Extra File Checker

Extra File Checker (EFC) is little supplement to standard DCS's repair utility.

Its only function is to check DCS installation directory for any files that are not listed in autoupdate.dat and therefore are not part of standard installation.

Q: Do I need it?

A: Unless you have difficulties with connecting to some MP servers - no. Reason for creating this utility is that some servers have enabled so called integrity check. It compares server's files with client ones. It could check just files, but also directories and in such case - if the content of the directory on client's side doesn't match exactly (i.e. if there are some files missing or redundant), it will fail. Unfortunately, current DCS version is not telling user anything about what went wrong and simple "Connection Interrupted" message is shown.

Q: Will it fix the bug when I'm not able to connect to any MP server?

A: No. In such cases, you might want to visit some other useful threads, e.g. http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=137331

Q: So what it does?

A: Takes list of the installed files, scans your DCS installation directory and reports any redundant files. It does not modify DCS installation in any way.

It should be the last try how to solve problem with not being able to connect to some particular server. The final option is to start pulling your hair out and performing re-install.

Usage

First of all, it is always good idea to

• If you're using JSGME, deactivate all the mods
  
• Run DCS's repair utility
  

This will assure that any files reported by EFC are most probably the ones you were not aware of (for example coming from mod that you've installed long time ago, before you started using JSGME).

Next steps:

• Download the package from https://bitbucket.org/Cpt_Rookie/dcs_efc2/downloads/extra_file_checker.zip and unzip it to some location
  
• Start command line (if you don't know how to do that, visit http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=114030) and navigate to location with unzipped files
  
• Run

  extra_file_checker.exe path_to_your_dcs_installation

  
  Where path_to_your_dcs_installation is... path to directory where DCS is installed (i.e. where Run.exe is located)
  

• Wait. Wait more. If you bought all the available DCS modules - wait even more. If you don't have your DCS installed on SSD - poor you!
  
• Once finished, message like

  Check finished, results are stored in e:\devel\dcs_efc2\extra_file_checker\results.txt

  
  will appear.
  

• Now you can open the text file and start searching what could be the problem
  
• It is of course always safer to just move the files instead of deleting them, but the good news is that if you delete something important, there is quite big chance that DCS's repair will re-download it again.
  

Q: I'm using JSGME and EFC is listing all my custom mods!

A: In EFC's directory, open file ignore.txt and write the path to the directory you want to ignore there (e.g. c:\dcs\_mods). EFC will ignore all the files in this directory from now on.

Q: I want to know what exactly is this script of yours doing

A: For the source, go to https://bitbucket.org/Cpt_Rookie/dcs_efc2/src. For the binaries in ZIP file - I scanned it using virustotal.com, so I'm quite sure that there are no hidden surprises there. You can of course run the python script instead of exe file.