Category : BBS Programs+Doors
Archive   : CDCOM.ZIP
Filename : MAKEXRF.DOC

MAKEXRF - Ver 1.1d

Makexrf's main function is to create the cross-reference file (cdcom.xrf)
that contains all the files on the cdrom disk, so that searching for
a filename takes milli-seconds instead of minutes to find. However
some disks will need to have a master description file created from
the available listings. This can be created using makexrf also.

Included in the CFGFILES.ZIP file are various configuration files for
cdrom disks that I have come into contact with. Check below to see if you
can find the disk you have, if not you can create your own configuration
files for makexrf to use. This is covered towards the end of this doc file.

I cannot guarantee that all of these configuration files will run
flawlessly as I do not have the vast majority of these cdrom disks
to test these with. If you have problems with them give me a call
so I can correct them, and help you figure out where the problem
is also. They should work just fine however, unless I overlooked
something when I created them.

If you are getting ERROR 7's while running makexrf, this is a out of memory
error. See bottom of this doc file for a discussion on possible solutions.

*** WARNING ***
Some of the setups require running a CONVERT.BAS program under dos 5.00's
qbasic.exe file. There is one problem with this program and that is if
you are using a program like RVMX or Qemm's VIDRAM program for extra dos memory
qbasic.exe will lock up your computer. You must disable (turn them off)
before running qbasic.exe.

CDROM DISK EXAMPLES/CONFIGURATION FILES & INSTRUCTIONS

ALPHA & OMEGA VOL 1 (A&OV1.ZIP)
-------------------------------
Note: This disk is also selling as the California Collection.
If you can, download or freq A&OV1FIX.ZIP from His Board (805) 652-1478
1:206/1 if you don't already have it as these are updated and fixed file
descriptions for this disk. I also consolidated the categories down to 36
from the 150 or so that you'll end up with if you use the descriptions off
the cdrom disk. If you got a 1.44mb floppy from me with the cdrom disk then
its on the disk. Follow the instructions in the A&OV1FIX.DOC file for running
makexrf with them. If you don't have access to the A&OV1FIX.ZIP file then you
can use the ones on the disk and just follow the example below.

ex: (cdrom drive letter e:)
pkunzip e:\dirs\filesbbs
pkunzip cfgfiles a&ov1.zip
pkunzip a&ov1
makexrf convert
makexrf e:

CARRS 003 (CARRS3.ZIP)
----------------------
ex: (cdrom drive letter e:)
pkunzip e:\text\filetxt
pkunzip cfgfiles carrs3.zip
pkunzip carrs3
makexrf convert
makexrf e:

CARRS 003-1 (CARRS3-1.ZIP)
--------------------------
This disk may also be called nightowl 003-1.

ex: (cdrom drive letter e:)
copy e:dir* (ie: all DIR* filenames into current directory)
pkunzip cfgfiles carrs3-1.zip
pkunzip carrs3-1
makexrf convert
makexrf e:

FRED FISH COLLECTION ON-LINE VOLUME 1.4 (FFV14.ZIP)
---------------------------------------------------
This is the AMIGA Fred Fish collection disk. You'll have to convert
the descriptions off the cdrom disk before you can run makexrf. The
program convert.bas has been provided to do this. It will run under
ms-dos 5.00 qbasic.exe program. All you need to tell it is the cdrom
drive letter where the FFV14 disk is and it will do the rest. It will
take a while to do the conversion, takes 30 minutes on my 286-12.

note: due to size of FFV14.ZIP it is not included in cfgfiles.zip. Call
one of the support bbs's and download as ffv14.zip.

ex: (cdrom drive letter e:)
pkunzip cfgfiles ffv14.zip
pkunzip ffv14
qbasic convert (F5 once loaded to run, enter e: for cdrom drive letter)
makexrf convert
makexrf e:

GIGABYTE (GIGABYTE.ZIP)
-----------------------
This disk exactly matches the first release of nightowl 004 (nowl4#1).

ex: (cdrom drive letter e:)
copy e:dir* (ie: copy above DIR filenames into current directory)
pkunzip cfgfiles gigabyte.zip
pkunzip gigabyte
makexrf convert
makexrf e:

GIGABYTE GOLD (GIGAGOLD.ZIP)
----------------------------
This disk came out in early 1992. You won't need the GIG00 from the cdrom
disk so delete it after copying over the GIG* from the indexes directory.
I included a edited version called GIG100 in gigagold.zip.

ex: (cdrom drive letter e:)
copy e:\indexes\gig*
del gig00
pkunzip cfgfiles gigagold.zip
pkunzip gigagold
makexrf convert
makexrf e:

HALL OF FAME VOL 1 (HOFV1.ZIP)
------------------------------
ex: (cdrom drive letter e:)
copy e:\1\*.bbs
pkunzip cfgfiles hofv1.zip
pkunzip hofv1
makexrf convert
makexrf e:

NIGHTOWL 004 #1 AND #2 (NOWL4#1.ZIP AND NOWL4#2.ZIP)
----------------------------------------------------
These disks may also go by the CARRS label. There are two 004 disks.
The #1 disks DIR files are dated 4-28-91, and the #2 disks DIR files
are dated 7-15-91. Use either the nowl4#1 or nowl4#2 depending on which
disk you have.

ex: (cdrom drive letter e:)
copy e:dir*
pkunzip cfgfiles nowl4#?.ZIP
pkunzip nowl4#?
makexrf convert
makexrf e:

NIGHTOWL 004-1 (NOWL4-1.ZIP)
----------------------------
This disk may also go by the CARRS label.

ex: (cdrom drive letter e:)
copy e:dir* (ie: copy above DIR filenames into current directory)
pkunzip cfgfiles nowl4-1.zip
pkunzip nowl4-1
makexrf convert
makexrf e:

NIGHTOWL 004-2 (NOWL4-2.ZIP)
----------------------------
Follow same steps as above, except substitute nowl4-2 where you see nowl4-1
and just copy over any DIR files you find (look in makexrf.cfg to be sure).

NIGHTOWL 005 (NOWL5.ZIP)
------------------------
ex: (cdrom drive letter e:)
copy e:\text\dir*
pkunzip cfgfiles nowl5.zip
pkunzip nowl5
makexrf convert
makexrf e:

NIGHTOWL 006 and 006.1 (NOWL6.ZIP)
----------------------------------
ex: (cdrom drive letter e:)
copy e:\text\dir*
pkunzip cfgfiles nowl6.zip
pkunzip nowl6
makexrf convert
makexrf e:

NIGHTOWL 007
------------
ex: (cdrom drive letter e:)
copy e:\text\dir*
pkunzip cfgfiles nowl7.zip
pkunzip nowl7
makexrf convert
makexrf e:

PC-SIG 11th Edition Disk (PCSIG11.ZIP)
--------------------------------------
Due to the size of pcsig11.zip it is not included in cfgfiles.zip. Call
one of the support BBS's and download PCSIG11.ZIP. Read pcsig11.doc
on how to setup for pcsig 11th disk.

PHOENIX Ver 2.0 (PHNX20.ZIP)
----------------------------
You will need to convert the *.LIS description files before makexrf can
use them. I included a convert.bas program that runs under ms-dos 5.00
qbasic program that will do this. If you don't have access to this program
then let me know and I'll compile it for you.

ex: (cdrom driver letter e:)
copy e:\lists\*.lis
pkunzip cfgfiles phnx20.zip
pkunzip phnx20
qbasic convert (press F5 once loaded to run it, alt-F X to quit)
makexrf convert
makexrf e:

PHOENIX Ver 3.0 (PHNX30.ZIP)
----------------------------
You will need to convert the *.LIS description files before makexrf can
use them. I included a convert.bas program that runs under ms-dos 5.00
qbasic program that will do this. If you don't have access to this program
then let me know and I'll compile it for you.

ex: (cdrom driver letter e:)
copy e:\lists\*.lis
pkunzip cfgfiles phnx30.zip
pkunzip phnx30
qbasic convert (press F5 once loaded to run it, alt-F X to quit)
makexrf convert
makexrf e:

Programmers Rom QB-1011 (PRGMROM.ZIP)
-------------------------------------
You will need to convert the _ROM.CAT file to a format that makexrf can
use. The program convert.bas has been included to do this task. It will
work under dos 5.00 qbasic.exe program. If you do not have access to this
program, contact me and I will give you a compiled convert.bas to do the job.

ex: (cdrom drive letter e:)
copy e:\_rom.cat
pkunzip cfgfiles prgmrom.zip
pkunzip prgmrom
qbasic convert (press F5 once loaded to run it, ALT-F X to quit)
makexrf convert
makexrf e:

Rbbs-In-A-Box Vol 1, #1 (RBBSV1N1.ZIP)
--------------------------------------
ex: (cdrom drive letter e:)
copy e:\rbbs\cdmaster.dir
pkunzip cfgfiles rbbsv1n1.zip
pkunzip rbbsv1n1
makexrf ptr
makexrf e:

Rbbs-In-A-Box Vol 1, #2 (RBBSV1N2.ZIP)
--------------------------------------
ex: (cdrom drive letter e:)
copy e:\rbbs\cdmaster.alp
pkunzip cfgfiles rbbsv1n2.zip
pkunzip rbbsv1n2
makexrf ptr
makexrf e:

Rbbs-In-A-Box Vol 3, #1 & Vol 3.1, #1 (RBBSV3N1.ZIP)
----------------------------------------------------
For the Vol 3, #1 disks things are a little different. One of them has
only 1 file in the \SWAL directory, this is the first disk. The second
disk has all these files. So for these disks just copy over the
cdmaster.alp file from the \RBBS directory on the cdrom disk to the
current directory.

ex: (cdrom drive letter e:)
copy e:\rbbs\cdmaster.alp
pkunzip cfgfiles rbbsv3n1.zip
pkunzip rbbsv3n1
makexrf ptr
makexrf e:

Vol 3.1, #1 does not have a cdmaster.alp file in the \RBBS directory so
makexrf will have to sort the cdmaster.dir file so that it can use it.

ex: (cdrom drive letter e:)
copy e:\rbbs\cdmaster.dir
pkunzip cfgfiles rbbsv3n1.zip
pkunzip rbbsv3n1
copy e:\rbbs\cdmaster.dir
makexrf dsort
makexrf e:

ROM1 (ROM1.ZIP)
---------------
You'll need the ROM-1V09.ZIP file that came on the floppy disk to run the
conversion.

ex: (cdrom drive letter e:)
pkunzip a:\rom-1v09
pkunzip cfgfiles rom1.zip
pkunzip rom1
makexrf convert
makexrf e:

ROM2 (ROM2.ZIP)
---------------
You'll need the ROM2V10.ZIP file that came on the floppy disk to run the
conversion.

ex: (cdrom drive letter e:)
pkunzip a:\rom2v10
pkunzip cfgfiles rom2.zip
pkunzip rom2
makexrf convert
makexrf e:

Shareware Carousel (CAROUSEL.ZIP)
---------------------------------
This disk only has IBM, MacIntosh and C-64 files on it. It also
has no version number on the disk. You will need to copy the filenames
that are in the sharecat.lst file in carousel.zip over from the cdrom disk
(35 total). I do not know exactly where they are located, I imagine it is
one file per directory however (I don't have this disk, just these files).

These descriptions will need to be converted before makexrf can use them.
The program convert.bas has been included to do this task. It will work
under dos 5.00 qbasic.exe program. If you do not have access to this
program, contact me and I will give you a compiled convert.bas to do the job.

ex: (cdrom drive letter e:)
pkunzip cfgfiles carousel.zip
pkunzip carousel
copy e:\*.cat (copy the cat files (from sharecat.lst) into current directory)
qbasic convert (press F5 once loaded to run it, ALT-F X to quit)
makexrf convert
makexrf e:

Shareware Carousel Vol. 2, #1 (CAROV2N1.ZIP)
---------------------------------------------
The descriptions on the cdrom disk will need to be converted before
makexrf can use them. The program convert.bas has been included to
do this task. It will work under dos 5.00 qbasic.exe program. If
you do not have access to this program, contact me and I will give
you a compiled convert.bas to do the job.

You will need to copy the following files from the cdrom disk to the
current directory. I think they are all in the root directory.

filename size date time
AMIGA.CAT 40532 08-20-90 7:59p
ATARI.CAT 41554 08-20-90 12:19p
COMDORE.CAT 97334 08-21-90 8:14p
GRAPHIC.CAT 90460 07-12-90 11:42a
MACTOSH.CAT 178513 08-21-90 1:59p
MASTER.CAT 973174 08-13-90 2:15p
MEAN_18.CAT 19535 08-20-90 4:18p

ex: (cdrom drive letter e:)
copy e:\*.cat (ie: copy the above cat files into current directory)
pkunzip cfgfiles carov2n1.zip
pkunzip carov2n1
qbasic convert (press F5 once loaded to run it, ALT-F X to quit)
makexrf convert
makexrf e:

Shareware Studio Vol 1 (SSV1.ZIP)
---------------------------------
ex: (cdrom drive letter e:)
copy e:\text\files.*
pkunzip cfgfiles ssv1.zip
pkunzip ssv1
makexrf convert
makexrf e:


Simtel20 (SIMTEL20.ZIP)
-----------------------
ex: (cdrom drive letter e:)
pkunzip cfgfiles simtel20.zip
pkunzip simtel20
qbasic /run convert
makexrf convert
makexrf e:

Ultimate Shareware Collection Vol 1 (USCV1.ZIP)
-----------------------------------------------
ex: (cdrom drive letter e:)
pkunzip cfgfiles uscv1.zip
pkunzip uscv1
qbasic convert (press F5 once loaded to run, ALT-F X to quit)
makexrf convert
makexrf e:

ZIPNAV VER 1 (ZIPNAV1.ZIP)
--------------------------
ex: (cdrom drive letter e:)
copy e:\text\*.*
pkunzip cfgfiles zipnav1.zip
pkunzip zipnav1
makexrf convert
makexrf e:


[ END OF CONFIG FILE OPTIONS IN CFGFILES.ZIP ]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

SOME OTHER OPTIONS
------------------
Makexrf by default when you run it against your cdrom drive letter (ie:
makexrf e:) will by default find every directory then enter every file
off the cdrom disk into cdcom.xrf so that all files will be accessible.
This may or may not be acceptable to you, the case being perhaps some
graphics files you don't want your users to access. The descriptions can
be blocked easily enough by not entering the description filename in the
makexrf.cfg file so that makexrf will not read it on the convert function
(see below for more information). To tell makexrf not to read these files
into cdcom.xrf create the file MAKEXRF.PTH. The paths that are listed in
this file will be skipped over when it is reading the cdrom disk. The
configuration for these files is covered at the end of this doc file.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

IF YOUR CDROM DISK IS NOT LISTED ABOVE
--------------------------------------

NOTE: The following information may seem quite confusing at first.
I tried my best to explain it, but it still might not make sense at
first. Look at the examples in CFGFILES.ZIP as this should help make sense
of all this. This really isn't that hard to do, just a few things to keep
track of.

The Basic Steps to Follow Are:

1) Determine whether or not you need to have a description file created
or not. If so, you will need to create a proper makexrf.cfg so that
makexrf can create this listing. Most disks do not have the proper listing
that cdcom uses.

2) Once the description file has been converted or dealt with, then
you need to create the file index (cdcom.xrf) for the door. This is
done by running

makexrf drive:

where drive: is your cdrom drive letter (ex: makexrf e:).
If you are having memory problems with the sort, you can remove the cdrom
drivers at that point and re-attempt the sort by running makexrf dsort.
See end of docs for more details.

3) Create the cdcom.cat file, and locate or create any file category
menus that will be needed.

4) Once these steps are completed I strongly recommend backing the
converted description file (if you had to do so) and its pointer file
(.ptr), cdcom.xrf, cdcom.pth, cdcom.cat and category.* to a floppy in case
something happens. This way you do not have to go thru the entire
configuration process again.

Thats basically all there is to it.

Now for the details.

The following files will have to be created by you for the door to work:

MAKEXRF.CFG - Makexrf configuration file
CDCOM.CAT - Defines file categories for cdrom disk
CDCOM.DEF - Set up file for CdCom (see cdcom.doc)
CATEGORY.BBS/.SCR - Category menu (.bbs = ascii, .scr = ansi)
MAKEXRF.PTH - Paths to exclude from cdcom.pth/.xrf (see end of docs)

Makexrf in turn will create

CDCOM.PTH - Contains all paths on cdrom disk
CDCOM.XRF - Cross-reference listing of all files on cdrom disk
CDDISK.RPT - A "report" of the cdrom disk
MAKEXRF.DAT - Contains data needed for cdcom.def line 15
DESCFILE.PTR - Pointer file for description file
DESCFILE.CAT - Description file built from files.bbs type listings
or supplied by you already

FILE DESCRIPTIONS

The description file that cdcom uses is a single file with all descriptions
in it. Makexrf is capable of making this listing from available files
listings. This listings must be separate listings by file category. IE:
1 description listing for games, 1 for utilities, etc. If you have more than
one listing for each category then the problem will be that they will be
assigned different category codes, like games will be assigned category 1 and
category 2. So you have two choices: 1st is to consolidate them together into
one 1 file category listing to avoid this problem or just take in into account
when you make your category.bbs menu and cdcom.cat that games will take up two
different categories.

CdCom uses the following format for description listings.

single line description:

filename filesize filedate description category code
16550.ZIP 4197 07-27-88 Set fifo buffer on 16550 UART 001


multi-line description:

filename filesize filedate descriptions category code
AP102.ZIP 76146 04-15-91 Telix script auto-starts Puma and Bimodem 001
| Downloads, exits Telix if left unattended,001
| other features 001

The | signifies multiline description to makexrf. multi-line descriptions
cannot be recognized without it (even with the multi-line toggle set
to 1). The | does not have to be in column 32 exactly initially, however
makexrf will move it to that location when it re-writes it (this is
following the pcboard format, at least the last time I checked it was).
If you don't want it to put it in column 32, then create the file
PCBL.DAT in the same directory as makexrf. When you run the makexrf convert
function it will read this value and use it instead of the default of 32.
This file simply has one line in it, and this is the number you want it
to use instead of 32.

This is not a fixed format for descriptions. The only thing that matters
for the initial conversion is that all filenames must be all the way at the
left. If makexrf encounters a space or any other invalid filename character
in the leftmost column it will strip this line out. This is why it is
important to use the | character for multi-line descriptions, without it
makexrf has no way of knowing whether it is just part of a filename header or
something else not needed in the master file. Most headers will be stripped
out unless they are left justified and begin with a valid filename character.
Blank lines will also be stripped out.

The location of the filesize, date, description, etc is not critical, and
any of these can be omitted. The only thing needed is the filename.
The filename however should not contain any spaces. It will not affect
the operation of the description conversion, however the cddisk.rpt
will contain all of the filenames that have spaces in them. The filename
should be FILENAME.EXT not FILENAME EXT or FILE EXT if you want
it to function correctly (FILE.EXT is acceptable for the last example, but
FILE EXT is not).

Makexrf will add the category code based on its location in the makexrf.cfg
file (see makexrf.cfg explanation below). Category codes DO NOT have to be
in the initial listings, in fact I recommend stripping any out that may
already be in them if they do in fact contain such codes (unless they are
really needed) since makexrf will add its own code that cdcom uses. I just
showed them here so you would know where it puts them. The rbbs-in-a-box
disks already have this category code in their description file. The
category code must be 3 characters and numeric with padded 0's. Text
category codes will not work.

Here is the format for the makexrf.cfg file (the line#> is just for
reference, do not put this in the makexrf.cfg file):

1> cdromcat.cat ;output filename for makexrf to make
2> 1 ;multiline descriptions=1, single line = 0
3> 0 ;set at 1 only for riab disks (read desc file backwards)
4> 0 ;# of words to strip out of category descriptions
5> 31 ;# of category description files to convert
DIR1
DIR2
DIR3
DIR4
DIR5
..
DIR31

1> is the output filename that will be used when writing the master
description listing (in this example the output file will be called
cdromcat.cat). The pointer file in this case would be named cdrom.ptr
(changes the extension to .ptr for the pointer file). You can call this
whatever you want, I usually just name it after the cdrom disk (like nowl6.cat,
phnxv1.cat, etc).

2> if the file category listings you have contain multi-line descriptions,
and are using the | convention, then set this to 1. Otherwise set it to 0.

3> if the existing master description listing is sorted backwards, like
the riab disks are, then set this to 1. If you want your single line
description listing sorted backwards you can also set this to 1 also,
although I don't know why you would want to do this. This must be set
to 0 for multi-line descriptions.

4> is the number of text lines to strip out of the category description files.
Any words that are left justified and begin with a valid filename character
will not be filtered out by makexrf. For instance a header might be in
the file.bbs type file like so:

Filename Description
-------- -----------

makexrf will think that Filename is a valid filename, even though it is not.
So put a 1 on line 4, then under line 5 (before the category listing
filenames) enter the text to strip out. ex:

cdrom.cat ;description filename
1 ;multiline descriptions=1, single line = 0
0 ;set at 1 only for riab disks (read desc file backwards)
1 ;# of text lines to strip out of category descriptions
31 ;# of category description files to convert
Filename
DIR1
DIR2
DIR3
..
DIR31

However if there is a space before filename, then makexrf will strip it out
(spaces are not valid filename characters). If makexrf encounters 8 "-"
in a row (like the line underneath the Filename in example above) it will
automatically strip this line out. If it is less than 8 "-" then it will
not do so, and you will need to add this to the text to strip out. Valid
filename characters are ascii 33, 35-41, 45, 46, 48-57, 64-90, 95-126.
See page 632 of ms-dos 5.00 manual for the characters that correspond to
these numbers. Note that ISO 9660 cdrom driver standard does not allow all
of these characters either, only 0-9, A-Z and _, however I let makexrf
handle the dos format in case you wanted to use it for something else.

5> is the number of category description filenames to convert.

lines after 5 are the category filenames to convert. These must be valid
dos filenames, and can include the paths to them. Note however that they
will be erased as they are converted, so if they are on the cdrom disk
then copy them over to the current work directory. These files are the
listings by category (like files.bbs) that hopefully came with your cdrom
disk (broken down into categories like communcations, games, etc). Each
listing will be treated as a different category. The three digit category
code is assigned by the filenames location in makexrf.cfg. So in this
example DIR1 is assigned 001, DIR2 is assigned 002, etc. If DIR3 had
been the first filename listed then it would have been assigned 001
for a category code. This category code should match the one given
in your file category menu (for cdcom, category.bbs). Example:

1 Communications 13 Printer Util 25 Misc program util
2 Games of all sorts 14 Disk Util 26 Home and personal
3 Desktop applications 15 File Util 27 Utilities & programs
4 Word processors 16 Keyboard Util 28 Gif Pictures
5 C/Assembler 17 Windows 29 BBS Doors and Util.
6 Pascal And Turbo 18 Cad 30 ASP Shareware Progr.
7 Basic And Qbasic 19 Lotus applications 31 Zipping Utilities
8 Education and helps 20 Misc 32
9 Business programs 21 Virus protections 33
10 Entertainment 22 Database programs 34
11 Systems Util 23 Graphic programs 35
12 Screen Util 24 Dos and patches 36

so the DIR1 file contain the communications category files, DIR2 file
contains the games files, etc. So try to arrange them in the proper order
so they will match the category.bbs menu file. Note in the menu it is not
important if the category code is 1 or 001, cdcom will add the padded 0's
itself if the user just types 1 instead of 001, or 2 instead of 002 when
it goes to list the files by category.

Do not put ; comments on the category filename lines. Also if you copy
files off the cdrom disk insure that the read-only attribute has been
toggled off (use attrib -r *.* to turn it off if it is on). You will get
error 75's if the read-only attribute is on when it is converting.

Once you have created the makexrf.cfg file, then run makexrf convert.
It will read the cfg file and process the file lists. Once it is done,
and it did not crash in the process, there will be the master listing,
a .ptr file and a file called makexrf.dat. This will contain the number
that you must put on cdcom.def line 15.

If you are having memory problems, refer to the bottom of this doc file.
You can remove the cdrom drivers during the description conversion if
you need to, as they are not needed. You will need to re-install them
however for when it creates the filename cross-reference listing. For
any other errors refer to ERRORS.DOC. If you still cannot solve the
problem then feel free to contact me at the numbers listed in cdcom.doc.

You will also need to create a file called cdcom.cat. This file actually
controls what categories cdcom will recognize. This file is also covered
in the cdcom.doc file. For this example cdcom.cat would look like:

CDCOM.CAT format

# of categories
category code,category description

31
001,Communications
002,Games of all sorts
003,Desktop applications
004,Word processors
005,C/Assembler
..
031,Zipping Utilities

Note that in this file the category number must contain the padded 0's
in front of the category number. The description can be whatever you
want, but it should match the menu. I have seen on the disks that
support GAP bbs that cdcom.cat resembles the DIRS file, so you can just
modify that file to the format cdcom uses. If not what I usually do is
just take the category menu and edit it to make cdcom.cat. Also on some
of the disks are the DIR and DIRG files, which are the ascii and ansi
category menus, respectively. Just rename these to category.bbs for
the DIR, and category.scr for the DIRG and your set as far as the
category menu goes. Note ansi screens only work with the registered
version of cdcom however.

I highly strongly no-doubt-in-my-mind recommend to you if this is
confusing then look at some of the examples that are in the CFGFILES.ZIP
file. This may clear up some of the confusion. This is not that hard to
do, in fact once you understand it it is quite easy. If you are still
having problems then give me a call and I'll walk you through it.

AN EXAMPLE:

Here is a basic example of what you need to do. I kept the numbers small
just for simplicity sake. I realize most cdroms have 100 sub-dirs and
50 file categories, this example will only have 5 directories and 5 file
categories. The setup is the same, just in the former case there is more
to keep track of.

You have a cdrom disk with 5 category sub-directories, each with a files.bbs
in it. The descriptions are single line.

The actual cdrom disk tree structure looks like so:

E:\
\GAMES
\COMMO
\UTILS
\PRINTER
\GRAPHICS

Step 1:

copy each files.bbs into the directory you are going to run makexrf from,
re-naming it as you go along.

ex:
copy e:\games\files.bbs games.txt
copy e:\commo\files.bbs commo.txt
copy e:\utils\files.bbs utils.txt
copy e:\printer\files.bbs printer.txt
copy e:\graphics\files.bbs graphics.txt

the makexrf.cfg for this setup would look like:

category.cat ;description filename
0 ;single line descriptions
0 ;sort them forwards
0 ;no lines to strip out
5 ;# of description filenames to convert
GAMES.TXT
COMMO.TXT
UTILS.TXT
PRINTER.TXT
GRAPHICS.TXT

Remember to arrange these in the order that they appear in your category
menu (category.bbs) if you have one. Games in this example will be
assigned category code 001, communications assigned category code 002, etc.

Step 2:

Run
MAKEXRF CONVERT
to convert the files.bbs listings into the master description file. The
file makexrf.dat will also be created, the value in it must be put
on line 15 of the cdcom.def file for it to function correctly.

If step 2 is successful (no errors), proceed to step 3.

Step 3:

Run
MAKEXRF Drive:
where Drive: is your cdrom drive letter. This will create the other
work files that cdcom needs. If no errors, proceed to step 4.

Step 4:

Now create CDCOM.CAT. Its format for this example would be:

5
001,Games and other Fun Stuff
002,Communications Programs
003,Utilities
004,Printer Programs
005,Graphics Programs

Step 5:

Create a file category menu using these same category codes (there may already
be one on the disk). Rename it to category.bbs.

You are now done with the makexrf program. Back up the files that were
just created, and continue with cdcom installation.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAKEXRF COMMAND LINE OPTIONS:

Makexrf will accept the following command line parameters:

SORT - Sort CDCOM.XRF (or resume after memory problem sorting cdcom.xrf)
CONVERT - Convert Description Listings for CdCom
REPORT - Updates CDCOM.XRF With File Description Pointers
and Reports Missing Files
PTR - Creates Pointer File for Description File
HELP (?)- Command Line Parameter Help Screen
DSORT - Sort Description File (or resume after memory problem during
CONVERT)
DRIVE: - Cdrom Drive Letter [D:, E:, F:, etc] for making cdcom.xrf

If you run MAKEXRF CONVERT, the DSORT and PTR functions are
done automatically (and in that order).

When you run MAKEXRF DRIVE:, the SORT and REPORT functions are done
automatically (and in that order).

On any error resume functions (SORT, DSORT) the other steps after that
are also performed. Most common error is error 7 out of memory.

For the REPORT function makexrf must have access to the description file.

Makexrf will also need the makexrf.dat file once it is created in order
to do some of these functions, so don't delete it unless you have to.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

OTHER MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION:

This version of makexrf and cdcom represent my first step in creating
a cdrom door program that can be configured to work with any shareware
type of cdrom disk except pc-sig. It is not by any means foolproof. I
have tested it to the best of my ability, but since I do not possess
most of the cdrom disks listed in this doc file I cannot test it
with all configurations. However based on the information I already
had on most of these disks it should work just fine. There may still
be some bugs in the program, so feel free to contact me so we can work
them out.

Makexrf has been written so that it can easily adapt to most shareware
collection types of cdrom disks, except for the pc-sig disks. These
need to be handled differently. You should be able to get most any
disk to work with makexrf & cdcom by following the steps covered here.
The hardest part is getting the description filelists into a format
that makexrf/cdcom can use. Most of the time this is not a problem
as long as some common sense was used when making these listings.
Pretty much any files.bbs or DIR# files can be converted quite easily
by makexrf for use with cdcom. I am not familiar with all the file
category description listings in use by all the bbs packages, but most
follow basically the same convention so there should be little difficulty
in getting this door to work with your cdrom disk. If there is a problem
feel free to contact me about the disk you are trying to get working with
it and I'll see what I can do. I don't have any problems with writing a
convert program that will reformat strange listings into a format the door
can use, mostly because it offers an interesting challenge and also once
its done then someone else can use it too. The neat thing about cdrom disks
is they are semi-permanent (10 or so years lifetime) and unchangable so once
you get something working for a certain version of a disk then anyone else
who has the same disk will also be able to benefit.

The sorts that makexrf will have to do take up quite a bit of memory.
It is advised that you free up as much memory as possible before
running makexrf. If makexrf does run out of memory, it will error
out with an error 7. If so, try to free up some more memory and
attempt to resume the sort. I added command line options to allow
you to do so without having to start from the beginning. It will
usually bomb when it says "Reading FILENAME.EXT" (ex: Reading
cdcom.xrf or Reading filename.cat) if it is having memory problems.
In this case try to get more memory and restart it using one of the
command line parameters listed below.

Included in this zip is a file called RVMX, which will use EGA or VGA
memory starting at A000h as extra memory for DOS. I was able to
get 736k total of dos memory with it, which gave me enough to do the
sorts without removing my cdrom drivers. This will disable EGA graphics
however, so if you will be running any programs that use EGA graphics
mode then disable RVMX. There are also files that can convert expanded
memory to extra memory for dos, but you have to be able to map to
A000h. Neither the cdrom door nor wildcat use ega graphics so it should
be safe to run this program while your bbs is up. Between this program
and dos 5.0 allowing to load dos high (on 286's and above) hopefully
this will be enough memory to do these sorts. I am hoping the next
version of the compiler I use will allow me to use expanded memory for
arrays, which most of you have plenty of, so this will not be a problem
anymore.

The cdrom drivers can be removed to do the sorts on either the description
file or the cdcom.xrf file. They must only be present on the initial
filename index creation, or if you are going to be copying files off the
cdrom.

MAKEXRF.PTH and CDCOM.PTH options
---------------------------------
A new feature has been added that allows you to control which directories
makexrf will read when making the cdcom.xrf file. Previous versions of
makexrf would just read the entire cdrom disk tree, then add all the
filenames from the disk into cdcom.xrf. There may be cases however where
you do not want it to do so. This can be controlled by the file cdcom.pth
and makexrf.pth. Makexrf.pth is used to exclude directories, cdcom.pth
is used for directories you want read.

The format for makexrf.pth and cdcom.pth is the same. They both are as
follows:

# of paths in file
path name

ex:
3

\UTILS
\GAMES

The blank line signifies the root directory of the cdrom disk. Note there
are NO trailing backslashes on these paths, and there is NO cdrom drive
letter.

There are two different ways to use this new option. One is to have it
read all the sub-directories on the disk, and just exclude a few of them.
The other way is just to read certain sub-directories that you predefine.

Example 1:

You want makexrf to read all files from all sub-directories except 2 of them.
Insure there is no cdcom.pth file in the current directory. Erase it
if so. Put the names of the directories you want excluded in the makexrf.pth
file. Run makexrf drive:, where drive: is your cdrom drive letter. Makexrf
will skip over these directories when creating cdcom.xrf and cdcom.pth.

ex: (makexrf.pth)
2
DIR1
DIR2

Example 2:

You have a cdrom disk with 95% garbage, but you want the 5% of good stuff.

Create your own cdcom.pth file with the directory names that you want it
to read. Makexrf will only read these directories when creating cdcom.xrf,
in fact it will not even access the disk at all to check the tree structure,
it will only read the cdcom.pth file. Makexrf.pth is ignored in this case.

ex: (cdcom.pth)
5
DIR1
..
DIR5

-------------

ELS 4/14/92