旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� � � � UpLoadProcessor Revision History File � � � � � � � � � � 靈캠 � � � � � � � � � � The following is a list of the most � 聃컴� � 봬캭 � � recent changes made to the ULP system � � � � by revision level, in reverse order. 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� � 袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴� * NOTE: I've gotten several questions regarding ARJ SFX archives and ULP's inability to detect them. This is not a limitation of ULP, but bugs in ARJ versions 2.21, 2.21a and 2.22. The ARJ SFX signature was not inserted into the ARJ SFX header, therefore no program relying on this signature (such as ULP) cannot detect ARJ SFXs created with these versions. Version 2.20 and 2.30 correctly insert the signature. 0.93� - Two new command-line parameters have been added to ULP.EXE. '-R' (5/9/92) will retest all archives found in the subdirectory passed to it. It will not use duplication checking or age checking; it was installed to allow the periodic retesting of archives for viruses, etc. '-M' will retest and convert all archives found in the subdirectory indicated; this can be used for mass archive conversion. Note that these functions cannot be used on a CD-ROM or other write-protected media at this time. A new command-line parameter has been added to ULPTEST.EXE: '-H', which defines the COM port handshaking method. Valid arguments are 'hardware' (RTS/CTS), 'software' (XON/XOFF) or 'both', the default being 'hardware'. If you use hardware handshaking, then you do not need to specify a different handshaking method. (The previous version of ULPTEST defaulted to 'hardware', so if it operated correctly, then no changes are necessary). ULPADS has a new command-line parameter: -M will merge two BBS ads databases together into a single database. This will allow a sysop to keep his/her database intact, while adding any new BBS ad data included in the distribution database. Refer to the documentation for more information. The database validation routine has been removed from ULP.EXE and ULPTEST.EXE; it was just too slow on large databases. It is retained in ULPDB.EXE, however, to validate the database before compiling. It is no longer a configurable parameter; it is now part of the standard process of compiling the database. Remove the DB_VALIDATE parameter from your configuration file. The segmented sorting algorithm in ULPDB has been improved by scaling the number of segments to best fit the database size. Valid numbers of segments are 2, 4 and 8 in addition to the original 16, automatically determined by ULPDB. Developing this has improved the sorting speed by up to 40% over the original 16 segment sorting (if a smaller number of segments is used). Some improvements have been made in the archive viewing function of ULPDB; age has been added to the display. If you ran ULPDB in the file viewing mode (-V), you *had* to supply a path to the file being viewed. If you were in the current directory where the file to be viewed was located, and did not provide a path, ULPDB would fail saying it could not locate the file (duhhh...). Fixed. The file identification routine would incorrectly identify a file *within* an archive that ended with a .ARC extension as being an ARC format archive. While this may sound serious, this bug has been in the code since day one, and someone just now noticed it; this bug would cause false archive failures while unpacking. Bad GIF files were not being renamed to .BAD as advertised. Fixed. Oops...the database validation feature could not be disabled. Fixed. NOTE: Sorry for the length of time to get this version out; I've been extremely busy with work, a couple of graduate classes and my BBS converting to a Fidonet hub. Most of this is behind me now, allowing me to spend more time programming ULP. 0.92� - ULPID.EXE has been removed from the ULP distribution archive. It (3/29/92) will be re-released at a later date as a separate product for non-ULP users. The original intent for ULPID is no longer necessary, as ULPTEST performs all of the same checking ULPID did (and has for some time); there is no need to bloat the distribution archive. If you need to branch in PCBTEST.BAT for some reason, use PCBoard's TESTFILE.EXE utility. CONFIGURATION FILE CHANGE!!! ULPTEST is now capable of generating status information for the user online through the COM port. The COM port information can be added on the command line, or read from PCBOARD.DAT and PCBOARD.SYS, defined either from the command line or the PCBoard environment variables. Refer to the COMM_IO parameter in the configuration file and documentation. Note: the comm I/O routines I am currently using support only IRQ2-7; this should support most systems. If you require a high interrupt, please contact me. CONFIGURATION FILE CHANGE!!! The maximum number of lines to be inserted from an internal description is now configurable. CDC has defined that the maximum number of lines for FILE_ID.DIZ is 10; ULP previously had no limit (this probably wasn't wise). Refer to the DESC_LIMIT parameter in the configuration file and documentation. CONFIGURATION FILE CHANGE!!! ULP and ULPTEST can now validate the CRC database before using it, to ensure that they are not using a corrupted database. This was installed for users who may be nervous about the validity of their database; I want to emphasize that there have been NO reports of corrupted databases to date. Note that this only validates the CRC for the period of time since the last database compile (-S option). Make backups of your database frequently, as nothing can be done to recover a corrupted database. Refer to the DB_VALIDATE configuration option in the documentation. The node number parameter is now optional in ULPTEST. ULPTEST will attempt to obtain the node number from PCBOARD.SYS, the path to which is either defined on the command-line or from the PCBoard environment variables. If you have the environment variables disabled (using the /NOENV switch in PCBoard), you will have to create a separate PCBTEST.BAT for each node with the specified node number on the command line. Refer to the documentation for a complete explanation. The command line switches have been changed for the ULP system programs. All switches now have '-' identifiers so that arguments can be included in any order, and to support wildcards in the future (I hope). Refer to the documentation for more information. A function has been added to ULPDB to review an archive and report which files inside the archive are already in the database. This feature can be used to help determine if an archive rejected for duplication should be accepted. CONFIGURATION FILE CHANGE!!! An ASCII text file viewing utility (such as Vernon Buerg's LIST) is required for the new ULPDB viewing function. Refer to the VIEWER configuration parameter in the documentation. With the addition of COM I/O to ULPTEST, all VERIFY.ULP files uploaded to pre-verify archives are now failed by ULPTEST to prevent the user from getting upload credit for uploading a VERIFY.ULP file (for those boards enforcing download ratios). Hey! Check it out! No bugs reported or found in the last version... 0.91� - The first beta test release (finally!); all major features have been (3/2/92) installed, and only bug fixes and minor improvements will occur before release of version 1.00. The beta releases are planned to be less frequent than the alpha releases were, probably on the order of every 4 weeks or so. CONFIGURATION FILE CHANGE!!! The CRC duplicate database format has been changed, resulting in a 50% increase of the main database size. The .NEW database file has been obsoleted; remove this parameter from your configuration files. This change was required to provide room to add features now and in the future. A utility is included (DBCVT.EXE) that will convert your current database to the new format. Just run DBCVT from your ULP directory and answer the questions. CONFIGURATION FILE CHANGE!!! ULP and ULPTEST now support two logging modes: verbose and terse, set by the parameter LOG_MODE. The terse mode is equivalent to the original logging, while the verbose mode includes more information about the archive compiled during testing. ULPTEST now updates the duplicate database with its own data to prevent a user from uploading the same file twice. Prior to this release, the database was updated only during the event by ULP, allowing this potential problem. Since ULPTEST does not perform as stringent of tests as ULP does, it's CRC data is discarded by ULPDB during compilation. Therefore, you must run ULP in your event at least as often as you run ULPDB to compile your database, to ensure that the data is entered permanently into the CRC database. ULPADS no longer requires the configuration file as a parameter; instead you supply the name of the BBS ads database file. This resulted in a reduction of the program size (about 5K). PCBTEST.BAT FILE CHANGE!!! ULPTEST would fail archives for duplication and/or age limits when invoked using PCBoard's TEST function. This has been fixed, and the %2 parameter passed to PCBTEST.BAT by PCBoard must be passed to ULPTEST as well. Refer to the new PCBTEST.BAT file included in this archive. ULPTEST would log a negative age to the log file for an archive that failed the age limit. The archive was correctly processed and dispositioned; just the logging was incorrect. ULPTEST could leave its temporary subdirectory behind with a read-only archive in it under special circumstances with nested archives. And (barf!) ULPTEST could hang the system if an invalid VERIFY.ULP file was uploaded for upload preverification. All are fixed (*sigh*). If an ARC, PAK or ZIP archive was hacked up bad enough, ULP and ULPTEST would hang during file screening, usually causing a memory error. The archive screening routine has been strengthened handle badly hacked archives. Worked on the documentation some more to help clarify the operation and installation of ULP. Hopefully it won't stink (as bad) now... 0.90�/A through 0.90�/I - Alpha test versions...