multiples instance of DSD?

hello

I have a question about DSD2.71:

I run 5 versions of DSD on 5 different computers.
everything works fine except that I often have to merge my .groups .radios .frequencies etc files to have the same thing on the 5 computers.

would it be possible to install, for example, DSD2.71 in Dropbox and run it on the 5 computers?

Can we run the same instance of DSD multiple times?

I have already tried with older version of DSD but I had file conflicts (groups, etc).

thanks for your help.

You could probably have all PCs on the same LAN and run all copies from the same folder - a single DSD+ folder on just one PC.

Only problem I could see is one of the copies overwriting .radios, .groups, etc. while another one is trying to update. Might lose some updates, otherwise, it should work.

My concern with it is, I'm monitoring a new Phase II system that has some pretty constant updates. This would definitely lose some valuable data.

That's the exact problem - you can't have multiple instances writing to a single file. But you can use simple batch script that will merge files automatically. Something like:

for /R %f in (*.groups) do type “%f” >> c:\Test\DSDPlus.groups
for /R %f in (*.radios) do type “%f” >> c:\Test\DSDPlus.radios

That's for the merging process.

Then you can use something like the following script to copy merged files where DSDPlus is in order to always have the actual file loaded.

set drive=C:\DSDPlus\
set copymerged=xcopy /f /c /d /h /i /r /y /v
%copymerged% "C:\Test\DSDPlus.groups" "%drive%"
%copymerged% "C:\Test\DSDPlus.radios" "%drive%"

All this can be set as loop and it can be repeated every 12 hours for example.

Didn't tried the first part but in theory it should work. I run only one instance of DSDPlus so I don't need the first part about merging files but I use those last 4 lines to do regular automatic backup which for me looks like this

@echo off
:A
set drive=C:\Mitko\DSD backup
set backupcmd=xcopy /f /c /d /h /i /r /y /v

echo.
echo.
echo Backing up system files...
echo ----------------------------
echo Backing up DSDPlus.frequencies
%backupcmd% "C:\Mitko\DSDPlus 2.71\DSDPlus.frequencies" "%drive%"
echo.
echo Backing up DSDPlus.groups
%backupcmd% "C:\Mitko\DSDPlus 2.71\DSDPlus.groups" "%drive%"
echo.
echo Backing up DSDPlus.networks
%backupcmd% "C:\Mitko\DSDPlus 2.71\DSDPlus.networks" "%drive%"
echo.
echo Backing up DSDPlus.sites
%backupcmd% "C:\Mitko\DSDPlus 2.71\DSDPlus.sites" "%drive%"
echo.
echo Backing up DSDPlus.radios
%backupcmd% "C:\Mitko\DSDPlus 2.71\DSDPlus.radios" "%drive%"
echo.
echo.
echo Backup Complete! Automatic updates occur evry 12 hours or you can press any key to backup immediately.
echo.
echo Next automatic backup in:

timeout /t 43200

goto A

LimaZulu said:

That's the exact problem - you can't have multiple instances writing to a single file. But you can use simple batch script that will merge files automatically. Something like:

for /R %f in (*.groups) do type “%f” >> c:\Test\DSDPlus.groups
for /R %f in (*.radios) do type “%f” >> c:\Test\DSDPlus.radios

That's for the merging process.

Then you can use something like the following script to copy merged files where DSDPlus is in order to always have the actual file loaded.

set drive=C:\DSDPlus\
set copymerged=xcopy /f /c /d /h /i /r /y /v
%copymerged% "C:\Test\DSDPlus.groups" "%drive%"
%copymerged% "C:\Test\DSDPlus.radios" "%drive%"

All this can be set as loop and it can be repeated every 12 hours for example.

Didn't tried the first part but in theory it should work. I run only one instance of DSDPlus so I don't need the first part about merging files but I use those last 4 lines to do regular automatic backup which for me looks like this

@echo off
:A
set drive=C:\Mitko\DSD backup
set backupcmd=xcopy /f /c /d /h /i /r /y /v

echo.
echo.
echo Backing up system files...
echo ----------------------------
echo Backing up DSDPlus.frequencies
%backupcmd% "C:\Mitko\DSDPlus 2.71\DSDPlus.frequencies" "%drive%"
echo.
echo Backing up DSDPlus.groups
%backupcmd% "C:\Mitko\DSDPlus 2.71\DSDPlus.groups" "%drive%"
echo.
echo Backing up DSDPlus.networks
%backupcmd% "C:\Mitko\DSDPlus 2.71\DSDPlus.networks" "%drive%"
echo.
echo Backing up DSDPlus.sites
%backupcmd% "C:\Mitko\DSDPlus 2.71\DSDPlus.sites" "%drive%"
echo.
echo Backing up DSDPlus.radios
%backupcmd% "C:\Mitko\DSDPlus 2.71\DSDPlus.radios" "%drive%"
echo.
echo.
echo Backup Complete! Automatic updates occur evry 12 hours or you can press any key to backup immediately.
echo.
echo Next automatic backup in:

timeout /t 43200

goto A

Click to expand...

thanks Limazulu I will try that !

LimaZulu said:

That's the exact problem - you can't have multiple instances writing to a single file.

Click to expand...

So then how do CC and VC copies of DSD+ share the same files?

And why does the -F option exist if multiple copies of DSD+ can't run in the same folder?

slicerwizard said:

So then how do CC and VC copies of DSD+ share the same files?

And why does the -F option exist if multiple copies of DSD+ can't run in the same folder?

Click to expand...

If I am not wrong only CC is writing to those files and VC is only reding them. But I think this is something that only DSDPlus authors can answer
I don't know what -F is, but if you want, you can share with us

I guess my VC log is lying to me...

2018.01.10 21:28:23 85,482 radio records saved; 71,131 aliases
2018.01.10 21:28:23 5254 group records saved; 2022 aliases

You can have multiple copes open. That's not the issue. The readme even says you can write to the files at any time. I have mine all open in EditPad while I'm monitoring and they're constantly being updated. If you have two copies of DSD open and #2 instance tries to write while the instance #1 is in the middle of writing, it will not write. It cannot. That being said, if there's something in the DSD code that caches the data until the file lock is released, then it will save once the lock is released.

LimaZulu said:

If I am not wrong only CC is writing to those files and VC is only reding them. But I think this is something that only DSDPlus authors can answer
I don't know what -F is, but if you want, you can share with us

Click to expand...

see notes.txt:

A -F<num> (file number) command line parameter has been added

When this parameter is used, DSD+ modifies the names of its output files
in order to avoid name collisions with other copies of DSD+

The affected files are DSDPlus.wav and DSDPlus.event
The per-call Record folder's name is also modified

Use this feature if you want multiple copies of DSD+ to share the same
networks, sites, groups, radios and frequencies files

This feature should allow you to simultaneously monitor multiple control channels (sites)
of a network with all group and radio data being stored in the DSDPlus.groups
and DSDPlus.radios files

The sites can be part of a single network or multiple networks;
multiple protocols can be simultaneously monitored

This feature WILL NOT allow you to follow control/rest/voice channel changes
on multiple sites. Upgrades to FMPA and FMP24 will be required to support that.
At present, you must use separate DSD+ installations (folders) to trunk track multiple
site or systems.