Date   : Sun, 12 Apr 1987 20:36:52 MDT
From   : Frank J. Wancho <WANCHO@SIMTEL20.ARPA>
Subject: New version of NCRC for TOPS-20

There is a new version of NCRC (10) in PD:<MISC.TOPS-20>.  This
version has two new switches: /FORCE and /WRITE.

The /WRITE switch (which implies /FORCE) causes the computed CRC value
to be stored in the .FBUSW of the FDB.  Of course, the user must have
write access to the file for this switch to have effect.

The /FORCE switch will cause NCRC to compute the value for the file.
If the value of that word is non-zero, NCRC will skip the computation
and display the value found in the .FBUSW word.

All publically readable files on our PD: structure now have that word
set with the computed CRC value for that file.  If you FTP any of
these files directly to another TOPS-20 system, and your FTP program
provides the option to retain all FDB information, be sure to turn
that option on.

The primary motivation for adding this feature was to decrease the
amount of time the Archive Server spends processing requests for files
which include a CRC listing.  In the past few hours this feature has
been available, the performance improvement has been rather dramatic.
It may, once again, be possible to start seeing a much improved
response time instead of the 5-7-day turnaround of the past few weeks.

--Frank