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4.2.3 Manually Defining and Assigning Groups

If MsgEd TE is not able to read group information from your Areafile, or if you want to fine-tune that information, or also if you are defining some or all areas manually in your MsgEd TE configuration file. This is done using the Group keyword. Here is it’s syntax:

Syntax:

Group "groupname" [pattern]

Example:

Group "OS/2 Echos" *OS2*

The groupname parameter should be a string that uniquely identifies this group. It may contain spaces if you enclose it in quotation marks, as shown above.

The optional pattern argument specifies a wildcard pattern. The pattern may contain any number of stars and questionmarks, and works like a wildcard on an OS/2 or Win32 command line. This pattern is matched against the area tag (like for example OS2PROG), and all matching areas will be added to that group.

If the pattern argument is omitted, the group will be defined, but no areas will be added to it yet.

There can only be one pattern argument, but this is not a problem, as the Group keyword is cumulative. This means that if you write something like

Group "Echos in German Language" *.GER
Group "Echos in German Language" *.024
Group "Echos in German Language" *.AUS

then the group will contain all areas that match at least one of the given patterns.

However, each one area can only be member of a single group. This means that if you add an area to a group that has previously already been added to a different group, that group will lose this area. Example:

Group "German Echos" *.GER
Group "Linux Echos" *LINUX*

Here, the ‘LINUX.GER’ echo area would be in the ‘Linux Echos’ group, and not in the ‘German Echos’ group.

You can put Group statements anywhere in your configuration file. Even if an area is defined after a Group statement, it will still be added to that group if the wildcard matches. However, the relative ordering of the Group file statements may be important: Msged will display groups (when areas are sorted by group, or in the group menu, see later) in the order of first mention in the MsgEd TE configuration file. A group is mentioned either when it’s name first appears in a Group statement, or when it is automatically defined when reading an areafile.

For example, let’s assume you are using fidoconfig and get all group information from the areafile. But you want to put some groups that attract your special interest into a group named ‘Interesting Groups’. Now you have to decide if you want to put see this group before all other groups in the area list, or if you want to see it after all other groups. In the first case, write

Group "Interesting Groups"
Areafile fidoconfig
Group "Interesting Groups" *LINUX* *OS2*

In the second case, omit the definition before the Areafile statement and simply write

Areafile fidoconfig
Group "Interesting Groups" *LINUX* *OS2*

Next: Group Functions in the Message Area List, Previous: Reading Group Definitions from the Tosser Configuration File, Up: Configuring and Using Message Area Groups.   [Index]