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DTA.DOC
-------
Instructions for DTA.COM
Version 2.1 (21 Dec 1993)
(c)1987-93 E. Meyer
DTA.COM is a versatile directory utility that will run on any PC with DOS
2.x or higher. "DTA" stands for Directory-Tree-Attributes; it is a
replacement for the DIR, TREE, and ATTRIB commands of DOS, as well as a file
finder and viewer. Though small, DTA has many features including:
* alphabetized color directory with file sizes and free space
* optional wide mode or full mode (with attributes and time/date)
* select items by exclusion, attributes, time/date, or file size
* display several groups of files, or all except certain files
* change attribute or time/date data for items selected
* treat directories either separately or together with files
* alphabetized compact directory tree; optional full mode with sizes
* search entire drive (all directories) for files
* view initial text in readable files to help identify contents
* user-customizable with desired options, colors, etc
The syntax and options of DTA are compatible with my ARCOPY (archive/
copy), DIRCMP (directory compare), and DLT (delete) file utilities, which work
well together.
--------------------------------- USING DTA ----------------------------------
SYNTAX: A>dta {fspec1} {{,}fspec2...} {/options} ("{}"=optional)
where each "fspec" may include a drive, path, or wildcards;
either spaces or commas may separate multiple filespecs;
"/" is the delimiter for option letters.
If the drive or path is omitted from the first filespec, it defaults to
the current DOS value; for subsequent ones, to the same as the previous one.
If the filespec is omitted it defaults to "*.*". If it is a directory name,
the contents of the directory are displayed.
Options are discussed in detail below. If none are specified, you will
get a compact, informative directory display.
While running, DTA ignores keystrokes like ^S or ^C, except when paused
at the end of the page, when you can use ^C to abort if desired. Output can
be directed to a file or other device in the standard fashion:
A>DTA FILESPEC /OPTIONS >DEVICE.
But if you are using color output, you must disable it with the /M option or
redirection will not work.
-------------------------- INTERPRETING THE DISPLAY --------------------------
SIZES are measured in kilobytes (1k is 1024 bytes) or megabytes (1m is
1024k, or 1,048,576 bytes). Directory entries are identified as "Dir"; sizes
are reported for files only. DTA displays them in kilobytes up to 999k;
beyond that, to the nearest tenth of a megabyte (1.0m, etc). The "items
total" amount is simply the sum of the individual file sizes shown; the "items
use" amount is the total disk space those files actually occupy. If any
directories are shown, the sizes of their contents are not included.
Because allocation clusters on a disk can vary from 128 bytes (on a
RAMdisk) to 4k (on a hard disk), the space consumed by each file can be a
fraction of a k less or several k more than its displayed size; thus,
depending on disk media, the "use" amount may be a bit less, or significantly
more, than the "total" of the displayed sizes. The "used/free" space shown by
DTA is for the entire drive.
ATTRIBUTES, when displayed, show as a letter ("A,H,R,S") if set, or as
"." if clear. The Archive attribute indicates to a backup utility that a file
has been changed recently, and needs to be backed up; the bit is cleared by
the utility when it does so. (Simple backup utilities that work well with DTA
include the DOS XCOPY command, and my own ARCOPY.COM.)
The Read-only attribute prevents a file from being changed or deleted,
though it can be read and copied. The Hidden and System attributes both
exclude items from normal searches: they cannot be accessed at all by ordinary
MSDOS file commands. The DOS DIR command does not show hidden files like
MSDOS.SYS and IO.SYS, but DTA will (unless you use the options "/hs").
TIME/DATE, when displayed, appear in the appropriate format for your DOS
country setting, unless you have customized DTA.COM, or used a different entry
format (Euro,Num) with the /B,/L,/@ options.
FILE TEXT, when displayed, appears in an abbreviated format with many
duplicate or non-alphabetic characters filtered out. If the initial part of a
file contains a sizable proportion of binary (non-alphabetic) data, DTA will
not attempt to display it, reporting "Bin" instead.
SAMPLE DISPLAYS
C:\WORK>dta dta.* /fn
Volume HDRIVE-C created 5/23/90 Directory C:\WORK
DTA .COM 7k A... 11:33p 8/29/92 DTA .DOC 17k A... 11:42p 8/29/92
2 items total 24k, use 26k. Drive has 27.1m used, 4.8m free (15%)
C:\WORK>dta dta.* /v
Volume HDRIVE-C created 5/23/90 Directory C:\WORK
DTA .COM 7k uDTA 1.8 (c) E. Meyer 29 Aug 1992HSYNTAX: A>dta {fspec1} {,}
DTA .DOC 17k DTA.DOC - Instructions for DTA.COM Version 1.8 (29 Aug 1992)
2 items total 24k, use 26k. Drive has 27.1m used, 4.8m free (15%)
-------------------------------- DTA OPTIONS ---------------------------------
By default, DTA will display a list of all files specified, along with
their sizes, and some disk space information. However, options are available
to do a wide variety of other things. One slash "/" must precede any options;
further slashes may be used or not, as desired.
/? = help. Gives version message, brief summary of usage and options.
These options scan an entire drive, instead of the contents of one directory:
/T = tree: display tree, starting at specified or current directory.
/G = global: search for specified files throughout the tree.
These options affect the contents of the display:
/F = full: for directory display, show attributes and time/date also.
for tree/global search, show file size information also.
for text view, show a second line of text.
/W = wide: just like DIR /W, five columns of filenames only (no sizes).
/V = view: show single column display with view of initial file text.
These options affect the format of the display:
/O = order: order items by row instead of column.
/N = narrow: use only half the usual number of columns.
/M = mono: use monochrome output instead of color.
/P = no pause: don't pause for keystroke after each full screen.
These options determine which items are selected:
/X = except: select only items other than those named.
/D = directories: select directories instead of files.
/U = universal: select both directories and files.
/B = before: select files before specified date,time.
/L = later: select files later than specified date,time.
/K = size: select files by specified size ("+"=greater, "-"=less).
/A,H,R,S = select only items with the specified attributes:
Archive; Hidden; Read-only; System.
/a,h,r,s = select only items WITHOUT these attributes.
These options change the DOS directory information for items selected:
/@ = set time stamp on items to date,time.
/C = change items to have the following specified attributes.
MORE ABOUT OPTIONS
When you use an argument without wildcards, the /F option is assumed, and
the single item displays with full information. When multiple items are
displayed, DTA defaults to vertical (column) ordering, which many prefer for
short lists that will fit on one screen; a vertical bar separates the columns.
The alternative, horizontal (row) ordering, may be less confusing for a long
listing that will continue onto another screen; some people may prefer
horizontal in any case. The /O option gives you your choice.
The view option /V is useful when it's difficult to remember exactly
what's in files from the filenames alone; it produces a single column of
output, with a compact display (one line, or two if /F was used) from the
initial text of each file that appears readable. Note that some "text" files
created by word processors actually contain lots of binary data, and therefore
won't display; whereas some "binary" files, especially in .COM format, may
contain a sufficient amount of displayable text.
With the /B,/L,/@ options, the date and/or time should follow the option
letter; if both are specified, separate them with a comma. If the time is
omitted, it defaults to 0 hours (12am); if the date is omitted, it defaults to
TODAY. If both are omitted, /@ defaults to today, now; /B,/L default to
today, 0 hours. DTA recognizes U.S., European, and Numeric formats for
entering each, by the punctuation used:
U.S.(M/D/Y,H:MMa-p) Euro (D.M.Y,H:MM) Num (Y-M-D,HHMM)
3/25/90,1:45p = 25.3.90,13:45 = 90-3-25,1345
(If you add the /A or /P option after a Euro format time, insert a slash or
space so it doesn't look like a U.S. format time.) The date "00/00/00" may be
used to set a null timestamp; otherwise the year must be 80 or above.
To make selecting files by age more convenient, you can specify a time so
many days or hours AGO simply by using a "-" sign: thus "-3" means 3 DAYS ago,
"-,2" means 2 HOURS ago.
With the /K option, the file size in kilobytes (from 0 to 999) should
follow the option letter; files of that size only will be listed. Add a "-"
after the size to include smaller files as well, or a "+" to include larger
ones (for example, "/K100+").
Note that the file attribute options are case sensitive (uppercase=set,
lower=clear). Those listed alone, or before the "C" option letter, are used
for file selection; those after it, represent changes to be made. The /C
option can also be used alone, with NO following attributes, simply to cause
attributes to display instead of file sizes (no attributes will be changed).
Options /T,G,X do not allow multiple filename arguments. If you specify
contradictory selection or formatting options like /U and /D, the later one
will override the earlier one. Certain other combinations of options are
simply not supported and will produce an error message: /G with /X, etc.
Be careful with the /@,/C options, because they actually CHANGE the DOS
time stamp and attributes for files! Time stamps, especially, provide
valuable information about the age and revision of a file, and should not be
changed without good reason. (Note: if you are using the DOS FASTOPEN
feature, /@ may fail to change the time stamp of a file.)
/C can change the attributes of directories as well as files, but /@
cannot change a directory's creation time stamp.
The best way to make DTA usage clear will be by a series of examples:
EXAMPLES: FILES and DIRECTORIES
C>dta a:\*.doc *.txt /v
Show all files *.DOC and *.TXT in the root directory on A:, with text view.
C>dta a:\*.sys /xf
Show all files EXCEPT *.SYS, with "full" display (attributes and time/date).
C>dta \work /uo
Show all files AND subdirectories in C:\WORK, ordered by row.
C>dta /d
Show all subdirectories in the current directory.
EXAMPLES: SIZES and TIMESTAMPS
C>dta d: e: /k0
Show only empty (0k) files in the current directory on drives D: and E:.
C>dta \work /l-2
Show only files in directory C:\WORK dated in the past two days.
C>dta /b9/1/89
Show only files in current directory dated before 9/1/89.
C>dta *.doc /l/b1700
Show only files *.DOC dated today before 5:00pm.
C>dta log /@1.9.89,13:20
Change the timestamp of file C:LOG to 9/1/89, 1:20pm.
EXAMPLES: ATTRIBUTES
C>dta /cp
Show all files *.* with their attributes, without pausing after each screen.
C>dta /A
Show only files in current directory marked with the Archive attribute.
C>dta a: /SH
Show only files in current directory on A: which are System and Hidden.
C>dta a:*.sys /Hca
Select only Hidden files *.SYS on A: and clear their Archive attribute.
EXAMPLES: TREE and GLOBAL SEARCH
C>dta \work /tf
Show the directory tree starting from C:\WORK, including size information.
C>dta /gl
Find all files on drive C: that have been modified today.
C>dta *.bak /gk100+f
Find all files *.BAK of 100k or larger on drive C:, and show total sizes.
A NOTE ON DIRECTORY ARGUMENTS
As explained above, if you give a directory name alone as an argument,
DTA looks at its contents -- so "DTA \MYDIR" is the same as "DTA \MYDIR\*.*".
Therefore, if you want DTA to act on the directory itself, for example to
change its attributes, you must resort to a subterfuge: add a superfluous
wildcard to the name and use the /D option, so DTA will go looking for
directories with such names, and find that one. Thus, to make the directory
\MYDIR hidden, you must type something like "DTA \MYDIR? /DCH". (Without the
"?", DTA would look for something in \MYDIR, instead of in the root directory;
without the "/D", it would look for files but not directories.)
------------------------------ CUSTOMIZING DTA -------------------------------
You can use DEBUG or a similar utility (like the Norton disk editor) to
change DTA's default options, time/date format, and text colors (on IBM PC
compatibles). All values below are in hexadecimal. (Note: addresses shown
are for DEBUG; for most disk editors, subtract 0100.)
ADDRESS ORIGINAL
IN DTA.COM VALUE FUNCTION POSSIBLE VALUES
0108 FF Default format FF=ask DOS, 00=US, 01=Euro, 02=Num
0109 FF Use color output? 00=no, FF=yes
010A 07 Message color 00-FF \
010B 0F File/text color 00-FF >see below
010C 07 Attrib/date color 00-FF /
0110-011F 00 Default options Any
DEFAULT FORMAT: With this set to FF, DTA will use the current DOS
country code to determine its default time/date format. If you need to
override this, you can specify another format. In any case, if you enter any
time options (/B,L,@) DTA will adopt whatever format you use.
COLOR OUTPUT: With this set to FF, DTA will use PC BIOS output for a
color display, and its page pause will recognize any current screen size. Use
of contrasting colors can make the display more easily readable. If you set
this to 00, DTA will use standard DOS output and assume a 25 line screen.
Whichever setting you choose can be reversed with the /M option.
COLORS: Specify each color by a pair of hex digits for background and
foreground, according to the following codes:
0 = BLACK 4 = red 8 = GREY C = bright red
1 = blue 5 = magenta 9 = bright blue D = bright magenta
2 = green 6 = brown A = bright green E = yellow
3 = cyan 7 = WHITE B = bright cyan F = BRIGHT WHITE
For example, "17" means "blue background, white text".
All monochrome screens can display black, white, and bright white; in
some cases, grey may also be visible.
Colors 8-F should generally be avoided as background colors because they
produce blinking video. On EGA/VGA displays, if blinking video is disabled,
the whole range of background colors will be available.
DEFAULT OPTIONS: DTA checks this area for a 16-character string of
default option selections. Thus, if you'd like DTA to display in its wide
format by default, and ordered by row instead of column, place the ASCII
values "WO" (57 4F hex) followed by 00 at this address. If you'd like DTA to
display more or less the way the DOS DIR command does, use "FNUhs" instead.
(Full information, narrow output, directories along with files, skip hidden
and system files.)
Any options you type that conflict with these defaults will supersede
them. Thus if your defaults are "FNUhs", you can still specify "/HS" to show
(only) hidden and system items, overriding "hs"; or "/D" to show only
directories, overriding "U"; or "/W" for wide display, overriding "FN".
You can also cancel any individual default option by repeating it. Thus
if defaults are "FNUhs", you can display files only by specifying "/U" again,
or all items regardless of attributes by specifying "/hs" again.
When you display the help message with "DTA /?", any default options
installed will be reported.
(Note that options "C,@,X,G,T,B,L,K" may not be specified as defaults.)
EXAMPLES: To change to numeric time/date format as default, type "DEBUG
DTA.COM", then "E0108 02", then "W", then "Q". To install default options
"WO", use "E0110 57 4F 00".
Please distribute copies of DTA with original settings only, to avoid
confusing other users.
------------------------------- ERROR MESSAGES -------------------------------
"<out of memory>" - Not enough free memory to run DTA, or over 1000 items
to list (try a more restrictive filespec).
"<invalid argument>" - Invalid or conflicting option, bad path, illegal
character in filename, that sort of thing. Think and try again.
"0 items" - No such file (or directory) was found. (If you expected
there to be some, check your arguments again...)
---------------------------------- HISTORY -----------------------------------
DA 1.0 (Sep87) - First release, based on my previous CP/M utility DA.
1.1 (Aug88) - Improved parsing; select AND change attributes; new options.
DTA 1.2 (Oct88) - New /T tree option; DA is now called DTA.
1.3 (Sep89) - New /G search, /E,L,@ options for time/date.
1.4 (Mar90) - New /X (except) option; removed /V (version) option.
1.5 (May91) - US/Euro/Numeric date,time; /E changed to /B(efore).
1.6 (Sep91) - Multiple filespecs; new /K (size) option; file selection
options work with /G; improved, color display.
1.7 (Jan92) - New /M (mono) option; /B,L,@ accept "-" for "ago";
handles drive sizes over 64meg; uses DOS country code.
1.8 (Aug92) - New /V (view) option; changeable /P default.
2.0 (Nov92) - New /O (ordering); environment variable for default options.
2.1 (Dec93) - Fixed "% free" on drives >64meg; default options in DTA.COM.
DTA and its documentation are (c)1987-93 Eric Meyer, all rights reserved.
They may be freely distributed, but not modified or sold for profit without my
written consent. (Exception: Libraries may charge up to $6 for a disk.) The
user takes full responsibility for any damages resulting from the use of this
program. For a disk with the latest versions of all my programs send $10 to:
Eric Meyer
3541 Smuggler Way CompuServe [74415,1305]
Boulder, CO 80303 USA