ChkAV 2.0
CopyRight 1991 by Dave Navarro, Jr.
Courtesy of The Bard's Lair


A big problem nowadays for sysops is the ever increasing problem of
BBS's like Rusty & Edies that reZIP all their files using their own
-AV, often overwriting a legitimate -AV created by the original
author, solely for the purpose of advertising their BBS number to
attract more callers. I'll agree that any BBS can always use more
callers, but that's the purpose behind ZIP comments, do your
advertising there, and if that file is uploaded to another BBS and
your ZIP comment get's overwritten, well at least the person who
uploaded that file saw your ad.

Where am I going with all this? Well, after reading a long discussion
in the RIME/MetroLink conference concerning the subject, I came across
a few messages between a few individuals who were working on a program
that would check for the AV in a ZIP and return an error level if it
found one. Well, I jumped on the modem, called up the BBS that had
the program and downloaded it, and it worked really nicely. However,
there were a few problems.

The program I downloaded would execute PKUNZIP using the -T option to
test the zip and redirect that output to a text file. The ChkAV program
would then search that text file for the presence of -AV and if found,
would return an error level. Well it works, but if you happen to run
accross a ZIP file with a file called -AV (a valid DOS filename) it
thinks that the file has an -AV in it. Also, if you have a ZIP file
with a LOT of files in it, the procedure slows your filechecking
considerably.

Being a programmer myself, and having just written a library to
access information inside of ZIP files, I thought I'd see if I could
find a more direct method. Unfortunately, while Phil Katz was nice
enough to thoroughly describe the information fields within a ZIP
header, he gave no information whatsoever about -AV's or testing
for them. But after a couple of hours of pouring over his notes and
some notes I made, I found out a fool-proof method for determining
is a ZIP has an -AV in it. Unfortunately, I cannot determine who's
-AV it is, but you can't have everything.

To use ChkAv, just type ChkAv FILENAME.EXT, and ChkAv will return
ERRORLEVEL=1 if the file is not a valid ZIP, ERRORLEVEL=2 if the
file has an -AV, or no ERRORLEVEL if the file does not exist or
does not contain an -AV. Note: ChkAv also works with self-
extracting ZIP files as well.

* Version 2.0 now does all printing through DOS so that output may
be redirected.

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May 4, 1991
Whose AV 1.0
CopyRight 1991 by Dave Navarro, Jr.

Well just after I wrote ChkAv, I started getting messages asking if
I could make it so that ChkAv could figure WHOSE AV it was. While
I'm not a half bad programmer, I am not good enough to figure out the
encryption technique that PK used for AV's. The only way to accomplish
it is to unzip the file and search for the name. So, I wrote Whose AV
which will search the PATH for WHOSAV.CFG which contains a list of the
'names' you want to search for, then calls PKUNZIP to unzip the file
with the -T function and redirect it to a file called WHOSAV.LST which
is then parsed for the 'names' contained in WHOSAV.CFG. If one is
found an errorlevel is returned and the 'name' found is printed to
the screen. All output is redirectable so you could redirect the
name to a text file for a message or something. After WHOSAV is
finished it erases WHOSAV.LST.

I use it to find ZIPs from Rusy & Edie's and reZIP them without an
AV after ZipLab delete's their little advertisements from within
the ZIP.

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May 5, 1991
DescPlay 1.0
CopyRight 1991 by Dave Navarro, Jr.

No sooner did I get WhosAv done and another request came in. This
time for a utility that would grab the description for a file from
ProDoor and display it so that it could be redirected.
Thus DescPlay was born (Description Display). Put DescPlay %2 in
your PROUT1.BAT in the appropriate place and DescPlay will grab the
description from ProDoor's $DOOR.NAM file if it was type in before
the upload took place and display it to the screen through DOS
allowing it to be redirected. If PCBOARD.SYS is in the same directory
then the name of the person who uploaded the file will be given
on the last line of the description.


Disclaimer:


All utilities were tested on a 486 machine with everything on it,
and a generic XT clone with 640k and monochrome and worked without any
problems. However, if they do not work on your system, or cause any
problems I cannot be held responsible. Use these files at your own
risk.

If you do have any problems, or suggestions, please call The Bard's
Lair at 718-381-3651 and leave me a note. I currently run ChkAv,
WhosAv and DescPlay in my PROUT1.BAT file in ProDoor and it works
without a hitch.

Registration:

Guess what! These little utilities are absolutely free! I have
written a lot of other programs that you can register if you want
to pay me for my efforts. These goodies were written to help combat
BBS's and individuals that abuse the AV privelage.