Read Me for SPAudit 2.8 Table of Contents Introduction How to use the SPAudit diskette Files on the SPAudit diskette Network Considerations SPAudit on CompuServe Really NEED help? Introduction: SPAudit is an MS/PC-DOS application that collects software census information. The program must be executed from the A: or B: drive. By default, it observes and records software information from your C: and D: drives. As you run SPAudit, you can specify other drives to be included or excluded from observation. Each SPAudit diskette should hold information for about 50 or more computers. If you are auditing more than that, you should make additional copies using the DOS COPY command. If you wish to consolidate information from several SPAudit diskettes, this can be accomplished using standard DOS commands. Check your DOS reference manual for specific instructions or the SPAudit documentation on how to do this. You can also combine information from several SPAudit diskettes by reviewing the SPAudit manual included in the SPAudit package. Instructions on using SPAudit: 1) Insert the SPAudit diskette in drive A and get to the A prompt. This is usually accomplished by typing "A:" at the DOS prompt. 2) Type SPAudit [enter] 3) Highlight Collect Information [enter].SPAudit will now ask you to identify the computer which you are auditing. You can enter up to 40 characters. Please note, DO NOT USE commas, periods, underscores, or any other punctuation as separators as doing so will seriously corrupt the data results. For example, do not type in Last Name, First Name (note the comma). 4) Highlight Quit [enter]. Repeat steps 1-3 to audit all the PC's in your company. 5) Remove the SPAudit diskette. (Optional Actions) 1) Review content of README file on SPAudit diskette A) To display on screen, type A:README:MORE(You may wish to import this file into your word processing program) B) To display on printer, type A:README > PRN 2) Review content of PIF.TXT file on SPAudit diskette A) To display on screen, type TYPE A:PIF.TXT B)To display on printer, type TYPE A:PIF.TXT >PRN CAUTION: This file has over 800 lines! 3) Alter default drives to be observed Type A:SPAudit [action][drive letter] [action] indicates action to take: "+" means include, and "-" means exclude from observation. [drive letter] indicates the drive to be acted upon. Example: A:SPAudit -C -D +F (Please note the space after SPAudit before the "-" sign. This command will cause SPAudit to ignore the contents of the default drives C: and D: and look only at the contents of the F: drive. 4) Modify the User Product List A) Highlight Maintain User Product List [enter]B) Type file name, publisher and name of product for user specified program/product) [Esc] when complete 5) Print Options Highlight Print Options [enter] You now have four options on where to print: A) Summary: This will be a cumulative report B) Detail by Machine ID: This provides an accounting of the software by each PC. C) Both Summary and Detail: This report combines options A & B together. D) This machine only: This option should be used if the auditor would like to have the results of the PC just audited. Files on the SPAudit diskette: SPAudit.EXE This file is the executable SPAudit program. PIF.TXT This file is a comma delimited ASCII text file that contains information provided to the SPA by member firms. Each record consists of three fields. First an 11 character product identifier. Second is the popular name of the product. Third is the name of the publisher. We always strive to keep the database as up to date as possible. We periodically request certain information from our members to provide information for this product - some provide it quickly, others take time. If you are aware of products that are not contained in this file, we ask that you provide the following information so that we can get this information into the next version: Name of Product and version number Publisher of Product Main file name of product (I.E. Wp.Exe) File size of the corresponding file name given above. This file is purposely marked as READ ONLY. It should be left that way. Alteration of this file can cause unpredictable results. README This is the file that you are currently reading. THE FOLLOWING ARE FILES THAT ARE EITHER CREATED ONCE SPAUDIT IS USED TO DO THE AUDIT, OR A VERSION OF SPAUDIT WHERE THE ACTUAL DOCUMENTATION IS ALSO PROVIDED ON THE AUDIT DISK. IF SO, THIS FILE IS NAMED DOC.TXT. USER.TXT This file is the optional User Product List. It contains information collected by the Maintain User Product List function of the SPAudit program. The Maintain User Product List function may only be used prior to the use of the Collect Information function of the program. If this file is marked READ ONLY, the Maintain User Product List function is disabled. The User Product List cannot be modified after a PIF.FIL has been created (that indicates that a machine has been processed). PIF.FIL This file is a comma delimited ASCII text file that contains information collected with every execution of the Collect Information function of the SPAudit program. The file is organized to be easily imported into a spreadsheet or data base for consolidation and analysis. The file can be perceived as a spreadsheet. Each line(row, or text record) represents one product that was located on one machine. The first field (column) contains the Machine ID that was entered as the first step in the Collect Information function of the program. The second field (column) contains the FileSpec of the Product. The third field (column) contains the count of the number of matching FileSpec entries located on the indicated Machine ID. The fourth field (column) contains the Product Name, and the fifth field (column) contains the Publisher Name. There will be no entries for Products that were not located. Example: DAVE","IBMDOS.COM",1,"IBM DOS","IBM Corp" DAVE","123.EXE",2,"Lotus 1-2-3","Lotus" PETE","IBMDOS.COM",1,"IBM DOS","IBM Corporation" Dave's machine has 1 copy of DOS, and 2 copies of 1- 2-3 from Lotus Development. Pete's machine has 1 copy of DOS. Network Considerations: To take a software census of the content of a file server, consider the following choices: 1. If the file server is of the type that will allow DOS programs to be run against the C: (and D:) drives, simply treat the server as any other PC to be inventoried. Or, 2. If the file server is of the type that will not allow DOS programs to be run, then you must run SPAudit from a remote node, as if it were being run locally (on the server itself). Choose the drive letter that represents the root of server's C: drive, and direct SPAudit to search that drive and not the C: or D: drive. Example: SPAudit -C -D +R if the R: drive represents the root of the C: drive on the server. You can audit up to two drives at once. Please note that SPAudit is not designed to be run from a network drive to scan all PC's attached to it. We are considering adding this as a feature to the next version of SPAudit. While many companies have succeeded in creating batch files to have the SPAudit results be written to a file server (in lieu of the SPAudit diskette), the SPA does not recommend that this be done because unpredictable results may occur. As this is not an officially sanctioned process, SPA does not offer any other companies batch files for use. See "Optional Actions 3)" above. SPAudit on CompuServe: SPAudit is available free of charge on CompuServe. We routinely update the Pif.Txt file to keep it as up to date as possible. You may find it necessary to download the most current version to make your audit as accurate as possible. Once within CompuServe, type "go SPAforum". SPAudit is contained in library three If you would like to leave messages for SPAudit on CompuServe, please direct them to 76004,3111. Really NEED help? If you have read the preceding, if you have faithfully followed the instructions and are still unsuccessful in making use of the program, or if you have procedural questions about conducting an internal software audit in your organization, contact: Software Audit Support Software Publishers Association 1730 M Street Northwest Suite 700 Washington, DC 20036 Tel: (202) 452-1600 Fax: (202) 223-8756 We again ask your help in updating this program to the extent possible. If you are aware of programs not being identified, we would ask you let us know what programs they are. Please also see the section above on the files contained in SPAudit for further explanation.