• Binkley.Scd and Binkley.Day

    From Mvan Le@1:343/41 to All on Thursday, January 10, 2008 10:00:08
    I'm seeking clarification on Binkley.Scd and Binkley.Day.

    What does each file do exactly ? The documentation doesn't state their difference; or that the .Day file is perhaps for some DOS rollover compatibility feature ...

    For some reason when I delete them and then restart Binkleyterm, the "current" E1= event runs when the force flag is not set (ie. the E1= event that pertains to the current time frame/range).

    For example, in Binkley.Evt:

    event all 04:20 05:00 m t=6,10 e2=20 e3=30 e1=101 ; ZMH poll

    If I delete the *.scd and *.day file, and then restart Binkleyterm, and if the system time is between 04:20 and 05:00, Binkleyterm proceeds to exit with errorlevel 101 (E1=101).

    Should that happen ?

    --- Maximus/2 3.01
    * Origin: Top Hat 2 BBS (1:343/41)
  • From Dallas Hinton@1:153/715 to Mvan Le on Thursday, January 10, 2008 20:29:26
    Hi Mvan -- on Jan 10 2008 at 10:00, you wrote:

    If I delete the *.scd and *.day file, and then restart Binkleyterm,
    and if the system time is between 04:20 and 05:00, Binkleyterm
    proceeds to exit with errorlevel 101 (E1=101).

    Should that happen ?

    Yes. From the docs:

    When BinkleyTerm starts to run it will normally compile two more
    files it needs, BINKLEY.SCD and BINKLEY.DAY, using the information
    you have provided in BINKLEY.EVT.

    Note that each time an edit is made to BINKLEY.EVT (or to the
    configuration file if events are listed there), the files
    BINKLEY.SCD and BINKLEY.DAY should be deleted at a time when
    BinkleyTerm is not running. When restarted, BinkleyTerm will re-
    build its binary schedule file, which will in turn cause
    BinkleyTerm to re-run the current event. This is normal operation,
    and is necessary to allow BinkleyTerm to properly register the
    schedule changes.

    Note: To avoid all Forced events (such as daily maintenance, or
    scheduled polls) being rerun when BinkleyTerm restarts, after
    deleting BINKLEY.SCD as above, you should restart Binkley with the
    NOFORCE command line parameter, then exit and restart it as usual.
    This procedure will prevent the rerunning of all such Forced
    events.

    If you need the docs, I can make them available to you - email me at
    dhinton AT shaw.ca

    Cheers... Dallas

    --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
    * Origin: The BandMaster, CANADA [telnet: bandmaster.tzo.com] (1:153/715)
  • From Mvan Le@1:343/41 to Dallas Hinton on Friday, January 11, 2008 10:25:04
    Hi Mvan -- on Jan 10 2008 at 10:00, you wrote:

    If I delete the *.scd and *.day file, and then restart Binkleyterm,
    and if the system time is between 04:20 and 05:00, Binkleyterm
    proceeds to exit with errorlevel 101 (E1=101).

    Should that happen ?

    Yes. From the docs:

    Yeah I checked the docs, including the event stuff in bt_user.doc.

    What if I don't want the current event rerun ? For example it's a little inconvenient to run a 10 min daily maintenance batch file just to refresh Binkleyterm events.

    Do I have to start using flag file / semaphore hacks in the batch file or something ?


    --- Maximus/2 3.01
    * Origin: Top Hat 2 BBS (1:343/41)
  • From Dallas Hinton@1:153/715 to Mvan Le on Friday, January 11, 2008 12:37:29

    Hi Mvan -- on Jan 11 2008 at 10:25, you wrote:

    What if I don't want the current event rerun ? For example it's a
    little inconvenient to run a 10 min daily maintenance batch file
    just to refresh Binkleyterm events.

    I'm not quite sure what you're aiming for -- I find it very seldom necessary to
    play with the event file. If you DO make a change to the event file, the procedure is as follows:

    a) shut down binkley
    b) delete *.scd, *.day
    c) edit binkley.evt
    d) run BT noforce (which will jump immediately to the current event)

    Do I have to start using flag file / semaphore hacks in the batch
    file or something ?

    Again, I'm not sure of your target -- shoot me a bit more info and I'll try to make some more intelligent suggestions?


    Cheers... Dallas

    --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
    * Origin: The BandMaster, CANADA [telnet: bandmaster.tzo.com] (1:153/715)
  • From Andrew Leary@1:320/119 to Mvan Le on Saturday, January 12, 2008 06:14:48
    Mvan Le wrote to All <=-

    I'm seeking clarification on Binkley.Scd and Binkley.Day.

    What does each file do exactly ? The documentation doesn't state their difference; or that the .Day file is perhaps for some DOS rollover compatibility feature ...

    For some reason when I delete them and then restart Binkleyterm, the "current" E1= event runs when the force flag is not set (ie. the E1=
    event that pertains to the current time frame/range).

    For example, in Binkley.Evt:

    event all 04:20 05:00 m t=6,10 e2=20 e3=30 e1=101 ; ZMH poll

    If I delete the *.scd and *.day file, and then restart Binkleyterm, and
    if the system time is between 04:20 and 05:00, Binkleyterm proceeds to exit with errorlevel 101 (E1=101).

    Should that happen ?


    BINKLEY.SCD is Binkley's compiled schedule; basically a binary version
    of your event file. BINKLEY.DAY tracks the events that have been
    executed for the current day, IIRC. If you delete them, Binkley will re-execute the events, as you have seen.

    Regards,

    Andrew

    ---
    * Origin: Bits & Bytes BBS * V.Everything! * (860) 535-4284 (1:320/119)
  • From Mvan Le@1:343/41 to Dallas Hinton on Sunday, January 13, 2008 19:59:12
    I'm not quite sure what you're aiming for -- I find it
    very seldom necessary to play with the event file. If
    you DO make a change to the event file, the procedure is as follows:

    a) shut down binkley
    b) delete *.scd, *.day
    c) edit binkley.evt
    d) run BT noforce (which will jump immediately to the current event)

    Do I have to start using flag file / semaphore hacks in the batch
    file or something ?

    Again, I'm not sure of your target -- shoot me a bit
    more info and I'll try to make some more intelligent
    suggestions?

    I finally figured the problem was being too brief with my *.evt file eg.,

    event all 00:00 04:20 b m
    event all 04:20 05:00 m e1=101 t=6,10 e2=20 e3=30 ; binkd poll ZMH
    event all 05:00 23:59 b m e1=71 ; daily maintenance

    which caused Binkleyterm to rerun the e1's every time I deleted the .scd and .day files.

    The solution is to create "zero" time events to limit a specific event's time range (especially an external exit to shell type event) eg.,

    event all 00:00 04:20 b m
    event all 04:20 04:20 m e1=101 t=6,10 e2=20 e3=30 ; binkd poll
    event all 04:20 05:00 m ; ZMH continued
    event all 05:00 05:00 b m e1=71 ; daily maintenance
    event all 05:00 23:59 b m

    which reduce the chances that Binkleyterm would restart any e1's.

    I thought events could be a bit more intuitive and self managing than that.

    The Noforce option only works for events with the 'f' flag set. And even then Binkleyterm reruns the current event after the .scd and .day files are deleted irrespective of the Noforce option.

    I thought it was a little shortsighted for Binkleyterm not to have an option to
    prevent restarting the current event after .scd and .day deletion.

    I'm just having a whinge.

    --- Maximus/2 3.01
    * Origin: Top Hat 2 BBS (1:343/41)
  • From Richard Webb@1:116/901 to Mvan Le on Thursday, May 19, 2011 23:39:29
    Hello Mvan,

    On Thu 2039-May-19 19:03, Mvan Le (1:343/41) wrote to All:

    I'm seeking clarification on Binkley.Scd and Binkley.Day.

    What does each file do exactly ? The documentation doesn't state
    their difference; or that the .Day file is perhaps for some DOS
    rollover compatibility feature ...

    AS I understand it binkley.scd is the binary version of your events. Binkley.day is what has been processed that day.

    SO, if you delete both, as you're supposed to be if you
    change your event file, then the e1 event covering that
    period of time *will* run. That's normal behavior.

    I do not know if this will hold if you start binkley with
    the noforce command line, it might not in that case, but
    will rebuild both binary files.

    What I do if i have to rebuild because I've had to change
    the event file is build a temporary batch file that, when
    the e1 exit is taken as it would be, just loops back, and
    restarts the normal batch file that invokes binkleyterm.
    THis way, especially for such events as morning maintenance, etc. we don't confuse things.

    HOpe that's of assistance to you, but the behavior you note
    is normal.


    Regards,
    Richard
    ---
    * Origin: (1:116/901)