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FIXUSERS Utility

This document describes a utility used to identify and remedy problems resulting from inadvertent locking of Escape data files by users. A symptom of the problem may be that the program appears to "hang" for all (or some) system users. In most cases, the program will resume functioning after a delay.

In many cases, erroneous entries will still exist for a user in the OVERSEER.DAT file. To clear out and reset the OVERSEER.DAT file, run the FIXUSERS utility when all users are out of the system.

The FIXUSERS Utility program is a preventative maintenance program. It should be run regularly: nightly or before a back-up of the system. It must only be run when no one is in the system.

NOTE: We also recommend running FIXUSERS whenever you have had a system crash or file lock problems, before allowing users back into the system.

To obtain the latest version of the FIXUSERS.EXE utility, use this link to download FINUTIL.ZIP to your ESCAPE\RELEASE directory. Unzip FINUTIL.ZIP and download all of the latest utilities into your ESCAPE\UTIL directory.

This utility does several things:

  1. Empties the OVERSEER.DAT file and key to minimize the possibility of users having a lock on that file for longer than a split second.
  2. Clears the "signed on" flag in the user extension file, so that if someone forgot to sign out at night and had to be "kicked out" before the backup, they will not see the message "Clearing Locks" during sign-on.
  3. Creates a log file (\ESCAPE\COMMON\FIXUSERS.AUD) containing all error messages. The log file is appended each time the program is run. It also creates an entry in the standard LOGFILE each time FIXUSERS is run, with the date, time, user, and a comment "FIXUSERS program was run with completion status".
  4. Searches for the EOF (end of file) and repairs itself if it finds the end-of-file to be incorrect.

Escape has two other utility programs designed to deal with the file-locking problem.

See the Locked Files Utility FYI for more information on the LOCKED and SCANLOCK utilities.

Running FIXUSERS

To run FIXUSERS:

  1. Backup FINUSERS.* and USERSEXT.* in \ESCAPE\COMMON. You can zip them into a zip file, or copy them to a temporary directory. If you are running FIXUSERS immediately after a system backup, this step is unnecessary.
  2. Put FIXUSERS.EXE in \ESCAPE\UTIL.
  3. Run utility from the \ESCAPE\COMMON directory as follows: 
    \ESCAPE\UTIL\FIXUSERS.EXE
  4. Review the FIXUSERS.AUD for any error messages and notify Escape Technology. When there are error messages you can attach the file ESCAPE\COMMON\FIXUSERS.AUD to an email and send it to Escape Customer Support at support@escapetech.com.

Messages in FIXUSERS.AUD

The following is a list of messages you may receive in the FIXUSERS.AUD file:

  • FIXUSERS aborted when overseer could not be opened exclusively - There are still users in the system. Use the lock utility to get all users out of the system.
  • Started checking user records - The date and time that FIXUSERS was initiated.
  • Deleted blank user id - A record was found in the FinUsers file that had a blank User_Id field. This record was deleted.
  • Started checking for stranded User Extension records - The date and time when FIXUSERS started reading through the user extension file and matching up its records with the users found in FinUsers.
  • Stranded extension record for <user id> was removed - If the record existed in FinUsers but not in the extension file, the stranded extension record was removed.
  • Add user extension record for <user id> - If the record existed in the extension file but not in FinUsers, the extension record was added.
  • Set user sequence # for: <user id> (<menu group>) #<seq num> Old: <old seq num> - If the user’s sequence number was zero, a new one was created. This sequence number helps make unique folder references (\ESCAPE\USRS\...) or spooler files (\ESCAPE\SPL\...) for temp/work files created by Escape Classic.
  • User was logged out: <user id> (<menu group>) - A user exited the system without logging out. The utility logged out the user.
  • Finished checking user records - The date and time that FIXUSERS was completed.
  • Deleted Blanks=<#>; Added Exts=<#>; Deleted Exts=<#>; Seqs Set=<#>; Logged Out=<#> - This is a summary of the utility's actions.

NOTE: The last two messages are appended to the standard log file also.