PMERGE: Alethic BackMail phone directory merge utility PMERGE allows one to merge all the data entries from a 'foreign' phone directory into one's own thus reducing a certain amount of drudge-work among a network of BackMailers. To start PMERGE use the following syntax: PMERGE [-Bpathname -Q -Paaaxxxyyyy] Where the options are explained as follows: -B is the path to the original phone directory. The user may enter this switch explicitly or set an environment variable called BACKMAIL to this path (e.g. by entering the DOS command SET BACKMAIL=c:\mypath). IMORTANT NOTE: when entering this path, DO NOT terminate with the 'backslash' character ("\"). If neither option is exercised then PMERGE will assume that the user's original phone directory is to be found in C:\BACKMAIL. -Q requests 'quiet' mode. When running in this mode PMERGE will not print error messages but rather will indicate fatal errors by means of exit codes alone. These codes, the meaning of which is detailed below, may be retrieved by the DOS batch processor. -P is the user's phone number which must be in ten digit format without spaces or punctuation symbols e.g. 8769024312. As an alternative to entering this option on the PMERGE command line, the user can set an environment variable called PHONE to the required number. If PMERGE can not discover the user's phone number either from the command line option or the environment, it aborts with an error message (or exit code alone depending on the mode). USAGE NOTES PMERGE expects both the original and the 'foreign' phone directories to be named PHONE so evidently they cannot both be in the same subdirectory. It is normally the case that one receives a new phone directory by means of BackMail, so it will be called PHONE and reside in the user's transfer subdirectory (where all files go that are received by BackMail). PMERGE requires that the new phone directory be in the current subdirectory. Here's a scenario: a new phone directory is sent to the user and ends up in the subdirectory C:\BACKMAIL\TRANSFER. The user can now either place the program PMERGE.EXE somewhere on their path (as set by the DOS command PATH=) or copy the program to the transfer subdirectory. Now to merge the new phone directory with e user's original phone directory, the user issues the command: CD C:\BACKMAIL\TRANSFER in order to make the transfer subdirectory current. Next the user issues: PMERGE -P8174236543 where the string following the '-P' is the user's phone number including area code but without punctuation. Notice that in this example, the user keeps the original phone directory in C:\BACKMAIL so there is no need to enter the -B option. PMERGE will then print a 'banner' and a number of messages detailing its operation since 'quiet' mode is not in effect (the -Q option was not given). When it has finished, the user's phone directory in C:\BACKMAIL will have been increased by the addition of those data numbers in the 'new' phone directory such that (1) the numbers in question did not already appear in the original directory (i.e. PMERGE will not create duplicate entries) and (2) The user's own number will not be included even if there is such an entry in the 'new' directory. This is the reason that PMERGE insists on being told the user's telephone number before it will operate. LIMITATIONS and CAUTIONS PMERGE cannot 'merge in' new phone numbers if the user's current phone directory contains 3000 data entries or more already. If either the new directory or the original directory has become corrupted, then the result of running PMERGE will certainly inherit this corruption. Phone directories can become corrupt in a number of ways (not excluding malice) so it pays to take precautions. Alethic recomends frequent saving of backup copies of phone directory and mail files (notice that these files are intimately related so that a saved PHONE without its corresponding OUTMAIL at least will cause trouble up to and including a system crash). In particular, it would be sensible to make a backup copy of PHONE before running PMERGE. ERROR MESSAGES and EXIT CODES The following are the error messages and exit codes produced by PMERGE when it encounters an error condition. In quiet mode, no message is printed except for error 1. EXIT CODE MESSAGE ACTION 1 PMERGE found an option Re-enter the command line with on the command line typos corrected. Consult the which it couldn't list of options. interpret. A summary of the allowable options is printed. 2 No phone number found. Either re-enter the command line giving the -P option or set the environment variable PHONE to the user's number. 3 Bad phone format. Re-enter the command line or re-set the environment variable making sure that the number has 10 digits (include area code) with no spaces or punctuation. 4 Error opening user's Make certain that PMERGE is original phone told the correct location of directory. the original directory either by means of the -B option or the environment variable BACKMAIL. If this information is not given PMERGE, will assume (perhaps wrongly) that the phone directory is in C:\BACKMAIL. 5,6 Error creating During its operation PMERGE temporary files. must create temporary files to hold information. If the user is low on disk space this error might well result. Clean up unnecessary files. 7 Error opening file The 'foreign' phone directory of new phone numbers. must be in the current subdirectory. 8 Error writing to This error, like 5 and 6 is temporary files. typically the result of not having enough disk space to run PMERGE. 9 Wrong version. PMERGE has discovered that one or both of the phone directories that it has been asked to merge are in a format that it doesn't recognise. Make certain that both phone directories are in BackMail format and of a version which is no later than the version of PMERGE (printed when it starts). If necessary obtain a later version of PMERGE.