@database CatchDisk.guide @remark $VER: CatchDisk.guide 1.20 (26.4.94) Alessandro Sala @node Main "CatchDisk: User Guide" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CatchDisk version 1.20 26-Apr-1994 Copyright 1994 By Alessandro Sala dedicated to Cristina Requires AmigaOS v2.04 ( Kickstart v37 ) or later and WBStart-Handler v1.4 or later (by Stefan Becker) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Contents - @{"Legal info " link legal} - @{"The distribution archive" link archive} - Introduction @{"What is CatchDisk ? " link whatis} @{"Installation " link install} - @{"Configuration and usage " link usage} - @{"Terminating CatchDisk " link term} - @{"Contact Addresses " link contact} - @{"Revision history " link history} ****************************************************************** PLEASE NOTE: My E-Mail address has changed. My new address is: +----------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | Alessandro Sala | | | | tser1500@cdc8g5.cdc.polimi.it | | | +----------------------------------------------------------------+ @endnode @node legal "Legal info" ------------ Disclaimer ------------ This program is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose. Though every care has been taken to make this program system-friendly and bugs-free, the entire risk as to the results, reliability and performance of this program is assumed by you. ------------------ Copyright notice ------------------ This program is "FreeWare": it can be freely copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided that no file is added to or removed from the distribution archive and no charge, beside a nominal fee, is requested. Fred Fish is, of course, explicitly allowed to put this program on his great disk library and/or on his CD-ROMs. Nevertheless the program remains COPYRIGHT of the Author: you cannot patch, reverse engineer or otherwise modify the program, the documentation and every other file found in the distribution archive except where explicitly allowed. Compressing in executable form is allowed for personal use but not for distribution. The only two allowed forms of distribution are the original lharc'ed archive or a uncompresssed form of it. Furthermore you cannot embed the program in any other software without the written permission of the author. @endnode @node archive "The distribution archive" ------------------------------------ Contents of the distribution archive ------------------------------------ CatchDisk : The main program CatchDisk.info : Related '.info' file with pre-set tooltypes Italiano Leggimi : General information in italian language Documentazione CatchDisk.doc : Italian documentation in ASCII format CatchDisk.guide : Italian documentation in AmigaGuide format Installa : Installation program in italian language (see Leggimi) English Readme : General information in English language Documentation CatchDisk.doc : English documentation in ASCII format CatchDisk.guide : English documentation in AmigaGuide format Install : Installation program in English language (see Readme) Deutsch ( translations by Jan-Claas Dirks ) Liesmich : General information in German language Dokumentation CatchDisk.dok : German documentation in ASCII format CatchDisk.guide : German documentation in AmigaGuide format Install : Installation program in German language (see Readme) Catalogs CatchDisk.ct : Empty translation file italiano CatchDisk.catalog : Italian language support file deutsch CatchDisk.catalog : German language support file (by Jan-Claas Dirks) Various '.info' files @endnode @node whatis "Introduction" What is CatchDisk ? ------------------ CatchDisk is a simple commodity: its purpose is to detect when a new disk is inserted in any drive and check if it is properly formatted: if not, CatchDisk executes the Format program with the drive, in which the disk was inserted, already selected. The user has only to choose the format options and start or abort the operation. Besides, from v1.20 CatchDisk can recognize various non-DOS disks and ignore them, or run a user-chosen program when they are inserted. For more info and other features, read on. IMPORTANT --------- To use CatchDisk you must have the WBStart-Handler in you L: directory. You NEED VERSION 1.4 OR LATER of the handler. WBStart-Handler is a freely distributable software by Stefan Becker: you can find it as 'WBStart1_4.lha' in many FTP sites or from PD distributors. Please note that the version required is at least v1.4, because previous versions had problems when dealing with null locks. @endnode @node install "Introduction" Installation ------------ To install CatchDisk, if you have the 'Installer' utility from Commodore (see @{"'Readme'" link "/Readme/main"}), you can simply double-click the 'Install' icon found in the 'English' drawer. Differently, you can simply copy CatchDisk in some drawer, typically your SYS:WBStartup drawer. If you have OS 2.1 or later and you want to take advantage of localization, you must also copy the 'catalogs' drawer, found in the CatchDisk distribution archive, into the same drawer as CatchDisk, or you can copy the 'CatchDisk.catalog' file ( found in the 'catalogs//' drawer ) into your 'LOCALE:catalogs//' drawer. If your language is not currently available, you can fill in the empty translation file found in the catalogs drawer ( catalogs/CatchDisk.ct ) and send it to me by E-Mail ( see the @{"Contact Addresses" link contact} section ). I will create a new '/CatchDisk.catalog' file and E-Mail it to you as soon as possible, and the next version of CatchDisk will support one more language. You can also translate the documentation files and send them to me for inclusion in the distribution of CatchDisk. You must also have WBStart-Handler in you L: directory for CatchDisk to work (see @{"'What is CatchDisk'" link whatis 14}.) @endnode @node usage "Configuration and usage" To start CatchDisk simply double-click its icon or type 'run CatchDisk' from a CLI. To have it activated on every bootstrap, place it in your SYS:WBStartup drawer with the 'DONOTWAIT' tooltype, or insert 'run CatchDisk' in your S:user-startup file. CatchDisk recognizes the following ToolTypes or CLI arguments: CX_PRIORITY= : The priority of CatchDisk in the commodities network. Default value = 0. Range = -128 to 127 DEVICE= : It describes a group of alternative drives for a single physical drive. The digit identifies the group of alternative drives, and can range from 0 to 9. The parameter is the name of a drive followed by ':', and you can list any number of drives, without in-between spaces. Example: 'DEVICE0=DF0:PC0:' tells CatchDisk that for a disk to be considered properly formatted, it must be readable accessing the drive as 'DF0:' or as 'PC0:'. If neither can read the disk, CatchDisk will try to identify it from the first 4 bytes of track 0 (they are the 4 characters you can see under the Workbench icon for the disk, after the DFx:). If the disk is recognized, an action will be taken, according to the @{"REQUESTER" link usage 111} and @{"ID" link usage 74} tooltypes, otherwise, according to the @{"REQUESTER" link usage 111} tooltype, the @{"format program" link usage 68} will be run on the first drive in the list (in this example it will be DF0:). If you specify instead: 'DEVICE0=PC0:DF0:' if the disk in unreadable or not recognized it will be formatted as 'PC0:'. If one or more of the specified drives is not mounted, it will be simply ignored. BREAK_WARN : When CatchDisk @{"terminates" link term} because of a ^C signal, it displays a requester informing you of the event only if BREAK_WARN is set. RESCAN= : Forces CatchDisk to perform a new scan of all devices every seconds. This allows CatchDisk to detect the mounting of a device that doesn't issue the 'diskinserted' message (e.g. fake disks created with FMS). Default value = 0 (no rescan). FORMATTER= : Allows to specify a format program different from 'SYS:System/Format' which is the default. You must specify the complete path/filename. ID=[,[,]] : Describes a non-DOS disk format. The digit can range from 0 to 9: lower numbers are checked first. is a four-character identifier which must match the first 4 bytes of track 0 of a disk to identify it. There are two special characters: $ : Matches only a numeric digit (0-9) or a '$'. ? : Matches any character. So, for example, Qb$$ matches any Quarterback disk (Qb01, Qb02 etc.). is a text that will be used to tell the user what kind of disk CatchDisk has identified. It will also be used as the label for the middle gadget of the requester (see below). If it is not given, the disk will be always ignored, regardless of the @{"REQUESTER" link usage 111} tooltype. is the path and filename of the program to run when CatchDisk identifies this disk format. This is the default action which CatchDisk takes if @{"REQUESTER" link usage 111} is NOID or NEVER. If is not given it defaults to the @{"format program" link usage 68}. You can find some examples in CatchDisk's icon. REQUESTER= : Where is NEVER, ID, NOID or ALWAYS. When CatchDisk detects a non-DOS disk, it can take a default action or it can open a requester asking the user what action to take. For unreadable/unrecognized disks the actions are 'Ignore' or 'Format', with the default being 'Format'. For recognized disks the actions are 'Ignore' 'Format' or 'run the user-program', as set in the respective @{"ID" link usage 74} tooltype. The default is to run the user-program. If =NEVER, CatchDisk always proceeds without asking the user, and takes the default action (see above). If =ID, CatchDisk opens the requester only for identified disks, otherwise it takes the default action. If =NOID, CatchDisk opens the requester only for unreadable/unrecognized disks, otherwise it takes the default action. If =ALWAYS, CatchDisk always opens the requester. Once CatchDisk is active you can use the Commodities Exchange program to control its activities. @endnode @node term "Terminating CatchDisk" As a commodity, CatchDisk can be terminated in three ways: a) Run CatchDisk a second time. b) Use the Commodities Exchange program. c) Send CatchDisk a 'control-C' signal (see also @{"BREAK_WARN" link usage 54}): c.1) If you started CatchDisk from workbench (or WBStartup drawer) use a task control utility such as TaskX by Steve Tibbet. c.2) If you started CatchDisk from a CLI (or user-startup) do the following: 1) Open a CLI 2) Issue the 'STATUS' command and note the process number of CatchDisk 3) Issue 'BREAK C' where is the process number noted above @endnode @node contact "Contact Addresses" Criticism and suggestions ------------------------- I hope you will find CatchDisk useful, and if you have any criticism, suggestions, bug report, ideas for enhancements in possible future versions, or if you have problems using CatchDisk and need help, you can write ( in Italian or English ) to the following address: Alessandro Sala Via A. Grandi, 16 20014 Nerviano (MI) Italy If you have E-Mail capability you can also contact me at the following Internet (new) address (at least until the end of July, 1994): tser1500@cdc8g5.cdc.polimi.it @endnode @node history "Revision history" ********************************************************************************** History ********************************************************************************** ------------ Version 1.20 ------------ - Removed several bugs when more than one PCx: device is mounted (duplicated format requests, format requests when removing a disk etc.). Problems in detecting NDOS disks when a PCx: device is mounted should now be solved. - Added the ability to identify non-DOS disks (suggested by Jan-Claas Dirks too) and take user-defined actions. - Added optional requesters before any action is taken. - Added the ability to run a user-defined format program. - Added German language support (thanks to Jan-Claas Dirks). ------------ Version 1.10 ------------ - When you re-enable CatchDisk, after having disabled it using 'Exchange', it now performs a new scan of the various devices to see if there is any new disk to be formatted. - Added the 'RESCAN=' tooltype which forces CatchDisk to perform a new scan of all devices every seconds, in order to detect the mounting of devices that don't issue a 'diskinserted' message, such as FMS fake disks (reported by Frank Schliefer). ------------ Version 1.00 ------------ First release. @endnode