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1995-02-13
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XMASH -
The Ultimate Disk Masher
V1.0
XMash is (C) HYDRA of LSD, Perspex & Radiance
>>>>>>>> SYSOPS PLEASE READ THE NOTE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE FILE.. <<<<<<<<<<<<<
Right then, so you're wondering what the bloody hell Xmash is by now aren't
you ? Well I supose I better tell you then!
It's a small program that lets you read data from a floppy disk and save
it in compressed files and then at a later time you can de-compress it back
to another disks, simple really!
Many other program have attempted to do this but there's always been
something wrong with them, DMS for example is alright, but the files it
creates are large and sometimes it wont compress disks and doesnt tell
you that it hasnt compressed it.
Another thing about DMS is it's error handling! If you get a CRC or
data error it'll stop dead in it's tracks, XMASH on the other hand will
contine searching the file until it finds more data that it recognises.
XMASH uses the XPK Compression libraries for MAXIUM compatability and
compression. This leaves XMASH free to concentrate on the user interface
and error handling instead of getting caught up in complicated comression
algorithms, it leaves this the xpkxxxx libraries.
How to install XMASH
To install XMash just make sure you have xpkmaster.library in libs:
and some compressor libraries in Libs:Compressors (preferably
XPKNUKE,FAST,SHRI and HFMN) XMash defaults to using XPKSHRI.library as
this provides the best compresion ratio (but is a little slow!)
If use NUKE compressor you wont even notice XMash compressing as it's
SOOOO fast (but files are larger than SHRI)
Next you need to copy XMASH somewhere in your path, I prefer SYS:Archivers
but C: will do for most.
How do I use XMASH
Xmash has a wealth of options avaliable, these are as follows
READ=R/K,WRITE=W/K,FROM=TO/K,LOW=L/N,HIGH=H/N,TEXT=BANNER/K
TEST=T/K,APPEND/S,ADDTEXT/K,DESCRIBE=ADDDESC/K
DESCRIPTIONTEXT=DT/K,COMPRESSOR=MODE/K,TRACKINC/K/N,EXTRACT/K
QUIET/S,FIRST/S,DEVICE/K,TRACKS/K
Here's each parameter in more detail.
key to symbols (dont include *ANY* symbols on the command line!)
| alternatives specify only one. (EG fred|sid|barney)
[] optional parameter (see defaults.) [help|nohelp]
<> type of object (E.G. <Filename>)
<nn> number
Everything else is as it is written.
Note:
Even tho I showed you a 2.04 style
usage template you cant use the '=' (equals) sign is the parameters (you
must seperate parameters by the ' ' space character)
Compressing A Disk To A File
Usage:
XMASH Read|r <Filename>[.xms] [From <dfx:>] [Low|L <nn>] [high|h <nn>]
[text|banner <textfilename>] [descriptiontext|dt <descriptionfilename>]
[compressor|Mode <compressor library>[.<nnn>]] [append] [trackinc <nn>]
[Device devicename] [Quiet]
Simple Example:
XMASH Read UL:NewFile.XMS From DF2: Low 0 High 39 Text BBS:BBSaddvert
DT FileDescs:NewFile.DIZ Mode FAST.100 Trackinc 10
Parameters:
<Filename>[.xms]
The name of the compressed file to save data in (you may
add the .XMS if you want, but if you dont XMASH will add it
to the end of the filename.
E.G. dh0:archived_stuff/cooldemo.xms
[From <dfx:>]
Uses specified drive to read disk from. Defaults to DF0:
(replace x with a unit number)
E.G. From DF1:
[Low|L <nn>]
Start Reading the disk from CYLINDER <nn>
where <nn> is from 00 to 79
E.G. Low 20
[High|H <nn>]
Stop Reading the disk at CYLINDER <nn>
where <nn> is from 00 to 79
E.G. High 50
[Text|Banner <textfilename>
Add a text file to the compressed file that will
be displayed when you unpack it.
(Note: the text file MUST be smaller than half your availiable
memory, so you *CAN* do really long text files if you want to!)
(note2: currently I've not made a way of removing text files
from an archive, but if you programmers out there want to make
a program that does then see the FileFormat.doc file included
with this program..)
E.G. Text bbs:bbsadd.ansi
[DescriptionText|DT <descriptionfilename>]
Add a file description to the file, this is mainly used in BBS
systems. Example usage of a file description is when you
upload a file to the BBS youwont have to sit there typing
in a file description, you can write the description Off-Line!
(see, Xmash has saved you money already!)
E.G. DT FileDescripts:Demo.desc
[Compressor|Mode <Compressor Library>[.<nnn>]]
This is the clever bit that lets you specify what xpk compressor
library to use. The optional number specifies the compression
level to use (.100 = best, .000 = worst)
Only specify the 4 digits of the compressor library, so if you
wanted to use xpkNUKE.library you would use Compressor NUKE
or Mode NUKE.100
(compressors that encrypt data are NOT supported (yet!))
[Append]
This lets you add more tracks to an already compressed file
Typical usage could be to append a patch onto an existing file
(note: if you want to you can use a different compressor library
to the one that's used in the origonal file, so if you want
you could compress a disk with each track being compressed
with a different compressor.)
(note2: you can add more textfiles like this!!)
[Trackinc <nn>]
This paramter has got to be the single most important parameter
of this program. It tells Xmash how many tracks to read into
memory before it compresses them, the more tracks the better
they get compressed, but the it takes longer to compress and
uses more memory ((5632 * Trackinc) * 2 + a margin)
This defaults to 10 tracks. (5 cylinders)
(note: this is Tracks not Cylinders. There are 160 tracks to
a standard 880K Amiga disk, Cylinders * 2 Surfaces!)
E.G. Trackinc 20
[Tracks <tracklist>]
This option tells XMASH to pack a list of tracks specified by
tracklist.
The format of the tracklist is thus: tracknumber[-tracknumber],...
E.G.
Tracks 5,32-35,70,72-79
The above example would cause XMASH to pack track 5, followed by
tracks 32 to 35 then track 70 then tracks 72-79
This feature is great when you want to make fix's and trainer files!
(Thanks go to MuB/LSD for this cool idea!)
[Device devicename]
This lets you use any device that supports the standard
trackdisk.device commands. This is usefull when you use things like
TEQDISK which lets you read and write to files on your hard disk
as if they werestandard floppy disks. Note: at present XMASH
wont get the ACTUAL devicename (E.G. trackdisk.device) from the
actual mounted device (E.G. DF0:) you must specify the mounted
device's name using the FROM/TO parameter.
Also be aware that the device name IS case sensitive (as as any
device/library name on the Amiga!)
E.G. Xmash Read Ram:TEST from TE0: device TEQDISK.device
(Again thanks to MuB/LSD for this idea!)
How to write a compressed file back to a disk
Usage:
XMASH Write|W <Filename>[.xms] [To <dfx:>] [Low|L <nn>] [high|h <nn>]
[Device devicename] [Quiet]
Simple Example:
XMASH Write DL:NewFile.XMS To DF1:
Parameters:
[To <dfx:>]
Uncompresses the compressed file to specified drive
E.G. To DF2:
All other parameters as per Compressing a disk.
Notes:
Low and High will only write blocks of tracks (specified by
trackinc when you compress the disk.) E.G. say you packed the disk
with trackinc set to 20 (thats 10 cylinders per crunched block of data)
and you wanted to just unpack Cylinder 2 then you would use the command
XMASH write <file> Low 2 High 2
If you did this you would notice that Cylinders 0-9 get written to
the disk, this is because they are all in the same block and this
version of XMASH wont split up blocks of crunched data into single
cylinders (although if people want it to then I may implement it)
How to add a text file/banner/advert to a .XMS file
Usage:
XMASH AddText <Filename>[.xms] Text|Banner <TextFilename>
Simple Example:
XMASH AddText UpLoad:NewDemo.XMS Text BBS:BBSAdvert
Parameters:
All other parameters as per compressing a disk
How to add a file description to a .XMS file
Usage:
XMASH AddDesc|Describe <Filename>[.xms]
DT|DescriptionText <DesciptonFilename>
Simple Example:
XMASH Describe UpLoad:NewDemo.XMS DT FileDescs:NewDemo.DIZ
Parameters:
All parameters as per compressing a disk
How to extract a file description from a .XMS file
Usage:
XMASH Extract <Filename>[.xms]
DT|DescriptionText <DesciptonFilename> [First]
Simple Example:
XMASH Extract UpLoad:NewDemo.XMS DT FileDescs:NewDemo.DIZ
Parameters:
Extract <filename>[.xms]
This parameter tells XMash to extract any file descriptions in the
XMS file to the file <DescriptionFilename>
First
This parameter tells Xmash to Keep the first file description it
finds and exit. Normally Xmash will search the whole .XMS file
extracting all the descriptions it finds to the
<DescriptionFilename> file overwriting it every time it comes
accross another description. It does this because you may append
new file descriptions to the end of a .XMS file.
All parameters as per compressing a disk
How to test a .XMS file
Usage:
XMASH test <Filename>[.xms]
Simple Example:
XMASH test BBS:Playpen/Newfile.TXT
Parameters:
None
Notes
XMASH searches for compressors when you run it so that if it has
a problem crunching anything it'll keep trying a different compressor
until it crunches the data correctly!
Sysops Notes
If you are using /X then....
Add the following tooltypes to your bbs:doors/fileid/File_ID.info
XMS_EX=c:XMSExtract %WFILE_ID.DIZ %P
XMS_AD=c:XMSDescribe %WFILE_ID.DIZ %P
this will allow extracting and adding of file_id.diz files to xmash files...
Also copy the supplied file in the FCheck directory to your BBS:FCheck directory
to allow checking of XMASH files..