PC Ext: Running Externals with the -bt Option in a Batch File (140245)

SUMMARY

When you want to suspend external mailers running with the -bt option within a batch file, you can not expect the mailer to restart and run twice on the same day. External mailers that can use the -bt option include:

EXTERNAL.EXE
SMTPGATE.EXE
X400GATE.EXE
FAXGATE.EXE
VMGATE.EXE
ATTGATE.EXE

MORE INFORMATION

When the external mailer is restarted a second time on the same day, it will exit immediately because the absolute break time has already passed. When you want to stop the external mailers to run other processes, you will need to know how much time the other processes will need and adjust the time assigned to the -bt option so that the external mailer restarts on the following day.

For example, the following batch file will run EXTERNAL.EXE, close it, remove the previous days sent and receive log files, copy the current log files to .OLD, clear the current log files, and restart the external process:

loop
external -ms -mr -bt:23:59
del m:\maildata\log\sent.old
del m:\maildata\log\recv.old
copy m:\maildata\log\sent.log m:\maildata\log\sent.old
copy m:\maildata\log\recv.log m:\maildata\log\recv.old
type nul > m:\maildata\log\sent.log
type nul > m:\maildata\log\recv.log
goto loop

It should not take long to process the .LOG files. Therefore, the absolute break time value should be pushed as close as possible to midnight. If the processes require more time, you need to set the absolute time value to an earlier time.