problem

[Kenneth Brody]

On 2/14/2011 9:27 AM, ROBERT PULLIAM wrote:
> Using filepro and unix sco.  I have a menu that has several choices, however, only one is the problem
>
> 3.  RUN END OF DAY
>
> There are two problems - first I have some employess who are what I call "pounders" and hit the enter key when the above is highlighted more than once causing the bat file to run however many times the key is pressed.  The second problem is that some employes press the key once but don't notice that the printer is on pause and when nothing prints they assume it didn't run and press the selection again.
>
> Is there any way to prevent this bat file from being executed more than once! Education doesn't seem to work!

Note that "bat file" is a Windows term, whereas "shell script" is what would 
be used for Unix.

Does each user need to run this exactly once, or is it once per day for the 
entire system?

If the latter, use cron.

If the former, there are numerous ways aside from a clue-by-four.

Without details on what, exactly, the shell script does, we can only offer 
general ideas.  For example, at the end of the script, store the date that 
this user last ran the program, and have filePro start by checking when it 
was last run.  (A simple lookup would suffice here.)  Or "touch" a file at 
the end of the script, and start by seeing if the file was modified today. 
(A little more involved, but relatively simple if you "speak" shell.)

Of course, what happens if the user really does need to run it more than 
once?  (Perhaps the printer wasn't on "pause", but rather had a paper jam 
and it needs to be printed again.)

-- 
Kenneth Brody