^% SNITCH %^ % James A. Jarboe IV % ^SNITCH^ will report to a designated list of users, any designated file that has exceeded a designated block size. The default formatted file that lists these ^designations^ is ^SNITCH.ON^ which is usually located in the ^OPR:^ account. There are files on your system that ^grow^. Certain ^LOG^ files, ^detail^ files or ^message^ files, grow as information is append to these files. As these files increase in size they consume valuable disk space and usually, their efficiency decreases as the file size increases. ^SNITCH^ is intended to be set up to check these files and only report to a specified list of users when these files have exceeded a certain size. The intent is to include ^SNITCH^ into a logon procedure so that it's usage is transparent. Set it up and forget about it until it tells or ^SNITCH^es on a file or group of files. First, locate ^SNITCH^.^LIT^ in the ^SYS:^ account. ^SNITCH^ defaults to use a file called ^SNITCH^.^ON^ which is to be located in the ^OPR:^ account. Log into ^OPR:^ and ^VUE^ a file called ^SNITCH^.^ON^. % SNITCH Reporter % Page 2 of 7 The ^SNITCH^.^ON^ file can contain comments (preceded by the ^;^ character), and/or blank lines which will NOT be processed. To designate a ^user^ that should check on these files, precede their ^MUSER^ name (also known as ^JOBUSN^ name), with the ^*^ character. More than one user can be designated as a valid user. These user names (preceded by the ^*^ character), are ^NOT Case^ sensitive, but otherwise ^MUST^ match the logon ^MUSER^ name in order for ^SNITCH^ to recognize the user name to be included in the list of valid users. This way ^SNITCH^ can be included in a standard LOGON procedure and only a valid user will allowed to check for exceeded file sizes. Next, include the file specifications of the files that you want the user list to ^check out^. Each file specification must include a decimal value of the ^maximum^ block size the file must exceed before ^SNITCH^ will do it's reporting. Any file specification that follows the ^user^ name list, will be checked by that user to see if the file size has been exceeded. % SNITCH Reporter % Page 3 of 7 An Example ^SNITCH^.^ON^ file. ; ; SNITCH.ON - List of users and files to be checked. ; Some lines can contain comment lines. ; ; User list names can be in UPPER or LOWER Case to match the MUSER name. ; The following users (preceeded by the "*" character will check the ; files that follow this list. Any other user that invokes SNITCH will ; not be recognized as a valid SNITCH reporter. ; ^*James A. Jarboe IV^ ; MUSER names can be mixed case.... ^*ROBERT USER^ ; all upper case.... ^*any amus member^ ; or all lower case..SNITCH don't care ; ; about case. ; The above users will check the following files. ^OPR:SYSLOG.LST 10 ^; SYSLOG limited to 10 blocks. ^LIB:AUTLOG.PHN 50 LIB:TALKTO.LOG 50 OPR:EVN.DET 75^ ; This file limited to 75 blocks. ; ; % SNITCH Reporter % Page 4 of 7 ; ; Only the following users will check the following files. ; All other users will be ignored. ; ^*James A. Jarboe IV ^; Only the following two users are ^*SYSTEM OPERATOR ^; to check the following files. ^DSK1:[1,2]DSK0.ANA 10 OPR:DSK1.ANA 5 OPR:BACKUP.LST 40^ ; End of SNITCH.ON file. With the above format, one ^SNITCH^.^ON^ file can be created to force ^SNITCH^ to make a certain list of users, check a certain list of file names, and only those files that have exceeded their designated maximum file size will be reported on by the preceding list of users. Once the ^SNITCH^.^ON^ file has been created, the next step is to include ^SNITCH^ into your standard logon procedure or ^START^.^CMD^ file in your ROOT account. ^SNITCH^ can be incorporated into any type of AMOS logon procedure, any ^.CMD^ file, any ^.DO^ file or any method you choose that will invoke ^SNITCH^ at least once every time you logon to your system. ^SNITCH^ works best if you let it work for you!!! % SNITCH Reporter % Page 5 of 7 The intention of ^SNITCH^ is to be transparent. Most of the time, ^SNITCH^ will not do anything. In fact, at times you will tend to forget about it until it ^SNITCH^es on a file that has exceeded its maximum designated size in the ^SNITCH^.^ON^ file. You can also invoke ^SNITCH^ with an argument file specification so that ^SNITCH^ will NOT default to the ^OPR:SNITCH.ON^ file, but use the argument file specification. Example: ^.SNITCH DSK1:MYCHEK.LST[200,1]^ In that case, ^SNITCH^ will use the designated file specification as its input desigation file. When ^SNITCH^ does report that a file has exceeded it's designated file size, the only way to exit ^SNITCH^ is to press the ^ENTER^ key. When reporting, ^SNITCH^ will halt a ^.CMD^ or ^.DO^ file or any other operation until the ^ENTER^ key is pressed. % SNITCH Reporter % Page 6 of 7 Once ^SNITCH^ has reported that a particular file has exceeded it's maximum file size as indicated in the ^SNITCH^.^DO^ file, it is up to the user or the SYSTEM OPERATOR to reduce the size of the offending file. ^SNITCH^ will continue to report that a particular file has exceeded its designated size until the size of the offending file has been reduced or ERASED. You can also EDIT ^SNITCH^.^DO^ and increase the maximum block size of a particular file specification if you find that ^SNITCH^ is reporting to often for your liking. If a file designated in the ^SNITCH^.^DO^ file does not exist, ^SNITCH^ will just bypass that file specification, believing that its file size is ^0^. % SNITCH Reporter % Page 7 of 7 To convert this to an ^AMOS^ style help file use ^DSH2AM.LIT^ available on the ^AMUS^ Network. Any ^comments^, ^suggestions^, for ^SNITCH^ should be made to: ^James A. Jarboe IV^ Educational Video Network, Inc. 1401 19th Street Huntsville, Texas 77340 (^409^)^295^-^5767^ Send Email to ^GR^/^AM^ on the ^AMUS Network^. .