The following was posted in answer to a question about starting GCP once a
day, everyday the first time and only the first time your computer boots up.

I wrote a little REXX command file that checks the OS2.INI file for today's
date. If it doesn't find today's date, it returns an ERRORLEVEL of 0 and
runs GCP and then writes today's date to the OS2.INI file. If it runs a
second time, it will find today's date, return an ERRORLEVEL of 1 and skips
over the GCP stuff. I have this in the Startup.cmd as follows:

startup.cmd:
.....beginning lines...
CALL ONETIME.CMD
IF ERRORLEVEL = 1 GOTO ENDIT
E:
CD\GCP
IF EXIST C:\DNL\CURWEATH.GIF ERASE C:\DNL\CURWEATH.GIF
rem    I don't want a "file already exists" error...
@ECHO MAP 3,1,9 > G:\GCPMSG\WEATHER.SND
rem    build a "Weather.snd" object each day to download a weather map...
COMMPASS /PARAMS=CIS /CMD=N
:ENDIT
EXIT
...end of the Startup.cmd file....

The Rexx code I call ONETIME.CMD:

/**** File will set the errorlevel to 1 if run a second time *****/
call RxFuncAdd 'SysLoadFuncs', 'RexxUtil', 'SysLoadFuncs'
call SysLoadFuncs
w = SysIni(, 'Onetime', 'Date')      /* Read date from OS2.INI */
if w = date() then                   /* if 'read' date matches today...*/
     r = 1                           /* set return to 1 */
 else
     r = 0                           /* or else set return to 0 */

call SysIni, 'Onetime', 'Date', date()      /* write today's date to */
                                            /* os2.ini file */
Exit r;         /* return the appropriate errorlevel to startup.cmd...*/

Remember that a REXX program MUST start with a "comment" as it's first
line (/* ... */) to distinguish it from a plain *.cmd file. See the REXX.INF
file in your \OS2\BOOK subdirectory for more info.

The above code puts an entry called "Onetime" in the OS2.INI file with
a DATE as the stored data.

I also like to download a current weather map but I can't figure out how to
get GCP to do that automatically each day so I build "WEATHER.SND" file
each day from the startup.cmd.  

I also download catalogs of the new files from the past 8 days each Saturday
and from different forums then I visit daily. I wrote another REXX cmd file
to check for Saturday and if it is Saturday, to run GCP with a different
/param= file. I have built a bunch of FORUM.DOW files where "FORUM" equals
the appropriate name of each forum. I store these *.DOW files in a zip file
called GCPDOWN.ZIP and then on Sat. I unzip them to the GCPMSG subdirectory.

The GCPSUPPO.DOW file looks like:

XA1
DIR LONG DES AGE:8 LIB:ALL

You can change the "LIB:" to 1,3,6 etc as appropriate... Some forums use
LIB 0 and some use LIB 1 as the first LIB so the first line should be a
valid library number for that forum.

I call this file Saturday.cmd and here is how it works.

/**** File will set the errorlevel to 1 if run on Saturday *****/
call RxFuncAdd 'SysLoadFuncs', 'RexxUtil', 'SysLoadFuncs' 
call SysLoadFuncs 
if Date('w') = "Saturday" then    /* If its Saturday, then... */
     Do
     r = 1      /* set return code to 1 */
     "%RDRV%:"  /* Change to my Ram Drive where I keep all my small files */
     "CD\bat"   /* Change to the appropriate sub directory */
     "unzip gcpdown -d G:\gcpmsg\"    /* unzip the *.DOW files */
     "E:"
     "cd\GCP"
     COMMPASS "/params=SAT /cmd=N"  /* Start GCP with the "Saturday" param */
                                    /* file */
     end
 else do                            /* Or else return a 0 */
     r = 0
     end
Exit r;       /* return the appropriate errorlevel to startup.cmd...*/

The Startup.cmd with this code looks like:

startup.cmd
.....beginning lines...
CALL ONETIME.CMD
IF ERRORLEVEL = 1 GOTO ENDIT
E:
CD\GCP
IF EXIST C:\DNL\CURWEATH.GIF ERASE C:\DNL\CURWEATH.GIF
@ECHO MAP 3,1,9 > G:\GCPMSG\WEATHER.SND
CALL SATURDAY.CMD
IF ERRORLEVEL = 1 GOTO ENDIT
rem   If Saturday.cmd returns a 1 then it already called CI$ and we can
rem   skip doing it a second time...
COMMPASS /PARAMS=CIS /CMD=N
:ENDIT
EXIT


Hope this helps... any questions?    Tom Gallaudet 72206,2464