PC WSPlus: Running SCHDIST.EXE as Idle Process in Dispatch (101403)

SUMMARY

Versions 1.0 and 1.0a of Microsoft Schedule+ for Windows use the Schedule Distribution (Schdist) program (SCHDIST.EXE) to distribute a user's free and busy times to other postoffices. You can run the Schdist program as an idle process in the Dispatch program (DISPATCH.EXE).

The Dispatch program carries out directory synchronization (Dir-Sync) requests on the network. The Dispatch program polls the postoffices to determine when a Dir-Sync event is scheduled to take place. When Dispatch is running, the External Mail program (EXTERNAL.EXE) must also be running.

Schdist takes advantage of Dispatch polling the postoffices, and runs as an idle process. Schdist runs while External is not active.

MORE INFORMATION

The following examples show commands and batch files for using SCHDIST.EXE and EXTERNAL.EXE as idle processes in DISPATCH.EXE for two different scenarios:

If you want Dispatch to contain the IdleProcessMinPeriod (-TL) and IdleProcessMaxPeriod (-TU) parameters, use the following command line
```
      DISPATCH -Dmp -I"file.bat" -TL30 -TU60 -Lc:\logs\mail.log
						
```
where -Dxx specifies the direct drives, -I specifies the idle program, and -L specifies the log file path and filename. To have Schdist running as an idle process, include SCHDIST.EXE in a batch file. For example:
DISPATCH -Dmp -I"file.bat" -TL30 -TU60 -Lc:\logs\mail.log
The FILE.BAT batch file would look like the following:
```
      <path>SCHDIST.EXE -Dxx -I1 -Lc:\logs\schdist.txt
      <path>EXTERNAL.EXE -Dxx -A -Lc:\logs\external.txt %1
						
```
NOTE: Refer to 101752 "PC Ext: Dispatch Cannot Spawn Batch File
Without COMMAND.COM" for information if you are having problems running this batch file against Microsoft Mail for PC Networks postoffices with MS-DOS 5.0.

NOTE: In this setup, the -TU time in the Dispatch command line is passed to the External command line. This parameter essentially becomes the -BR (break relative) time that exits out of External and passes control back to Dispatch.
If you want the batch file to control the time for exiting out of the idle process, use the following command line:
```
      DISPATCH -Dxx -I"<batchfile>.bat" -L<path\filename>
						
```
For example:
DISPATCH -Dmn -I"file.bat" -Lc:\logs\mail.log
The FILE.BAT batch file would look like the following:
```
      <path>SCHDIST.EXE -Dxx -I1 -Lc:\logs\schdist.txt
      <path>EXTERNAL.EXE -Dxx -A -Lc:\logs\external.txt -BRdd:hh:
						
```
Notes

In this setup, the -BR (break relative) time determines when External exits and passes control back to Dispatch.

You must remove the -A parameter in the External command line if you are using a modem. You should only use <path> placeholder if the SCHDIST.EXE and EXTERNAL.EXE files are not in the current directory. It is best if you copy the following files to a directory on the dedicated machine that will run this process (MS-DOS only):
```
      DISPATCH.EXE     NSDA.EXE           REQMAIN.EXE
      SRVMAIN.EXE      REBUILD.EXE        IMPORT.EXE
      EXTERNAL.EXE     ASYNC.OVL          EXTERNAL.HLP
      EXTERNAL.ERR     X25EICON.OVL       X25ATLAN.OVL
      SCHDIST.EXE
```

REFERENCES

For more information on SCHDIST.EXE, see pages 12-15 of the Microsoft Schedule+ for Windows "Administrator's Guide."

For more information on DISPATCH.EXE, see pages 14-16 of the Microsoft Schedule+ for Windows "Administrator's Guide," and pages 287-307 of the Microsoft Mail version 3.2 "Administrator's Guide" or pages 257-265 of the Microsoft Mail version 3.0 or 3.0b "Administrator's Guide."

For more information on EXTERNAL.EXE, see pages 13-17 of the Microsoft Schedule+ for Windows "Administrator's Guide," and pages 227-285 of the Microsoft Mail version 3.2 "Administrator's Guide" or pages 199-245 of the Microsoft Mail version 3.0 or 3.0b "Administrator's Guide."