PIP - Pack In Place

PIP - PACK IN PLACE

In POST/LX, when a message is deleted, the message is not really removed from the file, but only marked as deleted. Normally, before an online run and when terminating the program, the message files are "packed", i.e. the messages that are marked as deleted are removed from the message file. You can disable the automatic packing by setting in the [SYSTEM] section of POST.CFG:


[SYSTEM]
  ...
ManualPack=1

Now the message files will be packed only when requested by command CTRL-P, or selecting "Pack all files" from the File menu.

POST/LX removes the messages marked as deleted by copying all the messages that are NOT marked as deleted to a new file and then renaming the new file to the original name. If a large message file is packed and only a few messages in the file are deleted, this process may require a lot of temporary disk space, namely the space to hold a new file with all messages not marked for deletion.

PIP.EXE packs files "in place". This means it moves messages around within the message file. This requires no additional disk space.

In order to pack a file using PIP.EXE, just provide PIP.EXE a command line parameter with the file name:


PIP c:\www\post2\mail.i

In order to pack all message files in a directory, just provide the file names as a wild card, e.g.:


PIP c:\www\post2\*.*

But there is an easier way: add the following line to the [External] section of POST.CFG:


[External]
  ...
Pack=c:\www\post2\pip.exe $p.$x $$
Pack All=c:\www\post2\pip.exe c:\www\post2\*.* $$

(Of course, you need to adjust the path to where pip.exe really resides in your palmtop and for the second line where the message files reside). Now you can select a box from within POST/LX, press Ctrl-X and select "Pack" from the menu. PIP.EXE will then pack the selected message box. If you remove the "$$", you don't have to press a key upon return to POST/LX - but you also won't see any error messages. Therefore, I suggest to keep the "$$" until everything works fine and then remove it.

Another way of using PIP.EXE is adding it to a batch that does its nightly housekeeping, e.g. creating a backup.

PIP.EXE is copyrighted freeware. Available in our FTP site, or the Alternate ftp site. It is 8K in size.

Andreas Garzotto, 10-Feb-2001