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Lodji-Utility-Program (LUP), Version 1.00. by David W. Roscoe USER MANUAL CONTENTS INTRODUCTION SHAREWARE AND REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS INSTALLATION CONFIGURATION STARTING THE PROGRAM USING THE PROGRAM MENUS GETTING HELP BROWSING DIRECTORIES BROWSING MULTIPLE DIRECTORIES BROWSING ZIP ARCHIVES BROWSING FILES COPYING FILES DELETING FILES RENAMING FILES EXTRACTING FILES DEMONSTRATION SYSTEM FILES HOW TO CONTACT LODJI REVISION HISTORY KNOWN BUGS INTRODUCTION LUP (pronounced "loop") is a file utility program. Its strength is in browsing and comparing disk directories and [.ZIP] archive files. LUP presently supports only [.ZIP] archives however support for other archive file types can be added if there is sufficient demand. Browsing the contents of [.ZIP] files with LUP is just like browsing regular DOS directories. In fact, the directory of a [.ZIP] file looks just like an extension of the DOS subdirectory tree. This extension also applies to subdirectories of the [.ZIP] file and to other [.ZIP] files in the [.ZIP] file, i.e. nested [.ZIP] files, etc.! In addition to browsing the file listings of DOS directories and [.ZIP] files, LUP also allows you to browse their text files. This includes files inside of [.ZIP] files. The user need not extract the files first. LUP's ability to display files inside of [.ZIP] archives without first extracting those files makes easy the browsing of large [.ZIP] file collections like those in CD-ROM libraries. Also LUP can display more than one directory or [.ZIP] archive at the same time. Unlike many other programs, which display each directory in a seperate screen window, LUP displays them in a single window. If two files with the same name appear identical in two different directories then their display occupies a single line, allowing more files to be fit on a screen. Files which do not appear identical are displayed on seperate lines in a way which emphasizes their differences such as length and time stamp. This makes it easy to detect new, changed, or deleted files. This feature is especially useful when comparing related groups of files, such as a directory and its backup copy, or two versions of the same software package. When you move from one subdirectory to another LUP attempts the move from each subdirectory being displayed so that related files are automaticly displayed together. LUP has other miscellaneous file management functions such as file deletion, copying, etc. SHAREWARE AND REGISTRATION This product is distributed as Shareware, a Try-Before-You-Buy approach to software distribution. Please feel free to use LUP free for up to 30 days to ensure that it meets your needs. If you decide to continue using LUP you must register with the author. Your registered copy of LUP will include: the latest release of the software, a printed user manual, a registration key to disable the production of registration reminder messages from the program, 90 days of support, upgrade notices, and maybe some other miscellaneous software. To obtain a registered copy of LUP use the "Register" command in the LUP File Lists Browser. The File Lists Browser is active when LUP first starts. The Register command will produce a registration form which will make your registration easier for both you and me. REQUIREMENTS LUP will run on your computer if your computer is an IBM PC compatible running MS-DOS or PC-DOS version 3.0 or later, has 400Kb of disk space, and has 512Kb of Random Access Memory (RAM). If you plan to use LUP to examine [.ZIP] archives then you must also have PKUNZIP in your DOS PATH. If you plan to run the DEMO.BAT demonstration script then you will also need PKZIP. PKZIP and PKUNZIP are available from: PKWARE, INC. 7545 N. Port Washington Rd. Glendale WI 53127 INSTALLATION Copy all of the distribution files to an empty subdirectory. I suggest the subdirectory name "\LUPnnn" where "nnn" are the digits of the version number. If you set your default directory to this subdirectory then you will be able to run LUP. If you want to be able to start LUP from any default directory without using LUP's directory in the command then you must follow some additional steps. The files LUP.EXE and LUP.DOC must be in a directory which appears in your DOS PATH. You can do this either by adding LUP's subdirectory to your DOS PATH, or by copying LUP.EXE and LUP.DOC to a directory which is already in your DOS PATH. LUP.DOC should be in the same directory as LUP.EXE becaused this is needed by the Help command. CONFIGURATION This version of LUP has no configuration options. LUP tries to adapt to the type of computer and the video mode you are using when you run it. LUP will adapt to monochrome or color display adapters. It will adapt to different screen dimensions, for example, 25 lines, 43 lines, or 50 lines. See the documentation on the DOS MODE command, or whatever command you use to control your video display, for more information. STARTING THE PROGRAM The simplest method of starting LUP is simply to type "LUP" from the DOS prompt. Type: LUP<Enter> The "<Enter>" stands for the Enter key. LUP will execute and display the File List of the current working directory. From there you may change the File Lists being displayed, move elsewhere in the directory tree, or perform other file operations. To make LUP begin by displaying one or more File Lists other than the current working directory, simply add their names to the command line. For example, suppose C:\PROJECT1 contains your files of a particular project, and a floppy diskette contains previously saved versions of those files, and you want to see which files have changed sinced you saved them. To do this, place the diskette in drive A: and at the DOS prompt type: LUP C:\PROJECT1 A:<Enter> This will cause LUP to start and to display both directories simultaneously. Note, only File List specifications can appear on the command line. You can not browse a text file directly from the command line, however you can do this after LUP is started. You may also specify (.zip) archive files on the command line. There is a notation [.ZIP] for doing this which is explained in the section named BROWSING ZIP ARCHIVES. USING THE PROGRAM LUP was designed to be both easy to learn and easy to use. Almost all program commands are available through context sensitive menus AND single key shortcuts. Using the menus is easy. You can begin using the program immediately with the menus. If you want you can learn the shortcut keys. All shortcut keys are displayed in the menus of their associated commands, which makes them easy to learn. There is also a simple Help command which allows you to browse this user manual from inside of LUP. MENUS Menus are available from nearly everywhere in the program. You can display a menu by pressing the F10 key. Menus are context sensitive. This means that the commands listed in a menu vary according to the commands available at that point of the program. These commands can depend on everything from the type of dialog box active to the position of the cursors. If you are ever not sure about what to do next, pressing F10 will produce a menu of all the things you can do at that point. For example, if the File Lists Browser is active and you press the F10 key then a menu labeled "File Lists Browser Menu" will be displayed which lists all the commands available from the File Lists Browser. You will even see the F10 key listed. You can use a menu in two ways. The first way is to select one of the commands in the menu and press the Enter key to execute it. For example, in the menu of the File Lists Browser is the menu item "<Alt-A> About this program". If you move the menu cursor to that menu item and press the Enter key then a dialog box will be displayed which gives a brief description of the program. The other way to use a menu is as a command summary. When you see in a menu the command you want to execute, you can press the <Esc> key to exit the menu and then press the associated command key to trigger that command. Note, sometimes a menu item represents a group of commands, not a single command. Group menu items end in "...". If you press <Enter> when the menu cursor is on a group menu item then another nested menu will appear. This nested menu represents the group. For example, when a list scroller is active there are several command keys available for moving the scroller's cursor. These appear as a single group menu item under the name "Line Cursor Movement...". If you press the Enter key while the menu cursor is on the "Line Cursor Movement..." item then another menu will appear which lists the actual cursor movement commands with their command keys, such as "<Arrow-Down> Forward", etc. To abandon a menu without executing one of its commands, press the Esc key. The menu will dissappear. GETTING HELP If you still can't figure out how to do what you want after using the menus then you can get help by pressing the <F1> key. This will open a dialog for browsing the user manual file, i.e., the file you are reading now. Help is available from everywhere the menus are available. BROWSING DIRECTORIES You browse directories with the File Lists Browser, which is the dialog which fills the entire screen when you start the program. It displays one or more directories. It is divided into two major parts. The top part contains a summary of the directories displayed. Each line in the summary includes the number of the directory, the total number of bytes in all the files in that directory, the number of files including subdirectories in that directory, and the path name of the directory. It also includes the file mask, however this should probably be displayed elsewhere because all file masks must be the same. The bottom contains a list of the file entries in the directories summarized in the top part. Each entry includes the file name, the file size or, if the entry is a subdirectory, a notation to indicate that, the date and time stamp of the file, and the attributes. The file entry list is scrollable using the cursor movement commands. Cursor movement commands include INCREMENTAL SEARCHES. This allows you to move the cursor directly to a particular file entry by pressing the first few characters of the file name. To display a subdirectory of the directory you are displaying, simply move the scroller cursor to the subdirectory you wish to display and press the <Enter> key. If you wish to display the parent of the directory being displayed then move the cursor the entry labeled "[ Parent ]" and press the <Enter> key. Using these two basic operations you can easilly examine all directories on a disk. If you would like to examine the directories on a different disk drive, or would like to jump immediately to a distant directory then use the Alt-S (File Lists Browser, Substitute Path) command. If you would like to limit the display to a subset of all the files in the directory you can use the Alt-F (File Lists Browser, File Mask) command. For example to display only the files ending in ".TXT" then change the file mask to "*.TXT". BROWSING MULTIPLE DIRECTORIES Browsing multiple directories at the same time is similar to browsing single directories. There are a few differences in the display. Each file entry may occupy more than one line, between one and the number of directories displayed. If LUP finds that two files with the same name in two different directories have the same size, date, time, and attributes then it displays then on the same line. Otherwise it puts them on two different lines. The numbers in the column headed with "**..." indicate which directories a given version of a file is in. The different file versions are ordered by date and time with the newest files first. Any line which does not have numbers in every position of the "**..." column indicates some type of difference, either a new file, a deleted file, a changed file, a file with different attribute bits, etc. This is the column which makes finding differences between directories easy. The directories being displayed are summarized in the top of the two rectangular display areas on the screen. The directories are ordered alphabetically by name. The set of directories being displayed can be changed by using the "File Lists..." commands. With them you can add a directory, remove a directory, or substitute a directory in the set of directory or archive files being displayed. BROWSING ZIP ARCHIVES Browsing [.ZIP] archive files is very similar to browsing directories. To examine a [.ZIP] file, move the cursor to the file entry of the file and press the <Enter> key. The File Lists Browser will display the contents of the [.ZIP] file. The File Lists summary at the top of the screen will have the notation "[.ZIP]" after the name to indicate that a [.ZIP] file, rather than a regular directory, is being displayed. This is the same notation which may be used for command line arguments when starting LUP from the command line. The seperate "[.ZIP]" notation, rather than the file name extention, is needed to distinguish DOS directory files from DOS data files because: 1. DOS directory names can have extensions, even ".ZIP". 2. Not all [.ZIP] files have ".ZIP" extensions. For example, it is common for a self extracting [.ZIP] file to end with ".EXE". You may move within the subdirectories of a [.ZIP] file just like a DOS subdirectory. You may even move into [.ZIP] files inside of [.ZIP] files, in other words, nested [.ZIP] files. You may display regular DOS directories and [.ZIP] file directories at the same time to compare them. To display a [.ZIP] file which does not have a [.ZIP] extension, such as a self extracting [.ZIP] file, use the Include Path or Substitute Path commands. Enter the name of the file with the characters "[.ZIP]" at the end. For example, if you were browsing the directory C:\INBOX which contained a file NEWSTUFF.EXE which was a self extracting [.ZIP] file, use the Substitute Path command and replace "C:\INBOX" by C:\INBOX\NEWSTUFF.EXE[.ZIP]". This will display the file as a [.ZIP] File List. Note, some [.ZIP] files created on Unix systems contain files whose names have lower case characters. LUP will convert these names to upper case when it displays these [.ZIP] files because DOS does not support lower case in its file names. Also, certain unusual and rare [.ZIP] files appear empty to LUP even though they are not. This happens when a [.ZIP] file contains files in a subdirectory but does not also contain that subdirectory. For example, if a [.ZIP] file contains two file entries "XXX\" and "XXX\FILE" then LUP will correctly show that the file contains a single subdirectory "XXX" which contains a single file "FILE". However if subdirectory "XXX\" is missing then file "XXX\FILE" will also appear missing to LUP. BROWSING FILES To examine a file as text, use the File Lists Browser to display the directory or archive containing the file you would like to examine. Move the cursor to the entry for the file and press the <Enter> key. LUP displays the file in a scrollable text window. The display shows all characters except the line-feed <LF>, which is treated as a line terminator. Control characters are displayed using the standard IBM compatible graphic characters. LUP does some rudimentary formating of tab characters, but even tabs are displayed. If a file line will not fit on a screen line then it will wrap around to the next screen line. Successive file lines are highlighted with alternating colors so that you can see where wrap around occurred. COPYING FILES To copy regular or directory files, use the File Lists Browser to display the directory or archive containing the files you want copy. If you are interested in a particular one then move the cursor to it. Press the <Alt-C> key. LUP will display a dialog box with its best guesses for source path, destination path, and file mask filled in or selected. Complete filling in these values. Use the Tab key to move between value gadgets. When you have defined all values press the Enter key. LUP will begin copying files. When it is finished the destination path will be added to the File Lists Browser if that path was not already being displayed. You may not copy into a [.ZIP] archive file. However you may copy files out of a [.ZIP] file to a DOS directory. In this case LUP will automaticly extract the files. DELETING FILES To delete regular or directory files, use the File Lists Browser to display the directory or archive containing the files you want delete. If you are interested in a particular one then move the cursor to it. Press the <Alt-D> key. LUP will display a dialog box with its best guesses for path and file mask filled in or selected. Complete filling in these values. Use the Tab key to move between value gadgets. When you have defined all values press the Enter key. If you have specified more than one file then LUP will ask for confirmation. Then it will begin deleting files. You may not delete files from a [.ZIP] archive file. RENAMING FILES To rename a regular or directory file, use the File Lists Browser to display the directory or archive containing the file you want rename. If you are interested in a particular one then move the cursor to it. Press the <Alt-N> key to activate the "reName a file" command. LUP will display a dialog box with its best guesses for directory, and old name filled in or selected. Complete filling in these values and provide a new name. Use the Tab key to move between value gadgets. When you have defined all values press the Enter key and LUP will rename the file. You may not rename a file inside a [.ZIP] archive file. EXTRACTING FILES LUP can extract files from archive files. Extracting from a [.ZIP] archive file is called "unzipping". LUP extracts automaticly whenever you browse a file which inside of an archive, or copy files from inside of an archive. See COPYING FILES and BROWSING FILES for more information. DEMONSTRATION The file DEMO.BAT is a batch file which demonstrates some of the unusual features of LUP, namely the ability to browse [.ZIP] archive files, and the ability to browse multiple directory trees in a merged format. The demo creates some files and subdirectories in the default directory and displays instructions for you to follow to explore various features. The demonstration is not fully automated. It depends on your ability to follow instructions. To run the demonstration, set the default directory to the directory containing the LUP files, and type: DEMO<Enter> SYSTEM FILES The following files are parts of, or are created by, the LUP package: LUP.DOC: This is the file you are reading now. It is the user manual for LUP. It is also used the the Help command. LUP.EXE: This is the LUP executable. LUP.CFG: This file is created by LUP. It contains configuration information, which in this version of LUP consists of only the registration status of the program. DEMO.BAT: This batch file script creates some directories and files which are used to demonstrate LUP's unusual features. When executed it displays instructions for its use. REGISTER.DOC: This contains information on how to register the program. FILE_ID.DIZ: This contains a description of LUP suitable for use in catalog and BBS directory listings. The most significant information is near the front of the file so that automated software distribution systems can use the most important information. VENDOR.DOC: This contains information for disk vendors on how to distribute this software. C:\LUPTMP.$$$: This subdirectory and the files created in it are temporary files. They are deleted when LUP terminates. LUP creates temporary files when it examines the contents of [.ZIP] archive files. HOW TO CONTACT LODJI You can reach LODJI at any of the following addresses: USPS: LODJI, PO BOX 915, NORTH CHELMSFORD MA 01863-0915 CompuServe: 76360,1610 Internet: 76360.1610@CompuServe.COM REVISION HISTORY 1.00 First publicly released version. KNOWN BUGS After using LUP to browse many directories or files LUP may become less speedy. On rare occasions LUP may terminate with a message which says that it was unable to allocate memory from its heap. This is caused by fragmentation of LUP's heap. If LUP terminates in this way, restart it and retry what you were trying to do. Unless you enter exactly the same sequence of keys, LUP should not terminate again.