Category : Utilities for DOS and Windows Machines
Archive   : AV409.ZIP
Filename : AV.DOC

AV.DOC
09/01/94

The AV.EXE program shows a directory of one or more archive files (ZIP, ZOO,
etc), including some self-extracting files. Features of this program:

* The directory information is presented in full-screen mode and you can
use PgUp and PgDn to scroll amount the screens
* Allows you to sort the display of the members in a number of ways
* Allows you to reset the file date of the archive to match the date of
the most recent member of the archive


A typical display might look (in part) like the following:

FILL311.ZIP Date Time OrigSize Method NowSize %reduce 1 of 1
------------ -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------
FILL.DOC 93/11/07 18:04:06 8671 Imploded 3569 59
FILL.EXE 93/11/07 18:43:42 85242 Imploded 56133 35
BRUCE311.DOC 93/11/07 17:39:52 15449 Imploded 6002 62
CONFIGWS.DOC 93/09/25 22:08:42 4601 Imploded 1762 62
CONFIGWS.EXE 93/09/25 14:31:28 67444 Imploded 47271 30
FILE_ID.DIZ 93/01/31 12:46:18 264 Shrunk 210 21

(blank lines skipped)

============ ======== ======== ======== ======== ======== =======
*6 93/11/07 18:43:42 181671 114947 37%
FILL311.ZIP 93/11/07 18:43:42 115551 PgUp, PgDn, Esc, Quit, Sort?


When viewing a screen's worth of information, the choice is typically:

PgDn view the next screen's worth
PgUp view the previous screen's worth
Esc go to the next archive file (if any, else quit)
Quit return to DOS
Date update the archive date
Sort change the sort order for this and subsequent files;
you're prompted for "BY?" and you should enter either
"-x" or "x" (see below) or press Esc to get out of this:
the archive is reread after you ask to re-sort it

RMouse right mouse button is treated as PgDn
LMouse left mouse button is treated as PgUp
BMouse both mouse buttons together is treated as Esc

If the number of members in the archive exceeds 820, the program will continue
to process the members but it will turn off the display of all information
except for file names and will skip all sorting options. If the number of
members exceeds 1200, the program will skip all subsequent members although the
information on last date and total bytes should still be accurate.



The AV.INI file:

AV will read a AV.INI file if one is found. (You can specify a different file
name if desired.) The file is an ASCII text file that can be created maintained
by hand. The file can consist or one or more command line parameters (only
those that begin with a "/"), one statement per line.

The file can also contain comments which are blank lines or any line beginning
with:
; (semi-colon)
: (colon)
' (quote)

AV looks for the initialization file in your default subdirectory first. It
then searches for it in the subdirectory where the executable was and then goes
through your DOS path.

Passing in "/-I" or "/INULL" skips loading the AV.INI file.


CONFIGWS.EXE:

In addition to using the AV.INI file, you can permanently change some defaults
within AV.EXE by using the CONFIGWS.EXE program. CONFIGWS.EXE is not included
in the AV distribution package but previous versions can typically be used with
AV if desired. (The same CONFIGWS.EXE program can be used to path a number of
Wayne Software programs.) If CONFIGWS can't patch the executable, it will notify
you of this before altering anything.

CONFIGWS.EXE allows you to set the following defaults:

Pause output: /P or /-P
List order: /ON, /O-N, /OS, /O-S, /OD, /O-D, /OE, /O-E, /OC, /O-C

When setting options, the program will process defaults in the following order:
(1) CONFIGWS.EXE-settable settings
(2) AV.INI settings
(3) command-line settings

The *last* settings encountered win.



Syntax:

AV filespec [ /P | /-P ] [ /Ox | /O-x ] [ /DATE ] [ /Iinitfile | /I ]
[ /Q ] [ /? ] [ > filename ]

where:

"filespec" is the file specification to process. Can include drive, path, and
wildcards if desired.

"/P" says to view the directory in page mode. This is the default but you can
change this setting using the program CONFIGWS.EXE. The default is
automatically /-P (which can't be overridden) if redirection ("AV ... >
filename") is used.

"/-P" says to view the directory not in page mode. This prevents you from being
offered the fix-date option as well. This mode is automatic if redirection ("AV
... > filename") is used.

"/Ox" and "/O-x" allow you to specify the display order for the files. "x" can
be one of the following:

N = file name
E = file extension
D = file date and time
S = file size of the original (non-compressed) file
C = current (compressed) size of the file
O = original order (no sorting)

If you precede the "x" with a dash ("-"), the sort will be done in reverse
order. Defaults to /OO but this can be altered using CONFIGWS.EXE.

"/DATE" resets the file date to that of the most recent member. Automatically
invokes /-P. The command "AV *.* /DATE /Q" is a quick way to reset the file
date stamps for all archives in your current subdirectory.

"/Iinitfile" says to read an initialization file with the file name "initfile".
The file specification *must* contain a period. If no drive or path information
is specified, the program will search for initfile beginning in your default
subdirectory and then going throughout your DOS path. The use of an
initialization file is optional. Initially defaults to "/IAV.INI".

"/-I" (or "/INULL") says to skip loading the AV.INI initialization file.

"/Q" skips the display of the member names. Automatically invokes /DATE and /-P
and is typically used in cases where you want to reset all file dates (e.g. "AV
*.* /Q").

"/?" or "/HELP" or "HELP" shows you the syntax for the command.

">filename" redirects the output to a text file. This automatically invokes
the /-P option. This is useful for getting a complete listing of the
contents of your compressed files. For example:

AV *.* > TEMP.TXT


Return codes:

AV returns the following ERRORLEVEL codes:
0 = no problems
254 = no valid archives were found
255 = syntax problems, file not found, or /? requested


Author:

This program was written by Bruce Guthrie of Wayne Software. It is free for use
and redistribution provided relevant documentation is kept with the program, no
changes are made to the program or documentation, and it is not bundled with
commercial programs or charged for separately. People who need to bundle it in
for-sale packages must pay a $50 registration fee to "Wayne Software" at the
following address.

Additional information about this and other Wayne Software programs can be found
in the file BRUCEymm.DOC which should be included in the original ZIP file.
("ymm" is replaced by the last digit of the year and the two digit month of the
release. BRUCE312.DOC came out in December 1993. This same naming convention
is used in naming the ZIP file that this program was included in.) Comments and
suggestions can also be sent to:


Bruce Guthrie
Wayne Software
113 Sheffield St.
Silver Spring, MD 20910

fax: (301) 588-8986

See BRUCEymm.DOC file for additional contact information.

Foreign users: Please provide an Internet e-mail address in all correspondence.