Appendix g: Message Deletion Utility

A special utility is included in the STPLUS directory as MESSAGE.ZIP. To use this utility you will need to unzip this file and close the voice software application.

This utility, MSGCLEAR.EXE, will delete ALL messages in ALL Mail Boxes and Group Mail Boxes prior to a given date. You will enter this date when you run the utility.

When a caller leaves a message in a Mail Box, a new voice file is left in that Mail Box directory. For example, a message left in Mail Box 1000 might be saved as:

\STPLUS\BOXES\1000\123456.msg. (A random number is assigned to the file.) The voice file name is referenced in a file called MSGQUEUE.DB, which is also located in the Mail Box directory. When the box owner deletes a message, the reference to that message is removed from the MSGQUEUE.DB file, and the actual voice file is deleted from the hard drive. If a Privilege has been set to auto-delete new/old messages, the reference to the file and the actual voice file will be deleted automatically at 3am (or whatever time is set in the STPLUS.INI as the background hour).

However, some messages are special. You may want some messages to be heard by more than one Mail Box owner. These would either be messages sent to Group Mail Boxes, or messages forwarded from one Mail Box to another Mail Box. A message sent to a Group Mail Box becomes a voice file that resides in the Group Mail Box directory. For example, \STPLUS\BOXES\40\345678.msg for Group Mail Box 40. It would be wasteful to copy that file to all Mail Boxes named in Group Mail Box 40, so those Mail Boxes will have the Group Mail message referenced in their MSGQUEUE.DB file. Normally this Group Mail voice file would not get deleted because Mail Box owners will probably not all listen to the message right away. Messages that are forwarded from one Mail Box to another are similar in the fact that the voice file is only referenced, and not actually copied to the recipient's Mail Box. These forwarded messages also will not normally be deleted. The number of these types of messages on your system will dictate how often you need to run this utility.

The message deletion utility is intended to clear your hard drive of these Group Mail and forwarded messages. The utility will, however, delete ALL messages prior to the date you specify, so it must be used with care!

If a voice file that has not yet been heard get deleted from the hard drive, the Mail Box owner may hear, "No message recorded". This simply indicates that the message can no longer be located, and the message can be deleted.