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- Q L F I L E S Y T E M v2.05.09
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-
- The QL filesystem is a handler that allows transparent access to QDOS (QL)
- disks. The file system requires a device driver that can read and write PC
- style sectors, such as mfm.device or messydisk.device.
-
- QL disks are accessed as QL0: in the internal drive, or QL1:, QL2:, QL3:
- etc... in the external drives.
-
- The QL filesystem makes it possible to insert a QL disk into an Amiga
- drive and use it like any other disk. Files can be renamed, deleted or
- copied to and from QL disks, file dates can be set, disks can be relabled
- and so on...
-
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-
- 1m4mMOUNTING THE QL FILESYSTEM0m
-
- Under WB1.3 mountlst.ql should be placed in devs: and messydisk.device
- should be available. Type 'MOUNT QL0: from devs:mountlst.ql' in a Shell or
- add the command to your start-up device and REBOOT.
-
- A typical mountlist entry would be as follows:
-
- 3mQL0:
- FileSystem = l:QLFileSystem
- Device = mfm.device ; Unit = 0 ; Flags = 0
- LowCyl = 0 ; HighCyl = 79
- Surfaces = 2 ; BlocksPerTrack = 9
- Reserved = 0 ; Interleave = 0
- Buffers = 20 ; BufMemType = 1
- Globvec = -1
- DosType = 0x514C3541
- Stacksize = 8000
- Priority = 5
- Mount = 10m
-
- Under WB2 with crossDOS, make sure that you have at least MOUNT 40.4 and
- SETPATCH 40.16 installed (distributed with AmiCDFS). Then install as in
- WB3 below. If you do not have crossDOS, install as in WB1.3.
-
- Under WB3 copy the provided QL0 and QL1 definition files to
- devs:dosdrivers. Check that your start-up sequence contains the command
- 'MOUNT Devs/dosdrivers/~(#?.info)', then REBOOT.
-
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-
- 4m1mPROTECTION BITS AND FILE COMMENTS0m
-
- QL executable tasks are shown with the protection flags set to 'rwed', all
- other files are shown 'rw-d'.
-
- Files on QDOS disks have a 64 byte header that is not normally seen. The
- header stores information such as creation date and task dataspace
- (similar to stacksize). The creation date is returned to AmigaDOS as the
- files datestamp, the tasks dataspace is presented to AmigaDOS in the file
- comment... as a series of hex bytes.
-
- The format of the comment is as follows:
-
- 3m'QLTASK:<byte length><byte offset><data><data...>'0m
-
- A typical comment would be:
-
- 3m'QLTASK:040600002800'0m
-
- Which states that the four bytes at an offset six bytes from the start of
- the header, contain the information '00002800'. This indicates that the
- dataspace for this particular task is set to 10K.
-
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-
- 4m1mCOPYING AND ARCHIVING QL TASKS0m
-
- It is necessary to use the CLONE option whenever you are copying QL tasks.
- If you do not, the comment field, and hence the task dataspace size will
- be lost.
-
- i.e. to copy all files with the extension '_task', from a QL disk in the
- internal drive onto the RAM disk type:
-
- 3mCopy QL0:#?_task RAM: CLONE0m
-
- It makes sense to ALWAYS use the CLONE option when copying files on the
- Amiga, since it is usually desirable to preserve comments and always
- desirable to preserve file dates. Take note!
-
- Similarly if you are archiving a QL task, remember to save comments.
-
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-
- 4m1mFORMATTING A QDOS DISK0m
-
- In WB2 and above, simply insert a disk, and from the workbench click on
- the QL0:??? disk icon and choose 'Format Disk...' from 'icons' menu. In
- WB1.3 and before, you are required to use the 'QLformat' command from the
- CLI as described below.
-
- 1mQLformat0m
-
- usage: 3mQLformat -u<unit#> [options]0m
-
- options:
-
- 3m[-d<devicename>]0m eg 3m-dmessydisk.device0m (don't use)
- 3m[-m<medianame>]0m eg 3m-mQLEmpty0m (that's the default name)
- 3m[-a(miga)]0m formats to read faster on the amiga (use)
- 3m[-q(uick)]0m means don't format, just rewrite header/map (wipe)
-
- eg: 3mQLformat -u0 -mTestdisk -a0m
-
- Means format the disk in unit 0 (ie internal drive), set the media
- (volume) name to 'Testdisk' and set the sector interleave table to the
- optimal for the amiga.
-
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-
- 4m1mHD DISKS AND QL DIRECTORIES0m
-
- This version of the QL file system supports high density QDOS disks.
- However as yet (v3.23), the Amiga-QDOS emulator does not. So although it
- is possible to swap HD disks between Amiga DOS and a suitably equipped QL,
- it will not be possible to utilise HD disks within the Amiga-QDOS
- emulator.
-
- The QL file system also supports QL directories. However, disks that
- contain directories currently (v3.23) show a flat directory structure
- within the Amiga-QDOS emulator.
-
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-
- 4m1mKNOWN BUGS0m
-
- Sector writes are sometimes written out-of-order?, possibly. A symptom is
- that OCCASSIONALY the last file written to QL0: is not updated properly
- onto disk. Happens very rarely. Perhaps when the file written uses up the
- last sector on the disk. The exact circumstances are unclear.
-
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-
- 4m1mWARNING0m
-
- Please use this software carefully. No responsibility can be accepted for
- any loss of data.
-
- 1mFRANCIS N SWIFT0m
-
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-