Frostbyte's 1980s DOS Shareware Collection/floppyshareware.zip/floppyshareware/USCX/DARTUTIL.ZIP/UTIL.DOC

Text File | 1989-04-02 | 12KB | 202 lines

     MSDOS UTILITIES BY JON DART - Version 3.3 of 30-Mar-89

       This  disk  contains  a  collection  of  utility programs, including
     several which mimic the operation of unix (tm) commands.

       All of these programs require MSDOS or PCDOS version 2 or above.  To
     run SHOW  and  MODEM, your computer must be IBM-compatible at the BIOS
     level (SHOW can be reassembled to produce a "generic MSDOS"  version).
     LS is supplied  in  both generic and PC-dependent versions.  The other
     programs are not at all machine-specific and should run on  any  MSDOS
     system.

       LS displays  a  sorted directory with file sizes.  There are several
     such programs in the public domain, but all of the ones  I  have  seen
     have deficiencies--they  are  too  big,  too slow, don't show the disk
     free space, can't display system files, and/or use tricks that  render
     them unusable on my computer, which is NOT a perfect IBM clone.  LS is
     designed to be easily adaptable to any "generic MSDOS" system, with at
     most minor modifications.  There are two executable files on the disk:
     LS.EXE and  LS-PC.EXE.  LS.EXE is "generic" and will run on most MSDOS
     computers, while LS-PC will run on IBM PCs, ATs and close clones only.

       LS is used like the DIR command.    To  see  the  contents  of  your
     current directory, just  type  LS.   If you follow LS with one or more
     file names, it will show only files matching those  names  (the  names
     can contain wildcards).    You  can  also  insert  one  or more of the
     following options on the command line:

       -A  displays system and hidden files
       -D  displays information on a directory, not its contents
       -L  displays a "long" listing with file sizes in bytes, times and
           dates
       -N  produces a non-sorted output (with files in the same order they
           are in the directory)
       -R  reverses order of sort
       -S  displays file sizes in kilobytes
       -T  sort by time rather than name of file
       -1  forces single-column output with no paging (like DIR)

       HEAD and TAIL are simple filters that display a few lines  from  the
     start or the end of a file, respectively. The general syntax for these
     programs is:

       HEAD -n file1 file2 ...

       n is the  number  of lines to display: e.g.  "HEAD -50 FOO" displays
     the first 50 lines of "FOO".  Wildcards can be  used  in  file  names.
     The default  number  of lines is 20; the maximum that can be specified
     is 65535.  If no input file is specified, HEAD reads from the standard
     input, so it can be hooked to another program's  output  via  a  pipe.
     TAIL is used similarly.

       WC is a  utility  to count bytes, words and lines in a file.  To use
     it, just type WC followed by the name(s) of the file(s)  you  want  to
     get counts for.    Like  HEAD  and  TAIL,  WC  defaults to reading the
     standard input device if no input file is  specified  on  the  command
     line.

       SHOW  is my adaptation of a CP/M bidirectional file display program.
     It shows a file on the screen, and allows you to  scroll  forward  and
     backwards.  If  all you want to do is see the file, this is often more
     convenient than calling up your editor. Unlike TYPE, SHOW will display
     WordStar (tm) and WordPerfect (tm) files  in  more  or  less  readable
     format. Type SHOW with no arguments to get instructions.

       MV  is  a  general-purpose  program  to  move  files and directories
     between disks and directories.  It is similar to the UNIX (tm) utility
     of the same  name.    With  the  R  switch,  MV   treats   directories
     recursively: that  is,  if  it  is  told  to move a directory, it will
     transfer all files found in that  directory,  AND  all  files  in  any
     subdirectories of it.  Type MV with no arguments to get instructions.

       CP  is  virtually  the  same  as  MV, except that it copies files or
     directories, without  deleting  the  originals.    Type  CP  with   no
     arguments to get instructions.

       RM deletes files and/or directories.  It is similar to the MSDOS DEL
     command,  but  allows  multiple  files to be specified, and supports a
     number of options.  Type RM with no  arguments  to  get  instructions.
     CAUTION: the  F and R switches are potentially dangerous.  Be sure you
     know what you are doing before you use them; if in  doubt,  experiment
     on a "junk" disk first.

       RO  is  a utility to make one or more file read-only. Files that are
     set "read-only" cannot be deleted by the ordinary  MSDOS  DEL  command
     (it will  respond  "File  not  found"  if you try this). They are also
     protected from  deletion by the RM program (unless  the  F  switch  is
     used).  Type RO to get instructions.

       RW  is  a  utility  to  restore one or more files that have been set
     read-only back  to   ordinary   read-write   status.   Type   RW   for
     instructions.

       CRC computes  a cyclic redundancy code for one or more files.  It is
     a good idea to run CRC on your valuable files and record the  results.
     Then  if  you ever suspect that a file has been corrupted in some way,
     re-run CRC and compare  the  results  to  what  you  recorded.    Most
     possible errors  in the file will alter the CRC for the file, enabling
     you to detect that an error has occurred.

       The CRC program accepts one or more file names and writes their  CRC
     codes to the standard output. The output can be redirected into a file
     if you so desire.

       By  default,  CRC  computes  Cyclic  Redundancy Codes using the same
     algorithm used by XMODEM and other communications programs.    If  you
     add  the  -a  switch  to  the  command  line,  it  will  compute codes
     compatible with those computed by archiving utilities such as ARC  and
     PKARC.

       UPDATE is similar to the unix "touch" utility.  It sets the time and
     date of  one  or more files to the current system time and date.  Type
     UPDATE with no arguments for instructions.

       FDUMP is a simple utility for viewing and patching files  in  ASCII,
     hex, decimal or  octal.  It examines one logical sector (128 bytes) at
     a time.  When you run the program, you will be asked for a  file  name
     and then  presented with a menu of commands (you can also invoke FDUMP
     with the name of a file, e.g.  "FDUMP FDUMP.EXE." In  this  case,  you
     don't get the file prompt).  The "dump" commands (A, H, D, and O) show
     the contents of  the current file sector.  The edit command (E) allows
     you to alter the sector contents, and  the  W  command  will  put  the
     changed sector  back  on  the disk, overwriting its previous contents.
     The C command allows you to copy one or more sectors from the file you
     are looking at to a new file.  This command can  be  used  to  recover
     usable data from  files  that  have damaged sectors.  The "+", "-" and
     "S" commands are used to select a new sector to  look  at  or  change.
     The "F" command closes the current file and allows you to select a new
     file.  To exit the program, type X.

       CLEAN, FIXLINES  and DETAB are filter programs.  Like HEAD and TAIL,
     they read from a file (if specified) or from the standard  input,  and
     write to  the  standard  output  device.  To save the output in a text
     file, you must use the redirection operator (>).  CLEAN strips off the
     high bits in a file, and removes all  control  characters  except  for
     carriage return  (^M),  line  feed  (^J), backspace (^H), tab (^I) and
     form feed (^L).  FIXLINES converts files with  lines  ending  in  only
     carriage returns  or  line  feeds  to files with lines ending in CR/LF
     pairs (which is the DOS standard text file  format).    DETAB  expands
     tabs in  a file into spaces; it assumes that tab stops are set every 8
     spaces.  Since these programs are filters, they can be combined  in  a
     pipe, e.g.:

        CLEAN foo | DETAB | FIXLINES >foo2

        processes file  "foo" through all 3 programs and writes the results
     to file "foo2".  I use this combination to convert  the  brain-damaged
     output files created by SPSS-PC into something I can print.

       MODEM is  a simple communications program loosely modelled after the
     classic "MODEM7" series for CP/M.  Far fancier programs are available,
     but this one may be of interest because it includes  source.    Unlike
     most modem  programs,  it  uses BIOS calls to access the COM port, and
     will thus work with semi-compatible computers such as the Tandy  2000.
     However, since  BIOS  calls are slower than directly fiddling with the
     hardware, transfers  at  speeds  above  1200  bps  will  probably   be
     unreliable.  MODEM supports both CRC and Checksum transfers, but there
     is no ASCII transfer mode.

       All  of the programs are supplied "ready to use" in the form of .EXE
     files. It is not necessary to re-assemble or re-compile any of them in
     order to use them.  However, the source code is also provided for  the
     use of anyone who wishes to make custom modifications to the programs.
     The following  information  concerns  the  source code, and will be of
     interest to programmers only.

       The source code for all programs is contained in the  archive  named
     SOURCE.ARC.  Any of the available archiving utilities for the PC (such
     as ARC,  PKARC  and  NARC)  can be used to extract the files from this
     archive.

       LS, HEAD, TAIL, MV, CP, RM and WC are written in  assembly  language
     and were assembled  with  MASM  5.0.    All  of these programs must be
     linked with the utility library ASM.LIB.   The  source  code  for  the
     modules in  ASM.LIB  is in the archive ASM.ARC, which is stored within
     the SOURCE archive.  ASM.ARC also contains some include  files  needed
     for assembling the programs.

       RO,  RW,  CRC,  UPDATE, FDUMP, CLEAN, FIXLINES, DETAB, and MODEM are
     written in Aztec C, and were compiled in the "small model" mode  using
     version 3.40a  of  the  optimizing  compiler.  If you modify them, you
     must recompile and then link them  with  the  library  B.LIB  and  the
     standard Aztec library  C.LIB  (in  that  order).    B.LIB  is a small
     utility library that is provided within the source archive. The source
     for the modules in B.LIB is in B.ARC.  B.ARC also contains some header
     files used by the c programs.

       These programs are PUBLIC DOMAIN and may  be  freely  copied,  used,
     modified,  etc.  for  ANY  purpose  (the  one thing you probably can't
     legally do is to copyright them  yourself).    I  don't  ask  for  any
     donation or contribution  for  them.  The best "donation" you can give
     me is to donate something of your  own  to  the  public  domain,  thus
     improving the pool of available free software.

        I don't  offer  any  guarantee of support for these programs, but I
     will generally fix bugs that  are  reported  to  me.    Any  comments,
     complaints, bug  reports or suggestions for improvement should be sent
     to: Jon Dart, 3012 Hawthorn St., San Diego CA 92104.