                           Stagdem v1.15 User Manual


                                  Disclaimer

You use the program entirely at your own risk.  If you don't like this, then
don't use the program.  The author accepts no liability under any
circumstances.


                             Licensing Information

This is limited use demonstration of a commercial program called STAGING.  You
may give copies of the program to anyone, however if they don't have TBBS 2.3
its pretty useless.  The author is Mark G James.

See the order form file (ORDER.FRM) for specific pricing details.


                               What is STAGDEM?

STAGDEM is a program to handle CD-ROM file staging.  File staging is the
process of copying the files off slow media, usually CD-ROM, onto your hard
disk.  STAGDEM has been written to interact specifically with TBBS version 2.3.

STAGDEM is limited in that it will only copy a certain number of files before
terminating, it has various reminders to purchase the commercal program, and
the documentation is not as complete.


                              System Requirements

You'll need the following:

A machine to run STAGDEM on.  If its the BBS machine then you'll need to run
under a multi-tasking operating system (not condoned by eSoft).

Some slow media such as a CD-ROM drive or drives and/or CD-ROM changer or
changers.  The CD-ROM drives need to be visable to the BBS machine as logical
drives, and also to the machine running STAGDEM if its a different machine.

Approx 256k of free memory.

TBBS 2.3


                                 CEDIT Changes

Go into CEDIT and choose Other, then choose File Handling options.

Enter the drive letters of your CD-ROM drives next to the "Remote/Slow drives"
prompt.

Enter the name of your request directory (I use X:\CD_REQ for mine).  Typically
this will be on a network drive.

Enter the name of your staging directory (I use X:\CD_STAGE for mine).
Typically this will be on a network drive as well.

Enter 3 for the "Staging method" prompt (ie TBBS method).

Exit from CEDIT.


                              Directory Structure

Create your request directory (eg MD X:\CD_REQ) This is where TBBS will create
its REQ files.

Create your staging directory (eg MD X:\CD_STAGE).

Under the staging directory there needs to be one sub-directory for each line
number.  This is the sub-directory that TBBS looks in for the staged files.
These are called "00", "01", "02" and so on.  If you have a 64 line TBBS then
you'll need to create 65

In my examples the BBS machine is networked with a file server.  The BBS
machine maps drive X:  to the file servers C:  drive.  The file server is
running Stagdem.

If you wanted to run it all on the BBS machine, say under Windows 95, all
references to drive X:  would become drive C:.  You would run Stagdem on the
BBS machine and all the CD-ROM drives would be attached to the BBS machine.


                            The Configuration File

The configuration file is an ASCII text file.  It is always called STAGDEM.CFG
and is in the same directory as the program.  Case is unimportant.  Do not use
Tab characters as seperators, use spaces.  Statements may occur in any order.


COUNTRY xxx

This is the telephone prefix for your country.  It is optional.  It is used for
date formatting.  If the prefix is 44 or 61 the program uses dd-mmm-ccyy,
otherwise it assumes US format of mm/dd/yy.


REQUEST-DIR xxx

This is the directory STAGDEM looks in for its REQ files.  It is mandatory.  If
not supplied STAGDEM will abort with an error message.  It should be the same
as defined in CEDIT.


LOGFILE xxx

This is the drive, path and file name of the log file.  It is optional.  If not
specified no logging is assumed.  The file is appended to, so on a busy system
can grow large quickly.  This log file has the same information as appears in
the "Recent Activity"


VALID-DRIVES   d,e,f...

This is the list of drive letters being staged.  It is mandatory.  Each letter
is seperated by a comma.  There is no need for a colon after each letter.
Drive letters A, B and C cannot be used.  This is used to maintain the "Drive
Stats" window.


                                  Running It

STAGDEM can be run in a number of different ways depending on how your system
is setup.  If a dedicated DOS machine you would simply run it from a batch
file.

If under Windows you would want to run via a PIF file.  The PIF file is used to
reduce the overhead on the machine, as the program goes into CPU loops which
will utillize 100% CPU without the PIF file.  You may want to adjust the values
for foreground and background response.

The command line would look like:

C:\ABC\STAGDEM

This would run STAGDEM from C:\ABC with its configuration file called
STAGDEM.CFG also in the C:\ABC directory.


                          Example Configuration Files

COUNTRY         61
LOGFILE         c:\stagdem.log
REQUEST-DIR     c:\cd_req
VALID-DRIVES    d,e,g,h,i,j,k,l

Dates in dd-mmm-ccyy format, log to C:\STAGDEM.LOG, the name of the request
directory is C:\CD_REQ, and the valid drive letters are D through L.


valid-drives D,E,F
request-dir C:\ABCREQ

Minimum configuration, dates will be assumed to be in mm/dd/yy format, the name
of the request directory is C:\ABCREQ and the drive letters are D, E and F.
There is no log file.


Logfile         c:\staging.lst
Request-Dir     c:\cdreq
Valid-Drives    d,e,h,i

Another configuration, dates will be assumed to be in mm/dd/yy format, log to
C:\STAGDEM.LST, request directory is C:\CDREQ, and the valid drive letters are
D, E, H and I


                              Directory Structure

From the first configuration file example above, you would need the following
directory structure:

C:\                     This is where the log file would be placed

C:\CD_REQ               This is the request directory

C:\CD_STAGE             Stagdem directory, assuming you called it this in CEDIT

C:\CD_STAGE\00  Stagdem sub-directory for line 0 (local console)
C:\CD_STAGE\01  Stagdem sub-directory for line 1
C:\CD_STAGE\02  Stagdem sub-directory for line 2
C:\CD_STAGE\03  Stagdem sub-directory for line 3 and so on...
C:\CD_STAGE\64  Stagdem sub-directory for line 64 (if you have a 64 line TBBS)


                              What it looks like

Below is a copy of the screen showing what it looks like when running.  This
example was running under Windows NT 3.51 in a DOS window.

As you can see from the "Drive Stats" window drives D through K have been
defined.  The middle column shows the number of files copied and the right most
column shows the percentage, this allows you to see which discs are more
popular than others.

In the "Recent Activity" window you can see the request file details (name,
date and time created) and below each one the file or files being copied.



STAGDEM v1.15               TBBS CD-ROM File Stagdem
                        Copyright (C) 1996 by Mark James

Started: Saturday, 19-Oct-1996 at 1:30pm

+-- Drive Stats --+  +-------------------- Recent Activity --------------------+
D:     1   9.1 %   C:\CD_REQ\LAN01000.REQ  19-Oct-1996   5:37pm             
E:                 --> D:\FILES\COMM\ATALKW95.ZIP                           
F:                 C:\CD_REQ\LAN01000.REQ  20-Oct-1996   8:09am             
G:                 --> I:\DISC2\ASTRONMY\DIFF_DRA.ZIP                       
H:                 C:\CD_REQ\LAN02000.REQ  20-Oct-1996  10:38am             
I:     3  27.3 %   --> I:\DISC2\VIRUS\SCN_22CE.ZIP                          
J:     1   9.1 %   C:\CD_REQ\LAN02000.REQ  20-Oct-1996  10:41am             
K:     6  54.5 %   --> I:\DISC2\VIRUS\SCN_22CE.ZIP                          
                   C:\CD_REQ\LAN02000.REQ  20-Oct-1996  11:26am             
                   --> K:\025A\CM203.ZIP                                    
                   --> K:\025A\NFS_FAQ.ZIP                                  
                   --> K:\025A\SIMCIR.ZIP                                   
                   C:\CD_REQ\LAN01000.REQ  20-Oct-1996  11:33am             
                   --> K:\024A\MM1_3UP.ZIP                                  
                   --> K:\024A\MM2_3UP.ZIP                                  
                   --> K:\024A\MMINFOUP.ZIP                                 
                   --> J:\026A\DN3DGORE.ZIP                                 
                                                                            
+-----------------+  +---------------------------------------------------------+


                           How to contact the author

The author is Mark G James. I can be contacted at the following places:

Fidonet:        3:712/302
Internet:       markj@augur.mpx.com.au

Snail mail:     Mark James
                PO Box 1830
                North Sydney
                N.S.W. 2059
                Australia


The Augur TBBS  Australia       (02) 9311 3052
                International   +612 9311 3052
