home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Club Amiga de Montreal - CAM
/
CAM_CD_1.iso
/
files
/
090.lha
/
WCat
/
README
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1986-11-20
|
4KB
|
84 lines
Walt Lounsbery's Disk Catalogue System
Version 1.0 10-4-87
+++ This set of programs is copyrighted and is released for non-profit +++
+++ distribution only. The author reserves all commercial rights to +++
+++ the programs. DCat, DCare, DCSort, DComp, and DCDiff copyright +++
+++ 1987 by Walter Lounsbery. This notice and introduction text, plus +++
+++ the programs and their description files, must be distributed as is +++
+++ without alteration, as a total group. +++
Walt Lounsbery
Route 1, Box 115
Viola, KS 67149
(316) 545-7460
This disk catalogue system was written to provide several unique
features. First, it produces file listings that can be read into Superbase
databases for sophisticated processing. Second, an editable "Don't Care"
file allows for excellent filtering of common files from the file listings.
Third, a checksum or file ID is generated on each file, so it can be
identified seperately from its file name. Fourth, one of the utilities
provided uses the file ID and a file catalogue to determine if duplicate
files are present on an arbitrary disk. Another utility provides this
capability, comparing two different catalogue lists.
At present the various components of the system are embodied in five
programs that must be invoked from the CLI. As time allows, these will
be combined into a Workbench compatible utility using Intuition features.
This program will add regular database and report functions, as well as
some new practical features.
The four programs are:
DCat - Builds a listing of files (in RAM:) of disks inserted
in drive DF1. This uses the file filters and supports
a full and an abbreviated listing.
DCare - Builds a listing of files (in RAM:) of disks inserted in
drive DF1. This is intended to build a listing of files
to filter from the index or catalogue.
DCSort - Sorts the "Don't Care" file and eliminates duplicate
file entries.
DComp - Reads a file catalogue and the "Don't Care" filter file
and compares disks in DF1: against this database. Prints
out matches and non-matches.
DCDiff - Reads a catalogue file and another catalogue file or file
listing and prints out matches between the files. Option
to print the non-matching files.
Usage of the system is straightforward, and fairly quick (considering
the checksum IDs that are generated, the filtering, and the sorting and
indexing DComp does). Pick out disks that have the majority of common
files that you want included in the "Don't Care" file filter. Run DCare
to build the DCL.dcat file and edit that for the proper file paths. Run
DCSort on the resulting file to eliminate duplicates and sort the files.
Don't worry about the disk volume names as they will be ignored (you can
use the search and replace function of your editor to null out the disk
volume names to compress the file).
Run DCat with the final DCL.dcat to generate the index listing of
your library. Remember, the lists are kept in RAM, so you may not be able
to obtain the full file attributes in the catalogue on small-memory Amigas,
or to catalogue large libraries. It is possible to catalogue in several
sessions and merely "Join" the listings together. I have found that each
disk generates about 1k bytes of listing in the abbreviated listing mode,
on average. This should allow nearly 300 disks to be catalogued on a 512k
byte memory Amiga.
Once your library is indexed, DComp can be used to determine if new
disks contain files already in your library. This program currently uses
the printer and the screen whether you like it or not. If you are comparing
your library to another, or to a group of contributed disks, it is easier
to use DCDiff to find matches and non-matches between index files. This
also uses the printer unconditionally. These programs run extremely fast,
and have encouraged me to abandon Superbase for comparison of libraries and
disks.
For further details, consult the documents on each program and
examine the sample DCL.dcat file.