PTCAP (PBBS TCAP Modifier) Version 1.2 05/16/87 When I first installed PBBS and deceided to use the TCAP support, I was using the latest version of TCAP, version 1.9. I was told then that when I upgraded the TCAP, I would have to manually change all of the entries in my user base to reflect the users proper terminal selection. At the time, this did not seem like that much of a sacrafice. After all, how many users can there be? Well, after installing five new TCAP's and upgrading PBBS to handle a user base of 400 users, I deceided that something had to be done to facilitate the upgrade process. Thus came PTCAP. PTCAP was designed to completely install a new TCAP without the need to manually change the user base. It will read the new TCAP to be installed and the current TCAP into memory and then process the user base. The users record is read in and the old terminal index number is used to find the old terminal id string. The new TCAP file is then scanned for a match. When a match is found, the new index number is calculated and placed into the user record. ALL records are processed to eliminate the risk of corrupting the user index. Processing is not lightning fast, but the job gets done. Complete processing of a 400 record user base takes less than 4 minutes. For safety reasons, a completely new USER file is created called USERS.NEW. Once satisfied that the integrity of the file has been maintained, you just rename it to USERS.PBS and rename the new TCAP file to whatever you use as a default name, and you are ready to go. SYNTAX: PTCAP newfile [oldfile] [/ or ?] Newfile is the new TCAP file you wish to install. You need not specify the extent, TCP is the default extent. Oldfile, when specified, is the name of the currently used TCAP file. If not specified, a default name of Z3TCAP.TCP is used. The '/' and '?' are optional and both invoke the internal help features. Place this program on the same DU as your PBBS system files, or if using ZCPR3.x, anywhere on your search path. The program will automatically log into the DU you have specified as the system drive and user area. THESE VALUES ARE DEFINED INTERNALLY IN THIS PROGRAM AND MUST BE SET FOR YOUR SYSTEM. You will have to edit the source code to suit your system needs and reassemble using M80 or SLR180+. After the assembly, you will have to LINK with SYSLIB36.REL. The following commands should be used: Assembly - M80 =PTCAP12 using M80 or SLR180P PTCAP12/6 if using SLR180+ Link - L80 PTCAP12/P:100,SYSLIB36/S,Z3LIB13/S,PTCAP12/N/U/E NOTE: You will have to make sure that SYSLIB36.REL and Z3LIB13.REL are both in your working DU. When the modification is completed, the TCAP files will remain unaltered. Your original user base is not changed and the new file necessary is created in the same disk/user area. The new user base is called USERS.NEW. Rename your old USERS.PBS to something like USERS.OLD then rename USERS.NEW to USERS.PBS. This will complete the installation of the new user base. Rename your current Z3TCAP.TCP to Z3TCAPxx.TCP, where xx is the version number of the previous file, then rename the current version to Z3TCAP.TCP. This will complete the installation of the new TCAP file. When you have completed testing the new user base and TCAP, you may erase the USERS.OLD file and the Z3TCAPxx.TCP file. The new user files will contain new index numbers reflecting the same terminal selections used in the previous file. IMPORTANT: Any terminals listed in the old file that do not appear in the new listing will be updated as though the user did not request a terminal. In versions 2.3 or later, record 0 specifies the terminal id string as (None requested). In this case, either support for that particular termainal has been dropped, or someone has changed the id strings in the files. The only changes that should be made to the TCAP files should be the addition of new terminals. None should ever be dropped and no one should ever change the way the terminals are identified. Although research has proven that some terminals have actually been dropped from the listings. In upgrading from version 2.0 to 2.3 alone, four terminals have been dropped from the list. When this happens, the user will just have to re-select his/her terminal on their next call. At completion, the program will select the total number of terminals that have been dropped from the list. The users affected will be automatically routed back through the terminal selection process on their next call. If you have any difficulties or suggestions, please direct them to me at one of the numbers listed below: Access Programming RAS Cedar Mills Z-Node 24 Dallas Connection (503) 644-0900 (503) 644-4621 (214) 964-4356 SYSOP: Terry Pinto SYSOP: Ben Grey SYSOP: Russ Pencin (503) 646-4937 Voice 6:00pm to 10:00pm ONLY Thank you for your support and Happy Modeming.