Trying to setup a development copy of the filePro databases

Wed Apr 29 22:24:04 UTC 2026

    Thanks for this suggestion, Mark.  I made a /appl/test/filePro subdir as you suggested, then copied the filePro databases to /appl/test/filePro, then edited my login script as you suggested and that works.  (No duplicate files error messages.)

     So I'm going to give up on this symlinked subdirectory problem for the time being.

     I don't know if I will run into problems with the "config" files, but will cross that bridge when I come to it.  All the printers and other config settings will be identical for the 2 different instances of databases because the printers and so forth will be identical in the "development" system when compared to the "live" system.  

     The only thing else I can think of for now from the configuration editor is to create a 2nd PFCHECKLOCKLOG file:   PFCHECKLOCKLOG=/tmp/pfchecklock2.log  

Thanks again!

Mike Schwartz   

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Comins <mtcomins at aperion.com> 
Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2026 10:31 AM
To: Mike Schwartz - PC Support & Services <filepromike at gmail.com>; 'William J. McEachran' <bill.mceachran at gmail.com>
Cc: 'filepro-list at lists.celestial.com' <filepro-list at aws-01.celestial.com>
Subject: RE: Trying to setup a development copy of the filePro databases

Hi,

You can setup a different path for doing a development 

If you set you currently have 

/appl/fp
/appl/filepro

You can setup

/appl/test/filepro
/appl/test/menus
/appl/test/config

Then create a script 

PFDIR=/appl/test
PFCONFIG=/appl/test/config
PFMENU=/appl/test/menus
Export PFDIR PFCONFIG PFMENU
/bin/sh
PS1=test$

Make it executable and should work.  Be sure to setup permissions to filePro for everything under teset.

Have fun

Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: Filepro-list <filepro-list-bounces+mtcomins=aperion.com at mailman.celestial.com> On Behalf Of Mike Schwartz - PC Support & Services via Filepro-list
Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2026 1:11 PM
To: 'William J. McEachran' <bill.mceachran at gmail.com>
Cc: 'filepro-list at lists.celestial.com' <filepro-list at aws-01.celestial.com>
Subject: RE: Trying to setup a development copy of the filePro databases

     I did a search of the filePro emails that I saved (hundreds of emails since the 1990’s) but I don’t see an fppath.sh  script.  I’ll try searching the fplist archives, unless somebody else recalls that script.

     Good to hear from you again, Bill! 

Thanks!

Mike

From: William J. McEachran <bill.mceachran at gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2026 9:59 AM
To: Mike Schwartz - PC Support & Services <filepromike at gmail.com>
Cc: filepro-list at lists.celestial.com <filepro-list at aws-01.celestial.com>
Subject: Re: Trying to setup a development copy of the filePro databases

Long ago … someone had a script called fppath.sh to do just that.  Do you need it still, if so I’ll fire up an old dusty computer and post it

--

Bill McEachran

bill.mceachran at gmail.com <mailto:bill.mceachran at gmail.com>      289-356-4406

On Wed, Apr 29, 2026 at 11:24 AM Mike Schwartz - PC Support & Services via Filepro-list <filepro-list at mailman.celestial.com <mailto:filepro-list at mailman.celestial.com> > wrote:

     One of my customers asked me to setup a development copy of their filePro databases, including a development copy of their menus.  

      Their Linux system is:  2.6.32-573.18.1.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Wed Jan 6
11:20:49 EST 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

     Their original filePro databases are in /u/appl/filepro, with /appl linked to /u/appl.  This has worked just fine for years.  

     So I created a /u/appl2/filepro subdir and copied their existing databases into /appl2

[devgroup at filepro /]$ ls -l | more

total 179

lrwxrwxrwx.   1 root root     7 Nov 11  2016 appl -> /u/appl

lrwxrwxrwx.   1 root root     8 Apr 27 19:20 appl2 -> /u/appl2

     Then I wrote a script that -should- allow a user named "devmaster" to select either the live filePro menus and databases -or- the development/testing menus and databases:

[devgroup at filepro ~]$ more .bash_profile

# .bash_profile

# Get the aliases and functions

if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then

        . ~/.bashrc

fi

# User specific environment and startup programs

PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin

export PATH

clear

clear

echo "Select Desired Profile."

echo

echo "1) filePro 2023 ."

echo "2) filePro Apr 2026 ."

echo "3) EXIT ."

echo

echo

read answer

case $answer in

      1)

         #mjs."

         PFPROG=/appl

         #  PFDATA=/

         PFDIR=/appl

         TERM=scoansi

         #  TERM=xterm

         PFMENU=/appl/fp/menus

         PFTMP=/appl/tmp; LOGFILE=/tmp/fm; PFLOGAPPEND=ON

         export PFPROG PFDATA PFDIR PFMENU PFTMP LOGFILE PFLOGAPPEND TERM

         p

         #mjs."

         ###======================================

         ;;

      2)

         #PPM"

         PFCHECKLOCKLOG=/u/tmp/pfchecklock2.log

         PFPROG=/appl

         #  PFDATA=/

         PFDIR=/appl2

         TERM=scoansi

         PFMENU=/appl/fp/menus2

         PFTMP=/appl/tmp; LOGFILE=/tmp/fm; PFLOGAPPEND=ON

         export PFPROG PFDATA PFDIR PFMENU PFTMP LOGFILE PFLOGAPPEND TERM PFCHECKLOCKLOG

         #p MENU1

         p

         #PPM"

         ###======================================

         ;;

      3)

         #Logging out"

         EXIT

         ##Logging Out."

         ;;

      *)

         #Logging out"

         echo "Sorry, you must enter 1 2 or 3.  Press ENTER to exit..."

         read akey

         EXIT

         ##Logging Out."

         ;;

esac

      (Thanks to "Old Tony" for the sample script he provided to the filePro list a few years ago.)

      The problem is that whenever I select either option #1 or option #2, then try to go into "inquire, update, add" on one of the databases, like our "CustList" database, I get this error message:

*** A filepro Error Has Occurred

on File: /appl/filepro/ListCustomer/data

File Also On /u Drive

Duplicate files found while scanning drives.

***

Press    H -Hardcopy    Enter -Continue

     I presume this error has something to do with the linked /appl and /u/appl subdirs and/or with the linked /appl2 or /u/appl2 subdirectories, but I haven't been able to figure out what the problem is.  

     Both instances of databases do share the same set of executables, which are in /appl/fp, except that there is a /appl/fp/menus 2 folder which holds the development/testing menus.

     Any ideas?

Thanks!

Mike Schwartz 

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