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JP Software
4DOS Update Documentation
Version 4.02 -- March 30, 1993
Copyright 1988 - 1993, JP Software Inc., All Rights Reserved. Published
by JP Software Inc., P.O. Box 1470, E. Arlington, MA 02174 USA, (617)
646-3975.
This file provides a list of changes in 4DOS version 4.02. If you are
new to 4DOS with version 4.02, you can skip this file and begin with the
printed 4DOS Reference Manual, or with the ASCII manual in the file
4DOS.DOC.
This file is intended for 4DOS 4.01 users upgrading to 4DOS 4.02. If
you have an earlier version of 4DOS (3.x or 4.0) please review
UPDAT401.DOC for changes made through version 4.01 before reading this
file.
Some of the descriptions below may be more detailed than you need; if
you aren't using the feature described, feel free to skip through to the
next item!
There are feature changes in 4DOS 4.02 which may apply to you if:
- you are using MS-DOS version 6.0
- you are using OS/2 version 2.1
- you want to be able to display times in "AM/PM" format
- you want to be able to display bright background colors
If you're in one of these groups, check through this file for changes
which may affect you. Otherwise, you can probably replace 4DOS 4.01
with 4.02 without noticing any change at all, and review the lists below
only if you have a question.
The changes referred to above are marked with a "**" in the lists below.
All items without a "**" are more technical or less important; you can
skip them unless you are trying to solve a particular problem, or are
looking for specific changes which may affect you.
This file is formatted at 58 lines per page, and contains form feeds and
page footers. It can be viewed with a file viewer such as the 4DOS LIST
command, or printed on most PC printers using the command:
copy updat402.doc prn
Printing it with a program that formats the pages is not likely to work
due to the formatting included in the file.
(3/93-4.02A)
4DOS 4.02 [3-30-93] UPDAT402.DOC page 1
4DOS 4.02 Change List
Startup and Initialization
--------------------------
Three new startup switches are now supported in 4DOS:
** /P[:]filename sets the path and file name for the AUTOEXEC file in
the primary shell. This is equivalent to using the //AutoExecPath
directive in 4DOS.INI. It is included for compatibility with the
DOS_AUTOEXEC setting available under OS/2 2.1, and should not be
needed elsewhere.
/D disables AUTOEXEC. A /D overrides AutoExecPath and /A (see
above). This switch is intended for internal use by MS-DOS 6.0
when you use the F8 key at boot time, and answer "No" to the "Run
AUTOEXEC" question.
/K[:]command: Run the specified command after 4DOS starts. 4DOS
4.01 supported this switch in OS/2 DOS sessions; it is now
available in a standard DOS boot as well. For compatibility
reasons, in a primary shell under MS-DOS 6.0, /K will execute the
command INSTEAD of AUTOEXEC.BAT. However in other environments
(DOS 5.0, OS/2 DOS sessions, etc.), /K will execute the command IN
ADDITION to AUTOEXEC.
The 4DOS manual has never stated any required order for items on the
startup command line. In order for command line switches to properly
override items in the INI file, and in order for 4DOS to find the INI
file, you should use the following order in the command tail:
- any "d:\path" for COMSPEC directory
- any explicit INI file name (@ininame)
- the /A, /E, /F, and /P switches, if used, in any order
- the /C or /K switch, if used
- any explicit startup command
(For more information on startup options, see your 4DOS manual.)
There are two new directives in 4DOS.INI:
** AmPm = Yes | NO | Auto: Yes tells 4DOS to display times in
12-hour format with a trailing "a" for AM or "p" for PM. The
default of No formats times in military (24-hour) format. Auto
formats the time according to the country code set for your
system. The time format selected by AmPm applies to DIR and
SELECT displays, LOG files, the output of TIMER, and the DATE and
4DOS 4.02 [3-30-93] UPDAT402.DOC page 2
TIME commands. It does not affect %_TIME, %@MAKETIME, or PROMPT
$t and $T.
** BrightBG = Yes | No. Yes switches the video board to display
bright background colors (rather than blinking foreground colors)
within 4DOS (what happens within other programs is up to them).
No switches to blinking foreground mode and disables bright
backgrounds. The default if BrightBG is not used is to leave the
video board in its current state and not adjust the mode at all.
For further details before using BrightBG see the section on
"Color Changes" below.
The AutoExecPath directive in 4DOS.INI can now specify a path, or a
path and file name. Previously this directive could only include a
path; the file name was always AUTOEXEC.BAT. Now, if a file name is
included that file will be run instead of AUTOEXEC.BAT. If only a
path is included, 4DOS will run AUTOEXEC.BAT from the specified
directory. For example:
AutoExecPath=C:\MYDIR
Runs the file C:\MYDIR\AUTOEXEC.BAT when the system boots.
AutoExecPath=C:\MYDIR\MYSTART.BAT
Runs the specified file when the system boots.
This change allows you to put multiple startup files for different
boot options or different OS/2 2.x DOS sessions into the same
directory, and pick the file to be run by changing the AutoExecPath
directive.
** The default setting for the FullINT2E directive in 4DOS.INI is now
Yes. This increases 4DOS's default memory usage by about 100 bytes,
but ensures compatibility with applications that use interrupt 2E.
Only a few applications use interupt 2E to execute commands. If you
don't run any such applications, you can save the space taken by
interrupt 2E support by including a FullINT2E=No directive in
4DOS.INI.
** 4DOS fully supports the MS-DOS 6.0 multiple configuration facility
which allows menus in CONFIG.SYS. This includes support for SET
statements in CONFIG.SYS, and for the CONFIG variable generated when
CONFIG.SYS menus are used. Environment variables created from
CONFIG.SYS will be available within AUTOEXEC and 4START when the
primary 4DOS shell begins execution.
4DOS 4.02 [3-30-93] UPDAT402.DOC page 3
** Color Changes
----------------
There are two general changes to color specifications in 4DOS 4.02.
First, the DRAWBOX, DRAWHLINE, DRAWVLINE, SCRPUT, and VSCRPUT
commands no longer accept border colors. Border colors did not
always work as expected in these commands, and were never part of the
documented syntax. To specify border colors you must use CLS or
COLOR, or the StdColors directive in 4DOS.INI followed by a CLS.
Second, bright background colors can now be specified in color
settings on EGA and VGA systems. The remainder of this section
describes the use of bright background colors.
Bright background colors work only on EGA and VGA displays, and
should not be used on other systems. They are an alternative to
blinking text, and you must choose one or the other: if you enable
bright backgrounds, displayed text will not blink, and vice versa.
To use bright background colors, enable them with the BrightBG
directive in 4DOS.INI (see Startup and Initialization changes above
for details).
The syntax of color specifications has been changed to support bright
backgrounds. The full syntax is now:
[BRIght] [BLInk] fg on [BRIght] bg
This change applies to all commands which accept color
specifications, and to all color directives in 4DOS.INI.
Technical Notes:
Bright background and blinking foreground colors use the same bit
in the video board's registers. Therefore, you must have the
BrightBG setting and your color specifications properly
synchronized to get the desired result. With BrightBG = No,
either "blink" or "bright [bg]" in the color specification will
result in blinking text. With BrightBG = Yes, either
specification will result in a bright background.
For example, these two color specifications will always produce
the same result on the screen:
color blink white on blue
color white on bright blue
If BrightBG = No, the above statements will both result in the
same blinking white text on a blue background. If BrightBG = Yes,
they will both result in the same white text on a bright blue
background.
4DOS 4.02 [3-30-93] UPDAT402.DOC page 4
Setting BrightBG may not be compatible with all video boards, but
should work with standard EGA- and VGA-compatible systems. If
BrightBG is set to Yes or No the video board bright background /
blinking foreground state is set each time 4DOS displays the
prompt. If BrightBG is not used the video board state is not
adjusted at all. If you experience screen "flashes" at each
prompt when BrightBG is used, then your video board probably is
not compatible with the approach used by 4DOS's bright background
support. In this case, leave the BrightBG statement out of
4DOS.INI altogether to eliminate the "flashes". This problem
should be very rare and is not likely to occur on standard EGA and
VGA systems.
Command Changes
---------------
** DIR: The following switch changes were made, for compatibility with
MS-DOS 6.0's DBLSPACE disk compression facility:
/C: The old /C (upper case display) switch has been changed to
/E.
/C: Display per-file and total compression ratios on drives
compressed with MS-DOS 6.0's DBLSPACE disk compression
utility. The compression ratio is displayed instead of the
file description. The ratio is left blank for directories
and files with length 0, and for files on non-DBLSPACE
drives. /C only works in single-column mode, and is ignored
if /2, /4, or /W is used.
The numerator for the displayed compression ratio is the
amount of space which would be allocated to the file on the
DBLSPACE drive if it were not compressed, using the DBLSPACE
drive's cluster size (normally 8K bytes). The denominator
is the space actually allocated for the compressed file.
/CH: Display compression ratios like /C, but base the calculation
on the host drive's cluster size. This gives a more
accurate picture of the space saved through compression than
is given by /C.
PLEASE NOTE: /CH will occasionally display compression
ratios slightly less than 1.0 to 1.0. This reflects files
which have actually expanded when stored on the DBLSPACE
drive. COMMAND.COM may display these ratios as 1.0 to 1.0,
even if the true ratio is slightly less. 4DOS always
displays the true ratio.
/O:c Sort by DBLSPACE compression ratio (the least compressed
file in the list sorts first; the most compressed file sorts
last). The sort can be reversed with /O:-c. For single-
4DOS 4.02 [3-30-93] UPDAT402.DOC page 5
column directory displays, /O:c implies /C -- in other
words, compression ratios will be displayed as well as used
for the sort order. For wider displays (/2, /4, etc.) the
ratios will be used to determine the order, but will not be
displayed. If /O:c is used /O:i (sort by description) will
be ignored. If /CH is used with /O:C the sort will be by
compression ratios base don the host drive cluster size.
** LH / LOADHIGH: Now support loading memory-resident programs into
specific regions in upper memory. These new features are designed
for compatibility with MS-DOS 6.0's COMMAND.COM, but will also work
with MS-DOS 5.0 and in OS/2 2.0 VDMs.
The full syntax for LH is now:
LH [/L:r1,n1;r2,n2;... /S] [d:][path]filename
To use the new upper memory region switches you must meet ALL of the
following requirements:
- You must be running MS-DOS / PC-DOS 5.0 or above, or a DOS
session under OS/2 2.0 or above.
- You must have one of the following memory management packages
running: EMM386 and HIMEM.SYS from MS-DOS / PC-DOS 5.0 or above;
386MAX from Qualitas; QEMM from Quarterdeck; or DOS session memory
management under OS/2 2.x, with UMB support enabled (typically via
the /UMB switch on the VXMS.SYS line in your OS/2 CONFIG.SYS
file).
- You must have a DOS=HIGH,UMB or DOS=UMB statement in CONFIG.SYS;
or under OS/2 2.x, you must have the DOS_UMB setting for the
session set to "On".
The new LH / LOADHIGH options are:
/L:r1,n1;r2,n2;...: Give the program access to upper memory
region r1 if that region has at least n1 bytes available, to
region r2 if it has at least n2 bytes available, and so on. If /L
is not used, the program is given access to all upper memory
regions.
Region numbers beyond those that exist on your system will be
ignored, with a warning. The figures for space required in each
region (n1, n2, etc.) are rounded up to the nearest 16 bytes. If
the free space in any region is less than the space required for
that region, then the region will be locked out and unavailable to
the program. If the required space value is left out the program
is given access to the region regardless of the amount of free
space available.
4DOS 4.02 [3-30-93] UPDAT402.DOC page 6
The program, its environment block, and any data allocated by the
program, will be loaded only into the region(s) allowed by the /L
switch; all other regions will be locked out and made unavailable
to the program. If a program requests memory beyond that
available to it in upper memory, DOS will normally allocate low
memory (below 640K) to fulfill the request.
Regions are numbered beginning with 1. If you specify region 0
the program and its environment will be loaded into low memory,
and any other region(s) specified will be available for allocation
of program data. Any minimum size for region 0 will be ignored.
For example, for a simple load into region 2 only, regardless of
the space available in that region:
LH /L:2 progname ...
For access to region 2 if it has 10000 bytes free, and region 3 if
it has 15000 bytes free:
LH /L:2,10000;3,15000 ...
/S: Shrink each specified region to the minimum available size
before loading the program. If /S is not used all space in the
specified region(s) is made available to the program. You can use
/S to prevent a program from taking more than the minimum
specified space in a particular region (e.g. to limit memory used
by a cache that takes whatever memory it can get).
For example, to load a cache program into low memory, give the
program access to region 2 for data as long as there is at least
16K free in region 2, and also limit the program to using no more
than that 16K:
LH /L:0;2,16384 /S mycache ...
The /S switch is intended for use by MS-DOS 6.0's MEMMAKER
utility. It will not be especially useful for other purposes
unless you are involved in complex manual adjustments to upper
memory allocations, and have a thorough understanding of the
memory allocation strategies used by the programs involved.
** MOVE: MOVE now intercepts attempts to perform an infinitely
recursive MOVE /S, and displays an error message.
** SELECT: There are several switch changes to support MS-DOS 6.0's
DBLSPACE disk compression. The upper case display switch has been
changed to /E, and there is new compression support provided by /C,
/CH, and /O:c. See DIR above for details.
4DOS 4.02 [3-30-93] UPDAT402.DOC page 7
Bugs Fixed
----------
A /E:nnnn setting on the startup command line was not overriding an
Environment= setting in the default 4DOS.INI file.
A /F on the startup command line was not overriding a CritFail=No in
the default 4DOS.INI file.
4DOS occasionally displayed an incorrect filename in error messages
related to 4DOS.INI.
If there was no 4DOS.INI file in the directory with 4DOS.COM, 4DOS
was sometimes looking for it in the root directory of that drive,
rather than the documented location of the root directory of the boot
drive.
The 4DOS PSP in upper memory was not chaining back to the low-memory
PSP when UMBLoad was used. This fix should solve some very rare
problems with programs that trace down the PSP chain.
Redirection was not properly backing up over an end of file mark (^Z)
when appending to an existing file.
Filename completion could not handle illegal DOS filenames like
OS/2's "EA DATA. SF" properly. (You still can't USE these filenames
in commands, but they will no longer cause trouble with filename
completion when you go past them.)
%_ALIAS and the MEMORY command did not agree as to the amount of free
alias space.
When a prompt was displayed in a command with a /P switch (e.g. COPY
/P), pressing a non-printing key would display garbage characters.
A bug in MS-DOS JOIN sometimes prevented 4DOS from correctly
identifying JOINed directories as directories. We have worked around
this bug.
COPY and MOVE: Occasionally would not properly handle attempts to
copy OS/2 Extended Attributes to file systems that did not support
them.
DEL /Q: Conflicted with include lists so that only the first file on
the list was deleted.
EXCEPT: Using EXCEPT (*.) ... to prevent processing of files with no
extension could cause problems in EXCEPT's handling of the
directories "." and "..".
4DOS 4.02 [3-30-93] UPDAT402.DOC page 8
EXIT: 4EXIT would not always be run when EXITing from a batch file.
Also an infinite loop would occur if an EXIT command was included in
4EXIT.
LH / LOADHIGH: Fixed a problem which could very rarely cause a crash
on return from a TSR loaded with LOADHIGH.
MOVE: Incorrect moves could occur when the source file was on a
Netware Lite drive. These problems were due to network bugs, not
4DOS bugs; we have worked around the network problems.
SELECT: The displayed counter would overflow when tagging over 64MB
of files.
Y: had several minor problems when used at the console.
4DOS 4.02 [3-30-93] UPDAT402.DOC page 9