[% # $Id: ReadMe.tt 4669 2006-10-09 21:37:10Z cjm $ %]

[% IF Win32 %]

[% outputFile = 'ReadMe.txt' %]
[% ELSE %]

[% outputFile = 'README' %]
[% END %]
>../[% outputFile %]

[% PERL %]
# Generate title line:
# ReadMe.txt Fast File Validator 0.xx DD-Mmm-YYYY

use Date::Format 'time2str';

my $line = $stash->get('outputFile'); my $center = sprintf '%s %s', $stash->get('name'), $stash->get('version'); my $date = time2str('%e-%b-%Y', time);

$line .= (' ' x (int((79 - length $center) / 2) - length $line)) . $center; $line .= (' ' x (79 - length($line) - length($date))) . $date . "\n";

print $line

[% END %]

[% PERL %]
# Generate the table of contents:

my $Win32 = $stash->get('Win32');

my @sections = (
'About Fast File Validator',
'System Requirements',
'Installation',
($Win32 ? 'Removal' : ()),
'License',
($Win32 ? 'History' : ()),
'Author',
);

my %section;
my $num = 0;
foreach (@sections) {
$section{$_} = sprintf "[\%d] %s", ++$num, $_; print " $section{$_}\n";
}

$stash->set(section => sub {
my $s = $section{$_[0]};
sprintf "%s\n%s", $s, '-' x length($s), });
[% END %]

[% section('About Fast File Validator') %]

Fast File Validator (FFV) is a program for verifying files against a checksum file and for creating such checksum files. (I'm using checksum in the generic sense. Technically, neither CRC32 nor MD5 is really a checksum.)

FFV supports both SFV files (which use the CRC32 algorithm) and MD5 files. Actually, it can handle both types of checksum in the same file, although you don't normally see this, and I don't recommend creating such files.

[% IF Win32 %]
FFV is fast, because it's written directly to the Win32 API to avoid unnecessary overhead and it uses a multi-threaded design, so it can calculate the CRC while reading the file. (Note: In my limited tests, it's about 40% faster under NT 4.0 than under Windows 98, reading the same files off the same hard drive.)

[% END %]
[% IF 0 %]
I've been using FFV often and haven't had any trouble with it. If no bugs are reported in the next few weeks, I'll probably re-release this as version 1.0.

[% END %]

[% section('System Requirements') %]

Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0, or later
or
A POSIX-compatible system that supports asynchronous I/O (eg, Linux)

I've heard it works on Solaris, but I only use Linux myself.

[% section('Installation') %]

[% IF Win32 %]
Copy FFV.exe to a folder on your path. If you don't know what a path is, you can put it in your C:\Windows directory. Then read FFV.txt to find out how to use it.
[% ELSE %]
FFV uses the standard GNU autoconf system. See the file INSTALL if you're not familiar with that. FFV includes some self-tests that can be run with "make check".
[% END %]

[% IF Win32 %]
[% section('Removal') %]

To remove FFV, just delete it. It makes no registry changes or INI files.

The following files are included with FFV (and should be deleted): ReadMe.txt This file
AUTHORS.txt Credits
COPYING.txt The GNU General Public License

  FFV.exe       The main program
  FFV.txt       The documentation

Source.zip The source code for FFV

[% END %]
[% section('License') %]

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.

The GNU General Public License can be found in the file COPYING[% '.txt' IF Win32 %].

[% IF Win32 %]
[% section('History') %]
[% INCLUDE NEWS.tt %]

[% END %]
[% section('Author') %]

Christopher J. Madsen cjm .at. pobox.com 1113 Abrams Rd. Apt. 296
Richardson, TX 75081-5573

FFV Home Page:
http://www.pobox.com/~cjm/ffv/