Subj : Fido on a removable drive
To : Russell Tiedt
From : Bob Jones
Date : Wed Aug 23 2006 11:17 am
RT> about fidonet on a USB memory stick, and the problem of changing drive
RT> letters.
RT> That is if I plug a USB memory stick into my computer
RT> it becomes drive F:, but
RT> plugging the same memory stick into the computer at
RT> work, it becomes drive H:.
RT> Any suggestions on how to make Squish, msged,
RT> binkleyterm, binkd, etc operate
RT> in such a fashion that it matters not what the drive
RT> name is, the paths are
RT> sane and make sense to the programs.
Most of the squish, binkleyterm, and I think even binkd control files can be
set up with relative paths specified. There may be one or two spots where it
may need a drive letter defined in a windows or OS/2 type environment.
RT> I operate mostly on Linux, and Fido is stricly Linux
RT> here, but the computer at
RT> work is WINXP, and has an internet connection.
RT> Things I have considered are;
RT> Setting the drive in a batch file i.e.
RT> Set drive "equals" F
RT> and then writing paths as follows
RT> $drive\squish\msgbase
RT> or ..\squish\msgbase
Games like this work in batch files, but not necessarily in the control files.
RT> otherwise writing seperate config files for each program, i.e.
RT> squish.cfg.f
RT> squish.cfg.h
Use relative paths for most of the stuff in the control files, share the common
control information in one file, and then in use an include statement in the
drive specific control file which should have very few lines..... That is if
you can not get by with using all paths in the control files without drive
letters and have the batch file set the default drive to the memory stick
before processing....
RT> and then run a batch file that will copy one or the other to squish.cfg
RT> depending on what drive letter is allocated to the USB drive?
RT> Am I making sense?
In some ways.
Over the years of expanding disk drive capacity and need to move drive letters
around, I tend to now have my batch files setup to use an enivornment parameter
for both the drive letter and the base path. Control files still have too much
hard coded in this regard, but are kept in a form where I can perform a one
shot edit of the control files to change the drive and/or base path
specification with a simple, global edit.....
Good luck....
Bob Jones, 1:343/41
--- Maximus/2 3.01
* Origin: Top Hat 2 BBS (1:343/41)
