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1992-02-09
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CatQWK 2.20
by Patrick Y. Lee
February 9, 1992
Copyright 1991-1992
New in version 2.20:
2.2 09 Feb 1992 Second public release
- Added routine to make the PERSONAL.NDX file (be sure to add the
line PERSONAL=Your Name in your CatQWK.CFG file)
- Fixed index file routine to work properly for conferences > 999
and > 9999
- Remove line that extracts *.PTR and *.PNT file because some
archiver (LHA to be specific) does not generate the correct
ERRORLEVEL return code upon this kind of error condition
CatQWK is distributed as-is. You are using this program at your own
discretion. The author assumes no responsibilities for damages either
from the direct use of this product or as a result of the use of this
product. Warranty of any kind is neither implied nor expressed here.
This product is the copyrighted work of the author, with portions copy-
righted by Borland International. You may use this program under any
kind of environment so you choose. There is no monetary charge for this
program.
CatQWK - Concatenate QWK files - `Cat' is borrowed from the Unix (tm)
command `cat'. This program will combine two or more QWK files from the
same BBS together into one. This allows you to follow threads easily.
I wrote this program originally because when I am behind in reading, and
have half a dozen QWKs for each BBS around, reading messages in subject
order is crucial so I won't waste time replying to messages others
have answered already.
Syntax:
catqwk [-dpath] newname oldqwk1 [oldqwk2 oldqwk3 ...]
[-dpath] This parameter is optional. It allows you to overwrite
the work path specified in the configuration file (see
below). This program requires two work directories to
be used. The directories will be created below the work
path.
newname This is the name of the new, concatenated, QWK file.
Obviously, you must include this to run the program. If
no file extension is entered, it will be assumed to be
QWK.
oldqwk? This is the separate QWK files you want to combine
together to make a bigger one. You may either list each
individual file by its name, or use standard DOS
wildcard to specify them. Anyone wildcards found will
be expanded to the full name of the files before
running. CatQWK does not check to see if the QWKs are
from the same BBS. That is your job!
The default compression and decompression program used is PKZIP from
PKWare.
The default work directories are created in the current directory.
You may change these defaults by creating a file named CATQWK.CFG.
When an error occurs, the contents of the work directories will be
left as-is. The files in there are not deleted. You will have to
delete the files manually and remove the directories when an error
occurs. CatQWK will not run if the work directories (!!!work.new
and !!!work.old) already exist. This last item is to ensure CatQWK
will not be overwriting or deleting existing files.
The CONTROL.DAT file, which contains the names of the conferences,
is extracted from the last mail packet processed. Therefore, you
may want to arrange so that the latest mail packet combined is
listed last. That will make sure you have the latest changes to the
conferences on the BBS. None of the other files (NEWFILES.DAT
listing, WELCOME screen, bulletins, etc.) are saved.
Configuration file:
This file may appear:
- in the current directory
- pointed to by the environment variable CATQWK
- somewhere on your PATH
For example, to set the environment variable CATQWK, type:
SET CATQWK=C:\COMM
either at the DOS prompt or as part of a batch file. The file
itself needs only three lines. You do not need them all, the
missing ones will retain their default values. The four commands
are:
WORKPATH=D:\
COMPRESS=PKZIP.EXE -m
DECOMPRESS=PKUNZIP.EXE -o
PERSONAL=My Name
The WORKPATH may or may not end with a trailing backslash. It does
not matter, CatQWK will figure that out and construct the work paths
properly. Case is irrelevant. You may put any amount of spaces or
tabs in front or after the equal sign.
Note that you must include the extension for the compress and
decompress programs as well. You may specify an absolute path to
these programs, otherwise, the PATH will be searched to locate them.
Also note that the options must be set for "move" for compress
program and "overwrite existing file" for the decompression program.
Examples are included for ARJ and LHA below:
ARJ: COMPRESS=ARJ.EXE m
DECOMPRESS=ARJ.EXE e -y
LHA: COMPRESS=LHA.EXE m
DECOMPRESS=LHA.EXE e -cm
The PERSONAL line is used to create the PERSONAL.NDX file. By
including a name here, all messages addressed to this user will be
included in the PERSONAL.NDX file. This file is used by readers to
flag messages addressed to you. The readers will allow you to read
messages in here first. If you don't include a name here, the
PERSONAL.NDX file will not be created.
Last words:
Some readers, such as Session Manager (by Patrick W. Hart), requires
the mail packet be placed in conference order. (This is the way
PCBoard mail doors work.) However, doing such with this program
will be painfully slow. What this program does is simply concate-
nate the mail files together, stripping the header and any trailing
garbage, and recreate the index files. Fortunately, Session Manager
has a command line switch to change this characteristic of the pro-
gram. The user needs to use the "/tc" parameter when starting the
program. This will tell SM to not expect the message file in con-
ference order.
Comments, bug reports, etc. are welcomed. I follow the Off-line
Readers conference on RIME, ILink, and Intelec. I can also be
reached in the Common conference of RIME. Happy off-line reading!
I would like to thank the users of AMI BBS (run by Walter Tsin) in
New York for playing with the program, trying to find bugs, as well
as offer suggestions. I would also like to thank Jason Hills of
Alpine BBS in Oregon for trying to break the program. [grin]
Version history:
1.0 Can't seem to find this one
1.1 17 Mar 1991 Never released
1.2 31 Mar 1991 Never released
1.3 15 Aug 1991 Never released
1.4 29 Nov 1991 Never released
2.0 22 Dec 1991 Limited testing
- Added configuration file
- Added support for other archive programs
- Much improved speed
2.1ß 01 Jan 1992 Limited testing
- Added support for wildcards [920101]
- Moved documentation from the help screens to this file [920110]
- Create the documentation [920110]
- Changed some duplicate code into function or procedures. This
resulted in a smaller EXE file (shrank the file by about 3K).
[920111]
2.1 13 Jan 1992 First public release
2.2 09 Feb 1992 Second public release
- Added routine to make the PERSONAL.NDX file (be sure to add the
line PERSONAL=Your Name in your CatQWK.CFG file)
- Fixed index file routine to work properly for conferences > 999
and > 9999
- Remove line that extracts *.PTR and *.PNT file because some
archiver (LHA to be specific) does not generate the correct
ERRORLEVEL return code upon this kind of error condition