one space following them.  The keywords are:

     HEADER -- Header lines are printed at the top of the file list
     and can include your BBS name, phone number, sysop name and
     whatever else you want.  You can have up to 10 header lines,
     each up to 79 characters long.  Each line will be centered.
     Any text following the word HEADER will be put in the file.  If
     you want a blank line in the heading, just type HEADER on a line
     by itself.

     FOOTER -- Works the same as a header but is printed at the end of
     the file.  You can have up to 10 footer lines, each 79 or fewer
     characters.  Footer lines will be written flush left rather than
     centered.

     TARGET -- This is the full path and filename of the list file
     that QLIST will create.  You will want to make sure you put this
     file in a subdirectory (file area) accessible to callers with the
     security level you specify for this particular list.

     SECURITY -- Whatever number you type after this keyword will
     govern which of your BBS file areas will be listed in a
     particular QLIST list.  If you enter 5, QLIST will include all
     file areas with a security of 5 or less.  Numeric security levels
     will mean more to QBBS sysops than to Fido sysops, but for purposes
     of QLIST, both systems can use numeric privilege levels.  (See the
     section on FLSEARCH.CTL below.)

     COMMENTS -- QLIST parses through the FILES.BBS file in each file
     area that will be part of a list, and includes some of that
     information in the output file.  Most sysops put headings and
     comments in their FILES.BBS files along with the filenames and
     descriptions.  If you put the keyword COMMENTS in a setup, those
     extra lines will be included in the output.  The default is to
     leave them out.

     If comments are omitted, that also omits any heading you may
     have typed into FILES.BBS to tell users which file area is
     being listed, etc.  In that case, QLIST gets the name of the
     file area from FLSEARCH.CTL.  (The underline characters that
     represent spaces in FLSEARCH.CTL will be converted to spaces.)
     If comments are included, QLIST assumes that one or more of the
     comment lines in FILES.BBS constitutes the heading, and will
     not generate its own from FLSEARCH.CTL.

     Similarly, if you include comments, QLIST assumes you have
     included in FILES.BBS a header along the lines of:

       FILENAME   SIZE    DATE    DESCIPTION
       --------   ----    ----    ------------------------------

     Therefore, it will not generate its own.  However, if COMME