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Runb.doc
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1989-06-27
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/* Runbackground */
/* Original Author: Rob Peck. 5/9/86 */
/* VERY slightly modified by K.Mardam-Bey 6/20/88 */
This program is a modification of *ROB PECK*'s original RUNBACKGROUND
program. I added a few lines of code to his C source, and compiled
it - all in less than five minutes.
The program RUNBACK is a VERY useful tool, however, it has one
MAJOR fault that drives me CRAZY - if the program you want to
RUNBACK isn't in the current directory, then you HAVE to specify
a path.
I have CHANGED this. It was very simple; just a few lines of
code. If you specify a path, then this version of RUNBACK will try
to get at the file in the directory you specified. If it doesn't
find the program in the directory you specified, it exits.
*BUT*, if you do NOT specify a path, then it looks for the program
first in the current directory, and then the C: directory, then it
looks in DF0:C and then DF1:C. If by then it doesn't find the program
it just exits.
tadaaaaaaaaa! :-)
Oh yeah, it also has the added nicety of avoiding the system
requestor if you try to access a non-existent device :-)
NOTE - the "RUN" command MUST be in the C: directory for this
program to work.
I had both the C source and the assembly source for this program but
since I don't know how to program in assembly, I used Rob Pecks C
source. if anyone out there would like to change the assembly version
to what I've done here (which should be VERY easy), please do so. As you
can see, the size of this RUNBACK is many times larger than it's assembly
language counterpart. (which shouldn't really be a problem for hard-disk
owners, but may be on the "large side" for us floppy-drive amigans :-).
well, as always,
have fun..
Khaled Mardam-Bey.
ID on PeopleLink and Portal : LAD
***************************************************************************
The following description comes from the original runbackground.c:
***************************************************************************
--------------
runbackground.c
---------------
SUMMARY: A Workbench Disk can be used to autostart an application
through the use of the startup script and close the startup CLI.
Users have commented that it is not possible to start a process going
from the startup script and then cause the initial CLI to go away.
Here is the solution to that problem, named appropriately:
RUNBACKGROUND
which starts and runs a background task. This does indeed allow you to
create a startup script that will set up your workbench running any
programs you might wish, removing the initial CLI in the process.
Your s/startup-sequence can contain lines such as the following:
RUNBACKGROUND -3 clock
RUNBACKGROUND utilities/calculator
RUNBACKGROUND -5 utilities/notepad
where RUNBACKGROUND is the command and the second parameter is the filename
which may be preceded by a flag-variable that specifies an optional delay
time. The delay can be from 0 to 9, for the number of seconds that
the startup script should sleep while allowing the background task to
load and start. I've put that in to minimize thrashing of the disk as it
tries to load several projects at once.
LIMITATIONS:
The program that you run cannot require any input from an interactive
CLI that starts it. Additionally, you cannot specify any file
redirection in the command line since this program provides the
redirection for you already. If you need to use redirection for
your command, you can modify the source code where shown, thus
allowing the redirection to become one of the parameters passed
through to your program.
RUNBACKGROUND does pass your command line parameters to the program
you wish to start, but limits the total length of your command
string to 227 (255 minus the 28 characters for "RUN >NIL: <NIL: "
preceding your own file pathname and ">NIL: < NIL: " following it.)
**********************************************************************