OS2.INI and OS2SYS.INI cleanup strategy...

[Dariusz Piatkowski]

So I'm attempting to clean out the INI files here.

OS2.INI is 3,116,513
OS2SYS.INI is 691,065

...this is right after I got done with multiple CHECKINI sessions...only the
OS2SYS file dropped down from about 912,788 size.

Why does this matter? Well, once I hit the 900K size my shutdown usually ends up
corrupting the OS2SYS file, which means that the file is usually cut down to
about 1/2 the size...about 500K...needless to say, this is a problem whenever
I'm attempting to make some change to the environment.

I'm using XWP 1.0.9 and the 'custom' INI write routine. Typically this is a
solid process...until OS2SYS grows too big.

My question is: how does one tell what particular pieces of the INI can 'go'???

I find that the PM_Workplace:Handles0 & Handles1 both have Block1 through
Block5...each one appears to have some 65K entries...and as best as I can
understand, these simply are file handles....or maybe a better way to put this
is to say these are 'object' handles.

The OS2 file on the other hand, has some 308 apps, each one with multiple keys.
I'm guessing the best I can do here is to go through each one and determine if
the application is still installed and in-use.

Any hints and pointers would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks...

[Dave Yeo]

Post by Dariusz Piatkowski
So I'm attempting to clean out the INI files here.
OS2.INI is 3,116,513
OS2SYS.INI is 691,065
...this is right after I got done with multiple CHECKINI sessions...only the
OS2SYS file dropped down from about 912,788 size.
Why does this matter? Well, once I hit the 900K size my shutdown usually ends up
corrupting the OS2SYS file, which means that the file is usually cut down to
about 1/2 the size...about 500K...needless to say, this is a problem whenever
I'm attempting to make some change to the environment.
I'm using XWP 1.0.9 and the 'custom' INI write routine. Typically this is a
solid process...until OS2SYS grows too big.
My question is: how does one tell what particular pieces of the INI can 'go'???
I find that the PM_Workplace:Handles0& Handles1 both have Block1 through
Block5...each one appears to have some 65K entries...and as best as I can
understand, these simply are file handles....or maybe a better way to put this
is to say these are 'object' handles.
The OS2 file on the other hand, has some 308 apps, each one with multiple keys.
I'm guessing the best I can do here is to go through each one and determine if
the application is still installed and in-use.
Any hints and pointers would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks...

You could try http://www.ca-arnold.de/download/cleanini55.zip for
cleaning the file handles, then run checkini afterwards.
Sometimes I find the simplest is to restore the INI files from backup.
If you do get them down in size, back them up
Dave

[Dariusz Piatkowski]

Hi Dave!

Post by Dave Yeo

Post by Dariusz Piatkowski
So I'm attempting to clean out the INI files here.
OS2.INI is 3,116,513
OS2SYS.INI is 691,065

... SNIP...

Post by Dave Yeo
You could try http://www.ca-arnold.de/download/cleanini55.zip for
cleaning the file handles, then run checkini afterwards.
Sometimes I find the simplest is to restore the INI files from backup.
If you do get them down in size, back them up
Dave

Yes, the INI files are backed up just about once a week, sometimes less
frequently as this is a manual process for me.

I have CLEANINI installed, haven't ran it as often as I do CHECKINI though...so
I'll give that a try!

Thanks!

[Steven Levine]

On Wed, 2 Jan 2013 04:53:57 UTC, "Dariusz Piatkowski"
<***@_NO-SPAM_mnsi.net> wrote:

Hi,

Post by Dariusz Piatkowski
My question is: how does one tell what particular pieces of the INI can 'go'???

You can either learn a bit about the organization of the data the WPS
uses or use the appropriate tools. As you have found checkini does
not have the capability to manage PM_Workplace:Handles. As Dave
mentioned, cleanini can do this for you. Another option is Rich
Walsh's DMT (Desktop Maintenace Tool) available from the eCS BetaZone.
Yet another is Unimaint, which has an Aggressive Handle Repair
option, which is very similar to Cleanini's default operation.

Cleanini has a number of options, but I typically run it as

cleanini /C /LogDel /MultiPass

Post by Dariusz Piatkowski
I find that the PM_Workplace:Handles0 & Handles1 both have Block1 through
Block5...each one appears to have some 65K entries...and as best as I can
understand, these simply are file handles....or maybe a better way to put this
is to say these are 'object' handles.

Not quite. The handles tables are used to convert object handles
(i.e. the numbers used to identify persistent objects) to path names.
Your handles tables appear to be larger than the average. The handles
are valid or checkini would have deleted them. However, it appears
you have a large number of handles that are otherwise unused. These
should be deleted and cleanini or DMT can do this for you.

You should also give Rich Walsh's Iconomize and FPOS utilities a try.
They should help you reduce the size of your os2.ini significantly.

Post by Dariusz Piatkowski
The OS2 file on the other hand, has some 308 apps, each one with multiple keys.
I'm guessing the best I can do here is to go through each one and determine if
the application is still installed and in-use.

This will help, but only marginally. The majority of the bulk in your
os2.ini's is almost surely WPS data.

Steven

[Doug Bissett]

On Wed, 2 Jan 2013 04:53:57 UTC, "Dariusz Piatkowski"

Post by Dariusz Piatkowski
So I'm attempting to clean out the INI files here.
OS2.INI is 3,116,513
OS2SYS.INI is 691,065

It has been my experience, that the size of the files is irrelevant,
without some bench mark number to compare to. The size depends a LOT
on what software you have installed. However, my files are now:

OS2.INI is 2,342,574
OS2SYS.INI is 261,506

Post by Dariusz Piatkowski
...this is right after I got done with multiple CHECKINI sessions...only the
OS2SYS file dropped down from about 912,788 size.

Pretty typical, when running CHECKINI. (it has been more than a week
since I cleaned mine).

Post by Dariusz Piatkowski
Why does this matter? Well, once I hit the 900K size my shutdown usually ends up
corrupting the OS2SYS file, which means that the file is usually cut down to
about 1/2 the size...about 500K...needless to say, this is a problem whenever
I'm attempting to make some change to the environment.
I'm using XWP 1.0.9 and the 'custom' INI write routine. Typically this is a
solid process...until OS2SYS grows too big.
My question is: how does one tell what particular pieces of the INI can 'go'???
I find that the PM_Workplace:Handles0 & Handles1 both have Block1 through
Block5...each one appears to have some 65K entries...and as best as I can
understand, these simply are file handles....or maybe a better way to put this
is to say these are 'object' handles.
The OS2 file on the other hand, has some 308 apps, each one with multiple keys.
I'm guessing the best I can do here is to go through each one and determine if
the application is still installed and in-use.
Any hints and pointers would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks...

I am now using this method to keep things under control:

At every boot, DMT runs, and cleans as required. This seems to work
pretty good, but it could be a little more agressive. It also is of
limited help if you don't boot very often (it only runs at boot time).

Every other week, I run:
Cleanini /c /multipass /Restart /remote:delete
follwed by FPOS.EXE, where I remove EVERYTHING, including the Desktop
root, but none of the desktop sub directories (I am sure that most of
them could go too, but I haven't tried it). I find that just running
CLEANINI often causes the "icon creep" problem, which FPOS fixes, so I
do both. After I do that, I reboot, to be sure nothing has been messed
up. Then, i reboot again, with the option to create an archive, at the
next boot only, which keeps my archives up to date, and there is a
pretty good chance that they will work, if required.

Then, once every three months, I run CHECKINI /C, and repeat until it
no longer wants to restart the desktop.

So far, all of that seems to keep me going until I do a new install,
and start over. ECS 2.1 is still running well, so I expect that it
will last until eCS 2.2 takes over. Of course, I always do a clean
install, which eliminates a LOT of crap that would otherwise be
retained.

HTH...

[Andreas Schnellbacher]

Post by Doug Bissett
It has been my experience, that the size of the files is irrelevant,

As usual: quite wrong.

Post by Doug Bissett
without some bench mark number to compare to. The size depends a LOT

The size grows with the stored handles. We all know that many handles
lead to instabilities of the WPS - sooner or later.

E.g. for my current installation I remember: When the handles grow
that they occupy more than 3 blocks, then I have to clean the inis.
BTW: Rich's DMT helps there a lot. I didn't have to run any other ini
cleaner since I'd activated it. Maybe the 3 blocks rule is special for
my installation, but for the installation before on different hardware
it was similar.

Additionally for Cleanini:

I've created a response file that deletes unwanted/unneeded handles. I
call Cleanini with:

cleanini.exe /restart /multipass /resp:cleanini.rsp

The contents of cleanini.rsp is:

[Parameters]
# either specify parameters here or in the call to cleanini
#/c /delall /restart
/c /delall

[Handles]
# accepts also UNC names
# action can also be ignore instead of del
i:\* del
e:\* del
c:\* del
d:\os2\archives\* del
d:\temp\* del
g:\dev\netlabs\* del
j:\* del
k:\* del
l:\* del
m:\* del
n:\* del
o:\* del
p:\* del
q:\* del
r:\* del
s:\* del
t:\* del
u:\* del
v:\* del
w:\* del
x:\* del
y:\* del
z:\* del

[FolderPos]
# accepts also UNC names
# action can also be ignore instead of del
i:\* del
e:\* del
c:\* del
d:\os2\archives\* del
d:\temp\* del
g:\dev\netlabs\* del
j:\* del
k:\* del
l:\* del
m:\* del
n:\* del
o:\* del
p:\* del
q:\* del
r:\* del
s:\* del
t:\* del
u:\* del
v:\* del
w:\* del
x:\* del
y:\* del
z:\* del

Andreas Schnellbacher

[Dariusz Piatkowski]

Post by Steven Levine
On Wed, 2 Jan 2013 04:53:57 UTC, "Dariusz Piatkowski"

Post by Dariusz Piatkowski
So I'm attempting to clean out the INI files here.
OS2.INI is 3,116,513
OS2SYS.INI is 691,065

It has been my experience, that the size of the files is irrelevant,
without some bench mark number to compare to. The size depends a LOT
OS2.INI is 2,342,574
OS2SYS.INI is 261,506

...snip...

Well, gave the CLEANINI and CHECKINI a good workout, results are good:

OS2.INI = 3,088,461
OS2SYS.INI = 369,065

The shrinkage in OS2SYS is probably what has the most impact on the stability of
my system here. I will take a bit of time to review the contents of OS2.INI
next...besides, my setup does need a good review as many of the apps I have
previously installed are either no-longer used, or have been removed.

Oh...one other thing...is DMT an eCS software only? By the looks of it I believe
it is...

[Doug Bissett]

On Mon, 7 Jan 2013 02:56:28 UTC, "Dariusz Piatkowski"

Post by Dariusz Piatkowski

Post by Steven Levine
On Wed, 2 Jan 2013 04:53:57 UTC, "Dariusz Piatkowski"

Post by Dariusz Piatkowski
So I'm attempting to clean out the INI files here.
OS2.INI is 3,116,513
OS2SYS.INI is 691,065

It has been my experience, that the size of the files is irrelevant,
without some bench mark number to compare to. The size depends a LOT
OS2.INI is 2,342,574
OS2SYS.INI is 261,506

...snip...
OS2.INI = 3,088,461
OS2SYS.INI = 369,065
The shrinkage in OS2SYS is probably what has the most impact on the stability of
my system here. I will take a bit of time to review the contents of OS2.INI
next...besides, my setup does need a good review as many of the apps I have
previously installed are either no-longer used, or have been removed.

That is where a "clean install" helps a lot.

Did you also try FPOS? That one is at HOBBES, and seems to do as much
as the others (see my instructions for use in a previous post).

Post by Dariusz Piatkowski
Oh...one other thing...is DMT an eCS software only? By the looks of it I believe
it is...

So far, it is available only from the eCS betazone, which requires
that you are an eCS customer. I don't know if it will be released for
other OS/2 users, or not. I don't think there is any restriction in
the program itself, but I haven't tried it. I am pretty sure that it
will be part of eCS 2.2, when it arrives.

[rs37]

Have you already tried Unimaint stuff to work with this? It is free of charge now. See http://jaread.net/software/pages/unimaint.html

rfsenger

[Dariusz Piatkowski]

Hi!

Post by rs37
Have you already tried Unimaint stuff to work with this? It is free of charge now. See http://jaread.net/software/pages/unimaint.html
rfsenger

Yes, I have ran/relied on multiple programs...but the CHECKINI stuff has been
the 'workhorse' of my maintenance strategy.

FPOS caused me some problems in the past...as in wiped-out Desktop...but I'm
guessing that was just the result of me not knowing/understanding the specific
choices I was making.

Anyways...at this point in time, I found that CHECKINI & CLEANINI give me the
right measure of clean-up, so that's the end results I was after.

Thanks!