Here you will find a step-by-step explanation of how to do the most common accounting tasks at xyz.
Use grep
to find which data file the account is in, then
balance
the data file. The
trickiest part is finding the right data file.
Remember, you can search for anything that is contained in the
data files, such as a
contact's name, their
phone number, a
username, or the
name on a check.
Here is a sample session.
$ grep Marion ~accounts@xyz.net/data/*
1140:Marion Abeldgaard:2350345:mabel@xyz.net
2151:Dina Marion:2359051:gunz@xyz.net
$ ~accounts@xyz.net/balance ~accounts@xyz.net/data/2151
8/19/99 gunz, normal, homer tax -7.70
9/1/99 gunz, normal, homer tax -21.10
TOTAL: -28.80 Dina Marion 235-9051
$
Here we were looking for the account balance of someone with the last name
Marion. So, we use grep
to find Marion's
data file. Two data
files contain the word Marion
, 1140
and 2151
. Dina
Marion is who we want, so we feed
balance
with the
data file we want.
You can record credits to an account by hand or with the script
enter
. Either way, you search for
the data file you would like to credit, and make an appropriate entry in the
data, tape, and iai files. Here's an sample session using the
enter script.
$ cd ~accounts@xyz.net/data/ $ ~accounts@xyz.net/enter Grep: jrljknf 570:John Fitzpatrick:2356158:jrljknf@xyz.net 570:jrljknf:normal:homer:tax 570:10470:jrljknf, normal, homer:-21.1 570:10500:jrljknf, normal, homer:-21.1 570:10531:jrljknf, normal, homer:-21.1 570:10561:jrljknf, normal, homer tax:-21.1 570:10592:jrljknf, normal, homer tax:-21.1 570:10623:jrljknf, normal, homer tax:-21.1 570:10651:jrljknf, normal, homer tax:-21.1 570:10682:jrljknf, normal, homer tax:-21.1 570:10712:jrljknf, normal, homer tax:-21.1 570:10743:jrljknf, normal, homer tax:-21.1 570:10773:jrljknf, normal, homer tax:-21.1 570:10804:jrljknf, normal, homer tax:-21.1 570:10835:jrljknf, normal, homer tax:-21.1 Continue (y): File: 570 uDate: 10857 Description (JOHN R.FITZPATRICK / LINDA J. FITZPATRICK): Amount (21.1): homer:tax Tax (b): h 9/23/99 JOHN R.FITZPATRICK / LINDA J. FITZPATRICK 21.1 h Accept (y): Grep:
First, we entered into the data file directory
and started the enter script. Our check
provided a username, so we searched for it, jrljknf
. We find that
data file 570
contains entries for the
username, and there were no other matches. There is no need to search again, so
we continue, and tell it to work on file 570
. We enter the
date. The
description is
correct, so there's no need to type it in. The
amount is as it was
last month, so we can just continue here as well. We enter the appropriate tax
code as described in the explanations for
enter and
tapesum. It presents us with the entry
we've just generated, and since it is correct, we continue. Done with the
entry, we are left with a prompt to grep
for another entry, or we could
Ctrl-C to quit.
You simply need to add the account to an existing data file, or create a new data file. Usually the latter is the case, and the name of the new file should simply be the next available file number. Refer to the data file format for the details of its form. Here is a sample session.
$ cd ~accounts@xyz.net/data/ $ ls 229? 2290 2291 2292 2293 2294 2295 2296 2297 2298 2299 $ ls 230? 230?: No such file or directory $ vi 2230 ... Susan Lind:2357714:slind@xyz.net slind:normal:homer:tax 10898:slind, normal, homer tax:-19 ... $ chown one@xyz.net:xyz 2300 $ chmod 660 2300
For convenience, we cd
into the data
directory. In this case, the
account is brand new, so will not be added to an existing data file. Therefor,
we ls
around where we think we last added files, in the 2290's. We find
that 2290 through 2299 already exist, so we ls to see what 2300's there are.
Finding there are none, we take the first available, 2300, and start up vi (or
the text editor of your choice) with that filename. As
specified we add contact and account information.
Since this account was added 11/3/99 (10898), they are charged for 27 days of
service. After saving the file, we set the proper group and access
permissions.
After the account has been terminated, we need to take care of the account's accounting file. If the terminated account is not the only account represented in and accounting file, we can simply remove it's entry and make appropriate changed to the charges in the accounting file. More commonly, the terminated account is the only account in the accounting file, and thus the file may be deleted after any balances due have been paid. Here is a sample session.
$ cd ~accounts@xyz.net/data/
$ grep buddy *
977:Joan Brown:2357297:buddy@xyz.net
977:buddy:normal:homer:tax
977:10531:buddy, normal, homer:-21.1
977:10561:buddy, normal, homer tax:-21.1
977:10592:buddy, normal, homer tax:-21.1
977:10623:buddy, normal, homer tax:-21.1
977:10651:buddy, normal, homer tax:-21.1
977:10682:buddy, normal, homer tax:-21.1
977:10712:buddy, normal, homer tax:-21.1
977:10743:buddy, normal, homer tax:-21.1
977:10773:buddy, normal, homer tax:-21.1
977:10804:buddy, normal, homer tax:-21.1
977:10835:buddy, normal, homer tax:-21.1
977:10865:buddy, normal, homer tax:-21.1
977:10896:buddy, normal, homer tax:-21.1
$ vi 977
...
Joan Brown:2357297:buddy@xyz.net
buddy:normal:homer:closed
10513:Previous Balance:21.1
10531:buddy, normal, homer:-21.1
10561:buddy, normal, homer tax:-21.1
10592:buddy, normal, homer tax:-21.1
10616:CHARLES M. BROWN / JOAN BROWN / BEN J. BROWN:63.3
10623:buddy, normal, homer tax:-21.1
10651:buddy, normal, homer tax:-21.1
10682:buddy, normal, homer tax:-21.1
10694:CHARLES M. BROWN / JOAN BROWN / BEN J. BROWN:63.3
10712:buddy, normal, homer tax:-21.1
10743:buddy, normal, homer tax:-21.1
10765:CHARLES M. BROWN / JOAN BROWN / BEN J. BROWN:42.2
10773:buddy, normal, homer tax:-21.1
10804:buddy, normal, homer tax:-21.1
10816:CHARLES M. BROWN / JOAN BROWN / BEN J. BROWN:42.2
10835:buddy, normal, homer tax:-21.1
10865:buddy, normal, homer tax:-21.1
10877:CHARLES M. BROWN / JOAN BROWN / BEN J. BROWN:21.1
10896:buddy, normal, homer tax:-2.1
...
$ ~accounts@xyz.net/balance 977
10/14/98 Previous Balance 21.10
11/1/98 buddy, normal, homer -21.10
12/1/98 buddy, normal, homer tax -21.10
1/1/99 buddy, normal, homer tax -21.10
1/25/99 CHARLES M. BROWN / JOAN BROWN / BEN J. 63.30
2/1/99 buddy, normal, homer tax -21.10
3/1/99 buddy, normal, homer tax -21.10
4/1/99 buddy, normal, homer tax -21.10
4/13/99 CHARLES M. BROWN / JOAN BROWN / BEN J. 63.30
5/1/99 buddy, normal, homer tax -21.10
6/1/99 buddy, normal, homer tax -21.10
6/23/99 CHARLES M. BROWN / JOAN BROWN / BEN J. 42.20
7/1/99 buddy, normal, homer tax -21.10
8/1/99 buddy, normal, homer tax -21.10
8/13/99 CHARLES M. BROWN / JOAN BROWN / BEN J. 42.20
9/1/99 buddy, normal, homer tax -21.10
10/1/99 buddy, normal, homer tax -21.10
10/13/99 CHARLES M. BROWN / JOAN BROWN / BEN J. 21.10
11/1/99 buddy, normal, homer tax -2.10
TOTAL: -2.10 Joan Brown 235-7297
$
Change into the data
directory, and grep for buddy
, the account we
need to close. We find the buddy
account in file 977
, so we open
it in our text editor. There we mark the account as closed (on the second
line), and adjust their November (10896) charge. Since they closed their
account out November 3rd, we charge them only for three day's services ($2.10).
Finding the balance of the account, we see they still owe us money, so we'll
leave their account file as it is. Were their balance zero, or if their balance
is zero in the future, we could delete the file with the rm
977
command.
Since the last time we made a deposit, every payment we've entered has been recorded in the tape file. We now want to move this file to include a date so we can keep it as a record for the payments made with this particular deposit. While we're here, we'll create the tape and iai files for the next round, and set their permissions so others who need to can access them. We can then use the tapesum script to find the total sum for that deposit. Here is a sample session.
$ cd ~accounts@xyz.net/ $ mv tape tape1008.txt $ mv iai iai1008.txt $ touch tape iai $ chown one@xyz.net:xyz tape iai $ chmod 660 tape iai $ ./tapesum tape1008.txt h = 1029.62 sn = 40 b = 1647.1 s = 126 hn = 25 Total = 2867.72 $
First, we change into the directory where the files are. Then rename the files with the day of the deposit, in this case October 8, and add the text file extension. Create new empty files, and change their group ownership and permissions (you'll want to substitute one@xyz.net with your own username). Finally, run the tapesum script.
You can also print out the tape file (in this case tape1008.txt
) to
accompany the deposit made to the bank.
Billing is done on the first of each month. Although simply running the next script will charge and bill all customers, there are some things that need to be checked before hand.
Make sure the permissions on the data files are correct. Since the setting of
these permissions is done by hand, there is a possibility it was forgotten.
The data files should belong to the xyz
group, and the user and group
should have read and write privileges. Here is a sample session.
$ cd ~accounts@xyz.net/data/ $ ls -l 218? -rw-rw---- 1 accounts@xyz.netxyz 100 Sep 3 16:07 2180 -rw-rw---- 1 accounts@xyz.netxyz 98 Sep 3 16:52 2181 -rw-rw---- 1 accounts@xyz.netxyz 102 Sep 4 20:05 2182 -rw-rw---- 1 accounts@xyz.netxyz 104 Sep 5 16:01 2183 -rw-rw---- 1 accounts@xyz.netxyz 102 Sep 7 09:33 2184 -rw-rw---- 1 accounts@xyz.netxyz 104 Sep 7 10:12 2185 -rw-rw---- 1 accounts@xyz.netxyz 99 Sep 7 10:28 2186 -rw-rw---- 1 accounts@xyz.netxyz 93 Sep 7 10:38 2187 -rw-rw---- 1 accounts@xyz.netxyz 109 Sep 7 11:25 2188 -rw-rw---- 1 accounts@xyz.netxyz 109 Sep 7 12:58 2189 $ ls -l 217? -rw-rw---- 1 accounts@xyz.netxyz 133 Sep 1 12:00 2170 -rw-rw---- 1 accounts@xyz.netxyz 159 Sep 1 12:00 2171 -rw-rw---- 1 accounts@xyz.netxyz 201 Sep 15 14:09 2172 -rw-rw---- 1 accounts@xyz.netxyz 151 Sep 1 12:00 2173 -rw-rw---- 1 accounts@xyz.netxyz 106 Sep 1 14:17 2174 -rw-rw---- 1 accounts@xyz.netxyz 108 Sep 2 15:11 2175 -rw-rw---- 1 accounts@xyz.netxyz 139 Sep 8 13:18 2176 -rw-rw---- 1 accounts@xyz.netxyz 109 Sep 2 16:50 2177 -rw-rw---- 1 accounts@xyz.netxyz 102 Sep 3 11:38 2178 -rw-rw---- 1 accounts@xyz.netxyz 100 Sep 3 15:10 2179 $
Change into the data directory. We start out by trying to find which data files
have been added since the last time we billed. We guessed it was in the 2180s,
so we used ls -l 218? and found that the dates on those files only
went back to the 3rd. So, we look at the files before those, the
2170s, and see and see that those go back to the 1st of the month, so
we know we're looking at the beginning of the files we need to check, in this
case, 2174 and on. From here we would continue to ls -l
filenumber, looking for a file that might be set wrong.
Remember, they should belong to the xyz
group (the part after
accounts@xyz.net), and the user and group, should have read and
write privileges (-rw-rw----).
$ ls -l 223? -rw-rw---- 1 accounts@xyz.netxyz 106 Sep 23 17:55 2230 -rw-rw---- 1 accounts@xyz.netxyz 107 Sep 24 11:20 2231 -rw-r--r-- 1 one@xyz.netstaff 109 Sep 27 14:26 2232 -rw-r--r-- 1 one@xyz.netstaff 94 Sep 27 15:26 2233 -rw-r--r-- 1 one@xyz.netstaff 92 Sep 28 17:14 2234 -rw-r--r-- 1 one@xyz.netstaff 103 Sep 28 17:54 2235 -rw-r--r-- 1 one@xyz.netstaff 100 Sep 28 20:05 2236 -rw-r--r-- 1 one@xyz.netstaff 98 Sep 28 20:17 2237 -rw-r--r-- 1 one@xyz.netstaff 147 Sep 28 21:35 2238 -rw-r--r-- 1 one@xyz.netstaff 106 Sep 30 12:02 2239 $ chown one@xyz.net:xyz 223? chown: 2230: Not owner chown: 2231: Not owner $ chmod 660 223? chmod: WARNING: can't change 2230 chmod: WARNING: can't change 2231 $ ls -l 223? -rw-rw---- 1 accounts@xyz.netxyz 106 Sep 23 17:55 2230 -rw-rw---- 1 accounts@xyz.netxyz 107 Sep 24 11:20 2231 -rw-rw---- 1 one@xyz.netxyz 109 Sep 27 14:26 2232 -rw-rw---- 1 one@xyz.netxyz 94 Sep 27 15:26 2233 -rw-rw---- 1 one@xyz.netxyz 92 Sep 28 17:14 2234 -rw-rw---- 1 one@xyz.netxyz 103 Sep 28 17:54 2235 -rw-rw---- 1 one@xyz.netxyz 100 Sep 28 20:05 2236 -rw-rw---- 1 one@xyz.netxyz 98 Sep 28 20:17 2237 -rw-rw---- 1 one@xyz.netxyz 147 Sep 28 21:35 2238 -rw-rw---- 1 one@xyz.netxyz 106 Sep 30 12:02 2239 $
Here we found in the 2230s, that some of the files are set wrong. First we need
to change their group from staff
to xyz
. After issuing the
command, we get a couple errors on the first two files, that's all right, we
just don't own the files, but they're set right anyway. Then we set their
permissions, again, the error is all right. Then we check our work and find the
files are now set as they should be. You would continue this process for the
remaining files.
Many accounts are closed out on the turn of the month. Check the kill file for those, and delete the accounts. Handle their account file as specified in Remove An Account.
Find accounts that were previously closed, who's account file was left because they still had a balance due. Check to see if they've paid, and if they have, delete their account file. Here's a sample session.
Run the next script. Think before you do, it's a real mess if something was overlooked.
$ cd ~accounts@xyz.net/ $ nice ./next > errors & [1] 25431 $
We changed into the accounts
directory, nice the process so it doesn't
hog all the server resources, specify that any output should be save in a file
named errors
, and run the process in the background so we can continue
to work.