NETUPD The netupd program was designed to allow a network/PC administrator to easily update files on user workstations (without having to physically visit each location). It is designed to replace files that already exist on the PC in question. It will not attempt to place a file on a disk where it didn't previously exist. The program is not designed to update multi-file applications, but it can do so if necessary by listing each file separately. Program Setup The program is designed to be invoked from a network login script. It requires that several parameters be passed that inform it as to the locations of files that it maintains, as well as the location of files to be updated. It is required that there be at least 1 directory where the user has complete read/write privileges. This is the location where the error log for the application resides, and the user status files (for those people with registered copies). There should also be 1 or more directories where the user has read-only privileges, where the files to be updated will reside (It is important that these directories be read-only to prevent someone from replacing the update file with some other program, such as a virus). System options are entered on the command line by preceding them with a '/', or a '-' character (For Example '/?'). When an options requires a parameter, it should follow the option with no intervening spaces (For example '/DN:\tmp'). The system options are: ?- Provide a short system help screen. If the '?' is followed by another letter, the system will provide detailed help on that option. A- This option should be followed by a quoted string that contains a line of text that is displayed giving the user information on who to contact with questions regarding the program. D- This option should be followed by the name of the directory to store the user data files. All users must have complete read/write permissions in this directory. E- This option should be followed by the name of the environment variable that contains a unique identifier for the workstation/user who is executing the program. Ideally, this should identify the workstation, since a user might log in and execute this program from more than 1 workstation. The default that the system uses if this is not specified is 'USER'. Note that the '/U' option bypasses this check. F- This option should be followed by the name of an update list file. As with the normal update files, this should be located in a directory where the user has read-only privileges. I- This option forces the system to ignore the users update file, and perform all currently defined updates. L- This option should be followed by the name of a directory to store the system error log file. All users must have complete read/write permissions in this directory. The file is named 'netupd.log'. P- This option activates a prompting function that queries the user if they wish a file to be replaced. U- This option should be followed by the users name/machine ID. It overrides the '/E' option or the system default. Replacement Criteria This program currently uses a simple comparison of the date, time, file size, and files CRC16 value to determine if the update should take place. If any of these values are not the same, then the replacement will be performed. User ID The system will attempt to read an environment variable called 'USER' (or whatever was specified by the '/E' option), and will use this as the user ID for this execution of the program. This can be overridden by using the '/U' option, and specifying the actual user ID. The ID is truncated to 8 character since it is used as a file name. (8 is the least common denominator, so that is what you get.) User Update File Each user of the system has a file that contains information concerning which files that have already been updated. This information is checked to prevent a file from being updated every time the user logs into the system. If an actual logon ID is used for this identifier then a problem could occur if the user logs in on more then 1 machine. The program will see the second login, will check the users data file, and will say that all of the files have already been updated. Therefore, the second machine would not be updated (see /I option). This problem can be avoided if every machine is assigned a unique ID which is used instead of the users login ID (see /E option). This could be implemented by using the network ID of each workstation if this is available (and unique). In this case it would have to be truncated to 8 characters (See User ID text). NOTE: This option has been disabled in non-registered copies of the program. This doesn't prevent the program from operating, it just makes it slower to complete, since it must do all updates every time the user logs in. File Lists The system can read the names of the files to be updated from an ASCII text file that contains the fully qualified names of each file to be updated.Each file name should be on a line by itself. On-line Help This program implements an on-line help system. This help is oriented towards the systems administrator, and provides information on each of the command line options. This help is accessed by typing 'netupd /?x' where 'x' is the option you want help on. Typing 'netupd' by itself will provide an general title and help screen. Future Enhancements The following are possible future enhancements to this product. 1. Make the date/time comparison smarter, such that if the local copy of the file is more recent, it prompts the user about the replacement (with an appropriate warning). It would also log that a more recent copy existed on that users workstation in the system error log. 2. Add a comment field to the update file description (both for the command line and file specification) that would be displayed if the system was running in the prompt first mode. this could give general information such as the version number of the replacement file, or descriptions of who should not perform the update. 3. Add an exclude drive/directory mode. Another possibility would be to create a user profile file that contains this type of information plus other similar parameters. 4. Make the /E parameter treat the following text as a semi-colon delimited list of environment variables to use to derive the user ID. This list could be searched until the first defined variable was found, or could concatenate the contents until the complete ID size was exceeded. 5. Make the truncation size for the User ID field a parameter. This would allow longer ID's for those systems that support them. ----------------end-of-author's-documentation--------------- Software Library Information: This disk copy provided as a service of Public (software) Library We are not the authors of this program, nor are we associated with the author in any way other than as a distributor of the program in accordance with the author's terms of distribution. Please direct shareware payments and specific questions about this program to the author of the program, whose name appears elsewhere in this documentation. If you have trouble getting in touch with the author, we will do whatever we can to help you with your questions. All programs have been tested and do run. To report problems, please use the form that is in the file PROBLEM.DOC on many of our disks or in other written for- mat with screen printouts, if possible. PsL cannot debug pro- programs over the telephone, though we can answer questions. 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