^SNITCH^ will report to a designated list of users, any designated file
that has exceeded a designated block size. The default formatted file that
lists these ^designations^ is ^SNITCH.ON^ which is usually located in the
^OPR:^ account.
There are files on your system that ^grow^. Certain ^LOG^ files, ^detail^
files or ^message^ files, grow as information is append to these files.
As these files increase in size they consume valuable disk space and
usually, their efficiency decreases as the file size increases.
^SNITCH^ is intended to be set up to check these files and only report
to a specified list of users when these files have exceeded a certain
size. The intent is to include ^SNITCH^ into a logon procedure so that
it's usage is transparent. Set it up and forget about it until it tells
or ^SNITCH^es on a file or group of files.
First, locate ^SNITCH^.^LIT^ in the ^SYS:^ account. ^SNITCH^ defaults
to use a file called ^SNITCH^.^ON^ which is to be located in the ^OPR:^
account. Log into ^OPR:^ and ^VUE^ a file called ^SNITCH^.^ON^.
% SNITCH Reporter % Page 2 of 7
The ^SNITCH^.^ON^ file can contain comments (preceded by the ^;^ character),
and/or blank lines which will NOT be processed.
To designate a ^user^ that should check on these files, precede their
^MUSER^ name (also known as ^JOBUSN^ name), with the ^*^ character.
More than one user can be designated as a valid user. These user names
(preceded by the ^*^ character), are ^NOT Case^ sensitive, but otherwise
^MUST^ match the logon ^MUSER^ name in order for ^SNITCH^ to recognize
the user name to be included in the list of valid users. This way ^SNITCH^
can be included in a standard LOGON procedure and only a valid user will
allowed to check for exceeded file sizes.
Next, include the file specifications of the files that you want the
user list to ^check out^. Each file specification must include a
decimal value of the ^maximum^ block size the file must exceed before
^SNITCH^ will do it's reporting. Any file specification that follows the
^user^ name list, will be checked by that user to see if the file size
has been exceeded.
% SNITCH Reporter % Page 3 of 7
An Example ^SNITCH^.^ON^ file.
;
; SNITCH.ON - List of users and files to be checked.
; Some lines can contain comment lines.
;
; User list names can be in UPPER or LOWER Case to match the MUSER name.
; The following users (preceeded by the "*" character will check the
; files that follow this list. Any other user that invokes SNITCH will
; not be recognized as a valid SNITCH reporter.
;
^*James A. Jarboe IV^ ; MUSER names can be mixed case....
^*ROBERT USER^ ; all upper case....
^*any amus member^ ; or all lower case..SNITCH don't care
; ; about case.
; The above users will check the following files.
^OPR:SYSLOG.LST 10 ^; SYSLOG limited to 10 blocks.
^LIB:AUTLOG.PHN 50
LIB:TALKTO.LOG 50
OPR:EVN.DET 75^ ; This file limited to 75 blocks.
;
;
% SNITCH Reporter % Page 4 of 7
;
; Only the following users will check the following files.
; All other users will be ignored.
;
^*James A. Jarboe IV ^; Only the following two users are
^*SYSTEM OPERATOR ^; to check the following files.
^DSK1:[1,2]DSK0.ANA 10
OPR:DSK1.ANA 5
OPR:BACKUP.LST 40^
; End of SNITCH.ON file.
With the above format, one ^SNITCH^.^ON^ file can be created to force
^SNITCH^ to make a certain list of users, check a certain list of file
names, and only those files that have exceeded their designated maximum
file size will be reported on by the preceding list of users.
Once the ^SNITCH^.^ON^ file has been created, the next step is to
include ^SNITCH^ into your standard logon procedure or ^START^.^CMD^
file in your ROOT account. ^SNITCH^ can be incorporated into any type of
AMOS logon procedure, any ^.CMD^ file, any ^.DO^ file or any method you
choose that will invoke ^SNITCH^ at least once every time you logon to your
system. ^SNITCH^ works best if you let it work for you!!!
% SNITCH Reporter % Page 5 of 7
The intention of ^SNITCH^ is to be transparent. Most of the time,
^SNITCH^ will not do anything. In fact, at times you will tend to forget
about it until it ^SNITCH^es on a file that has exceeded its maximum
designated size in the ^SNITCH^.^ON^ file.
You can also invoke ^SNITCH^ with an argument file specification so that
^SNITCH^ will NOT default to the ^OPR:SNITCH.ON^ file, but use the argument
file specification.
Example:
^.SNITCH DSK1:MYCHEK.LST[200,1]^
In that case, ^SNITCH^ will use the designated file specification as its
input desigation file.
When ^SNITCH^ does report that a file has exceeded it's designated file
size, the only way to exit ^SNITCH^ is to press the ^ENTER^ key. When
reporting, ^SNITCH^ will halt a ^.CMD^ or ^.DO^ file or any other operation
until the ^ENTER^ key is pressed.
% SNITCH Reporter % Page 6 of 7
Once ^SNITCH^ has reported that a particular file has exceeded it's
maximum file size as indicated in the ^SNITCH^.^DO^ file, it is up
to the user or the SYSTEM OPERATOR to reduce the size of the offending
file.
^SNITCH^ will continue to report that a particular file has exceeded
its designated size until the size of the offending file has been
reduced or ERASED.
You can also EDIT ^SNITCH^.^DO^ and increase the maximum block size
of a particular file specification if you find that ^SNITCH^ is reporting
to often for your liking.
If a file designated in the ^SNITCH^.^DO^ file does not exist, ^SNITCH^
will just bypass that file specification, believing that its file size
is ^0^.
% SNITCH Reporter % Page 7 of 7
To convert this to an ^AMOS^ style help file use ^DSH2AM.LIT^
available on the ^AMUS^ Network.
Any ^comments^, ^suggestions^, for ^SNITCH^ should be made to:
^James A. Jarboe IV^
Educational Video Network, Inc.
1401 19th Street
Huntsville, Texas 77340
