Use of Unisoft's "vchk" Utility

[Bob Straub]

   Our Unix is a port of Uniplus+(TM) System III from Unisoft Systems onto our
own MC68000 hardware.

     I've been having difficulty understanding the use of the "vchk" utility
(Copyright 1982 Unisoft Systems; Version III.1.7), and would appreciate
help from anyone more familiar with it than I am. Specific areas of
misunderstanding:

1. How to include the checksum content specification in the vchk tree for
   ALL files.  I can't get them to be included for either object or
   executable files.  I've seen what appears to be output from vchk which
   has checksums for all files, so I believe that I just don't know the
   right way to do it.  When I edit a vchk tree and manually insert
   checksums for those files for which vchk doesn't, vchk will subsequently
   check the checksums for those files accurately.

2. Section 3.3 of Volume II of Unisoft's manuals was originally reserved
   for (presumably more detailed) documentation of vchk, but our original
   manuals left that section empty.  The March 1984 supplement corrects the
   Volume I document, but includes a document about the PWB/UNIX Accounting
   System which is supposed to replace section 3.3 (VCHK).  Question: was
   there ever, or is there now a better document describing vchk, and if
   there is, how can I get a copy?

3. Vchk will usually include a length specification for a file that doesn't
   have a checksum specification (i.e., a binary file), except when the
   file contains a "Version..." string.  In that case, the version info
   replaces all other content specifications.  I guess that the folks who
   wrote vchk assume that the version info will be updated (automatically?)
   when changes are made to the file.  Having been a victim of such
   assumptions in the past, I'm nervous about relying on one ASCII string
   in one module of an executable file file as being the only information
   about the program's configuration.  If vchk can be made to include
   checksums for all files, will that information still be superseded by
   the "Version..." string when that exists?

It also appears that when a checksum does appear for a file, it is the same
as that given by "sumdir", not "sum" as stated in the documentation.

Thanks in advance to any and all who can help.
-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name:	Robert J. Straub
USmail:	Megadata Corp. 35 Orville Dr., Bohemia, NY 11716
Phone:	516-589-6800 (M-F 9-5 EST)
UUCP:	{decvax, ihnp4}!philabs!sbcs!megad!bstraub