More file, folder and trustee-rights copying tools

I’ve admitted in the past that whenever I mention two or three applications, utilities or services that perform a particular task, invariably I’ll overlook one or two others that also deserve a mention. Recent newsletters talking about copying files, folders and trustee rights have, once again, proven the truth of that admission.

Often when I talk about an application I’ll hear from other vendors or users of other apps. This often leads me to new little gems of programs that I was not aware of before. But when I overlooked two Novell utilities as well as three third party tools – all of which I’m very familiar with – then it’s time to wave the white flag and admit “you caught me!”

In my defense, I didn’t plan to write an exhaustive review of file copying applications but only intended to point to one or two ways to ensure that trustee rights moved with the folders and files. But in the interest of fairness, I will point out all the utilities which you, faithful readers, have mentioned in your friendly missives to my in-box (at least, the ones my anti-spam filters didn’t destroy before I saw them).

In a newsletter published early last year (see https://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/netware/2002/01514393.html) I extolled the virtues of Novell’s Server Consolidation Utility (SCU). One of those virtues is the preservation of trustee rights. You can download the SCU from Novell’s Web site if you don’t already have a copy.

If you have NetWare 6 or 6.5, you also have the TRUSTBAR.NLM utility. It’s a server-console tool that lets you back up, delete and restore trustee assignments. Not my first choice for moving trustees (it takes extra steps that other tools don’t need), but useful to keep a backup of trustee assignments ready to re-apply as needed.

I will apologize to three people, good friends of NetWare and NetWare users, who not only provide utilities to handle trustee assignments but also provide tools that do so much more. Steve Meyer, John Baird and Nick Payne have, collectively, kept many a NetWare manager from an ignominious visit to the unemployment line. Steve’s TaskMaster and TaskMaster Lite (https://www.avanti-tech.com/), John’s JRBUtils (https://www.jrbsoftware.com/) and Nick’s NWCopy (https://www.users.on.net/njpayne/) all provide ways to manipulate files, folders and trustees. I’ve used these products and I recommend them unreservedly.

Last week’s newsletter on copying trustee rights mentioned one third party tool, Gordon Ross’ NJCOPY (https://www.gordonross.org.uk/njcopy/index.html) which I described as “quirky”. Gordon, naturally, wondered why I thought his child strange. Well, who wouldn’t?

I merely meant that, as the program was developed for in-house use – rather than as a general purpose commercial product – it has options, nomenclatures and methods that are more about exploring the benefits of Java programming for NetWare than about solving a problem quickly  and efficiently. Nevertheless, the program works, it’s free and it’s still being developed – possibly the only utility I’ve mentioned this week which meets all three of those criteria.