OS/2 Professional/OS2PRO194.ISO/os2/diskutil/amos/amos.doc

Text File | 1993-12-07 | 18KB | 387 lines

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About this document
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This document is structured into several parts.  First, a brief introduction
of the program AMOS, followed by boring but necessary licensing information
and legal stuff.  After this, the interesting stuff begins: The user's guide.
Actually, I don't think that very much of this is needed, since I assume that
you are familiar with the command prompts of DOS and OS/2.
At the end of the document, I elaborate on the subject of future releases of
AMOS.

Please refer to CONTENTS.TXT for a complete list of the files contained as
a part of the AMOS archive.

What is AMOS?
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Short version:
--------------
AMOS is a DOS-program, that enables you to read and write your HPFS-formatted
drive from native DOS.

Long version:
-------------
AMOS is a DOS program for OS/2 users.  For the program to have any value, you
need to run an OS/2 system with at least one drive formatted with the HPFS
file system.
The HPFS file system is IBM's shot at a file system, the purpose of which is
to replace the FAT file system, which is outdated, slow and gives only a small
degree of data security.
In spite of all the good things about HPFS, it has at least one major drawback:
HPFS drives cannot be read or written from "real" DOS.  Normally, this is no
problem, since OS/2 takes care of all HPFS handling and maintenance.  But in
some situations, it would be very nice indeed to have at least some degree of
access to your HPFS-drives from real DOS...

For example:
 * You wish to install a patch for OS/2.  This normally requires that you
   reboot the machine, using the two first discs of OS/2.  Using AMOS, you
   simply boot DOS, either using a boot disc or Dual Boot/Boot Manager.
 * You have made an error in OS/2's CONFIG.SYS.  Sometimes, OS/2 simply halts
   the system with the annoying message "Please correct the error and restart
   the system".  Without AMOS, you once again have to go through the tedious
   process of booting the two floppies, after which you discover that IBM has
   forgotten to supply a text-mode editor with OS/2.
 * You accidentialy deleted an important HPFS-partition using FDISK.  Even if
   you immediately re-establish the partition, OS/2 cannot read data from the
   partition.  AMOS can.
 * Something has gone terribly wrong, and you simply cannot make OS/2 boot.
   All of your data reside on an inaccessible HPFS-drive, and you cannot get
   them away from your HPFS-drive.  Use AMOS!
 * You simply want to play the newest DOS-game, a game that of course uses
   VCPI or some other weird DOS-extender that OS/2 doesn't like.  Just start
   AMOS, and copy the desired files from your HPFS-drives to your FAT gaming
   partition...

Benefits of registering
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The unregistered version of AMOS can read your HPFS-drives, but can not make
any changes on them.  By registering, you get access to write functions for
HPFS-drives as well.
Most important, when you register, you can EDIT your CONFIG.SYS, even if it
is located on a HPFS-drive.
Further, the unregistered version has a delay of 20 seconds when you start it
up.  In the registered version, this delay is removed.

Last, but not least, registering makes me keep the spirits high.  If nobody
registers, development of AMOS will of course cease...


Information to crackers
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Most, if not all shareware utilities on the market today, are being "cracked"
by some wise guys who do not wish to pay for their software.
* Do NOT try to patch AMOS - it's unique protection scheme makes patching
  impossible, and endangers data on your hard drives.
* Do NOT try to alter AMOS.EXE in any way; AMOS will probably detect this, and
  abort with an error message.
* Do NOT distribute any altered versions of AMOS.  When an unsuspecting user
  tries to register an altered version, AMOS refuses to register.  If you
  have only a cracked version of AMOS, you can always get the newest version
  by download from the BBS, or by file requesting AMOS from the below
  mentioned system.


For you who do not register shareware
─────────────────────────────────────

Put AMOS on an accessible FAT-drive.  Just in case - you probably don't need
AMOS until you find that the registration form lies on your dead HPFS-drive.


Disclaimer and legal matters
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The AMOS software and documentation is subject to the following licensing
terms and conditions.

* AMOS 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 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 AMOS distribution package, all programs, the documentation
  and support files are copyrighted 1993 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
  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 only.


AMOS user's guide
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Basically, AMOS is a simple command shell.   When you first start it, you get
a command prompt that looks like the OS/2 prompt, and should look something
like this:

[C:\]_

Sometime in the future, it is my plan to make AMOS a device driver, which
simply mounts your HPFS-drives for use with DOS.  Sometime in the future :-)

Do NOT try to make any write operations using AMOS in an OS/2 DOS box.  OS/2
does not permit direct sector writes from DOS-boxes (Reports "Unknown
function", which I find rather cute).  If you do try, AMOS will kindly
remind you that writes in DOS-boxes is not possible.
All other functions do perform very well in DOS-boxes, though.

For now, just use your normal DOS and OS/2 commands.  DIR works. COPY, DEL
and TYPE do as well.  With OS/2 wildcards.  Even EDIT works, given that the
file you wish to edit is no larger than 30k (I made this primarily for
CONFIG.SYS-editing).  Try it out.  If in doubt, try it anyway :-)

For a complete list of all commands, switches, and functions, please refer to
the list below.

Syntax          Description
CD <Arg>        Change Directory.  Changes the current directory to Arg, if
                this is a valid directory.
                Example: CD \TEST

CLS             Clears the screen

COPY <A1 A2>    Copies the file(s) A1 to the directory A2.  It is possible to
                copy more than one file using wildcards, but it is NOT
                possible to copy to new filenames.  With COPY, the /n-switch
                is valid, and reverses the file-selection.
                Example: COPY *.EXE C:\TEST  copies all EXE-files to C:\TEST
                         COPY *.TXT C:\ /n   copies all but TXT-files to C:\

DATE            Shows current date in an editable format.  I really don't know
                why you should use this feature, but it was easy to implement.

DIR <Arg>       Displays a listing of files and directories.  As in OS/2, you
                can specify a directory and/or wildcards as argument.  DIR
                accepts some switches as well:
                /s  lists all subdirectories as well
                /n  reverses the selection
                /p  pauses the listing when the screen is full
                /d  shows directories only
                /f  show fragmentation information (HPFS-volumes only)
                Example: DIR *.EXE      shows all EXE-files in current dir
                         DIR *.EXE /n   shows all but EXE-files
                         DIR /d /n      shows all files, and no directories
                         DIR /f         shows all files, including fragmen-
                                        tation information

DEL <Arg>       Deletes files specified as argument.  Wildcards valid.  Please
                note, that AMOS asks for *NO* confirmation, even if you write
                "DEL *"!
                If you write DEL name, where name is a directory, all files in
                that directory will be erased.
                You can use /n with DEL to reverse file selections.
                Example: DEL *.EXE        Remove all EXE-files
                         DEL C:\*.EXE /n  Remove all but EXE-files on C:\

EDIT <Arg>      Starts the internal textfile-editor on the file specified as
                argument.  The editor is a simple fullscreen editor, with only
                the most basic of editing functions - enough for CONFIG.SYS.
                It is not possible to create a new file using EDIT - you can
                only edit existing files.
                Editor keys:
                ESC          Exits the editor
                Cursor keys  Moves the cursor around the screen :)
                PgUp         Advance one page
                PgDn         One page back
                Home         Go to start of line
                End          Go to end of line
                Ctrl-PgUp    Goes to top of file
                Ctrl-PgDn    Goes to end of file
                Ctrl-Left    Word left
                Ctrl-Right   Word right

EXIT            Exits from AMOS to DOS.

FREE <D:> <Lvl> Shows a freespace map of the current drive.  Using this
                feature, you can get an overview of the level of freespace
                fragmentation on the drive.
                From version 1.01, this feature also works for FAT drives.
                The first argument is the desired drive-letter; the second is
                an inverse magnification factor M between 0 and 10.
                When using an M-factor of 0, one character in the map
                represents 8 sectors on the disc, when M=1, one character
                equals 16 sectors, etc.  When M=10, information on 8192
                sectors are represented in one character.
                If you supply no parameter, AMOS will prompt you for a
                magnification factor.
                Example: FREE D: 4
                         FREE 2

HELP            Shows a short description of all available commands.

MAP             Shows a listing of all partitions.  The list includes the
                type of each drive, current directory, total drive space and
                free space.  For HPFS drives, the time of the last CHKDSK
                operation is noted as well.
                Example: MAP on my machine gives the following output:
                Drive  Size/kB    Free/kB   Type      Last CHKDSK /F
                C:\    118,668     75,420   BIGDOS      n/a for FAT
                D:\    160,618     36,086   HPFS      11-11-93  15.35
                E:\  1,349,428     74,897   HPFS      11-11-93  15.36
                F:\    208,813     51,681   HPFS      11-11-93  15.39

RD <Arg>        Removes the directory <Arg>, if <Arg> is a valid, empty
                directory.
                Example: RD C:\DOS
                         RD TEST

TOUCH <Arg>     Sets the file date and time for all files and directories
                matched by <Arg> to current time.
                Switches to use with TOUCH:
                /n  Reverses the file-selection
                /d  Selects directories only

TREE <Arg>      Shows a list of all directories from and below <Arg>. Abort
                by pressing <ESC>.
                Example: TREE F:\WORK results in the following output:
                F:\WORK
                F:\WORK\123
                F:\WORK\WP5
                F:\WORK\PASCAL

TIME            Shows current time in an editable format.  Allows you to
                change system time...

TYPE <Arg>      Types all files matching <Arg> to the screen.  Use with
                textfiles only, since all other files would look weird on
                the display.  Abort listing by pressing <ESC>.
                Example: TYPE C:\*CON* makes AMOS type both CONFIG.SYS,
                CONFIG.BAK and TESTCON.EXE on drive C:\.

WIPE            Wipes all free sectors on the disc, writing HPFSWipe in all
                unoccupied bytes.  I use this primarily for test reasons, but
                is quite useful for data security.
                WIPE functions only on HPFS drives, and only in the registered
                version.

Quirks in AMOS
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* Freespace
  On FAT drives, AMOS asks DOS how much space is free, so I suppose that no
  errors should occur here.  On HPFS-drives, I have been unable to find out
  how much available space there is.
  However, I do have a method of finding out which sectors are occupied and
  which are not, so I simply count these.  Oddly enough, this gives a number
  a bit higher than the one OS/2 reports, but since I seem to be able to make
  sensible use of everything I find, I haven't tried to adjust my freespace
  figure to the one OS/2 reports.

* Many files
  Problems may occur when reading or writing huge directories - by huge I mean
  dir's with more than 4000 files!

* Low on discspace
  Beware of low discspace!  Since AMOS reports every single free byte on the
  disc, COPYing files that only just fit may result in an error.  HPFS uses
  heaps of information on every file, meaning that each file has a slight
  overhead in disc space consumption.  COPYing a 4 byte file typically
  uses 1024 bytes or even more!

* Memory problems
  Since AMOS uses low DOS RAM only, you may sometimes run into memory errors.
  Whenever this happens, AMOS terminates with a Runtime error (Ydrk, this
  will be corrected in the next release), with the number 202 or 203.

* Legal characters in file/dir-names
  No checking of valid filenames is performed.  Thus, you could create a
  directory named "/!' !..," and AMOS wouldn't complain.
  OS/2 will, though - be sure of that!

* Trouble accessing files with spaces in the name
  Setting "'s around filenames in is not supported in AMOS.  Thus, you
  cannot COPY such files as easily as under OS/2.  It _is_ possible, though:
  COPY F:HELLO MATE
  copies the file "HELLO MATE" from drive F: to the current drive.


Future releases of AMOS
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At the moment, I have the following plans for AMOS releases.  A total lack of
registrations probably cancels the plan, though.

1st Quarter 1994: AMOS v1.1.
        This will be a bugfixed version, with some or all of the above
        problems removed.  Bugs reported by users will be included as well,
        whenever possible.
        Hopefully, it will also feature a FAT to HPFS format converter, but
        I am having trouble making it function on all harddiscs...
        If I find the time, I will try to incorporate some extra features too.
        Upgrading registered versions of AMOS to 1.1 is free of charge (*)

2nd Quarter 1994: AMOS v1.2
        I suspect that AMOS v1.2 will be another bugfix-release.  HPFS is a
        very complicated file system, and it is unavoidable that some errors
        exist in the program.
        By the time of this release, basic error correction, a sector editor,
        a better editor and the like should be included.
        Upgrade to v1.2 is free of charge (*)

Sometime in the future, probably 1994: AMOS v2.0
        The ultimate goal of AMOS is to make it a DOS device driver, simply
        mounting existing HPFS volumes for normal use from DOS.  AMOS v2.0
        is a device-driver for DOS, implementing the features of AMOS v1.2.
        Upgrade from previous versions will be around one third of the normal
        registration price.


(*) Upgrading a registered version requires a new keyfile to be sent.  Only
    a small fee for postage is required.


Registration site information
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Allan Mertner
Enghavevej 20A, 2tv
DK-1674 K¢benhavn V
Denmark

2:234/107@FidoNet, 81:445/14@OS2Net

BBS 1:  [phone] (ZyXEL 19k2 / v32bis)
BBS 2:  [phone] (v32bis)
BBS 3:  [phone] (HST 16k8 / v22bis)