Subj : Problems with events run
To   : Sean Dennis
From : Mike Luther
Date : Sat Feb 19 2011 10:38 pm

Another thought Sean ..

What I do to accomplish this is sort of crud but has worked for a long time 
here. In the .CMD or .BAT file which has the job of doing things where the 
other tasks are to shut up, if they can be shut up by issuing a flag of some 
kind to them, then what I do is start a loop in my command file at the time I 
need to run the event which needs to silence the other events.

I hit the top of this manual loop.  It turns off task 1, 2, x and whatever. 
Then if goes and fires up the required maintenance task.  Which is set to exit 
that task with an error level that the .CMD or .BAT file can see, *OR* write a 
little flag file on the hard disk which can become a logic part of the process. 
That appears and/or dissapears as needed.

As well I also set another discrete flag file on the hard disk which, in 
effect, tells the whole operation that this master task is running as planned.

OK, I then include a SLEEP task at the bottom of the loop, which does not 
affect the running of the master task.  Following that sleep exit, the .CMD or 
..BAT file then has a reverse direction pointer that goes back to the start of 
the loop in it.  OK, as long as the master pointer file code is found in the 
loop, it just hops of to the SLEEP call and, temporarily endlessly goes around 
and around the loop until ..

When the master process is over, then both the error exit will be found,as well 
as the process will erase the marker file that causes the loop to go 
loop-ti-loop!  At that point, since the master .BAT or .CMD file now knows that 
the critical process is finished, it sends the loop internally to restart or 
awaken the other tasks.  And following that process, it jumps out of the master 
loop to a lower point in the .BAT or .CMD file and off we go into normal work 
again.

The reason I use the SLEEP tool is that by doing this I don't take up a chunk 
of CPU time just to run romp-ity-romp around and around the loop,plus one more 
safety point.  I have another vector enabled.  If something jams up this whole 
process and a major event time has passed, that would tell the whole system 
that a jam has taken place, due again to the presence or absence of uet another 
little flag file name there, I can tell the whole .BAT or .CMD file to take off 
on a master fixit jump point in the whole process.  Which can cure things and 
get the whole process going again without me being around .. except very 
rarely.

A long time ago my friend Paul Sittler, who wrote the very first virus that 
ever appeared in the original FidoNet, which we were running on 300 and 1200 
baud modems at the time, taught me something!  Always do everything you can to 
let the operating system do the work.  Grin!

I've lived that way as best I can ever since.  And, no, the virus deal was not 
deliberate!  It was an accident.  He wrote a CPM operating system program that 
figured out how I could isolate EchoMail messages to my 1:117/3000 private 
network addition to net 1:117 here.  Then released it to all the then Fido 
operations.  They were estatic!  But he made an error.  The message to each 
other node was a separate file on the hard disk .. or floppy.  And he forgot to 
erase that message/file after it went out to the next place.

In a week or so, the whole FidoNet system went down when all the servers ran 
out of disk space.

Chuckle.  So don't forget to erase the flag points on your hard drive after you 
play this cool stunt and they are no longer needed..

;)

Mike @ 117/100



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 * Origin: BV HUB CLL(979)696-3600 (1:117/100)

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