EnigmA Amiga Run 1995 October

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BridgeBoard Tools Version 1.10 Copyright (c) 1994 M. C. Henderson These programs have been tested extensively. However, use them is at your own risk. I will not be responsible for any damage or loss of data caused directly or indirectly by these programs. In other words, make sure you have backups of your valuable data! History 1.0 Initial release 1.1 Programs changed to prevent lockup when reading non-JDisk files. ReadJD fixed to prevent lockup when wildcarding a whole directory. Number of files ReadJD and WriteJD will handle increased from 300 to 1000. An option added to MakeJD to force a JLink. An option added to WriteJD to force an update of the PC's directories. A PC program "DIRUD.EXE" was added to implement this change to WriteJD. Also, the name of this package of programs was changed from "BPTools" to "BBTools". For some dumb reason I started calling it a BridgePort instead of a BridgeBoard. 1.0 Introduction The BridgeBoard comes with a set of utility programs which allow you to create and use virtual IBM disk drives on the Amiga. These JDisk drives can be written to and read from using the IBM programs AWRITE.EXE and AREAD.EXE. Although these programs can be fine for transferring small amounts of data, they can be slow when large files are being moved. I wrote these Amiga programs included herein so I could quickly transfer large amounts of data to the JDisks located on the Amiga. Using an Amiga 3000 with a 286 BridgeBoard, the WriteJD program will write a 250KB file from the harddrive to a ram based JDisk file in approximately 9 seconds versus 62 seconds using the AREAD program. The ReadJD program will transfer this same file from the JDisk to Amiga ram in approximately 6 seconds versus 62 seconds using AWRITE. 2.0 Programs BBTools consists of five programs: 1. "JDir" is an Amiga program which allows you to get a directory listing of a JDisk file while in the Amiga mode. 2. "MakeJD" is an Amiga program which allows you to create a JDisk drive while in the the Amiga mode. 3. "ReadJD" is an Amiga program which allows you to read files from a JDisk file while in the Amiga mode. 4. "WriteJD" is an Amiga program which allows you to write to a JDisk file while in the Amiga mode. 5. "DIRUD.EXE" is an IBM program which will force an update of directories on all the IBM drives. This program goes in either your Janus or DOS directory on the IBM. 3.0 Instructions In the instructions given below I have assumed that the reader has a good working knowledge of creating and working with JDisk files. If not, I suggest you throughly read the your BridgeBoard user's guide. Particularly the information on using JLINK.EXE, AREAD.EXE and AWRITE.EXE. Note that these programs only work with jlinked JDisk files (virtual IBM disks). They will not read or write to psuedo IBM harddrives. 3.1 JDir As stated above, JDir is an Amiga program for getting a directory listing of a JDisk file from the Amiga side. This JDisk file could have been created on the IBM side with the JLINK.EXE program or the MakeJD program discused below. Use the following syntax to get a directory listing: JDir vd Where vd is the full path name of the JDisk file on the Amiga (eg DH1:IBMdata/vd). Note that there is no colon after the file name. If it is included, the Amiga will think you are asking for a volume name and put up a requester asking for it. The syntax for subdirectors is: JDir vd\dir1\dir2\dir3 Note that the IBM backslash convention was used to separate directory entries. This was done so the Amiga would not treat these entries as a request for information on an Amiga file. The IBM wildcard symbol "*" (asterick) can be used to get information on specific files: JDir ram:vd\dir1\*.exe This command will list all the files in subdirectory "dir1" that end in "exe". Limitations: JDir doesn't have any fancy options such as /p or /w to get paged listings. Maybe this is something which could be added if there is a request for it. 3.2 MakeJD MakeJD is an Amiga program to create a JDisk file on the Amiga. The program is similar to the BridgeBoard IBM program called JLINK.EXE. It will create a file on the Amiga which acts as a virtual disk drive on the IBM. MakeJD will allow you to create a JDisk file and the programs WriteJD and ReadJD discussed below will allow you to write and read files to it. MakeJD will NOT however, jlink the file to the IBM. You must still do this using JLINK.EXE. As discussed below, an option has been added to MakeJD to force the IBM to run JLINK. The syntax for using MakeJD is: MakeJD JDisk kilobytes Where "JDisk" is the full path and file name of the file you wish to create (eg. Ram:dir/vd). "kilobytes" is the number of kilobytes you want to assign to this virtual drive (eg. 300 = 300,000 bytes). Note that like JLINK.EXE, MakeJD does not create a file that is "kilobytes" large, it only creates a file which is allowed to become this size. The file becomes larger as you add files to it. Like JLINK.EXE, MakeJD will create JDisk files from 160KB to 30MB. In the 1.10 update, an option was added to force a jlink of the JDisk to to an IBM drive. If a pcwindow is open, the program will ask if you want to link the newly created JDisk to the PC. If you anwser yes (y), the program will ask for a drive letter (eg. d). When the program receives a drive letter, it will send a message to the PC to jlink the JDisk to this drive. The program uses the JLINK.EXE program on the PC, so the JLINK.EXE program must be in your Janus directory on the PC. If a pcwindow is not currently open, you won't receive this query. Note that this option will not work if you are using the program SXSERV as your link to the PC. This program does not use a pcwindow so there is not anything for my program to detect and you won't be asked if you want to link it. I'am looking into a way around this. You can still use MakeJD to create the JDisk if you use SXSERV, but you will have to link it manually using JLINK on the PC. As a sample session, assume you want to create a 300KB JDisk file named "vd" in ram and make this file drive d: on the IBM. You would enter: MakeJD ram:vd 300 If a pcwindow is open, the program will ask if you want to link it. Enter "y". The program will ask for a drive letter. Enter the drive letter. If a pcwindow is not open, you won't receive these queries, so go to the PC and enter: jlink d: ram:vd When you were through with it, you could unlink it by entering: jlink d: /u Of course it would have been just as easy to create the JDisk on the IBM without using MakeJD if this all you wanted to do. The primary reason for writing MakeJD was so I could create the JDisk on the Amiga, transfer files to it on the Amiga side, then go to the IBM side and link it. In my case, I have a VGA card and I have to change the monitor output before going to the BridgeBoard, hence it is nicer (and faster) to be able transfer the data before I switch over. Limitations: MakeJD has none of the options of JLINK.EXE. It doesn't have a /N option because there are not really any messages to surpress. It doesn't have a /U option because as explained above, JLINK.EXE must be used to link and unlink the JDisk to the IBM. I have never used the /R option (create a read only file) with JLINK.EXE, so I didn't include it in MakeJD. Again, if this is an option you would like included, let me know and I'll look into it. Although not a limitation, the file sizes created by MakeJD may not always correspond to the file sizes that would be created by JLINK.EXE. I spent considerable time trying to figure out the criteria used in the JLINK program for assigning file sizes, but never made much sense of it. I finally gave up and used my own criteria. As an example,if you ask for a 165KB file with JLINK, you get a 163KB file. With MakeJD you will always get a file at least as large as you have requested. Note that neither JLINK or MakeJD can give you exactly the file size you request because the sizes depend on number of heads, sectors, etc. 3.3 ReadJD ReadJD is an Amiga program which is anologous to the program called AWRITE.EXE on the IBM side. AWRITE will write a JDisk file to the Amiga. ReadJD will accomplish the same task by reading the JDisk on the Amiga side, but much faster. ReadJD will read files from any JDisk file using the following syntax: ReadJD vd\dir1\dir2\jname ram:outname This would read a file named "jname" from subdirectory "dir1\dir2" of JDisk "vd" and write a file "outname" in ram:. If the output name were omitted, the file name "jname" would be written to the current directory. Note that back slashes must be used to separate directory entries and that no colon is used between the JDisk name and the directory entries. If there were no directories, the syntax would be: ReadJD vd\jname This would read the file name "jname" and write it to the current directory. Again, there is no colon between the JDisk and file name. The Amiga interperts the colon as being part of a volume name, and will put up a requester asking for it. The IBM style wildcard symbol "*" (asterick) can be used to read multiple files, as for example: ReadJD vd\*.c This would read all files with a "c" extension into the current Amiga directory. There is only one option with ReadJD, /t. I'am sure not everone will be happy with it. I have flipped the /b option that is used with the IBM program AWRITE.EXE. The /b option is used in AWRITE to specify binary files. Since most of the files I transfer are binary and I was always forgetting to add the /b. I wrote ReadJD to handle binary as the default mode. To transfer text files, you must add a /t. This option will strip the carriage returns from the IBM text files. For example: ReadJD vd\ibm.txt dh1:amiga.txt /t This would read the IBM text file "ibm.txt", strip the carriage returns, and write a file named "amiga.txt" to drive dh1:. The option /t must be the last entry of the command. Limitations: As mentioned above, I substituted /t for reading text files for the /b option used in AWRITE.EXE for writing binary files. At present there is no /cr or /nc options. Let me know if these are desired. 3.4 WriteJD WriteJD is anologous to the BridgeBoard program AREAD.EXE. The IBM program AREAD is used to read Amiga files to a JDisk. WriteJD is an Amiga program used to write Amiga files to a JDisk (but much faster). The syntax is as follows: WriteJD dh0:amiga.dat vd\dir1\dir2 This command would write the file named "amiga.dat" found on drive dh0: to JDisk "vd" into subdirectory "dir1\dir2". Note that as with ReadJD, back slashes are used to separate subdirectory entries on the JDisk and no colon is used between the JDisk name subdirectories. If there were no subdirectories on the JDisk, the commamd would have simply been: WriteJD dh0:amiga.dat vd You can also write to a specific file name on the JDisk: WriteJD ram:amiga.dat vd\ibm.dat This would transfer the file named "amiga.dat" in ram to JDisk "vd" and name it "ibm.dat". You can also use wildcards to transfer files: WriteJD work:cprogs/*.c vd\cprogs This command would transfer all files with a "c" extension found in the Amiga volume "work",subdirectory "cprogs" to JDisk "vd" subdirectory "cprogs". It should be noted that WriteJD will not create directories on the JDisk if they don't exist. This example assumes that the subdirectory "cprogs" had been created on the JDisk "vd" using the MSDOS command mkdir. As with the ReadJD program, the default mode on WriteJD is binary. All of the files in the examples above would have been written to the JDisk as is. To write text files to a JDisk, a /t option would be required: WriteJD ram:amiga.txt vd\ibm.txt /t The /t option would cause a carriage return to be inserted before every line feed. The above command would read the file "amiga.txt" from ram, insert carriage returns, and write it to the file "ibm.txt" on the JDisk "vd". As with ReadJD, the /t option must be the last entry in the command line. An option was added to the 1.10 version to update the directories on the PC. If you use the Amiga to write to the JDisk, the PC will not know about it. It uses an image of the directory stored in RAM. If you enter a DIR command it will not show the files you just wrote. If you use the IBM to write to this JDisk, it will corrupt it. Originally the only way to prevent corrupting the JDisk was to either unlink the JDisk and relink it, or to do enter a CHKDSK command on the PC. The problem was that it was easy to forget to do it. Also, unlinking and linking was a hassle. Using CHKDSK could take a while and printed a lot of stuff. In the current version of WriteJD, the program checks to see if pcwindow is running, if it is, the program will ask if you want to update the PC directories. If you answer yes (y), the program will force the IBM to run the program "DIRUD.EXE" which will update all directories on the IBM. The program "DIRUD.EXE" must be in your Janus or DOS directory on the IBM for this option to work. If pcwindow is not running, you won't get this queary, but in this case you aren't linked to the JDisk. When you start the PC and jlink to JDisk, the directories will automatically be updated. Like MakeJD, this option will not work if you are using SXSERV. If you are using this program you have three options, unlink and relink, or enter a CHKDSK command on the PC, or you can run the DIRUD program manually on the PC. Limitations: As mentioned above, I substituted /t for writing text files for the /b option used in AREAD.EXE for reading binary files. At present there is no /cr or /nc options. Let me know if these are desired. WARNING As stated above, if you have a JDisk linked to the Amiga and do subsequent writes with WriteJD, either have WriteJD send a command to update the directories, or unlink and relink it, or do a CHKDSK, or DIRUD command. If you use the BridgeBoard to write to this JDisk without doing this it will corrupt the JDisk. There is also something that I discovered when I wrote these programs. If you overwrite an existing file and you run out of disk space, you will lose the original file on the disk. This is the case whether you are using MSDOS, AREAD.EXE or my program WriteJD. All of these programs destroy the orginal to make room for the new copy, so if it can't find room for the new, the orginal is gone. Of course, you can always write the file to another storage device. Comments, errors, suggestions can be sent to: Milt Henderson 6815 Wallsey Dr. San Diego,Ca USA 92119 mhenders@torment.cts.com Like I stated above, I have spent considerable time trying to beat all the errors out of these programs, but you never know. Be sure your data is backed-up.