#16 outpath configuration issue

[Robert James Clay]

An issue posted to the Makenl_NG echo:

following the example control files exactly, "." is not allowed as a path name... specifically,
as an outpath name... neither is ".\"... this is with the DOS16 version of 3.3.1...

[Robert James Clay]

The issue appears to be related to these lines in the following documentation files:

distrib.ctl:outpath . ; put <name>.nnn in current directory
makenl.prn: | outpath . ; put <name>.nnn in current directory
makenl.txt: | outpath . ; put <name>.nnn in current directory

[Robert James Clay]

Configuring outpath that way does result in an error, an instance of which was posted to the MAKENL_NG echo:

take the composite example and fill in the necessary fields...
outpath is specifically set to '.' (without the quotes)...

22-Jan-2013 18:15:44 makenl[1267] MakeNL 3.3.1 (DOS16) compiled with Watcom C on Dec 26 2012 00:20:19
22-Jan-2013 18:15:44 makenl[1267] MakeNL started
22-Jan-2013 18:15:44 makenl[1267] outpath . -- Invalid Path -- '.'
22-Jan-2013 18:15:44 makenl[1267] Error(s) in configuration file
22-Jan-2013 18:15:44 makenl[1267] MakeNL finished (rc=255)

[Robert James Clay]

An example configuration that results in the error:

; Composite makenl control file

logfile x:\logs\composit.log

loglevel 1

make composite

name testnet
threshold 0 -1 ; force compression -- no submittal difference file
arccopy z pkzip -ex ; compress with pkzip instead of default arc
arcmove z pkzip -mf ; compress with pkzip instead of default arc
arcopen a arc ew ; accept compressed arced segments
arcopen z pkunzip -eo ; accept compressed zipped segments
outfile testlist
outdiff testdiff
master x:\makenlng\test\master
outpath .
copyright test.cpy
prolog test.pro
epilog test.epi
private ok
allowunpub 0
alphaphone 0
;minphone 1
baudrate 300,1200,2400,4800,9600,14400,16800,19200,28800,33600
data
Zone,999,TEST_Network_HQ,sometown,username,1-800-555-0100,33600,CM,XA,V32b,V42b,H16,V32t,V34
Files
Region 9991 9991RIN.LST
Net 1000 n1k

[Robert James Clay]

• Description has changed:

Diff:

--- old
+++ new
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 An issue posted to the Makenl_NG echo:
 > following the example control files exactly, "." is not allowed as a path name... specifically,  
-> as an outpath name... neither is ".\"... this is with the DOS16 version of 3.3.1... 
+> as an outpath name... neither is ".\"... this is with the DOS16 version of 3.3.1...
+

• priority: 5 --> 7

[Robert James Clay]

A question to be answered is, is this a bug in the documentation or in the program?

[Andrew Leary]

The default if outpath is not specified is to store the outgoing file in the Master directory. As such, this seems to be a valid bug, since the program does not handle a configuration provided in the examples distributed with it. The workaround is to explicitly specify the complete path in the outpath .CTL file entry.

[andrew clarke]

This also affects the OS/2 16-bit (Watcom) version, although I suspect nobody uses that so it's only of academic value.

Fixing this one seems fairly low priority since the workaround is obvious, but I may take a look at it after 3.4 is released.