Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!Teknowledge.COM!unix!hplabs!hpda!hpwala!hpcndnm!jad From: jad@hpcndnm.cnd.hp.com (John Dilley) Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp Subject: Re: /system/*/pif ???? Message-ID: Date: 2 Nov 90 21:12:43 GMT References: <1150040@misty.boeing.com> <1150042@misty.boeing.com> Sender: netnews@hpwala.wal.hp.com Reply-To: jad@hpcndnm.cnd.hp.com Organization: Hewlett Packard, Colorado Networks Division Lines: 44 In-reply-to: jsadler@misty.boeing.com's message of 1 Nov 90 05:46:41 GMT In article <1150042@misty.boeing.com> jsadler@misty.boeing.com (Jim Sadler) writes: > / misty:comp.sys.hp / paul@prcrs.UUCP (Paul Hite) / 8:29 am Oct 30, 1990 / > In article <1150040@misty.boeing.com>, jsadler@misty.boeing.com (Jim Sadler) writes: > >> Does anyone know if the /system/*/pif files are of any use ? > >> > > > >With 7.0, HP ruined all of this. The unsupported pifck has been replaced by > >a supported pdfck. But the /system/*/pdf files are all missing. To top it > >off, HP supplies /system/*/pif files full of bogus information. If you want > >a "bill of materials" system, you'll have to roll your own. > > Let me guess. a ENHANCEMENT REQUEST(aka bug report) needs to be > generated. The HP response (according to standard SSB > terminlogy): "May be fixed in future release." Actually, there is good news in addition to the bad news that the bogus pif files went away ... (?) The good news is there are now /system/*/pdf files (which correspond to the supported pdfck utility), which hopefully are not full of bogus information. My understanding is the pdfck utility is supported at 7.0 and beyond (it's on my 8.0 system although "past performance is no indication of future results" as my friends in the financial markets are fond of saying ... these days anyway ...). The pif files were ASCII text files full of information in a format you could hardly begin to use. The pdf files are full of information in a handy, easily computer-parsable format. With pdfck (or manually if you Love TO Hack) you can check your file mode, owner, group, checksum, just like with the pif file; you can also compare file size in bytes between the pdf file and what's on your file system. I hope you find the pdfck tool to be useful. I have. Regards, -- jad -- John Dilley Hewlett-Packard Colorado Networks Division UX-mail: jad@cnd.hp.com Phone: (303) 229-2787 -- This is not an official statement from Hewlett-Packard Corp., and does not necessarily reflect the official position of HP. The information above is provided in good faith but completely without warranty of any kind.