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ACCT20
DECSYSTEM-20 RESOURCE-USAGE
ACCOUNTING PROGRAM
Version 2.0
PROGRAM LOGIC MANUAL
WRITTEN BY
DAVID TODD
DIRECTOR OF UNIVERSITY COMPUTING
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY
MIDDLETOWN, CT 06457
2 May 1988
ACCT20 Program Logic Manualntroduction Page 1
Introduction
ACCT20 analyzes the TOPS-20 SYSTEM-DATA.BIN files that
contain audit trails of DEC-20 usage and produces summary and
detailed reports of usage statistics. The ACCT20 User Manual
explains the use of the program for usage accounting. This
ACCT20 Program Logic Manual outlines the internal operation of
ACCT20 and explains how to assemble and load the necessary
program modules.
Before attempting to understand the operation of program,
you will need to have read the Digital DEC-20 Accounting System
Specifications manual, Order Number DEC-20-UASSA-A-D (part of the
TOPS-20 documentation set). This document explains the internal
format of the SYSTEM-DATA.BIN file that TOPS generates to record
system usage. The binary, variable-length records in that file
contain information about CPU usage, structure and tape mounts,
printer usage, etc. It is that file that ACCT20 processes to
summarize system usage.
It will also be helpful to have access to the files that
generate and are used by ACCT20. The distribution tape for
ACCT20 contains the following files:
ACCT20.MAC, .REL, .EXE
The assembly-language source program, assembled
code, and executable code for ACCT20.
BINTAB.MAC, .REL
A package of routines for handling binary tables.
TREES.MAC, .REL A package of routines used for binary-tree
manipulation by ACCT20.
CLSACT.MAC, .REL, .EXE
A program that can be used to close the
TOPS-maintained file SYSTEM-DATA.BIN daily,
giving a unique name to the file that summarizes
the accounting data for that day.
MONTHLY.CTL A prototype for a batch control file that can be
used to perform monthly accounting with ACCT20.
ACCT20 Program Logic Manualntroduction Page 2
ACCT20.CHG An example of a file that can be used to specify
charges to be assessed for resources used.
ACCT20.PCG An example of a file that can be used to specify
charges to be assessed for different types of
printer forms used.
ACCT20.CAT An example file to demonstrate how specific users
and departments can be grouped together into
categories for summarization of use by broad
categories instead of use by individual users.
ACCT20-USER.MSS, .PS, .LPT
The SCRIBE source file, PostScript-printable, and
line-printable text files for the user manual.
ACCT20-PLM.MSS, .PS, .LPT
The SCRIBE source file, PostScript-printable, and
line-printable text files for this manual.
The latter, data files are used by ACCT20 in processing the
accounting information into usage summaries, and much of the
program deals with building tables from these files.
ACCT20 Program Logic Manualrnal Operation Page 3
Internal Operation
The ACCT20 program is table-driven by various commands. The
primary loop of the program is a very simple one beginning at
LOOP, shortly after the ACCT20 starting address, and is driven by
the processing of a COMAND JSYS call (to DPROMP) that takes a
command from the user and dispatches to the appropriate routine
to process the command. Most commands set status bits in a flag
accumulator to indicate post-processing output routine to be
invoked, open and process auxiliary data files to build internal
data tables, and open output JFN's.
The main processing routine is the one that processes the
system data file (SYSTEM-DATA.BIN). This processing is initiated
by the PROCESS command. The code in that section, starting at
address .PRO:
- reads in a record and validates it as best it can,
- dispatches to the processing routine appropriate for
the type of entry of the accounting record,
- returns to read the next record to process, and
- at the end of the last input file (from a possible
sequence of input files), invokes procedures to dump
and list summary data tables.
The summary information is maintained in a binary tree that
is dynamically created during the PROCESSing of the accounting
files. The DUMP command dumps the (memory-independent)
information in this tree, along with some header information,
into the SUMMARY.BIN file. This file is can be used for
REPROCESSing, to reCATEGORIZE the summarized data for various
usage analyses, for example. The LIST commands process the
binary summary tree into text files.
Most of the processing is actually straightforward, and
there are, hopefully, few interdependencies between sections of
code. The addition of new commands should be relatively easy
should new developments be desired.
ACCT20 Program Logic Manualbly and Loading Page 4
Assembly and Loading
ACCT20 must be compiled with several standard Digital
symbol-definition modules and loaded with two other modules
written specifically for ACCT20, BINTAB and TREES. BINTAB is a
set of routines to keep one-word-entry binary tables (similar to
TBLUK JSYS methods but with binary keys). TREES builds,
maintains, and processes the internal binary trees used for data
storage for summary purposes (among other things). The LOAD
command then takes the form
@LOAD ACCT20,BINTAB,TREES
@SAVE
The TREES routines use height-balancing algorithms explained
by Knuth in Volume 1, Fundamental Algorithms in his series on The
Art of Computer Programming. Version 1 of ACCT20 did not use
height-balancing. Height balancing was expected to improve
performance, but the net effect was minimal: sometimes an
improvement, sometimes not, depending upon the data stream.
Version 2 retains the height-balancing algorithms, though.
There are numerous demonstration and support files supplied
with the ACCT20 package. Most of these are described in the
ACCT20 User Manual. The MONTHLY.CTL and BILLER.CTL files serve as
prototypes for a monthly summary report generating batch control
file and for a monthly billing file. Instructions on use of
these files are contained in the files themselves.
ACCT20 Program Logic Manualeficiencies Page 5
Deficiencies
The following are the major decificiencies of which I'm
aware in ACCT20:
- Error recovery for various commands processing from
disk files is poor. For example, if a keyword is
mistyped in the ACCT20.CHG file, no recovery is
attempted and the user must CNTL-C and search through
the file to attempt to find and fix the problem.
- The binary tree routines do height balancing, but it
appears that algorithm does not improve execution time
of the program (and may make it worse in some cases).
It appears that the efficiency of the summarizing
process depends upon the order in which entries appear
in the system data file. Use of a height-balancing
algorithm for tree maintenance may help in the
generation of the tree but not in its processing.
Further analyses might be useful (but probably won't
effect significant performance improvements).
- The summary listing file does not visually group
summary lines by directory level. This should be a
relatively easy fix.
- Generation of details listings for bills should be made
automatic rather than requiring a separate processing
step.
- Rob Austein has pointed out that while reading a data
file to establish tables (e.g., ACCT20.CAT), the
message "too big for internal buffer" can occasionally
be generated. He points out that this is because even
in processing a file the DPROMP JSYS should be called
to set up state pointers. I haven't had a chance to
try his suggested patches and so haven't installed them
in Version 2, but I trust that these will solve that
problem:
Replace
HRROI A,[ASCIZ "Foo>"]
TXNE F,F%TTIN
CALL DPROMP
with code such as
ACCT20 Program Logic Manualeficiencies Page 6
HRROI A,[ASCIZ "Foo>"]
TXNN F,F%TTIN
HRROI A,[Z]
CALL DPROMP
This will invoke DPROMP with a null string if not
interactive, so the state block is initialized as it
should be.
Unfortunately I will be unable to provide ongoing support or
future versions of ACCT20. I invite anyone who has additional
edits to submit the revised code to the DECUS Library, Marlboro,
MA.
ACCT20 Program Logic Manual Page i
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Internal Operation 3
Assembly and Loading 4
Deficiencies 5