ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ S F F I L E S Version 3.1 for Spitfire 3.x ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ A shareware product from MetaúSys Supported via The Mainframe BBS Sysop: Bob Zimmerman (708) 223-2344 MetaúSys PO Box 1387 Arlington Hts, IL 60006 T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ I. OVERVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 II. INSTALLATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 A. Quick Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 B. Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 C. Hardware Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 D. Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Identify a directory for installation . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Unzip SFFILES.ZIP & MZ.ZIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 MetaZapa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Configure MZ.CFG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 SFFINST - Customizing SFFILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 SFFILES.CFG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 CUSTOMIZING COLORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 PROGRAM CONFIGURATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 FUNCTION KEY CONFIGURATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 TOGGLE CONFIGURATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Setup Environment Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Running on Monochrome Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 III. SFFILES.EXE SUPPORT FILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 SFFILES.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 SFFILES.OVR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 SFFILES.CFG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 SFFINST.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 MZ.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 MZ.CFG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 ZCOMMENT.TXT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 IV. Running SFFILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 A. SFFILES Quick Look . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 B. A Sample SFFILES Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 V. SFFILES Main Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Change_area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Move . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Delete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 copY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Headers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Rename . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Find . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 ? Diskstats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Openarch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 commeNt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 edIt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Testarch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Proper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 marK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 i SFFILES v3.1 from MetaSys Page ii --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Editdesc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Scan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 CTRL / ALT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 VI. SFFILES ALT Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 ALT-Move . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Alt-Delete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Alt-Remove . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Alt-Editdesc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Alt-commeNt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Alt-eXit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Alt-Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Alt-Testarch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Alt-Proper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Alt-marK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Alt-F1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 VII. SFFILES CTRL Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Ctrl-Tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Ctrl-Untag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Ctrl-Dos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Ctrl-sOrt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Ctrl-Save . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Ctrl-Gif . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Ctrl-Remove . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Ctrl-updatesiZe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Ctrl-updatedatE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Ctrl-botH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Ctrl-edIt_sffiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Ctrl-areaiNfo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Ctrl-reBuild . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 VIII.Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 IX. Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 X. HISTORY & Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 ii SFFILES v3.1 from MetaSys Page 1 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. OVERVIEW ------------- SFFILES is program designed to help manage the files uploaded and downloaded on a Spitfire BBS. Specifically, SFFILES will move and manage any file in any file area on your bbs. SFFILES v3.1 is a total re-write of the previous version. Not a single line of code was kept from the old version. If you have tried previous versions of SFFILES, you will find a new interface, that we feel is much easier to use. You will also find the program runs much faster and in less memory. You are once again able to shell to dos from Spitfire and run SFFILES. File area and file limits have been raised making the program very flexible! The new interface is designed to help you get the most out of the tool, easily. Using full screen interfaces, you may tag any number of files, move all of the tagged files, scan, view, edit etc... The interface is similar to XTree and is very intuitive. With SFFILES, your daily maintenance takes minutes instead of an hour. Start SFFILES, and go to your new file upload area. Select all new files by tagging them, then press Alt-T to test their integrity. If any are bad, they will be highlighted for you. Press Alt-N and your Comment is added to each compressed file. Finally, tag common files and press Alt-M and move those tagged files to a new file area. Now you are done! If you have any special programs, like a virus scanner, you can customize Fkeys 2 through 10 to automatically run any program! Some of the built-in commands in SFFILES include: Move files, copy files, delete files, remove from SFFILES.BBS but not from disk, Test archive, add archive comments, mark with todays date, update file sizes, update dates to match actual files, drop to dos, view file, edit file, open archive (e.g. Shez or Narc), view gif, build SFFILES and much much more. SFFILES is written in Turbo Pascal v6.0 and uses Z_IO custom I/O routines. These routines make the program run extremely quick, having a built in disk cache for each file. The more free memory you have when running SFFILES, the faster it works! SFFILES v3.1 from MetaSys Page 2 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- II. INSTALLATION ----------------- A. Quick Start ---------------- The following is the quick installation instructions for SFFILES. Be sure to read the next 2 sections describing limitations and hardware requirements! 1. Unzip SFFILES.ZIP into a directory. You should also make sure that MetaZapa (MZ.EXE & MZ.CFG) is in that directory (or in any directory contained in your system path). 2. Add the following statement to your AUTOEXEC.BAT: SET SFPATH=C:\SF where C:\SF is the path containing SFNODE.DAT (your Spitfire home directory). 3. That's it. You should reboot your machine so the SET command (from the previous step) takes affect. Type SFFILES and you should be up and running. 4. If you are converting from a previous version of SFFILES and you had a file called LOGO containing your ZIP comments, rename the file to ZCOMMENT.TXT. 5. You may optionally run SFFINST, the SFFILES installation program. It will allow you to customize the colors (including setup SFFILES for monochrome or amber monitors), configure and customize your PF Keys etc... You may check page 5 for a complete discussion of SFFINST. 6. You should read the section entitled "A Sample SFFILES Session" to see the differences with this version of SFFILES (from previous versions). You can find that section on page 11. B. Limitations ---------------- SFFILES can load up to 500 file areas and can handle up to 3000 files. You will need about 600k free memory to handle this many files and file areas. You can run SFFILES in as little as 150k of memory, if you don't have 3000 files and 500 file areas. SFFILES v3.1 from MetaSys Page 3 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you have more then 1500 files in any area, I would highly suggest you split this file area up. This is not a suggestion for SFFILES.EXE (it can handle up to 3000 files). You will find that your system runs faster and you get less fragmentation. When a caller lists a file area of this size, he is placing certain system locks on the SFFILES.BBS for a lengthy time. I believe you will find some minor performance improvements if you do make it smaller. C. Hardware Requirements -------------------------- SFFILES v3.1 requires less memory then previous versions. BUT, it is important to note, that the more memory you have, the faster the program runs. SFFILES itself will use about 130k of memory. When it loads the list of file areas, it requires about 100 bytes per area. So if you have 20 file areas, it will require about 2k extra. For every file in a file area, it requires about 100 bytes again. So if you have a bbs with a file area that is 2000 files large, SFFILES would require, in TOTAL, about 300k to load. Add 64k for its file buffer and you would need 360k to run. To find the exact limitations of SFFILES for your machine, do the following. Boot your PC and go to the Dos Prompt. Spitfire should NOT be in memory. If you are running on a LAN, you must start the LAN. Now type CHKDSK. One of the lines will tell you how much free "memory" you have (not disk space). If you have more then 500k free memory, then don't worry, I doubt you will reach the limits of SFFILES. You should be able to run up to 2500 files in any area. If you have more then 1500 files in any area, I would highly suggest you split this file area up. This is not a suggestion for SFFILES.EXE (it can handle up to 3000 files). You will find that your system runs faster and you get less fragmentation. When a caller lists a file area of this size, he is placing certain system locks on the SFFILES.BBS for a lengthy time. I believe you will find some minor performance improvements if you do make it smaller. To sum it up, SFFILES uses up about 130k of memory. All of the rest of your machines memory is used to hold file areas, file lists and to run utilities such as PKZIP etc... D. Installation ----------------- SFFILES v3.1 from MetaSys Page 4 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following steps overview how to install SFFILES onto your system. You will find detail description for each step following this summary: (1) Identify a directory for installing SFFILES (2) Unzip SFFILES.ZIP and MZ.ZIP into the SFFILES directory (3) Configure/Verify the MZ.CFG file (4) Run SFFINST to customize SFFILES (creates SFFILES.CFG) (5) Set up environment variables (6) You're ready to run SFFILES. Step 1. Identify a directory for installation --------------------------------------------- You may place SFFILES in any directory on your system. There are no limitations or restrictions as to "where" it may be. I suggest making a directory called SFFILES and placing the program files in this directory. I recommend this simply because it is more convenient when working with an upgrade. It is not required. Step 2. Unzip SFFILES.ZIP & MZ.ZIP ---------------------------------- MZ.ZIP contains a program called MetaZapa. This program allows SFFILES to manage all of your archive programs. For example, if you wanted to add a comment to an archive, Zip files required PKZIP and one command line, while ARC files require PKPAK and another command line syntax. Metazapa allows you to add comments to any archive format, as long as the compression program supports comments. For more information on MZ (Metazapa), check the doc file called MZ.TXT. It has a full description of how to configure Metazapa as new compression programs are released. At this time, SFFILES (via MetaZapa) supports Zip, Arc, Arj, Pak and LHC file formats. Besides unzipping MZ.ZIP, you should be sure to unzip SFFILES.ZIP into the directory. SFFILES.EXE and SFFILES.OVR are required files. SFFILES.CFG is an optional configuration file built by SFFINST, the installation program. More on this in a bit. So in summary, after unzipping your files, you should have SFFILES.EXE and SFFILES.OVR in this directory. You must have MZ.EXE and MZ.CFG in this directory, or in another directory which is in your Path. This is important. Step 3. Configure MZ.CFG ------------------------ SFFILES v3.1 from MetaSys Page 5 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- MZ.EXE is a program called MetaZapa. The idea is that if you want to do anything with a Zip, Arc etc... file, you simply do it with MetaZapa. For example, typing MZ -t xyz.zip, MetaZapa will "test" the integrity of Xyz.Zip. MZ actually figures out which compression program to use, by looking at the file extension. Zip is PKZIP/PKUNZIP, ARC is PKPAK/PKUNPAK, ARJ is ARJ etc... Currently, MetaZapa and SFFILES supports Zip, Arc, Pak, Arj and Lharc file formats. If you only use SFFILES on these file formats, then you don't have to do anything with MZ. If there is a compression program that you would like to use and it has not been defined to MetaZapa, then you need to edit MZ.CFG and add your compression program. MZ.TXT has full details on how to add your favorite compression program. Step 4. SFFINST - Customizing SFFILES ------------------------------------- If you have never run SFFILES yet, you should skip this section of the installation. This is intended for those that are familiar with SFFILES and allows you to configure it for your personal editor, archive manager, colors etc... SFFINST is the SFFILES Installation program. It allows you to customize SFFILES for your computer. It is optional. You do not have to run this program. SFFILES.CFG ----------- If you do run it, it will generate a file called SFFILES.CFG. This file is used by SFFILES. You should not delete SFFILES.CFG. If you need to modify a configuration item, simply run SFFINST a second time. It will read SFFILES.CFG and allow you to modify it's contents. SFFINST allows you to: ù Customize the colors of SFFILES (including mono support) ù Customize SFFILES Function Keys F2 through F10 ù Specify which utility programs you use Utility programs are used for certain features of SFFILES. For example, you are able to "view" any file. The default setup uses Van Buerg's LIST program, but you can specify any program to use. SFFILES v3.1 from MetaSys Page 6 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Besides LIST, other utility programs used include an archive manager such as SHEZ or NARC, an editor such as QEDIT or BRIEF, and a GIF viewer such as PICEM or CSHOW. SFFINST let's you tell SFFILES the name of the utility programs you use on your system. To run SFFINST, simply type SFFINST in the same directory you have placed SFFILES. You will be presented with a menu with 4 options on it. They are: olor Configuration

rogram Configuration unction Key Configuration uit Selecting Q will ask you if you want to save SFFILES.CFG. If you say Y, it will delete any previous configuration file and save your new settings. If you specify N, you will not save any configuration items. CUSTOMIZING COLORS ------------------ Selecting C allows you to customize the colors used by SFFILES. You will be presented with a menu that allows you to: ù Set colors to the defaults set by MetaSys ù Set colors to MONOCHROME (for mono systems) ù Customize any window used by SFFILES If you choose to customize a window, you can use the up and down arrows to rotate through the foreground colors. The right and left arrows will allow you to rotate through the background colors. PageUp and PageDown will rotate through the highlight colors (used for window borders and higlighting fields). Feel free to experiment with the colors. Remember, that if you make a mistake, you can select R to reset your colors to the "factory default". SFFILES v3.1 from MetaSys Page 7 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- PROGRAM CONFIGURATION --------------------- Selecting

rogram Configuration from the SFFINST main menu let's you specify the utility programs that you would like to use. The following outlines what utilities you may specify: A Browse program is used to "view" or read files. For example, if you have a text file in one of your file areas, pressing V will run this program so you can "read/view" the file. The default program used is called LIST. This program is available on most BBS systems and is shareware from Van Buergs' collection. If you want, you can set SFFILES to use BROWSE or any other program (including an editor). The next utility program you can configure is an editor. Similar to the list program, you can configure any editor of your choice. When using SFFILES, you may select to edit any file in your file area. This is where you tell SFFILES what editor to use. By default, SFFILES is configured to use QEDIT, a shareware editor from Semware. You may choose to configure VDE, Brief or any other editor of your choice. The next utility program you configure is an archive manager. This program is used to manage archives, enabling you to view, add, delete etc... files within a compressed archive. Some common examples include SHEZ, NARC and ARCMaster. SFFILES defaults to use SHEZ. You may configure it to use any program. SHEZ is a shareware program from John Derr and is available on most bbses. The final program you can configure is a gif viewer. The default GIF viewer is PICEM, but you can configure any GIF viewer, including CSHOW, VGAShow etc... FUNCTION KEY CONFIGURATION -------------------------- The next menu option of SFFINST is unction Key Configuration. One of SFFILES most powerful features is the ability to set a function key to any command you want. You can set F2 to an internal SFFILES command. For example, you may want F2 to move a file. So you may either press M or F2. You can also set a function key to any DOS program. For example, if you have a program that checks for viruses, you can set F10 to run that program against any file highlighted in SFFILES. You are able to set Function keys 2 through 10 to any process/function you would like. SFFILES v3.1 from MetaSys Page 8 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- TOGGLE CONFIGURATION -------------------------- The next menu option of SFFINST is oggle. This option allows you to toggle certain switches within SFFILES. The SFNOUP toggle affects deleting a file. If this switch is TRUE (default) then when you "delete" a file, you will be prompted if you want to add the file to SFNOUP.DAT (just like Spitfire does with the ERASE command). If this switch is FALSE, then you are not prompted for SFNOUP.DAT (it is ignored and never updated). Step 5. Setup Environment Variables ----------------------------------- All of the MetaSys utility programs require a single environment variable setup in your AUTOEXEC file. This variable tells SFFILES (and the other utility programs) where Spitfire is installed. You should include the following line in your Autoexec.bat file: SET SFPATH= Where is the full path name where Spitfire.EXE and SFNODE.DAT is installed. You should specify the full directory name, including the drive. For example, if Spitfire is installed on your D drive in the directory called SPIT, then the SET statement should be: SET SFPATH=D:\SPIT The next time you boot your PC, this SET command will run (from your Autoexec.bat) and SFFILES will be able to find Spitfire and it's files. You may also specify the environment variable MZ to tell MZ.EXE where you have installed MZ.CFG. See the MZ.TXT file for more information. If your system doesn't use a disk cache, this may speed up some archive commands. Step 6. Running on Monochrome Systems ------------------------------------- If you are running on a monochrome monitor, run the SFFINST program. Select "Colors" from the Main Menu. Then select Monochrome. SFFILES will now run in black and white mode. SFFILES v3.1 from MetaSys Page 9 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- III. SFFILES.EXE SUPPORT FILES ------------------------------ SFFILES.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . This file is the main executable. When you register SFFILES, you will have a special program that is compiled specifically for you and your bbs. SFFILES.OVR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . To make the best use of memory, SFFILES has many of it's routines stored in SFFILES.OVR. These routines are only called into memory when needed. This frees up memory so you can keep larger file areas entirely in memory. If you have expanded memory, SFFILES will load this file into expanded memory, making it's access very quick. This file must reside in the same directory as SFFILES.EXE. SFFILES.CFG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . This file saves any special configuration parameters you set up. This file is created by SFFINST.EXE, the SFFILES installation program. When you run SFFILES, it checks to see if this file exists. If it doesn't exist, SFFILES will use it's default configuration. If SFFILES.CFG does exist, it will load your custom configuration. SFFILES.CFG must reside in the same directory as SFFILES.EXE (for SFFILES to load and use it). SFFILES v3.1 from MetaSys Page 10 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SFFINST.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . This is the SFFILES Installation and Customization Program. This program allows you to customize the SFFILES colors, function keys and utility programs (e.g. View, Edit, Shez and Gifview). SFFINST will generate SFFILES.CFG that is used by SFFILES at startup. MZ.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MetaZapa is a program written by MetaSys that allows you or another program (SFFILES) to run "any" compression program with a single command line. For example, to test a ZIP files integrity, you type PKZIP -t XYZ.ZIP. To test a PAK file you type PAK t XYZ.PAK. You must not have the "-" in the "t". With MZ.EXE, you simply type MZ -t XYZ.PAK or MZ t XYZ.ZIP. MZ will look at the file extension (.PAK or .ZIP) and will figure out which compression program to run (PKZIP or PAK) and what parameters to use. This file is required by SFFILES and MZ.EXE should reside anywhere in any directory in your path. If in doubt, place this file in the same directory as SFFILES.EXE. MZ.CFG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . This is the configuration file for MZ.EXE. It allows you to run SFFILES with "any" number of compression programs. ARJ, Lharc, PKZip, PKPAK are just a few of the programs that SFFILES current supports. You can add any other compression program to SFFILES by editing MZ.CFG. Check the MZ.TXT file for more info. This file must reside in the same directory as MZ.EXE. ZCOMMENT.TXT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . This file contains the comment you may add to zip, arc etc... files. This typically is an ad for your BBS that you add to each ZIP, ARC etc... file. SFFILES v3.1 from MetaSys Page 11 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- IV. Running SFFILES -------------------- A. SFFILES Quick Look ----------------------- If the SFFILES you are running is the shareware version, then you are first presented the shareware screen. After the shareware screen, SFFILES will present to you the list of file areas defined to your node of Spitfire. You are able to select the file area you would like to manage. Using your arrow keys, highlight the area you want to work with and press enter. Once you have selected a file area, SFFILES loads the SFFILES.BBS and presents you the main SFFILES screen. The top 2 lines are headings. They tell you what version of SFFILES you are working on and how much free memory is available. The main window displays the files in your SFFILES.BBS. Using the arrow and pageup/down keys, you are able to move through this window. The bottom 3 lines are the menu lines. They show you "what functions" you can do. To invoke any command, press the "highlighted" letter from the menu. The bottom 3 lines change if you press and hold down the Ctrl key. They show you the Control menu available. Pressing Control and the highlighted letter will run those commands. The bottom 3 lines change again if you press and hold down the Alt key. These commands process all tagged files (more on that in a second). Finally, pressing both Ctrl and Alt (and holding them down at the same time) present the Function key menu. Functions are defined using the installation program only. Run SFFINST to configure your function keys. B. A Sample SFFILES Session ----------------------------- So you get home from work and are ready to clean up your NEW UPLOAD area. You take down Spitfire (or open a DV window) and start SFFILES. Once SFFILES starts, it shows you the list of file areas defined to Spitfire (on your node). Highlight the NEW UPLOAD area and press ENTER. SFFILES will load the SFFILES.BBS. Only the files are shown to you. The "heading area" is SFFILES v3.1 from MetaSys Page 12 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- not shown. To see the "heading lines", press the letter H. A window will open showing you your File Area heading lines. Press ESC and you are once again presented the list of files in the file area. Now lets look at the menu system. The menus are the bottom 3 lines of the screen. There are 4 different menus that can be displayed. The normal menu is displayed at this time. You will find several functions such as Move, Delete etc... Notice that only a single letter in each word is capitalized (and highlighted). That letter is what you press to invoke the command. For example, press the letter D to delete the "highlighted" file. What ever file you have highlighted with the selection bar will be deleted. A confirmation screen appears asking you to verify that you want to delete the file. Press ESC to cancel the delete request. You are now returned to the file list. So you see that the menu is easy to use. Simply press a letter and you will "execute the command" against the highlighted file. Note, that you are only processing ONE file at a time. If you want to process multiple files (for example, delete 3 files), you can either press D for each file (3 times), or you can tag the 3 files and process all of them at once. Let's see how this works.\ Highlight the first of three files with the highlight bar. Press the SPACE BAR. You will see a check mark to the left of the file. It is now "tagged". You may move the highlight bar anywhere else into the file area and again press the space bar. Do this 3 or 4 times, until you have 3 or 4 files tagged. If you press D, you will only Delete the "highlighted file" (regardless if it is tagged or not). If you press Alt-D, you will delete all "tagged files". So, pressing a letter processes a single file (the highlighted one). Pressing Alt and the letter processes all TAGGED files. If you press and hold down the ALT-key, the menu at the bottom of the screen now "converts" to the Alt-menu. It shows you what commands are valid with the Alt-key (what commands process all tagged files). There are 2 more menus. Press and hold down the Control menu, it will show you the valid commands used by pressing the CTRL key and a letter. Finally, pressing and holding down BOTH the Ctrl and Alt keys at the same time show you the FUNCTION keys and their labels. Only F1 is defined by SFFILES. F2 through F10 are defined by YOU using SFFINST. You may set these keys to any Dos or SFFILES command. SFFILES v3.1 from MetaSys Page 13 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- One of the most important features is F1 (Alt-H does the same thing). Pressing F1 or Alt-H will invoke ON-LINE Help. You will see a window open that provides help information. Press any MENU command and a help screen will be presented for it. This way you can get quick and easy help for almost any command. Try it now. Press F1. Now to get help on Deleting files, press D. To get help on Moving files, press M. To find out what "Proper" means on the main menu, press P. Pressing ESC exits help mode. Well that is the sample session. Now it's time for you to enjoy! SFFILES v3.1 from MetaSys Page 14 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- V. SFFILES Main Menu ---------------------- Overview -------- The Main Menu lists commands that affect the file that is currently highlighted/selected. The commands affect only a single file. For example, if you press M to move a file, you will only move the single file highlighted. The Alt menu is used to process multiple (tagged) files. There are some commands on the Main Menu that do no affect a single file. For example, the Change command changes to a new file area. The ?Diskstat command shows you free space on your drives. The following outlines in detail the functions available on your Main Menu. Change_area ----------- This command is similar to the Spitfire Change command. Pressing C will change the file area you are working with. If you have modified the current area, you are first asked if you want to SAVE your changes. It will then present the list of file areas available to you. You may highlight a file area and it will change and load that new area. Move ---- Pressing M will move the highlighted file to a new file area. After you press M, the list of file areas pop up. On the bottom of the screen you will see a summary of "free space". This way you know how much room you have "free" in any file area. Select the file area you want to move the file to. SFFILES will first move the file to the new area, then update the SFFILES.BBS in the new area. It will add the file in "sorted" order (sorted by file name). Finally, it removes the file from the current drive and from the current SFFILES.BBS. Delete ------ Pressing D will delete the highlighted file from disk and will remove the file from the SFFILES.BBS list. Before actually deleting the file, a window pops up asking you to confirm the "delete". You are not able to recover from this delete. copY ---- SFFILES v3.1 from MetaSys Page 15 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pressing Y will allow you to COPY the file to any dos directory you specify. Primarily, this is used to copy the file to diskette. When you press Y (for copY), a window pops open and asks where to copy the file to. It will then copy the file to the specified directory. Headers ------- When loading a file area, the first few lines are typically heading lines. They are not part of the file list. These lines are normally not displayed to you. If you want to view the file area's heading lines, press the letter H. A window will open showing the heading lines. Press ESC to close this window and continue working with your file list. Rename ------ If you want to rename a file, press R. A window will open with the current file name displayed. You may type a new file name or simply modify the current file name. When you press ENTER, the file is renamed and the file in SFFILES.BBS is renamed as well. The file is not re-sorted. You will need to press Control-O to sort the file list back into file order. View ---- The view command will run a "viewer" and allow you to browse the file. The default program used by SFFILES is LIST.COM (shareware from Van Buerg). If this program is not found in your path, an error will occur. You can customize SFFILES to use your favorite viewer. SFFINST allows you to specify any program that can be run from the Dos command line. Find ---- The FIND command allows you to search for any character(s) in the current file area. The SCAN command will search "all" file areas. Pressing F will open a window and ask you what to search for. After specifying what to search for, SFFILES begins at the beginning of the file area and searches forward. The FIND command always starts at the beginning of the file area. When it finds the string "anywhere" in the record, it will move the highlight line to that record. To find the next occurrence, press the letter A for AGAIN. It will search again (repeat the search) from the current record forward. SFFILES v3.1 from MetaSys Page 16 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ? Diskstats ----------- Pressing the ? key will clear the bottom line(s) and display how much free space is on your disk drives. Any drive containing a Spitfire file area is listed. Openarch -------- Openarch will run your favorite archive manager. An archive manager is a program designed to open and maintain compressed files. SHEZ is the default program used by SFFILES (shareware from John Derr). You may customize what program SFFILES uses using the SFFINST program. Some other archive managers that you may want to use include NARC and ARCMASTER. commeNt ------- Pressing N will add your personalized logo or comment to any compressed file. In ZIP Files, this is similar to the PKZIP -z command. Using MetaZapa (MZ.EXE), SFFILES is able to add a comment to any type of compressed file (ARC, PAK, LHC) as long as the compressor (PKZIP, PKPAK etc...) support comments. You must create a file called ZCOMMENT.TXT which contains the comment you want to add. In previous versions of SFFILES, this file was called LOGO. edIt ---- Pressing the letter I will run your favorite editor on the highlighted file. By default, SFFILES runs Q.EXE (Qedit shareware from Semware). Using SFFINST, you are able to customize SFFILES to run any editor of your choice. This program must be found in your path. Testarch -------- This command will test the integrity of an archive. For example, for a zip file, PKZIP -t file.zip will test the file for it's integrity. You will get a bad return code if the file is damaged. SFFILES invokes MZ.EXE (Metazapa) to test the file integrity. This way, SFFILES supports almost any archive type. Proper ------ SFFILES v3.1 from MetaSys Page 17 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pressing P will take the highlighted file's description and change each word to "proper case". This means that every first letter is changed to upper case, and the rest of the word is set to lower case. This is done to each word in the file description for the highlighted file. marK ---- Pressing K will set the file date to today's date. It is only done to the highlighted file. It only changes the date in SFFILES.BBS. The date on disk remains unchanged. Again ----- Pressing A will repeat the last FIND command you issued. It starts the search from the current highlighted record forward. If you have not entered a previous Find command, a window will open and ask you what to search for. It will then search from the current record forward. Editdesc -------- Pressing E will open a window and allow you to edit the description of the highlighted file. Scan ---- The scan command will search for any character(s) in "all" file areas. For any file area containing the string, a file area line and the actual record is displayed. You may then press enter to queue the file area. When you press C to change file areas, that file area will be highlighted. CTRL / ALT ---------- Pressing Ctrl, or Alt, or Ctrl & Alt and holding these keys down will display their own menu. These menus are explained next. SFFILES v3.1 from MetaSys Page 18 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- VI. SFFILES ALT Menu ---------------------- Overview -------- The Alt Menu is very similar to the Main Menu. The main difference is that the Alt menu will "process" all files that are tagged. So if you press Alt-M, you are requesting that all files tagged be moved. If no files are tagged, you will receive an error message. ALT-Move -------- Pressing Alt-M will move all files that are tagged. Similar to the M command, you are presented a file area list and you select which file area to move the files to. All files tagged are moved to the selected area. When you press Alt-M, the bottom of the screen will show you free space on your drives. It will also show you how much space is required to move all files (bottom of the file area selection screen). Files that are moved are added in "sorted filename order" to the new file area. Alt-Delete ---------- Pressing Alt-D will delete all files that are tagged. For each file, a confirmation prompt is displayed. Pressing Y will delete the file from disk and from SFFILES.BBS. Pressing N will skip the displayed file and proceed to the next tagged file and ask if you want to delete it. Pressing ESC will abort the Delete command and will return you to the file list. Alt-Remove ---------- Pressing Alt-R will "remove" the file from SFFILES.BBS but leave the file on disk (it won't physically delete the file). Since this is the Alt-Menu, Alt-R removes all tagged files (you are asked to confirm each file). If you want to remove a single file, press Ctrl-R (see the Control Menu description for more). SFFILES v3.1 from MetaSys Page 19 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alt-Editdesc ------------ Pressing Alt-E will allow you to edit the descriptions of your tagged files. Each file description is presented in a window. You may edit the descriptions. Alt-commeNt ----------- Pressing Alt-N will add your "bbs comment" to each tagged file. Similar to the regular N command (on the Main Menu), SFFILES will run Metazapa and add the zip,arc,pak etc... comment to all of the highlighted files, regardless of the TYPE of file. Alt-eXit -------- Pressing Alt-X will exit SFFILES. If you press ESC, you will also exit, after confirming you want to exit. Alt-X exits without the confirm screen. If you have made any changes to the file list, you are asked if you want to save them before SFFILES returns you to dos. Alt-Help -------- Press Alt-H to access the built in Help. After pressing Alt-H you are placed in Help Mode. While in help mode, you may press any Menu command. For the command, you will be presented a help topic. So if you wanted to know what HEADERS on the main menu does, invoke Help by pressing Alt-H and then type the letter H (for headers). You will be presented help for Headers. You can continue to select menu items and view help for them. Pressing ESC exits help and returns you to the file list window. Alt-Testarch ------------ Pressing Alt-T will test each file that is tagged for integrity. Similar to the T command on the main menu, this command runs Metazapa and tests each compressed file for file integrity. It will continue processing every file and won't pause until there is an error. Then the screen is paused so you can view the problem. SFFILES v3.1 from MetaSys Page 20 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alt-Proper ---------- Pressing Alt-P will process all tagged files and set their descriptions to Proper case (first letter capitalized, the rest lower case). So if you want to clean up an entire file area, press Ctrl-T to tag ALL files and press Alt-P to clean up that file area. Alt-marK -------- Pressing Alt-K will mark all files that are tagged with todays date. The file is only marked in SFFILES.BBS with todays date. The file on disk remains unchanged and retains its current date. Alt-F1 ------ Pressing Alt and F1 (function key), will invert the tag status of all files. If the file is currently tagged, it will be untagged. If the file is currently untagged, it will be tagged. SFFILES v3.1 from MetaSys Page 21 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- VII. SFFILES CTRL Menu ---------------------- Overview -------- The Ctrl Menu has some unique commands that help manage your SFFILES.BBS and gives you access to several other processes. For example, you can tag all files, untag all files, drop to dos, sort your file list and more. Ctrl-Tag -------- Pressing Control and T will tag all files in the current file area. Ctrl-Untag ---------- Pressing Ctrl and U will untag all files. Ctrl-Dos -------- Pressing Ctrl-D will allow you to shell to Dos. SFFILES will remain in memory and any changes you have made to SFFILES will not be saved yet. Be sure to type exit to return to SFFILES. Ctrl-sOrt --------- Pressing Ctrl-O sorts the file area. You will be presented a menu that allows you to sort by Filename, Filesize or Filedate. Press ESC to abort sorting the file area. Ctrl-Save --------- Pressing Ctrl-S saves the current file list to disk. Ctrl-Gif -------- Pressing Ctrl-Gif will run your Gif Viewer program. SFFILES v3.1 from MetaSys Page 22 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ctrl-Remove ----------- Pressing Ctrl-R will remove the highlighted file from SFFILES.BBS but will not physically delete it from disk. Ctrl-updatesiZe --------------- Pressing Ctrl-Z will update the file size of all files in the file area so that the file size matches what is on disk. Each file is checked against it's disk version and has the file size set correctly. Ctrl-updatedatE --------------- Pressing Ctrl-E will update the file dates of all files in the SFFILES.BBS file so that they match what is on disk. Ctrl-botH --------- Pressing Ctrl-H will update both the file size and dates of all files in SFFILES.BBS so they match what is on disk. Ctrl-edIt_sffiles ----------------- Pressing Ctrl-I enables you to edit your SFFILES.BBS file using your favorite editor. You may want to modify the header lines or using one of your editor features, modify the SFFILES. When you press Ctrl-I, if you have modified the SFFILES.BBS, you are asked if it should be saved to disk. This is so the editor gets all of the changes made. Pressing ESC will "abort" the edit request. Pressing Y will save SFFILES.BBS to disk. Pressing N will not save it to disk. If you did not press ESC, you are then placed in edit on the SFFILES.BBS file using the editor you have configured with SFFINST. By default, this is the Qedit program (Q). After editing the file, you are now placed in the "Load a file area" screen. Pressing ENTER will re-load the file area with any changes you have made with your editor. SFFILES v3.1 from MetaSys Page 23 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ctrl-areaiNfo ------------- Pressing Ctrl-N will bring up a list of your file areas. Instead of the file area name, you are presented the file area directory name. Highlighting a file area directory and pressing Alt-X will exit SFFILES and place you at the dos prompt at the selected directory. Ctrl-reBuild ------------ Pressing Ctrl-B will make sure your SFFILES.BBS file matches the files on disk (in it's directory). Specifically, if there are any files in SFFILES.BBS that are not on disk, you are asked if you want to remove the file from SFFILES.BBS. After verifying that all files in the file list do exits, the REBUILD command checks all files on disk and makes sure they are in SFFILES.BBS. If any file on disk is not listed in SFFILES.BBS, you are asked if you want to add the file. It also asks if you want to add it in sort order, or at the end of the file area (bottom). When adding a file to the file area, you are also asked for a file description. SFFILES v3.1 from MetaSys Page 24 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- VIII.Support ------------ SFFILES is shareware and is supported by Bob Zimmerman of MetaúSys. If you have a question regarding a feature, first check the quick help screen. To access quick help, press F1 or Alt-H while in SFFILES File Area list. You will be placed in help mode. Now press the command you have a question on. The appropriate help screen will be displayed. Pressing ESC exits Help mode and returns you to SFFILES. If you do not find the answer in quick help, please check these docs for more assistance. If you still need further assistance, you may call the Mainframe BBS at 708-223-2344. It run Spitfire 3.1 using a US Robotics Dual Standard modem (v32/v42). You may also contact Bob via RIME. There are several Spitfire conferences setup, including one devoted to MetaúSys and product support. If you prefer, you may route messages to node ->METASYS. If you prefer, Bob Zimmerman has an account on CompuServ. His ID is 72371,1700. You may leave messages via CompuServ Mail. Bob logs on fairly often and can help answer questions there. If you are reporting a potential problem with SFFILES, it is important that you include your Autoexec.bat, Config.Sys, Dos version, if you are running on a network or under Desqview, how many file areas you have, if you have CD Rom, what version of Spitfire you are running, what version (compile date) of SFFILES you are running, and what steps lead up to the problem. You would be surprised how many messages every week say something like: I tried running SFFILES on my system and it doesn't work. Do you have any ideas why not? We simply cannot help folks posting that little info. If you prefer you may contact MetaúSys or Bob Zimmerman at MetaúSys PO Box 1387 Arlington Hts, IL 60006 SFFILES v3.1 from MetaSys Page 25 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- IX. Registration ----------------- SFFILES is shareware. Many hours of work and design went into this program. MetaSys and Bob Zimmerman have designed this program to make it the file manager of choice for Spitfire BBS systems. Mike Woltz himself uses this program to manage his files. If after using this program for 30 days, you continue to use it, you must register it with the author. The current registration fee is $20. You will get a specially compiled copy just for you. If you want the copy mailed to you on disk or upload to CompuServ so you can download it, add an additional $7 for Shipping and Handling. All funds must be in US Dollars! See the REGISTER.DOC file for more information and detail on registration. Registered customers are supported by MetaSys. If need be, we can call you and make sure that you get the program running to your satisfaction. As with all our software, if you have any requests and or changes, don't hesitate to contact us. Many existing SFFILES customers will find their requests included in this version. I was surprised to find out how many folks were using SFFILES without registering it. That is the reason I added the "nagware" screens . I wasn't going to cripple it's features, but I was going to remind you that you are using Shareware and you should register it. You should mail your registration to: MetaúSys PO Box 1387 Arlington Hts, IL 60006 Be sure to include the information requested by the REGISTER.ME file in this ZIP package. Without that information, your registration will be delayed. SFFILES v3.1 from MetaSys Page 26 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- X. HISTORY & Changes ---------------------- v3.1 This is a total rewrite of past versions of SFFILES. You will find this version quicker, supporting multi-node systems and more. The shareware version released is a full featured non-crippled version of software. There is a nagware screen to encourage your registration.