Version ======= TrAminet v1.3 - thourth official version, well tested with AminetCD #5, #6 and #7. What is it? =========== TrAminet is a tool that processes Aminet CD 5, 6 and 7. The goal is to produce a filelist for online use with TransAmiga BBS. It checks the file TREE and INDEX on the CD's Aminet directory. Creates the directory stucture of tree on the hard disk and uploads the files listed in INDEX. Disclaimer ========== The program is well tested and I could not find a bug. As you know no program is really bugfree (hint: Murphy's law). It works perfectly on my system but I can't guarantee that it works on yours either. As usual you can't blame me for any damage that may be caused by the use or misuse of this program. It is provided as is. Use it at your own risk! Distribution ============ The use of the program is free of charge but the copyright still is mine. Everyone who has use for this program may use it. I only ask for keeping the archive complete. Don't delete any files or ADD any! I hate those ZZEndPad and similar files that are added by a wide range of BBS's. I don't want such files in my archives and you will not find them on my BBS. The archive may be distributed via Aminet and BBS's but not via any PD series without my written agreement. You are not allowed to ask for a charge if you give the archive to someone else. If you give it away on disk then ask for a Disk in return or a fee that is not higher than a new disk of the same type. Requirements ============ You need the AmigaDOS JOIN command. If you did not delete it it should be located in your c: directory. Also the standard RAM: is needed. If you don't want to use RAM for that just make a RAM: assignment to a directory on your hard drive. This is only necessary if you changed the C= default installation to avoid having RAM:. AmigaOS 3.1 Assign command or a PD command that supports TRUE multiassign is needed. Commandline =========== TrAminet Path/A NODESC/S On my system path is the multiassign Aminet: Description =========== The only parameter needed is a multiassign. Multiassigns are a bit tricky but actually it's the only way to use CD-ROMs with TransAmiga BBS (if they don't have a Files.BBS in every directory that is in TransAmiga format). Sure it is possible to write a door that accesses the CD-ROM directly and handles downloads, but I think the multi-assign method has more advantages as you can use TransAmiga's normal routines. How can this multiassign be done? It's easy and you don't have to know how it really works. AmigaDOS provides the possebility of multiassigns. It is possible that it works differently on different AmigaOS versions! If the multiassign does not work on your Amiga the way I expect it get a program like 'true multiassign' that adds real multiassigns to your Amiga. Ok, here is how it works on my system: In my user-startup I have the following assignments: Assign Aminet: file:CDROM/Aminet Assign Aminet: CD0:Aminet ADD The second line ADDs an assignment to the allready defined assignment. That's a multiassign - one assign leads to more than one directory. How does it work? It's simple. AmigaDOS searches the first directory for the file you want to open or examine. If it can't find it the next directory in the multiassign list is processed. ATTENTION! The first path HAS NOT to be the CD-ROM! My program makes directories and files in the first directory of the assignment list! Note: AmigaDOS commands DIR and LIST do not know multi-assigns so if you use them to list Aminet: (in my example) you will get the content of the first path of the multi-assign list. In this case it's the directory on the hard drive. NODESC is a switch and an optional parameter. If you specify it the .readme files on the CD will be ignored and not appended to the .Desc files. This save HD space and program execution time. Let me write some words about speed. It takes a long time to process all files so be sure you don't need the shell you start TrAminet in. I don't suggest to use the RUN command as the output to CLI is still there. You can send it to NIL: then there is no argument against run, but you won't get any failtrue messages... Speaking of error messages... There may come up several messages that tell you that JOIN was aborted due to an error. Don't panic, that's ok. The program makes .Desc files (if you did not specify NODESC commandline parameter) out of the .readme files on the CD so the BBS user can read a long description if he wants to. To produce .Desc files in TransAmiga formant I have to join two files so I used the join command as it's faster than reading the .readme file and appending it to the .Desc file line by line... The time needed to process the CD mainly depends on the speed your CD-ROM drive has. The faster it is the faster the program will finish. The program produces a fragment for your file.cfg in RAM: It is called File.cfg (what else ?-). The number of found fileareas is displayed in the Shell. (It's 180 for Aminet CD 6/95). Add the number to the number of fileareas in your file.cfg and insert the file.cfg fragment in your own File.cfg where you wish the areas to appear. I suggest at the end, just before the packer definition. Now you're ready to access the CD from your TransAmiga BBS. This program was written for AminetCD #5 and #6 but may work with future releases if they don't change the format. If there is need to update this program I'll do it. I hope I did not forget to mention something... If you have any questions write me a mail. Example ======= If the mentioned assign is done you can run TrAminet like follows: TrAminet Aminet: or TrAminet Aminet: nodesc The last one prevents TrAminet from joining the .readme files to the .Desc files. You loose the information contained in the readme files, but most users do not check the long description of files so there is nothing lost for those user group. Contact ======= You can contact me via fidonet, email, fax and postal mail: Fido: 2:2476/12 email: rasa0011@fh-karlsruhe.de fax: +49-[0]721-859433 postal mail: Sami Radwan Uhlandstr. 10 D-76135 Karlsruhe Germany