SKEL.TXT The skeleton is a framework program which incorporates a dynamic linker and a dos extender. The programs `oxcc.exe', `oxccb.exe', `oxccl.exe' and `bterp.exe' are all skeleton programs stored under different names. The native skeleton name is `cfrun.exe'. The action of the skeleton is to load and dynamically link the real program from a .cff archive. The complete c library is automatically loaded when the skeleton runs. The linker can handle a.out and coff formats. In addition to loading the program, the skeleton loads some basic support modules from the file `oxbow.a'. Early detection is used to pull in the proper support modules depending upon the host system. To get a new skeleton program, just copy an old one and give it a new name, or if under a unix system, just symbolic link a new name to an old existing file. Or to conserve space you could write a batch file which contains something like: cfrun myprog or cfrun myprog.o The skeleton searches for files in `.' and `c:\oxbow' unless the environment variable OXPATH or the -PATH switch is set. If it doesn't find anything, it then searches through the directories in the PATH environment variable. If the name of an application is supplied to cfrun, e.g. cfrun myapp Then if myapp.cff is found on the path it is searched for myapp.o and symbols _main and _myapp. If myapp.cff is not found then if oxlib.cff is found on the path it is searched for myapp.o, and finally for the symbols _main and _myapp. If myapp.o is not found in oxlib.cff then the path is searched for myapp.o. If the object file name is supplied to cfrun, e.g. cfrun myapp.o Then the path is searched for myapp.o before searching for myapp.cff and oxlib.cff. This facilitates debugging modules not yet entered into archives. Usage: cfrun appname [-APP=][-LIB=][-PATH=][-TRACE=][-LBUFS=][appargs] or: appname [-APP=][-LIB=][-PATH=][-TRACE=][-LBUFS=][appargs] Switch -------- Meaning -APP=filename Permanent object file/archive for the application. -LIB=filename Additonal library or archive file. -PATH=p1;p2;... Lookup path for files. -LBUFS=n Allocate n kilobytes of database buffering. -TRACE=n Set trace bits (hex,octal,decimal ok). appargs Application args. Trace bits cause verbose output from the dynamic linker and multiple inheritance engine. Try 1,2,4,8,15 etc. Output is to stdout.