P A L E R T by Patri-Soft Version 2.1 January 1990 Support BBS -- Patriquin's BBS 714-369-9766 (DATA) Copyright 1991 by Patri-Soft Table of Contents What is PALERT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Command Mode Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Registering PALERT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Registration Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Problems and Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Other Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 What is PALERT -------------- PALERT is a utility program to help you avoid unexpectedly running out of disk space and/or memory. Many times application programs terminate abnormally or disallow you from completing a function because of insufficient disk space or memory. Sometimes, this may cause you to lose valuable work time and sometimes causes data to be lost. PALERT watches your disk space and warns you when space is getting low. PALERT lets you specify your disk space needs and then watches the disk until that limit is reached. It then warns you of the situation and lets you take appropriate action. PALERT is implemented as a standard DOS command that may be used by itself or from a DOS batch command file. Implement PALERT before starting any application or program where sufficient disk space is critical. PALERT will save you time and money. Features: ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ** Checks disk space whenever you want to. ** Checks available memory ** Can trigger other commands based on insufficient disk space and/or memory ** Many features to customize messages and actions ** Easy to install and use Page 2 Command Mode Parameters ----------------------- PALERT allows several command parameter switches to be specified to customize the process. All these parameters are optional. The command format and switch parameters are described below. A quick review of command parameters is always available by entering the PALERT command with the /H parameter. COMMAND FORMAT: PALERT [drive:] [ (/ switches) ] [drive:] If desired you may specify the drive where space is to be checked. If the drive letter is not specified, the current defualt drive is checked. PALERT will also check multiple drives. For example: PALERT CDE will check drives C, D, and E and give you a cumulative display. (This alos works with all parameters) /Wppp Warn the user and set DOS ERRORLEVEL flag if the percentage of free disk space is less than the ppp value specified. /W5 indicates to warn user if less than 5 percent of disk space is free. /Bbbbb Warn the user and set DOS ERRORLEVEL flag if the number of kilobytes of free disk space is less than the bbbb value specified. The maximum value of bbbb is 32767. /B3000 indicates to warn the user if less than 3,000,000 characters of disk free space exist. /Lxxx Warn when available memory is less than xxx. Sets the DOS ERRORLEVEL flag to 2. PALERT /L400 will warn you if memory is below 400,000 bytes. /E SupprEss the disk check and check only memory /N A scale that shows used disk space is normally shown to the user each time PALERT is run. To prevent the scale from being displayed, enter the /N parameter. /M Messages are normally shown to indicate the Total, Used, and Free disk space. If these messages are not normally wanted, enter the /M parameter. Then they will only be issued when the user is warned. Page 3 /P After the user is warned of insufficient disk/memory space, PALERT will pause to make sure the user is aware of the situation. To avoid this pause enter /P. /S When PALERT detects insufficient disk/memory space it sounds an alert to the user. To avoid this noise specify the /S parameter. /C Each time PALERT is run it reminds the user that HELP is available by entering the /H parameter. To avoid this message enter /C. /H PALERT contains internal help that is available at any time by using the /H parameter. Page 4 Examples: 1. Warn user when less than 1,000,000 characters of disk space is available. ===> PALERT C: /B1000 /C 2. Warn user when less than 5 percent of disk space is available. ===> PALERT C: /W5 /C 3. Warn user when less than 300K of memory is available: ===> PALERT /L300 4. DOS batch file that will check disk space each time the LOTUS command is entered. If the desired disk space is not available stop the command. PALERT /b2000/m if errorlevel 1 goto error LOTUS goto end :error ECHO command terminated due to insufficient disk space :end This sample DOS batch file may be found in the .ARC file that contains this program. Name=PA123.BAT. Page 5 Registering PALERT ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ PALERT is distributed under the Shareware concept. This makes it available for anyone to try without obligation. If you decide it is useful and want to keep it, I ask that you register your use of it. This will allow for continued support and maintenance of the program and will help to encourage that more quality software be made available through this channel. We require all corporate and government users of this utility register their copies. To simply register the program, $10 is requested. If you would like the newest program disk and a copy of the manual send $20. If you would like to register all the Patriquin utilities, and receive programs on disk and manuals, send $45. Send registration requests to: Patri-Soft P.O. Box 8263 San Bernardino, CA 92412 The registration charge is a one time fee that entitles you to all future versions of the product. These may either be obtained from normal Shareware sources or directly from me. Any organization ordering more than 100 copies is also entitled to telephone support and will be given the technical support number. Following is a form that may be used to register PALERT. Page 6 PALERT Registration Version 2.1 Please Register PALERT to the following person. We will use ____ copies of the program and have enclosed $____ for each copy to be used. ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ _____ Registration only ............................. $10.00 _____ Registration, program disk and manual.......... $20.00 _____ Registration of all Patriquin Utilities with program disks and manuals................... $45.00 _____ Update of newest Patriquin Utility disk with manual. ................................... $15.00 ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Name: __________________________________________________ Company: _______________________________________________ Address: _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ City: ______________________________ State: ___________ Zip: ______________________ I obtained my copy of PALERT from: ____________________________ If BBS indicate name and number please._________________________ ________________________________________________________________ Please register the software under the following name: ____________________________________________________ Send to: Patri-Soft P.O. Box 8263 San Bernardino, CA 92412 Page 7 P A L E R T Problems and Maintenance ------------------------ I welcome all comments or enhancement suggestions. Please document each item clearly and provide printed examples if possible. Please be sure to include this form with all requests, it will help to make sure we can provide you with the best possible service. Name: __________________________________________________________ Company: _______________________________________________________ Address: _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ City: __________________________________ State: _______________ Zip: ______________________________ Telephone: _______ / ________________________ (Home / Work) Date: _________________________ Description of problem or enhancement: ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ Suggested solution: ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ Page 8 Program Maintenance: -------------------- Version 1.0 August 22, 1986 Version 1.6 January 17, 1987 -- Problem with large capacity disks printing incorrect space used percent. Version 2.0 August 8, 1990 -- Added memory check -- Support for cumulative report of mulitple drives Version 2.1 January 26, 1991 -- Fixed minor bugs experienced by 2 users ----------------------------------------------------------------- Other Patriquin Utilities: -------------------------- PSEARCH -- Extensive file find and Text search capabilities in a menu driven environment. PCOPY/PMOVE -- Complete file copy.move utility that prevents users from accidently losing files by using DOS COPY. Fast file movers are intelligent and move files to different hard disk directories without moving data. PTOUCH -- Set date and time values on files specified through command parameters. PALERT -- Warn users of insufficient disk space before it causes them problems. PDAILY -- Perform any command or batch function only once per day. Use in AUTOEXEC.BAT file.