DP Tool Club 19/CD_ASCQ_19_010295.iso/vrac/amos315.zip/AMOS3.DOC

Text File | 1994-11-28 | 19KB | 444 lines

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            AA    AA   MM       MM    OOOO      SSSS       v3.15


Copenhagen, Denmark, 29. Nov. 1994



 ■ What is AMOS v3
┌─────────────────···
│
│  AMOS v3 is the second generation of programs designed for accessing HPFS
·  drives from native DOS.
·
·  This generation discards the command-line interface known from AMOS v1.x,
   and enters the world of TSR device drivers.

   AMOS v3 is capable of seamlessly mounting HPFS partitions from native
   DOS, making them accessible from within all ordinary DOS and Windows
   programs.  Files with long filenames are visible as well, using a
   truncated version of the name.

   The current version of AMOS v3 is READ ONLY.  That is, this version of
   AMOS v3 cannot write to your HPFS drives from DOS.  I am currently
   developing a read/write version of the program.


 ■ Disclaimer and legal matters
┌──────────────────────────────···
│
│   The AMOS software and documentation is subject to the following licensing
·   terms and conditions.
·
· * AMOS v3 is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties,
    expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties
    of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author
    assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may
    result from the use of the AMOS software.

  * AMOS v3 is distributed as a "shareware program" and is provided at
    no charge to the user for evaluation for a period not extending 30
    days, after which You are required to register. Feel free to share
    it with your friends, but please do not give it away altered or as
    part of another system. The essence of "user-supported" software is
    to provide personal computer users with quality software without
    high prices, and yet to provide incentive for programmers to
    continue to develop new products.

  * The distribution archive is to be considered an evaluation copy only.
    If you continue to use AMOS v3 after a trial period of 30 days, please
    register.

  * The AMOS v3 distribution package, all programs, the documentation
    and support files are copyrighted 1993-94 by Allan Mertner. All
    rights are reserved. You may copy this package for backup purposes.
    You may also copy and share unmodified copies of the whole
    distribution package, providing that the copyright notice is
    reproduced and included on all copies.

  * You may not sell the product for a fee and/or distribute the product
    along with other products without written permission, nor may you
    modify or remove the Copyright Notices from the programs or the
    documentation files. User clubs, if they are NOT commercial, are
    allowed to ask a small amount of money for distribution and storage
    when they want to share this package amongst their members.

  * It is expressively forbidden to modify, adapt, translate, reverse
    engineer, decompile and/or disassemble the software in the AMOS v3
    package. Patching the medium at places that carry the software is
    seen as a program change and is also forbidden.

  * The registered software is licensed to run in conjunction with one
    user and one PC only.

  * Commercial installations are required to pay the commercial registration
    fee for AMOS v3 for every workstation on which it should run.
    Please refer to Register.Doc.


 ■ Benefits of registering AMOS v3
┌─────────────────────────────────···
│
│  The unregistered version of AMOS v3 is identical to the registered version,
·  except for the message displayed in the unregistered version when the
·  program is loaded.
·
   Please remember, that you are allowed to use the unregistered version for
   a trial period of 30 days ONLY.

   By registering, you will keep the Author happy, and more AMOS products
   will see the light of day.  AMOS v3 is NOT crippleware, and releasing it
   this way is an experiment to see, whether you will pay for fully
   functional shareware.  Lots of people complained that they would never
   register CrippleWare, such as AMOS v1.x.


 ■ Getting AMOS v3 up and running
┌────────────────────────────────···
│
│  I recommend that you create a directory on an available FAT drive ( even
·  a floppy disk will do ), and unpack the AMOS v3 distribution archive in
·  this directory.  For simplicity's sake, I will assume that you have placed
·  all AMOS v3 files in C:\AMOS3, and that C: is a FAT drive.

   Go to the C:\AMOS3 directory, and try to start AMOS v3 by typing

   AMOS3 [Enter]

   at the DOS prompt.  Do not try to start AMOS3 from within Windows or
   in an OS/2 Dos-box; this will not work.  If you want access to your
   HPFS drives from within Windows, load AMOS3 before starting Windows.

   If you want to use AMOS v3 to access your HPFS drives from within an
   OS/2 DOS box, you must load a "Virtual Dos Machine (VDM)" using a
   DOS boot disk or an image of one.

   AMOS3 then scans all local hard disk drives, and mounts all HPFS partitions
   found.  When the scanning is complete, AMOS v3 writes a message to
   the screen, stating the number and size of partitions found, as well as
   the drive letters assigned to the partitions.  If you do not want AMOS
   to mount all of your HPFS partitions, use the -p command line option
   described below.

   That is it!  You can now read all of your data and program files the way
   you can from within an OS/2 DOS box.  You can even play DOOM from DOS,
   with DOOM on an HPFS drive!  You cannot save, though :-)

   A very useful application of AMOS v3 is virus-scanning.  Your DOS virus
   scanner can now access *all* files on HPFS drives, including the ones
   with long file names, and the ones that are "locked" by OS/2.  On top of
   this, the virus scanning can be performed with no risk of infecting the
   files being scanned.

   When you have finished accessing your HPFS drives, you can unload AMOS v3
   from memory by invoking it again; AMOS v3 will then free all resources
   occupied by the program, thus saving you a reboot.


 ■ AMOS v3 and long filenames
┌────────────────────────────···
│
│  HPFS supports long filenames - files with names not conforming to the
·  8.3 naming convention dictated by DOS.
·
·  Using AMOS v3, you can still access and read these files.  When a file
   or directory with a long filename is encountered, AMOS v3 truncates the
   name part of the filename, and generates a random extension based on the
   full HPFS filename.  Examples of the conversion could be:


   HPFS Filename       AMOS v3 truncated 8.3 filename

   Dos Programs        DOS_PROG.0FN
   Information         INFORMAT.XGL
   OS/2 System         OS!2_SYS.ZAE

   The converted long filenames may look a little weird, but retain their
   names even if moved across drives and directories.  There is a slight
   chance that file names may occur more than once in a directory.  If
   this is a problem, try disabling the long filenames using the -i
   switch.

   Filenames with nothing before the first . (As in ".login") are given a
   first name of BLANK, and a longname extension (Making them utterly
   impossible to recognise :)  (".login" could be "BLANK.HYQ").

   Characters being used in the extension includes A-Z, 0-9, $, !, % and #.


 ■ AMOS v3 options
┌─────────────────···
│
│  AMOS v3 supports the following options when invoked from the command line:
·
·  -c<0,1>       Defines whether or not AMOS should use its XMS cache.
·                If you specify 0 as the number, caching is disabled; if
                 you specify 1, AMOS allocates 64kB of cache per HPFS
                 partition on your system, regardless of the number of
                 partitions you mount.

                 To make use of the cache, you need to have HIMEM.SYS loaded
                 in your CONFIG.SYS.  If not, AMOS will run without cache.

                 The default is -c1, making AMOS utilize its cache.


   -f<0,1,2>     Defines the way AMOS v3 reports free space on the partitions
                 mounted.

                 -f0   Disables scanning, and just reports 0 bytes free.

                 -f1   Scans the drives the first time DOS asks for available
                       space on the disk.  This makes the first DIR command
                       take a bit longer than usual.

                 -f2   Scans all drives when AMOS v3 is first loaded.  Makes
                       the startup a bit longer, but avoids slowdowns later.

                 The default is -f1.


   -i            Ignore long filenames, reporting only files with normal
                 style 8.3 names.


   -p<a,b,c...>  Tells AMOS to mount only HPFS partitions a,b,c, etc.  Use
                 this switch, if you do not want AMOS v3 to mount all of
                 your HPFS partitions.

                 If you have 3 partitions, of which partitions 2 and 3 are
                 HPFS, AMOS v3 will normally mount partitions 2 and 3.

                 If AMOS v3 is started with "AMOS3 -p3", only partition 3
                 is mounted; partition 2 is ignored.


   -u            Unloads AMOS v3 from memory, if it was already loaded.  This
                 might fail, if you have loaded other TSR's after loading
                 AMOS, but should generally work.

                 If you invoke AMOS v3 a second time, AMOS v3 will unload
                 itself from memory disregarding any switches you might
                 specify.  Any switches specified in conjunction with -u
                 are ignored.


 ■ AMOS v3 memory requirements
┌──────────────────────────────···
│
│  AMOS v3 occupies 42k of precious DOS memory, in addition to the
·  XMS cache memory being used.
·
·  AMOS v3 can of course be loaded high, using LOADHI from QEMM or some other
   utility coming with DOS.  Please consult your DOS manual on this.

   Since 42kB is quite a lot of memory, AMOS v3 can be unloaded when you
   are finished using it.  Simply invoke AMOS v3 a second time, and it
   will remove itself from memory.


 ■ AMOS v3 speed
┌───────────────···
│
│  Comparing the performance of AMOS to that of HPFS drives under OS/2 can
·  never be a fair test.  AMOS is restricted by DOS, 16 bit, and available
·  memory.
·
   Still, my benchmarks show that AMOS is about the same speed as OS/2 -
   sometimes a bit sowed, and sometimes up to twice as fast as OS/2!
   See the next section for the actual figures.

   If you would care to spend the time, I would like some benchmark figures
   from YOUR configuration.  Run a couple of things under OS/2 as well as
   under DOS using AMOS, and write me a letter with the figures.  I'd be
   sooo pleased :-)


 ■ AMOS v3 benchmark
┌───────────────────···
│
│  The following benchmarks were performed on an OS/2 HPFS drive
·  containing lots of directories.  The drive is 260MB large, with about
·  2900 files on it.  AMOS v3 was started with the -i switch, to be able
·  to compare file counts with the numbers returned in an OS/2 DOS box.

   The tests:
     A: SCAN F: /NOMEM.  The scanner used was McAfee SCAN v2.1.3.
     B: SCAN F: /NOMEM /ALL.  Same scanner as (A), scanning ALL files.
     C: TBAV F: using ThunderByte Antivirus v6.26
     D: ARJ t F:\*.*.  Used ARJ v2.41, and tested two archives with a
        total size of about 15MB.

   All of the tests are run on a Pentium/90 with a 540MB SCSI-disk.

   Time to complete / min │     A      B      C      D
   ───────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────
   OS/2 DOS, 1024k cache  │   0:28   1:08   0:35   0:38
   AMOS v3, 64k cache     │   0:36   1:09   0:21   0:38
   AMOS v3, no cache      │   0:56   1:34   0:36   0:39

   As can be seen from the table, AMOS v3 offers fast overall
   performance, comparable with the one OS/2 delivers.  With less cache,
   OS/2 performance drops drastically, and AMOS beats OS/2 more often
   than not when the OS/2-cache is lower than 512kB.

   Also, it is not a catastrophe if you do not have XMS available for AMOS
   cache - it just takes longer to access your data.

   NOTE: I have noticed large differences in speed on different hardware
         platforms.  Comparing AMOS v3 performance on my brothers 486DX2/66
         gives much better results than the ones show above.  On my
         own 486DX2/66, AMOS performs worse than shown above.  Weird!

         It might have something to do with SCSI-disk access from DOS/OS2
         sometimes being slow, and sometimes fast - depending on drivers.
         If you have a good guess - MAIL ME! :-)


 ■ Troubleshooting AMOS v3
┌─────────────────────────···
│
│  * For optimum performance, make sure that the line
·      DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS
·    is present in our CONFIG.SYS.  If not, AMOS v3 cannot use its internal
·    XMS cache, and will run slower than normally.

   * Make sure that the LASTDRIVE variable in CONFIG.SYS is suitably large.
     Setting it at too low a value may mean that some of your HPFS drives
     are not mounted by AMOS v3.  If in doubt, insert the following line
     in your CONFIG.SYS ( *not* AUTOEXEC.BAT ) :
       LASTDRIVE=Z

   * AMOS v3 does not run in DOS versions before DOS 4.01.  If you are still
     running DOS v2.x or 3.x, please upgrade before running AMOS.
     AMOS v3 works the best using DOS 5.x and 6.x.
     AMOS v3 does not work in an OS/2 or Windows NT DOS-box.
     AMOS v3 does work in an OS/2 VDM, where you boot from a "real" dos
     bootable disk.

   * Some conditions may cause AMOS v3 to run out of memory.  Lots of HPFS
     partitions may cause this, as may very fragmented files.
     Subdirectories with less than about 100.000 files should not be a
     problem (I am talking 100.000 files in ONE single directory).  If
     you have more files than that, please contact the author for a a
     special version of AMOS v3.
     If you do experience memory problems, try to run AMOS using the -p
     switch, to make AMOS v3 load fewer partitions.
     If the memory problem persists, you may have one or more very fragmented
     files.  In this release, there is no other work-around than to defragment
     the file by booting OS/2 and copying the file somewhere else, then
     copy it back onto itself.

   * Very long paths may cause problems.  DOS only allows the full name of
     file and directory to be a maximum of 80 characters long, whereas
     HPFS allows a maximum length of 254 characters.
     If a subdirectory is encountered, that may cause problems, AMOS v3
     reports it as being a 0-byte file instead of a directory to avoid
     problems.
     This may cause a DIR /S command to yield different results under OS/2
     and DOS.
     The problem is prevalent if you run OS/2 Warp v3, using the "Archive
     Desktop" option, since this causes very long paths to be created.

   * Large hard disks with more than 1024 cylinders cannot be read using
     any standard method from DOS.  Partitions on your hard disk which
     crosses this boundary can NOT be read using AMOS v3.


 ■ The future of the AMOS product line
┌─────────────────────────────────────···
│
│  It is my intention to expand the AMOS product line to the following:
·
·
·   AMOS read/write TSR
    AMOS FAT to HPFS converter
    AMOS HPFS to FAT converter
    AMOS HPFS disk optimizer
    AMOS HPFS format utility
    AMOS HPFS CHKDSK utility

  When these tools are in place, even users without OS/2 can use and
  access HPFS drives, and gain access the a file system that is not as
  outdated as "good old FAT".

  The current version of AMOS v3 is written in Borland Pascal 7.  Future
  development will probably see the AMOS products written mostly in
  assembler, for speed and memory efficiency.

 ■ New versions of AMOS
┌──────────────────────···
│
│  New versions of AMOS will be available on Rainbow BBS in Denmark, The
·  OS/2 Cellar BBS in Australia, and The Bus Stop in USA.  See numbers
·  in the registration files OZ.REG, US.REG and WORLD.REG.
·
   Further, new AMOS versions will be uploaded to the OS2USER conference
   on CompuServe, and be made available through the InterNet on the
   ftp-site ftp-os2.nmsu.edu.


 ■ AMOS registration and support information
┌───────────────────────────────────────────···
│
│  The author of AMOS v3 is
·
·  Allan Mertner
·  Enghavevej 20A, 2tv
   DK-1674 Copenhagen V
   Denmark
   Europe

   Please note that I am moving to UK, probably by march 1 1995.  When
   my new address is known, I will release an update of AMOS.

   I can be contacted through the following networks and node numbers,
   which are all subject to change after my move to UK :

     FidoNet    : 2:235/104, 2:235/105, 2:235/106, 2:235/107

     OS2Net     : 81:445/14

     CompuServe : 100327,2035  (GO SWREG)
                  AMOS v1.x registration ID : 1808
                  AMOS v3   registration ID : 3824

     InterNet   : [e-mail]

   Rainbow BBS (Closes by March 1 1995):
     BBS Line 1 : [phone] (ZyXEL 19k2 / v32bis, soon v34 )
     BBS Line 2 : [phone] (v32bis)
     BBS Line 3 : [phone] (HST 16k8 / v22bis)
     BBS Line 4 : [phone] (ZyXEL 19k2 / v32bis, soon v34 )


   If you live in USA or Australia, please refer to US.REG and OZ.REG,
   respectively.

   All others should use either DENMARK.REG or WORLD.REG, and send it
   to one of the above listed addresses.


 ■ Acknowledgements
┌──────────────────···
│
│  AMOS v3 has been a long time underway, and has only been possible through
·  tremendous support from my wife, my brother, and my enduring friends who
·  have been testing the product even since buggy beta 1.
·

   Thanks to you all!

   Yours,
   Allan Mertner