Us and Them. After all we're only ordinary men The magic file name stuff in Allfix was probably the most confusing thing about the whole AllFix setup. I knew about the magic file names that can be used to FREQ files from a board and while that is part of what the magic file name system in AllFix does, it is by no means all that it does. The hardest part is to figure out what it wants when Asetup asks for information concerning Magic File names. As you know, when you get files from a FDN, each file is accompanied by a *.TIC file. in that TIC file (which is just a simple text file) is a line that will tell your file tosser, be it AllFix or TICK or DWTIC or whatever, what to update the magic file name to. This Magic name is the is the one that is used to FREQ. In most cases you don't need it changed, after all that is the hole idea behind the magic file name... a name that stays the same, but will get you the most recent version of the file. Most SysOps set up their mailer to allow someone to get the most current nodelist by FREQing NODELIST or the most recent Nodediff by FREQing NODEDIFF, etc. But if, for some reason you need to have the Magic filename updated then you can set ALLFIX to do it by entering ASETUP | Fileecho system | Fileecho manager, scrollling to the screen of the echo that you want ALLFIX to update the magic filename and toggle the Update Magic line to Y. Simple as that. The other part of the magic file name system in AllFix deals with having allfix do something to a file when it comes into your system. The most common thing (and in my opinion the most useful) is to have AllFix (via the magic file name) update and recompile the nodelist when it is recieved. This means that you'll never have to mess with your nodelist again. It comes in via the Fidonet Nodediff FDN, allfix moves it to a directory that you tell it to (like your nodelist directory), updates the nodelist with the new nodediff and then recompiles the updated nodelist. I use this instead of QFront's nodelist update and recompile feature mainly because I never could get Qfront's updater/recompiler to work. As a hub, I keep a copy of the most recent nodelist and copies of the last 2 or 3 nodediffs in a directory so that new SysOps or SysOps that aren't connected to the Nodediff FDN can download them. I also use Qfront as a front end and it's nodelist processor is a little differnt than PCBFido's but here is how I do that with the magic filenames in ALLFIX. Here's a rundown of what happens when I get the new nodediff in.... 1. QFront imports the nodediff.* into my inbound directory 2. After QFront has tossed the new mail, AllFix runs. If it finds a new nodediff in the inbound directory, it tosses it into C:\PCB\DL06 which is the FidoNet Utilities Directory on my BBS and adds the description of the file to my C:\PCB\GEN\DIR6 file and generates an announcement into the NWTNet SysOps echo (NWTNET is out local fidonet domain). 3. The Magic Filenames system kicks in and runs a batch file that runs QFront's Nodelist compiler (QNList) which updates and re-compiles the nodelist. 4. The batch file then deletes the old NODELIST.ZIP file in C:\PCB\DL06 and zips the newly updated nodelist into C:\PCB\DL06. Since the name is the same and the description is pretty generic (i.e. Current FidoNet nodelist) then that is all that has to be done. 5. The batchfile ends, Allfix completes its run and returns to the Call Waiting Screen and I have a newly compiled nodelist and a new NodeList. ZIP and I haven't hit a single key. As a matter of fact, this usually all takes place while I'm still in bed! Here's how I set this up. 1. create C:\ALLFIX\NEWDIFF.BAT with lines similar to these...(substitute PCBFido's nodelist compiler's commands for QFront's) etc. ----------------------NEWDIFF.BAT----------------------- @echo off CD \QFRONT QNList /CC:\QFRONT\NODE1 /COMPILENEW cd \pcb\dl06 del nodelist.zip pkzip nodelist.zip c:\pcb\fido\nodelist\nodelist.* -------------------------------------------------------- 2. Now enter ASETUP | Fileechos sytem | Magic File Names and you'll see a screen like this: Υ Adding new entry 1/1 ΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝAdoptFileΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΈ ³ ³ ³ Type AdoptFile ³ ³ File mask ³ ³ From area ³ ³ To area ³ ³ ³ ΤΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΎ 3. Press enter and you'll be at this screen: ΥΝΝ Select type Έ ³ ³ ³ AdoptFile ³ ³ CopyFile ³ ³ DeleteFile ³ ³ ExecCommand ³ <--- ³ ForwardTo ³ | ³ HatchNew ³ | ³ KeepNum ³ | ³ MoveToArea ³ | ³ NoForward ³ | ³ OtherPath ³ | ³ PassThruFile ³ | ³ PickUpFile ³ | ³ UnpackFile ³ | ³ UpdateAlias ³ | ³ ³ | ΤΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΎ | ---Scroll down to this command and hit enter and the screen will now look like this: Υ 1/1 ΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝ Magic filenames Έ ³ ³ ³ Type ExecCommand ³ ³ File mask ³ ³ From area ³ ³ Command ³ ³ ³ ΤΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΎ 4. Edit it to look like this: Υ 1/1 ΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝ Magic filenames Έ ³ ³ ³ Type ExecCommand ³ ³ File mask Nodediff.* ³ ³ From area Nodediff ³ ³ Command c:\allfix\newdiff.bat ³ ³ ³ ΤΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΎ Later, Mark ...With, without. After all, it's what the fighting's all about.