SysMaint Copyright 1993, Carry Associates SysMaint is an OS/2 PM program to display and manage *.INI files and all Extended Attributes. It is distributed by Carry Associates, 990 Ironwood Court, Marco Island, FL, 33937. Telephone number is 813-642-9126. The application was written by and is supported by Larry J. Martin. You can obtain Technical support by calling the number above, by leaving an Email on Compuserve for 71435,470 or for the same ID in the OS2AVEND Forum Section 1. SysMaint is an extension of IniMaint and shares many of the same files with IniMaint. Therefore, some of the discussion below will appear to apply to IniMaint rather than SysMaint. However, because of the close relationship between the two programs, the discussion applies to both programs. SysMaint and IniMaint also share some common files such as documentation files, the same help file and the same API DLL. In order to ease compatibility problems with those who are using IniMaint, these common files will still start with ini... rather than the expected sys.... When SysMaint extracts the Extended Attributes from a file or directory, the Extended Attributes are placed in a file that has an internal structure and organization that is very similar to the OS/2 INI files. Therefore, when the user is viewing a set of Extended Attributes, the appearance of the information is very similar to what you would see when editing an INI file. This makes the discussions below, which often refer to INI files, equally applicable to files which contain Extended Attributes. WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING SysMaint gives you the ability to make virtually any change you want to any of the INI files or any of the Extended Attributes in your OS/2 environment. Making changes to these files must be done with care because you can do serious and unpredictable damage to your environment. It is STRONGLY SUGGESTED that you insure that you have a usable backup of any INI file or Extended Attribute that you modify in any way. WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING The enclosed is Version 3.0g of SysMaint and has the following known problems and/or incomplete features: 1. The Initial Dialog cannot be dismissed using the Enter Key, the Mouse must be used. 2. If the Groups Dialog is displayed, a new Group is selected and then OK is selected without actually making any changes to any of the Groups or the Applications in a Group, then the Last Group Displayed is not updated and a subsequent use of the Groups Dialog will revert back to the previous Last Group. 3. There is no Help available for the standard OS/2 New File Dialog. REPORTED COMMENTS OR PROBLEMS The following items are problems that have been reported, but cannot be reproduced or comments that I have received from one or more users. Any assistance on the problems or additions to the comments is more than welcome. 1. It was pointed out that although the Cursor in the Value MLE can be an Insert Cursor, there is no way to Insert information. My response is that the only way to change the length of a Value is by using the Replace Value Dialog because changing the expected length of an INI Key Value can cause unusual and unexpected errors. I further responded that the only way to change the cursor is to change it System wide, therefore, changing it only when it is in the MLE is a non trivial problem and I have not attempted to do it even though it leaves the apparent conflict between the appearance of the Cursor and the actual effect when a key is depressed. INSTALLATION To install the this version you must: 1. Run the INSTALL.CMD file that is on the supplied diskette and follow the instructions. 2. You may optionally add SysMaint to one of the Groups on your Desktop. 3. You may optionally add the entry: SET INIMAINT= to your CONFIG.SYS file specifying the path and filename of an INI file that you want SysMaint to use to store it's operational information. If this entry is not found in the Environment, SysMaint will store it's operational infomration in the OS2.INI file. GETTING STARTED If you did not obtain your copy of SysMaint to address a specific problem or you are not familiar with INI files, Extended Attributes and the kinds of things that SysMaint allows you to do with them, then it is strongly suggested that you review the Getting Started entry in the Hlep file along with the other General Help subjects. OPERATION To run SysMaint simply start it by clicking on the SysMaint.EXE file or start it from the Group to which it has been added. When SysMaint first comes up, it will default to editing the INI file that is identified by the system as the user INI file. This is normally C:\OS2\OS2.INI. The name of the current file is always displayed in the TITLE bar of the main window. SysMaint can also be started with an initial INI file specified on the command line. This allows SysMaint to be started with a new file by using the command line, but also allows for it to be started by dropping a file on the ICON on the desktop or double clicking on an INI file, once the association is set up. SysMaint will locate the window in a default location, but you can move and or size the window as you choose. When SysMaint is shut down, it will remember the file that it was currently working with as well as the size and location of the window and will restore all of these the next time it is run. There are a number of SysMaint functions which will take some time to execute. For example, the maximum length Key Value that SysMaint will load into the Key Value Window is 60,000 bytes. Since each line only displays 8 bytes, this comes to 7,500 lines and it takes well over a minute. There are other similar types of functions, although the example is the longest. During these long operations, it is not possible to do any other SysMaint operations. However, the long functions are done in separate threads and the Message Queue is not blocked, therefore it is possible to go do some other, non-SysMaint, function during this time. In addition, since there are a number of reasons why a user might not want to wait until the lengthy function is completed, for example, it might have been selected in error, any SysMaint operation that takes a long time and displays the Wait Pointer can be terminated by hitting the ESC key. SysMaint will normally store the current operating information such as the size and position of the windows, that INI file that is currently being edited and a large number of other items, in the User INI file, OS2.INI. This is sometimes not a convenient location, since this file gets completely replaced when a new version is installed and a problem with the OS2.INI file would mean that SysMaint would not run. SysMaint will use a different INI file and will create the file, if necessary, if an Environment Variable SysMaint= is placed in the CONFIG.SYS file or in a CMD file that executes SysMaint. For example, if the user wanted SysMaint to use the file SysMaint.INI in the C:\OS2\APPS subdirectory, they would code: SET INIMAINT=C:\OS2\APPS\SYSMAINT.INI MAIN WINDOW DESCRIPTION The Main Window contains three standard child windows. Two of these windows are Listboxes and the third is a MLE. The upper left Listbox will always contain the list of Applications for the current INI file or Current set of Extended Attributes. The upper right Listbox will contain the list of Key Names for the Application that is currently selected in the Application Listbox. The MLE, at the bottom, will contain the hex and ASCII display of the contents of the Key Name that is selected in the Key Listbox. The Cursor will normally be forced to the MLE and the value of the data can be modified by changing either the hex or the ASCII fields of the MLE. The cursor cannot be moved to any portion of the MLE that does not contain data that can be modified and any modification to one type of data, hex or ASCII, will immediately be reflected in the other data. The actual data in the INI or Extended Attribute file is not changed until the user selects the Update Item on the Action Menu or selects a different Key or Application in the same INI or Extended Attribute file. At this time, you will be asked to confirm that you want the INI or Extended Attribute file modified, unless you have turned the warning option off, see below. SysMaint POPUP MENUS In addition to the standard menu entries described below, each window has a Popup Menu that will appear when the standard action is taken, clicking once with the Right Mouse Button is the default. Each of the three primary windows has its own Menu and the Menu will contain thos items which are general to the entire Application and those that apply to the entries in that particular window. Most of the items on these menus are discussed below, however, there are three items on each menu that are unique to the Popup Menus and they are: 1. Explain will attempt to give the user an explanation of the meaning of the currently selected Application and Key. Not every Application will have an explanation, but an attempt has been made to explain all of the standard OS/2 entries as completely as possible. 2. Write Window to a File will cause the entries in the window in question to be written to a file, so they could be reviewed without SysMaint running. 3. Print Window will cause the entries in the Window to be printed on the default printer. SysMaint MENU OPTIONS The various SysMaint Menu options are: 1. File gives the user the ability to change INI or Extended Attribute files, refresh the current INI or Extended Attribute file, Dump the contents of the SysMaint variables, compare two INI or Extended Attribute files and Exit from SysMaint. The Compare option allows the user to Compare two INI or Extended Attribute files on any one of three different levels: A. List Applications that are in one INI or Extended Attribute file, but not the other. B. A. above plus any Key Names that are in one file, but not the other. C. A. and B. above plus any Key Values that are in both files, but are not equal. The differences are displayed in a Listbox within a Dialog that allows the user to print or write a listing of the Listbox contents and/or create an INI or Extended Attribute file with some or all of the Applications or Keys that have differences. 2. Options will display a Dialog that gives you the ability to: A. Turn off the display of the opening SysMaint Dialog. B. Turn off the dialogs that will ask for confirmation before Deleting or Modifying the contents of the Current INI or Extended Attribute file. 3. Groups will display a Dialog that allows you to define and manage the various Groups for this INI or Extended Attribute file. A bit of explanation is needed here. SysMaint gives the user the ability to arrange the applications in any INI or Extended Attribute file into Groups. These Groups can then be used in a number of different SysMaint areas and greatly ease the problems of handling an INI or Extended Attribute file with a large number of applications. For example, the OS2.INI or Extended Attribute file might be divided into two Groups, System and Private. The System Group would be the applications put in the file by OS2 Install and the Private Group would be the remaining applications. More or fewer Groups could be defined. How the user can use Groups within the SysMaint structure will become more clear below. The Groups Dialog gives the user the ability to define new Groups, to add and delete Applications and Delete Groups. The procedure for establishing a new Group is to select Groups in the Group Dialog, select New Group, and supply a name. Once this is done, the Title of the Dialog will show the current Group and the new Group will be added to the Group Menu. You add Applications to the Group by selecting them in the Listbox. The Listbox will display a specific Group or, if you want to know if there are any Applications that are not in a Group, will display all Groups. A single Application can be a member of up to 5 different Groups at any one time, so it is possible to define overlapping Groups. 4. Size will calculate the minimum amount of Disk Space that would be required for an INI or Extended Attribute file that contained a selected set of Applications in the current INI or Extended Attribute file. When this item is selected, the user will be asked what he wants to Size. There will always be several choices, the various standard INI or Extended Attribute files, the current file and the currently selected Application. If there are any Groups defined, then they will be included among the selections. If there are more than one Group defined, then there will be an All Groups selection. 5. Actions gives the user the ability to do a number of things: A. Update Current Key will write any changes that have been made to the data in the MLE into the current INI or Extended Attribute file. B. Delete Application and Delete Key will do the obvious. C. Add Application, Add Key and Replace Key Value are all the same function except entered at different points. Add Application will ask for the name of a new Application to add to the current INI or Extended Attribute file and then fall through to the Add Key, since the Applications must have at least one Key. The Add Key will ask for the name of the new Key and then fall through to the Replace Key Value, since any Key Name must have an associated Value. This will cause the Key Dialog box to be displayed. The Application and Key Names will be shown at the top of the Dialog, followed by the current length of the data, the ASCII representation of the data and the hex representation of the data. This is the only option that will change the length of a Key Value. Care must be taken when doing this, as many applications depend on knowing the length of the INI items. As the ASCII or hex values are changed, the changes will appear in the other window and the length will be updated. The only exception is when only a single hex digit is entered. The ASCII window is not updated until two hex characters are entered. D. Rename and Duplicate Key give the user the ability to change the name of an existing Key or to make a duplicate copy of the Key using a different Key Name. E. Copy and Move will ask the user to select a Target File for the Copy/Move and will then give the user the same choices as Size above. The selected Applications will then be moved or copied to the Target INI or Extended Attribute file, which will be created, if it does not exist. This function is done Key by Key, so it will sometimes take some time. However, the PM message queue is not blocked while the move/copy is being done. The actual move or copy is done by a separate program INICOPY, that can also be run as a batch program, see below. F. Backup allows for an easy Backup of the System INI file, User INI file or both the System and User INI files. Once the user has selected names for the normal backups for the two files, these files will be presented as the default for additional backups. The user can set an Option that will bypass asking the user if he wants to use the defaults. This selection will always delete the target files before doing the backup, which is one of the ways it varies from the Copy selection. 6. Recover contains a list of capabilities designed to give the user the ability to recover from corrupted INI or Extended Attribute files. These capabilities are: A. Change User and/or System INI files give the user the ability to change the INI files that OS/2 is currently using to new files. The primary use of this capability is to allow the user to make changes to the User or System INI files that he knows need to be made, but cannot make to the current User or System Files because of protection built into OS/2. Great care must be exercised when doing this, but it will sometimes represent the only way that problem entries can be removed from an INI file. B. Repair inconsistancies between the INI files and the Desktop. C. Condense the Current INI file, the System INI file, the User INI file or both the System and User INI files. The Condense is necessary because of the way updating is done to the INI files. The updating will leave empty areas in the INI files and these areas tend to get fragmented, thus causing the overall size of the INI file to grow, sometimes grow very large. Condensing the System or User INI files is not a simple task, since they cannot be copied or erased while they are being used by OS/2. This item switches the files to the copies long enough to erase the old files and copy a condensed backup to the original names. The only problem this causes is that it will reset the desktop to the boot desktop. This function is removed for Version 2.1 of OS/2 and beyond, since the handling of the INI files was changed to automatically remove the empty space. D. There are two items to Test for and Reset the condition where the User and System INI files cannot be updated. When this condition is found, the user will be asked if he wants to correct the condition and, if he answers yes, the User and System INI files will get changed so that they will be able to be updated. The process involves making a copy of the INI files and switching to them, so it takes a minute or so and involves resetting the Desktop. 7. Find allows the user to search the Application Listbox, the Key Name Listbox, the Key Value MLE, all of the Key Names in the currrent INI or Extended Attribute file, all of the Key Values for the current Application or all of the Key Values in the current INI or Extended Attribute file for either an Ascii string or a Hex value. 8. The Desktop menu has a number of entries that are associated with the maintenance of the Desktop. A. A Defaults Dialog that allows the user to set various Default entries and values for the Desktop Items. B. Reset Desktop will simply reset WPS and is normally used for testing purposes. However, there are certain kinds of manual changes that can be made to the OS2.INI and OS2SYS.INI files that require that the WPS be reset in order for them to become effective and this entry will accomplish the reset. C. Backup Desktop will make a Simple Backup of the Desktop. This menu item will maintain the number of backup generations currently specified in the Desktop Defaults. D. Create Backup CMD file will generate a CMD file using the name that is specified in the Defaults Dialog and generate a CMD file that will create a Simple Backup of the Desktop, including maintenance of the number of generations that are specified in the Defaults. E. Create Restore CMD File will create a CMD file that can only be run when the PM Shell and WPS are not active, such as after a boot from a diskette. This CMD file will accept a generation number as a parameter and, if no generation is specified, will default to generation 01, tell the user that the default is being used and only do the restore with the default if the user hits the enter key. F. Restore the Desktop ID will fix the problem where the Desktop Menu has lost the items which are unique to the Desktop, such as Shutdown. This condition is caused by a problem in the Extended Attributes for the Desktop Directory and this menu item will fix that problem. G. Restore Desktop Directory will restore the Desktop Directory structure from any one of the generations of Simple Backup files created by the Backup facilities of SysMaint. While this can be done while WPS and PM are active, it can cause a problem if there is anything else running at the time. H. Restore Desktop INI Files is similar to the item above, except it will restore the OS2.INI and OS2SYS.INI files from the backup. Once again, it can be done while WPS and PM are active but problems can occur if other things are running while this restore is being done. 9. Extended Attributes is the menu used to access Extended Attributes for a file, directory or a group of files and/or directories. The menu structure has two levels. The first selection is the function desired and this will caus a second menu to appear which will allow selection of which files and/or directories the function should apply to. All of these are described more completely in the online help files. Many of the Extended Attribute functions involve taking the Extended Attributes from one set of files and/or directories and adding them to another set of files and/or directories. In order to do this, SysMaint must have a way of deciding which files and directories match each other. The basic way this is done is by removing the base information from each path and doing the compare on the remainder of the name. For example, if the Extended Attributes for all of the files and directories in the C:\OS2\SOURCE directory were to be copied to the D:\TARGET directory, then the file C:\OS2\SOURCE\FILE.NME would be determined to match D:\TARGET\FILE.NME and the Extended Attributes for the FILE.NME file would be copied from one file to the other. In addition, the directory C:\OS2\SOURCE\SUBDIR1 would be determined to match D:\TARGET\SUBDIR1 and the directory Extended Attributes would be copied from one directory to the other. Aside from the functions that act on the Extended Attributes, there are a few utility functions on this menu: A. Defaults will present a Dialog box that allows the user to set the various defaults for the Extended Attribute menu operations. B. Describe Current File will tell the user the selection criteria used to create the set of Extended Attributes that are currently being displayed in the window. This information is kept in special control areas of the file and is not visible, thus the need to give the user some way of verifying the source for the current set of Extended Attributes. C. Update From Currnet File will use the Extended Attribute information in the currently displayed file and the internal control information to Join the displayed Extended Attribute information to the files and/or directories from which it was extracted. For example, if a user want to modify the Extended Attributes for some files and/or directories they would use View to extract the Extended Attributes to a temporary file, use the normal editing capabilities to make the desired modifications and then use Update to replace the Extended Attributes for the files and/or directories. The available functions are: A. View allows the user to view and, if desired, modify the Extended Attributes. B. Test will examine the Extended Attributes for the selected set of files and/or directories and present a window that will tell the user whether the Extended Attributes are valid or invalid. C. Save will copy the Extended Attributes to a save file which can later be used to View the Extended Attributes or can be used to Join them back to the original files and/or directories. D. Copy will Copy the Extended Attributes from one set of files and/or directories to another set of files or directories. The Extended Attributes of the original files are not modified. The Extended Attributes will be attached to files and/or directories on the Target based on the name matching algorithm described above. E. Move does exactly the same thing as the Copy does with the exception that the Extended Attributes for the Source files and/or directories will be deleted. F. Split does the same as Move, except the Extended Attributes are added to a file that can be Viewed or used to Join the Extended Attributes to another set of files and/or directories. G. Join takes the Extended Attributes in a Saved, or Split file and rejoins them to the files and/or directories selected. If the Extended Attributes are not Joined to the original files and/or directories, then the matching algorithm above will be used to determine which files and/or directories to update. H. Compare will compare the Extended Attributes for one set of files and/or directories to those for another set of files and/or directories. The matching algorithm described above is used to determine which sets of files and/or directories should be compared to each other. I. Compare to Saved EAs will compare the Extended Attributes for a set of files and/or directories to the Extended Attributes in a Saved or Split EA file. This can be used to see what kind of changes were made to the Extended Attributes for a set of files and/or directories because of some action on the Desktop. Once the function is selected, the list of what type files and/or directories the function should apply to is presented. These selections and their effects are: A. Single File will perform the function against a single file. The user will be presented with a file selection dialog that will allow them to select the file. B. Single Directory will perform the function against a single directory. The user will be presented with a modified file selection dialog that will only show the drive and directory entries. The directory must be selected by double clicking on the desired directory. Simply selecting the directory and then clicking on OK will not work because of the way that the file selection dialog handles the various mesages. C. All Files in Directory will perform the function against all the files in a selected directory. The user will be presented with a modified file selection dialog that will only show the drive and directory entries. The directory must be selected by double clicking on the desired directory. Simply selecting the directory and then clicking on OK will not work because of the way that the file selection dialog handles the various mesages. D. All Directories in Directory will perform the function against all the subdirectories in a selected directory. The user will be presented with a modified file selection dialog that will only show the drive and directory entries. The directory must be selected by double clicking on the desired directory. Simply selecting the directory and then clicking on OK will not work because of the way that the file selection dialog handles the various mesages. E. All Files & Dirs. in Directory will perform the function against all the files and subdirectories in a selected directory. The user will be presented with a modified file selection dialog that will only show the drive and directory entries. The directory must be selected by double clicking on the desired directory. Simply selecting the directory and then clicking on OK will not work because of the way that the file selection dialog handles the various mesages. F. All Files in Directory and SubDirs. is the same as C. above, except that SysMaint will include not only the files in the directory but any files found in any subdirectory of the selected directory. G. All Directories in Directory and SubDirs. is the same as D. above, except that SysMaint will include not only the subdirectories in the directory but any subdirectories found in any subdirectory of the selected directory. H. All Files & Dirs. in Directory and SubDirs. is the same as E. above, except that SysMaint will include not only the files and/or subdirectories in the directory but any files and/or subdirectories found in any subdirectory of the selected directory. I. All Files on Drive will perform the function against all the files on a selected drive. The user will be presented with a modified file selection dialog that will only show the drive entries. The drive must be selected followed then the OK box. J. All Directories on Drive will perform the function against all the directories on a selected drive. The user will be presented with a modified file selection dialog that will only show the drive entries. The drive must be selected followed then the OK box. K. All Files & Directories on Drive will perform the function against all the files and/or directories on a selected drive. The user will be presented with a modified file selection dialog that will only show the drive entries. The drive must be selected followed then the OK box. INICOPY INICOPY is the program that is used by SysMaint to do the actual COPY/MOVE operations. This option is implemented as a separate program so that the user will have the ability to make copies of INI or Extended Attribute files, including the User and System INI or Extended Attribute files, at any time during the day. The parameters expected by INICOPY are: Required Parameters: -Ifilename - The fully qualified path and filename of the Source, Input, INI or Extended Attribute file. -Ofilename - The fully qualified path and filename of the Target, Output, INI or Extended Attribute file. The Target will be created if it does not exist. Optional Parameters: -Fx - Function requested - Default is C(opy) C = C(opy) M = M(ove) -E - COPY/MOVE Entire INI or Extended Attribute file - Default -A - COPY/MOVE All Groups -Ggroup - COPY/MOVE Specific Group -Sapp - COPY/MOVE Specific Application -T - Use Fast Copy. This is only valid if -E is also specified