Re: Multi-zip files -- Windows server

On Mar 23, 7:54 pm, s...@xxxxxxx wrote:
For such semi-automated tasks (too complicated do it manually but too
simple to write a script/batch for it),

OTOH rather than install a keyboard macro program, the 3 seconds or so
that it takes to write a batch file like the one I sent Reeko takes
about as much effort as LOAD "*",8

I guess some of us are old fashioned.

). Hint: Unlike PKZIP, Info-ZIP supports long file names (even the
native DOS versions).

My Windows XP Professional came with infozip. It resides in C:\Windows
\system32\zip.exe and if I type zip at the command prompt this what I
see (shown below), but the dos version was once known to misintepret
long filenames (LFN's) with spaces in them. Also hasn't PKZIP v2.5X
supported LFN's for about 9 years... since the year before Phil Katz
died?

Give this rant a read: http://users.iafrica.com/c/cq/cquirke/lfns.htm

so one should still be careful with naming if DOS is the intended
target platform:

Copyright (C) 1990-1999 Info-ZIP
Type 'zip "-L"' for software license.
Zip 2.3 (November 29th 1999). Usage:
zip [-options] [-b path] [-t mmddyyyy] [-n suffixes] [zipfile list] [-
xi list]
The default action is to add or replace zipfile entries from list,
which
can include the special name - to compress standard input.
If zipfile and list are omitted, zip compresses stdin to stdout.
-f freshen: only changed files -u update: only changed or new
files
-d delete entries in zipfile -m move into zipfile (delete
files)
-r recurse into directories -j junk (don't record) directory
names
-0 store only -l convert LF to CR LF (-ll CR
LF to LF)
-1 compress faster -9 compress better
-q quiet operation -v verbose operation/print
version info
-c add one-line comments -z add zipfile comment
-@ read names from stdin -o make zipfile as old as latest
entry
-x exclude the following names -i include only the following
names
-F fix zipfile (-FF try harder) -D do not add directory entries
-A adjust self-extracting exe -J junk zipfile prefix
(unzipsfx)
-T test zipfile integrity -X eXclude eXtra file attributes
-! use privileges (if granted) to obtain all aspects of WinNT
security
-R PKZIP recursion (see manual)
-$ include volume label -S include system and hidden
files
-h show this help -n don't compress these suffixes

Some of my own utilities might also prove useful and informative as
well and they are provided with Source Code which may further prove
informative. Just look for them on any simtel site around the planet:

WinRobot - WinRobot: Program Launcher, scheduler w/C src

ftp://ftp.iif.hu/pub/simtelnet/win3/sched/winrob20.zip

CommandLine Commando v1.0: cmdline utils,C src

ftp://ftp.arnes.si/software/simtelnet/win95/txtutl/clcom10.zip

The Commando package will probably prove the most informative and I
included a bunch of retro articles like the one below as part of the
html help system.

Later,

Bill

x--- snip ---x

TO BATCH OR NOT TO BATCH
by Bill Buckels, Starving Programmer
December 16, 1988

That Numb Feeling...

Since I was first forced behind a Computer Screen by a well meaning
drafting instructor after going back to school at the age of 33, I
have walked around with a Numb Feeling in my head from thinking too
much or something...and lately I have become acquainted with the
Computer Magazine Article Bug and That Numb Feeling has never been
worse. But by
virtue of my new associations with programmer-types after acquiring my
"PeeCee" I have managed to glom some old magazines from those old-days
of 4 or 5 years back when everything was still written in English with
lots of little Basic Beginner-Type programs & Stuff that I can try-out
and I realized that yesterday's writers are probably the same ones
writing today, but they have grown up with the Industry, and do not
allow for the new guys like me...

Recently I have been playing around a bit with "Batch Files"...they're
the "Programs" that can be made in the word processor and then run
like any other program...really easy to get together with just a
limited knowledge of a word processor like Wordstar or Wordperfect,
etc, and the help of a trusty DOS Manual.

Rules of the Game: Batch Files...

Rule Number 1- Must end with .bat ...

For example : Autoexec.bat - This is the program that "sets-up" your
computer when you first turn it on, and is a neat one to customize
because you can have your computer start your favorite program without
bothering with the rest of the system...which is really bad too,
because lots of people that work on a computer have been spoon-fed in
this manner and because of that don't know what exists beyond their
little world.)

Rule number 2- Must be written in "non-document" (ASCII) plain text
format

What this means is that Word Processors write "Documents" so that the
printer will make them look nice, and how they do this is they insert
all sorts of printer commands that you don't see when you type a
letter. This kind of "Format" can cause your computer to freak-out if
you use it to write Batch Files. Word processors as a rule also allow
you to write
in "Non-Document" format...and this is the Text-Only "ASCII" type of
programming that you need for "Batch Files" and, oh yes, "BASIC"
programs too...

Rule Number 3- Must Do Something.

A program must do something. If you have some pet peeve about your
computing system, or some other little task that you don't have a
program for, this is the best excuse to learn abit about your system
and using a batch file to try and solve the problem...

A batch file is simply a way of typing commands into your computer
that you might normally do one-after-the-other on the keyboard so...
just imagine that you are typing the commands in line by line when you
make up the batch file ...

Rule Number 4- Must be Run in DOS...

This means that you can't start-up your favorite program and then
expect to run a batch file inside of your program...it's just not
intended to do that.

Observations on PCDOS Batch Processing On the IBM PC and Compatibles

The IBM PC operating system command line (DOS prompt) is a most
efficient way for the average user to issue instructions to the
processor, but it is also the most overlooked when it comes time for
most of us to consider ways and means to process our various computing
tasks.

All too often we opt for a memory hog of a familiar applications
program or a routine several layers thick in BASIC's "bog and mire" to
issue one or two little instructions that are probably available in a
tiny .Com or .Exe program that came with that confusing pile of stuff
on our Dos Disk. (If we had taken the time to wade through the mounds
of documentation we would understand that the Many Features on the
Face of Dos are a deliberate effort to make the system more friendly
and
efficient than confusing and time-consuming.)

This is where most of us as users fail, and after "wearing our fingers
to the bone" typing each and every command in sort of an emulation of
"hunt and peck" on the manual typewriter, we spring for the latest
version of "The Fakeware Window Menu Mouse Commando" and become
forever ineffective whining "memory junkies."

Command.Com and the "Train of Command"

But imagine for a moment if you knew the modules of DOS well enough
that you could combine each one that does one job well into a batch
job (or chain of command as it were) and to save all that tedious
typing, you let the short "program" that you have created in your word-
processor simply "dump" each command one-by- one on the system and
with no "bells
and whistles" the job is done.

Without all the "overhead" of typing into an interactive command
interpreter, batch jobs run in a fraction of the time...with a bit of
forethought and knowledge on the part of the user.

For many tasks the batch job is the shortest distance between points
and all serious DOS users should be fully familiar with its usage.

Not the Universal Panacea

Batches are not the Universal Panacea but are a most efficient way to
begin making best use of the environment. With the PC came the ability
of the applications operator to manage the environment as well as the
Data. With that ability comes the challenge to use that power wisely.

-Bill Buckels
December 16, 1988


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Windows "Scheduled Task Wizard..."
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    (sci.electronics.design)
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    (comp.os.linux.misc)
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    (microsoft.public.scripting.vbscript)
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