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OS/2 Help File | 1998-01-09 | 85KB | 1,851 lines

ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. CommandPak's Default Profile ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Being an extension to MLRXSHL, the CommandPak hooks itself into CmdShl via the default profile, which is installed by the provided installation script and makes the new functions transparent to the user. This default profile ("PROFILE.SHL") is installed automatically by the installation script and provides the following features (via aliases): The following aliases are defined to replace OS/2's standard commands: - "dir" and "ls" will call xdir.cmd. - "copy" and "cp" will call xcp.cmd. - "ren" and "mv" will call xren.cmd. For these commands, a number of environment variables are set to configure coloring and such. Remember that aliases are case-sensitive; so if, for any reason, you still need one of OS/2's original commands, you can capitalize your input (e.g. "COPY" instead of "copy"), and the alias will not be executed. The "help" command is an alias to xhelp.cmd. An environment variable "HELP.REF" is defined, containing the three provided INF books, allowing you to type "help ref" to access the joint online documentation of MLRXSHL and CommandPak. The environment variable "HELP.COUNTRY" is set according to the language you selected during installation. The "open" command is defined in an alias; it can open WPS folders. The "recurse" command is defined in an alias; it can recursively execute commands through subdirectories. A command history is implemented which will retain the entered commands after the session closes. The command history is read from/stored in the file whose name is contained in the 'history' variable (by default %tmp%\history.shl). F2 is used to store the current command history list to this file. F5 is used to replace the current history list by the one defined in the file. F7 is used to interactively give a new name for the file (to be used by subsequent F2 or F5 actions). The default history file is loaded at startup (the 'LOADHIST' invocation); it is stored upon exiting. The "exit" command is redefined by an alias which will store the command history (as described above) and only then exit. You can close any CmdShl session with Alt+F4 also; this will simulate "exit". The profile redefines the '(' key so that it adds the closing ')'. It defines the F8 key so that it inserts the current date at the cursor position. It defines the Shift+F7 key so that it displays all possible completions for the element preceding the cursor. A screen management system is added: - You can save the current "screen" by pressing Ctrl+Down arrow. - You can restore a previously saved "screen" by pressing Ctrl+Up arrow. - You can toggle between the current "screen" and the last previously saved one by pressing Ctrl+Numpad +. It allows you to easily switch between two different "screens". When more than one "screen" are saved, they are stored in a stack (that is, the last stored "screen" is the first restored one.) The "screen" above means the current state (screen layout, currently edited command, current directory and such). This feature has been added to circumvent the 16 OS/2 sessions limit and also because it's much simpler to press Ctrl+Up/Down arrow than to start or switch to another session. On the down side, it does not work from other VIO applications ; A commented version of the profile is also installed under the name "PROFILEC.SHL". If you wish to change the profile, I recommend browsing through the commented version, make the neccessary changes, and when you consider your version worth using permanently, remove all comments and empty lines in order to speed up processing. Other external functions of CommandPak, which need not be defined in the default profile, are: ln - create "links" via WPS shadows watchdrv - watch out for removeable media ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2. xdir ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ What's that? Installation Starting xdir / command line options Environment variables Known limitations History ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.1. What's That? ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ xdir is another alternative to OS/2's original DIR command. It has derived from MLRXSHL's SDir. It is supposed to be 100% compatible both with SDir and OS/2's original. Compared to OS/2 "DIR", xdir provides some new functionality: It can color output according to user-defined rules; the coloration is completely directed by environment variables. It fixes minor bugs to the original DIR when the /W option is used. It can display abstract WPS objects (shadows and program objects). xdir has a far better options handling; while it understands all of OS/2 "DIR"'s options, it also incorporates LOTS of new options, most of them stolen from the UNIX "ls" command. Options can be introduced both with "/" and "-". xdir has the "UNIX output format"; while the OS/2 "wide" format (/W option) sorts things from left to right, the new "-C" option sorts everything from top to bottom, which I consider more lucid and readable: You can see the difference between "/W" and "-C" output. Your preferred format can also be set in an environment variable. In the screenshot, files that have been modified during the last three days are put on a blue background; executables are red, directories green. xdir automatically displays messages in the installed language (German in the above screenshot). If you're familiar with UNIX or an experienced OS/2 user, I recommend using xdir. In the default profile, "dir" and "ls" are registered as aliases to xdir. This documentation covers all of xdir's functions; it is not necessary to get to know MLRXSHL's SDir first. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.1.1. What Are WPS Abstract Objects? ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ As you might know, everything in the WPS is called an "object": be it actual files in the filesystem (such as "netscape.exe" or your text files), directories, program objects, shadows, and more. The WPS knows a number of objects that are not represented directly in the filesystem though; these are called "abstract objects" (derived from the WPS class "WPAbstract"). The most important two of these are shadows and program objects. OS/2 does not put these into the actual file system, but rather puts them in the INI files altogether ("OS2.INI" and "OS2SYS.INI" in the /OS2 directory; these two are normally hidden). This is why you lose all your program objects and shadows when the WPS gets corrupted and you have to re-install OS/2. Due to this implementation, unfortunately, you cannot normally see abstract objects on the command line, but only in WPS folders. xdir changes this with the "-W" option: when turned on, abstract objects are also collected and marked with a trailing "@" to distinguish them from "real" files. If you like this, you can put the "-W" option in DIRCMD also. The above screenshots show the contents of a directory full of INF books, which are normally shown to the WPS with the use of program objects starting VIEW.EXE with the respective book as an argument. On the left you can see the output of "xdir -W", on the right the respective WPS folder. Be aware though that collecting abstract objects is a bit slow; I have found no way to speed it up at this point. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.2. Installation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ xdir's files are installed automatically by the installation script provided with this package. In the default profile, it is registered as an alias for "dir" and "ls"; this way, when you enter these commands within CmdShl, xdir.cmd will be executed instead of OS/2's original. Installing xdir manually is also very simple: just copy XDIR.CMD somewhere along your PATH and REXXVIO.DLL somewhere along your LIBPATH. For display of abstract WPS objects, WPTOOLS.DLL is also needed along your LIBPATH. If REXXVIO.DLL is currently in use, close ALL your OS/2 windowed or fullscreen sessions, and open a bare OS/2 windowed session (that is, one not starting CmdShl or Fl). You can then replace REXXVIO.DLL from this session. If you were using a previous version of MLRXSHL, execute the following code from an OS/2 command prompt, to allow the new functions defined in REXXVIO to be registered: rexxtry call VioDropFuncs If you want to automatically use xdir instead of DIR, you can add an alias, if your command shell processor recognizes them. For example, with CmdShl, use: ALIAS dir=xdir %* You can also add your preferred settings for environment variables in your profile. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.3. Starting xdir / Command Line Options ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ xdir is intended to be a mixture between OS/2 "DIR" and UNIX "ls". The options of both of these commands are understood; you can either introduce them with "/" or with "-". When using "/" to introduce options, the following letters are translated internally to lower case to maintain compatibily with OS/2 "DIR"; however, this means that you can only access the upper case options (see below) by introducing them with "-". You can group single-letter options together (e.g. use "-lsa" instead of "/l /s /a"); this does, of course, not work with options which expect several letters (such as "-o:d"). Type "xdir -h" to see a short list of the available options. Here are the provided options sorted by the functions they provide: Display format -l long format (like OS/2 "DIR" default and UNIX "ls -l"). This is the only option which is incompatible to OS/2 "DIR": there, "/L" will display file names in lower case. Use "-L" instead. -w wide format: display file names only, group them in coloums sorted from left to right (like OS/2 "DIR /w") -C UNIX format: the same, but group them from top to bottom (like UNIX "ls" default). -x[:{a|d|t|s|e|l}... eXtended format: like long format, but you can specify what information will be displayed. The letters mean the following: a file attributes d file creation date t file creation time s file size e extended attribute size l .LONGNAME extended attribute (in brackets) When no letters are given ("-x" only), "-x:asel" is assumed. -b|1 show filenames only (like OS/2 "DIR /B" and UNIX "ls -1"). -f show full path for each file (like OS/2 "DIR /F"). -L|U display all file names in lower / upper case. -p pause output after each page (like OS/2 "DIR /P"). You can most easily define your preferred display format in your CmdShl profile by setting the DIRCMD environment variable: SET DIRCMD=-C File filtering -a[:{[-]d|h|r|s|a|w}...] include files with specified attributes; exclude files when used with "-" with every letter. The letters mean the following: d directories h hidden files r read-only files s system files a files with the "archive" flag w abstract WPS objects (see "-W" option below) -W also display abstract WPS objects (meaning shadows and program objects). This uses WPTOOLS.DLL and can be fairly slow when many objects are in the directory. Abstract objects are colored according to the DIRCLR.WPABSTRACT environment variable and a "@" is added to the object name. "-W" is really just a shortcut to the "-a:w" option (see above). Please see the "What are abstract WPS objects" page for details and screenshots. -d display directories only (shortcut to "-a:d") -s|R display files in all subdirectories also (like OS/2 "DIR /S" and UNIX "ls -R"). Sort output -o[:{n|e|d|s|g}] Sort files in a certain order. The letters mean the following: n by name e by file extension (e.g. ".EXE") d by creation date (shortcut: "-t" option) s by file size (shortcut: "-S" option) g show directories first When "-o" is not followed by ":", "-o:n" is assumed. -t|S sort by date | size (shortcut to "-o:s|d"). Miscellaneous options -h -? /H /? display help ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.4. Environment variables ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ xdir recognizes the following environment variables: DIRCMD / XDIR.DIRCMD DIRCLR.ATTRIB DIRCLR.DATE DIRCLR.EASIZE DIRCLR.EXT DIRCLR.NAME DIRCLR.SIZE DIRCLR.USEREXIT DIRCLR.WPABSTRACT If one or more of those environment variables are not defined, the missing ones are silently ignored. You can either set the desired environment variables in CONFIG.SYS or in your profile. The latter is recommended, since no reboot is required for profile changes to take effect. Since almost none of these variables are recognized by CMD.EXE anyway, profiles are just fine. Here is an example (see the default profile for more): REM xdir preferred options: display files like UNIX "ls" does SET XDIR.DIRCMD=-C REM xdir coloring SET DIRCLR.ATTRIB=D:GREEN;H,S:ON RED;R:BLINK SET DIRCLR.DATE=-30:BRIGHT SET DIRCLR.EXT=BAT,EXE,COM,CMD:CYAN;ZIP:YELLOW;INI:MAGENTA SET DIRCLR.NAME=PROFILE:MAGENTA SET DIRCLR.WPABSTRACT=BRIGHT GREEN The order in which coloration is applied is the following: 1. User exit; 2. Directory attribute; 3. Other attributes : Archive, Read only, System, Hidden; 4. File extension (if any); 5. File name; 6. File date; 7. File size; 8. Extended attributes size. An element of higher priority takes precedence over an element of lower priority. For example, if you specify a green background for directories and red background for recent entries, a directory will always have a green background, regardless of its last modification date. The color specification is of the form: [BRIGHT] [BLINK] [<color>] [ON <color>] with <color> being one of BLACK, RED, GREEN, YELLOW, BLUE, MAGENTA, CYAN or WHITE. The case is not significant. Depending on your display type (full screen or VIO window), specifying BLINK may result in either a blinking character or a high intensity background color. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.4.1. DIRCMD / XDIR.DIRCMD ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ These two environment variables set the default options used for xdir. First, XDIR.DIRCMD is checked; only if not defined, DIRCMD is checked next. This way, you can set xdir-specific options in XDIR.DIRCMD only in order to prevent SDir and OS/2's standard DIR from malfunction. Usage: SET XDIR.DIRCMD=<optionlist> SET DIRCMD=<optionlist> <optionlist> is a list of options as you would normally type them on the command line. This way, you can configure xdir to a certain default behavior. The options specified herein will be processed immediately after xdir has been started and before the arguments given on the command line are evaluated. This way, you can override the default options on the command line. It is recommended to set XDIR.DIRCMD in a CmdShl profile; you can set it also in CONFIG.SYS, although this will require a reboot for each changement made. Example: SET XDIR.DIRCMD=-C -o:n xdir will now per default use the UNIX format and sort everything by name. These options are better not defined in DIRCMD, but in XDIR.DIRCMD instead, since SDir and OS/2's standard DIR do not know them. Still, if you now type "xdir -l", the "-C" option will be overridden. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.4.2. DIRCLR.ATTRIB ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ This environment variable specifies the coloration to be used if an entry attribute has been set. SET DIRCLR.ATTRIB=<attrib>[,...]:<color>[;...] <attrib> can be one of D, A, R, S or H (case is not significant). If an attribute is defined more than once, the last definition is used. Example: SET DIRCLR.ATTRIB=D:green;H,S:ON RED;R:BLINK Directories will be displayed in green, hidden or system entries will be displayed on a red background, and read-only ones will be blinking (or, in a VIO Window, the background will be intensified). ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.4.3. DIRCLR.DATE ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ This environment variable specifies the coloration to be used depending of the entry's last modification date. SET DIRCLR.DATE=[-+=]<date>:<color>[;...] If <date> is a number, it specifies a number of day. Otherwise, it's a date in ISO format (yyyy/mm/dd). If you have specified a number of day, a leading '-' selects files modified in the last <date> days. A leading '+' selects files that have not been modified in the last <date> days. A leading '=' only selects files modified exactly <date> days ago (it's not that useful :-) ). If you have specified a date, a leading '-' selects files that have not been modified since date. A leading '+' selects files that have been modified since date. A leading '=' only selects files modified on date. The first matching value is used. The evaluation order is from left to right. Example: SET DIRCLR.DATE=-30:bright A bright color will be used for files modified in the last 30 days. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.4.4. DIRCLR.EASIZE ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Not implemented yet. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.4.5. DIRCLR.EXT ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ This environment variable specifies the color to be used depending on the entry extension. SET DIRCLR.EXT=<ext>[,...]:<color>[;...] <ext> is the extension (without the leading dot) to be colored. It is case insensitive. Joker symbols ('*' and '?') are NOT allowed. If an extension is specified more than once, the last specification is used. Example: SET DIRCLR.EXT=BAT,EXE,COM,CMD:CYAN;ZIP:YELLOW Files ending with either .BAT, .EXE, .COM or .CMD will be displayed in cyan, while archive files (ending with .ZIP) will be in yellow. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.4.6. DIRCLR.NAME ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ This environment variable specifies the color to be used depending on the entry name. SET DIRCLR.NAME=<name>[,...]:<color>[;...] <name> is the name to be colored. It is case insensitive. Joker symbols ('*' and '?') are NOT allowed; neither are null ("") names. If a name is specified more than once, the last specification is used. The name of an entry is the part preceding the extension. For example: foo --> foo bar.baz --> bar foo.bar.baz --> foo.bar Example: SET DIRCLR.NAME=PROFILE:magenta Files whose name is PROFILE will be in magenta. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.4.7. DIRCLR.SIZE ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Not implemented yet. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.4.8. DIRCLR.USEREXIT ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Not implemented yet. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.4.9. DIRCLR.WPABSTRACT ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ This environment variable specifies the coloration to be used for abstract WPS objects. Compared to the previously listed options, its syntax is rather dull: SET DIRCLR.WPABSTRACT=<color> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.5. Known Limitations ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ The EA size is incorrectly reported if it exceeds 32767 bytes. (In fact, 4OS2 as well as the Workplace Shell also exhibit this behavior.) The sort is currently handled by a REXX procedure, so it's quite slow if you don't have a fast computer. (If you don't use the /o option, speed will be OK.) Display of abstract WPS objects is quite slow also. After creating shadows, they are not immediately visible to "xdir -W". It will take a few seconds (and maybe a few executions of "xdir -W") to make them appear. This seems to be limitation either of the WPS implementation or in the WPTOOLS.DLL that is used for collecting abstract WPS objects; I have no influence on these functions. xdir does not tell shadows and program objects apart. All abstract objects are displayed with the "-W" option and marked with a trailing "@". Some environment variables are not yet recognized: DIRCLR.SIZE, DIRCLR.EASIZE and DIRCLR.USEREXIT. In DIRCLR.DATE, each month contains 31 days (and hence a year contains 372 days). ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.6. History ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.63 Dec 20, 1997 --- New features: Support for XDIR.DIRCMD added. 1.62 Dec 14, 1997 --- Bug fix: Fixed: Display of error messages still crashed when invalid drives were given. 1.61 Dec 6, 1997 --- Re-implemented new features over SDir 0.96: Options handling replaced: "-" and "/" can be used alternatively; options can be grouped at will; translating "/" options to lower case. -C option added: UNIX format (top to bottom) -W option added: abstract WPS objects. -x option added: specify what information is to be displayed. Can handle .LONGNAMEs. -l reworked: just a shortcut to "-x:dtse" -h will run "xhelp xdir" -F added (classify files) -L|U added (lower / upper case) plus a few more options for UNIX "ls" compatibility ("-1", "-R", "-S", "-t", "-d") --- Bug fix: sdir crashed in error message when wrong options were given. 1.5 Septemper 1997 --- First public release based on SDir 0.91 (version numbering now according to CommandPak) ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3. xcp ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ What's that? Installation Starting xcp / command line options Known limitations History ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.1. What's That? ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ xcp is CommandPak's alternative to OS/2's original COPY command. It is supposed to be 100% compatible with it (and since it frequently uses the original internally, it should be). It also introduces a few new options from the UNIX "cp" command. xren can remove those annoying .LONGNAME extended attributes while copying. When copying files, xren provides a useful backup options for files that already exist in the destination directory. Per default, you will be prompted for whether you want the original file to be overwritten, backed up, or skipped. In the default profile, "copy" and "cp" are defined as aliases to "xren", thus replacing OS/2's original "COPY". The name "xcp" was chosen in order not to conflict with OS/2's "XCOPY" command, which provides additional functionality over xcp. xcp is only intended to improve "simple" copying. It cannot, for example, recurse subdirectories (like XCOPY); furthermore, not all of OS/2's standard "COPY"'s functions are implemented at this point. Please see "Known limitations" for more. xcp uses the OS/2 "COPY" command internally, so that extended attributes are properly copied. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.1.1. What Are .LONGNAME Extended Attributes? ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ While "standard" file attributes contain only flags (to mark a file as being a directory, hidden etc.) and were already known to DOS, Extended attributes (EAs) are an OS/2 specific addition to any file residing in a file system. They can contain any data up to a total size of 64 KB per file. On FAT drives, EAs are stored for all files altogether in two hidden files in the root directory (named "wp root. sf" and "ea data. sf" -- yes, including spaces!). On HPFS drives, EAs are stored (invisibly) within the file system structure for each file separately, which is, of course, much faster. OS/2 makes heavy use of EAs: the WPS stores class information, abstract object references, icons, long filenames, and much more in them and when REXX programs are "compiled" ("tokenized") to make them process faster, the result is also stored in EAs. By the way -- since EAs are limited to 64 KB per file, large REXX files take a long time to start, since they have to be re-tokenized at every start. While the EAs for long filenames (named ".LONGNAME") are useful on FAT drives and for storing certain characters which are not allowed for "real" filenames (such as "/", "\", ">" etc.), the WPS annoyingly adds these every time when it works on files (e.g. moving, copying, renaming files), whether neccessary or not. When you rename a file on the command line which has a .LONGNAME EA attached to it, the WPS will keep displaying the old name, since the .LONGNAME EA hasn't changed. With xcp and xren you can now delete .LONGNAMEs. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.2. Installation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ xcp is installed automatically by the installation script provided with this package. In the default profile, "copy" and "cp" are registered as aliases for xcp; this way, when you enter one of these within CmdShl, xcp.cmd will be executed. xcp requires xhelp.cmd to be present on the PATH in order to display its messages. Installing xcp manually is also very simple: just copy XCP.CMD somewhere along your PATH. If you want to automatically use xcp instead of DIR, you can add an alias, if your command shell processor recognizes them. For example, with CmdShl, use: ALIAS copy=xcp %* ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.3. Starting xcp / Command Line Options ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Basically, xcp operates just like OS/2's "COPY". The main difference is that for each file to be copied, the destination is checked for whether a file of the respective name already exists. If so, you will be prompted whether to skip the current file, backup or overwrite the original. OS/2's "COPY" command will simply overwrite existing files. When backing up files, the WPS's renaming behavior is imitated (e.g. "xren.cmd" becomes "xren!1.cmd"). Certain (new) options are also allowed here: -b Always backup existing files, don't prompt. -f "Force" mode: overwrite existing files, don't prompt. -i Interactive mode: confirm copying for each file. -t Test mode: do nothing, display actions only. -v Be verbose: echo each modification made. -q Be quiet: say nothing, not even error messages. -d Delete .LONGNAME before renaming. -8 Make filenames FAT-compliant (8+3 characters) .LONGNAME EAs are automatically checked for "important" characters which are not allowed in real filenames, such as "/", "\", ">" etc. If one of these is detected when using "-r", these characters are replaced by "!" (just like the WPS does). When using "-d", the .LONGNAME is not deleted, but retained, unless you enable the "-f" option, which will enforce deletion. FAT compliance ("-8" option) is achieved by simply truncating the filename and extension to 8 and 3 characters, respectively; for example, the file "aprettylongfilename.html" would be changed to "aprettyl.htm". Example: xcp -i a* b* will copy all files starting with "a", changing the first character to "b". You will be prompted for every file. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.4. Known Limitations ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Although xcp's code is based on xren and should thus be fairly reliable, please be aware of the fact that this is an initial release and might still contain a bug or two. xcp presently has no language support; its messages will always be in English. Sorry. Since the filesystem type is not checked when copying files, the backup functions may not work on FAT drives when the file to be backed up is tried to be renamed to a name that does not obey FAT 8+3 naming conventions. Specify the "-8" option before backing up files on FAT drives, or the originals will be lost. xcp does not yet support all features of OS/2's "COPY" command. The following functions do not work: - joining files with the "+" sign; - treating ASCII and binary files differently ("/A" and "/B" options); - changing the target file date/time ("+ ,," option); - EOF and verify options ("/A", "/B", "/V", "/F"); - copying to devices (such as "prt:" etc.); xcp is for copying files into files only. See the OS/2 Command Reference for details. If you need one of the above features and xcp was installed as a replacement for OS/2's "copy", simply type "COPY" in capital letters; since aliases are case-sensitive, OS/2's "copy" will be called instead of xcp.cmd. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.5. History ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.64 Jan 1, 1998 --- Initial release. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4. xren ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ What's that? Installation Starting xren / command line options Known limitations History ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.1. What's That? ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ xren is CommandPak's alternative to OS/2's original REN command. It is supposed to be 100% compatible with it (and since it frequently uses the original internally, it should be). In addition though, there are a number of nifty new things: xren also supports "MOVE" functionality. I added this to the "rename context" since under UNIX the "mv" command also does the two tasks together. Moving is enabled as soon as the second specification includes a different path. When moving files, xren provides a useful backup options for files that already exist in the destination directory. xren can rename files to upper and lower case (HPFS only). xren can work on those annoying .LONGNAME extended attributes; try "xren -d". You can even change the real name to the contents of the .LONGNAME EA. This can be useful when having moved files from an HPFS drive to FAT and back; sometimes the real file names will have been truncated to FAT 8+3 format, while the .LONGNAMES still contain the former long filenames (which the WPS will display, although all other software will only see the crippled filenames). Try "xren -r" in this situation. In the default profile, "ren" is defined as an alias to "xren", thus replacing OS/2's original; a second alias, "mv" is also defined. Depending on whether files are renamed or moved, xren uses OS/2's "REN" and "COPY"/"DEL" commands internally. As a result, extended attributes are copied properly. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.1.1. Why Are Upper and Lower Case Important? ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ With different operating systems, upper and lower case can become a problem. OS/2 is capable of remembering upper and lower case in file systems, provided that the file system you are using remembers case, which HPFS does, for example. As a result, it makes a difference whether you name a file "TEXT.TXT" or "text.txt". This behaviour is sometimes described as OS/2 being "case-retensive". On FAT drives however, case will not be remembered (except for in .LONGNAME EAs). UNIX systems however do not only preserve case, but are "case-sensitive" also: in the same directory, "TEXT.TXT", "TEXT.txt" and "text.txt" will be three completely different files. Now, if you try to open a fourth combination, e.g. "text.TXT", you will get an error, since this name is not found by the system. DOS however is completely ignorant about case in file names: "FILE" and "file" are not considered to be any different, and whatever you specify is always converted into upper case. With Windows 95, I don't really know: It seems that case is remembered somewhere in the wicked VFAT file system, but the system doesn't care much, and annoyingly keeps converting file names on its own. While you maybe don't care much about UNIX, you'll probably find out more about case-sensitivity when uploading a number of HTML files to a UNIX web server. If you have not paid attention to lower and upper case, your links in the HTML pages will provoke errors, since the serving UNIX system will consider files to be non-existent. With xren, just try typing "xren -L *", and a whole directory will be in lower case -- before uploading, of course. ;-) ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.2. Installation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ xren is installed automatically by the installation script provided with this package. In the default profile, "ren" and "mv" are registered as aliases for xren; this way, when you enter this within CmdShl, xren.cmd will be executed. xren requires xhelp.cmd to be present on the PATH in order to display its messages. Installing xren manually is also very simple: just copy XREN.CMD somewhere along your PATH. If you want to automatically use xren instead of DIR, you can add an alias, if your command shell processor recognizes them. For example, with CmdShl, use: ALIAS ren=xren %* ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3. Starting xren / Command Line Options ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Basically, xren operates in three different modes: 1. Rename mode: this is the standard OS/2 "REN" functionality. This mode is entered when two file specifications are given on the command line, the second of which does not contain a path specification. Certain (new) options are also allowed here: -i Interactive mode: confirm renaming for each file. -t Test mode: do nothing, display actions only. -v Be verbose: echo each modification made. -q Be quiet: say nothing, not even error messages. -d Delete .LONGNAME before renaming (see notes below). -8 Make filenames FAT-compliant (8+3 characters) (see notes below). Example: xren -i a* b* will change the first character of all files starting with "a" to "b" and have you confirm each file. 2. Move mode: this incorporates OS/2 "MOVE" functionality into xren. This mode is entered when two file specifications are given, the second of which contains a path specification though. Moving is performed in two steps: first the file is copied (to a new name, when specified), then the original is deleted. If a file already exists in the destination directory, you will be prompted whether the original file should be overwritten, skipped or backed up. With the latter, the WPS renaming behaviour is imitated (e.g. "xren.cmd" becomes "xren!1.cmd"). When moving, allowed options are: -i Interactive mode: confirm moving for each file. -t Test mode: do nothing, display actions only. -b Always backup existing files, don't prompt. -f "Force" mode: overwrite existing files, don't prompt. -v Be verbose: echo each modification made. -q Be quiet: say nothing, not even error messages. -d Delete .LONGNAME before renaming (see notes below). -8 Make filenames FAT-compliant (8+3 characters) (see notes below). Examples: xren -b a* \documents will move files starting with "a*" to the "\documents" directory and make backups of already existing files. xren -f a* \documents\b* will move files starting with "a*" to the "\documents" directory, changing the first character to "b". Existing files will be overwritten without warning. 3. Extended mode: this is all new and previously not available on OS/2. This mode is entered by specifying a respective option and ONLY ONE file specification; you cannot use the extended options in conjunction with two file specifications (as in rename/move mode) in order to avoid conflicts, except for the "-d" option (see above). The extended options are: -d Delete .LONGNAME extended attributes (see notes below). -8 Make filenames FAT-compliant (8+3 characters). -r Change real names to respective .LONGNAMEs. -L|U Rename files to upper/lower case; this will change the real names only. This works on HPFS only, since FAT is not case- retensive. Examples: xren -r a.txt (a.txt has "b.txt" as a .LONGNAME) will rename "a.txt" to "b.txt". xren -d *.txt will remove .LONGNAMEs for all ".txt" files. Notes: .LONGNAME EAs are automatically checked for "important" characters which are not allowed in real filenames, such as "/", "\", ">" etc. If one of these is detected when using "-r", these characters are replaced by "!" (just like the WPS does). When using "-d" with "important" .LONGNAMEs, the .LONGNAME is not deleted but retained, unless you have also enabled the "-f" option, which will enforce deletion. FAT compliance ("-8" option) is achieved by simply truncating the filename and extension to 8 and 3 characters, respectively; for example, the file "aprettylongfilename.html" would be changed to "aprettyl.htm". Type "xren -h" to see a short syntax description and valid options combinations. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.4. Known Limitations ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ xren presently has no language support; its messages will always be in English. Sorry. There are still some limitations when working on groups of files with wildcards (e.g. with "ren a* b*"). Presently, only leading or trailing wildcards are allowed (e.g. not "ren a*.cmd b*.cmd"). Since the filesystem type is not checked when moving files, the backup functions may not work on FAT drives when the file to be backed up is tried to be renamed to a name that does not obey FAT 8+3 naming conventions. Specify the "-8" option before backing up files on FAT drives, or the originals will be lost. Although upper and lower case only make a difference on HPFS drives, the file system type is not checked by xdir in order not to conflict with any unusual user-installed file systems. Performing upper/lower case renaming on FAT drives will have no effect. When renaming files to upper/lower case (be it with the "-L"/"-U" options or e.g by using "xren *.INF *.inf"), the WPS does sometimes not recognize that something has changed, especially when you perform this on a directory whose WPS folder is currently open. It seems that the WPS is not only non-case-sensitive, but even completely case-ignorant. Since in this particular case the new names are only recognized after a reboot, I suspect the problem lies somewhere in the WPS file caches which are not properly updated. Even worse, when dragging/dropping one of these "incorrect" files with the WPS, the former name is passed to the receiver. This means when you drop these files into another folder or when you drop files to another application, the former case is restored. I have had problems with this dragging these files to an FTP application, which then uploaded the files in upper case to my UNIX web server (which, again, is case-sensitive). :-( Although this behavior is rather annoying, I presently know no perfect solution to overcome this. There's one workaround in renaming the files twice: first to something more different than just the case, then close and re-open the respective WPS folder, then rename the files again to what you really want. Example (for renaming "*.INF" to "*.inf"): xren *.INF *.xyz (close and re-open WPS folder) xren *.xyz *.inf ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.5. History ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.64 January 2, 1998 --- New features: "-8" option added (FAT naming) Deleting .LONGNAMEs can be enforced with "-f" even when they contain important characters. 1.63 December 20, 1997 --- New features: All functions work on directories also. Better backup functions. "-d" (delete .LONGNAMEs) works now in move/rename mode also. "-i" (interactive) works now in all modes. --- Bug fixes: Rebuilt xren almost completely since options didn't work together right. Moving/renaming should now work properly. Problems with case sensitivity fixed. 1.61 December 6, 1997 --- New features: Added "move" functionality when different path is given. 1.00 somewhere in september 1997 --- Initial release with .LONGNAME support. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5. xhelp ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ What's that? Installation Starting xhelp / command line options Recognized environment variables Help file format Supported HTML tags Supported escape sequences Known limitations History ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.1. What's That? ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ xhelp is intended to be the universal help interface on the command line; it provides access to the help messages for MLRXSHL and CommandPak, which are formatted according to the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). Support for different languages is provided via environment variables. In the default profile, a "help" alias is registered to access xhelp. xhelp operates in several modes (see the following page for details): You can bring up help messages for the most important functions of MLRXSHL and CommandPak. Example: help dir You can open online documentation (INF files, for the OS/2 Information Presentation Facitily). Example: help cmdref This will open the OS/2 Online Reference ("CMDREF.INF"). You can search a certain known INF book for content. Example: help cmdref format This will find the description of the FORMAT command in the OS/2 Online Reference ("CMDREF.INF"). You can search ALL available INF books for content. Example (information on a certain CONFIG.SYS driver): help ibm1s506 You can get further help on those strange OS/2 SYS messages. Example: help 2166 You can display any existing HTML file on your harddisk. Example: help C:\HTML\blah.html You can issue a HTML (sort of) text directly. Example: help "<HTML>blah</HTML>" See Supported HTML tags for details. Moreover, "help list" will give you a list of what's currently accessible with xhelp. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.2. Installation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ xhelp is installed automatically by the installation script provided with this package. In the default profile, "help" and "?" are registered as aliases for xhelp; this way, when you enter one of these within CmdShl, xhelp.cmd will be executed. It is NOT recommended to remove xhelp from your PATH, since most of CommandPak's rely on it for displaying their messages in order to be language-independent. Installing xcp manually is also very simple: just copy XHELP.CMD somewhere along your PATH. If you want to automatically use xhelp instead of HELP, you can add an alias, if your command shell processor recognizes them. For example, with CmdShl, use: ALIAS help=xhelp %* ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.3. Starting xhelp / Command Line Options ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Generally, xhelp has several modes of operation: it can either display a built-in message, open an .INF book completely, search in .INF books for a certain topic, or display any external file (both simple text and HTML format). All of xhelp's internal messages have been put into a single file named 'XHELPxxx.MSG' with "xxx" being a language code. By setting the environment variable "HELP.COUNTRY", you can switch to another language, provided that the respective message file exists along the PATH. If the variable is not defined, the default "001" for English is assumed. See Help File Format for details. The syntax at the command line is as follows (the "help" alias is assumed in this description): help If you're new to CommandPak, just type "help" to receive a raw introduction to the new functions. help <internal> xhelp knows a number of commands already that are capable of displaying help. If <internal> is one of these, xhelp will explain something. For most parts of MLRXSHL and CommandPak, this support has been added in the message file. -- Example: help ls # show help for ls (xdir) help list display the internal list of commands known that xhelp provides help for; moreover, this will collect and display all INF files on the BOOKSHELF (that can thus be displayed with "xhelp <book>"). help <topic> If <topic> is NOT on this list, xhelp next checks if an environment variable HELP.<topic> exists. If so, its contents are assumed to be a combination of INF files. Two of these ("HELP.REF" and "HELP.CMDSHL") are defined in the default profile; help ref will thus access the complete provided online help, containing "MLRXSHL0+MLRXSHL+COMMANDPAK". If no such environment variable exists, the bookshelf is searched for an .INF file named <topic>. Example: help cmdref # display OS/2 online reference If no such .INF file is found, xhelp checks next if <topic> is an existing file; if found, its contents are displayed. Since xhelp can display HTML files (sort of), you can even have formatted HTML output on your screen. Examples: help index.html help G:\blah\text.html If this does not exist either, <topic> is assumed to be content to search for; all books on the whole bookshelf will be searched for <topic>. This is started as a background process and might take a while, depending on the number of books found. -- Example: help ibm1s506 will find "ibm1s506" entry in OS/2's CMDREF.INF. help [sys|rex]<number> If <number> is numeric, help will display an explanation for an OS/2 SYS<number> error. Examples: help 2166 # will display help on printer error help sys2166 # the same help rex16 # help on REXX error message help "<text>" Whatever is enclosed in double quotes will be displayed directly, either formatted (if a "<HTML>" is found) or not. See Format of the help files for details. help ver display current CommandPak version. help -c for info on CmdShl itself. help -x for some examples of how to use help. help -f <key> access a certain <key> in the message file directly. help -w show a welcome message (used in the default profile). Type "help -x" to see a number of examples. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.4. Environment variables ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ xhelp recognizes the following environment variables: Setting xhelp's language: HELP.COUNTRY=<xxx> This defines the message file that xhelp uses. Whenever internal messages (especially help messages) are displayed, xhelp searches for a file named "XHELPxxx.MSG" on the PATH, with <xxx> being a three-digit country code as defined by HELP.COUNTRY; if this has not been set, "001" (for English) is assumed. Setting HELP.COUNTRY to a three-digit number will thus change the message file that xhelp searches for. See Help File Format for details; see the OS/2 Online Reference for a list of country codes. Example: SET HELP.COUNTRY=049 will switch to German messages. Please note that this file must contain ALL of xhelp's messages, otherwise you will only get tons of error messages. Configuring output colors: HELP.COLOR=<color> This will set the standard color when displaying HTML. The <color> syntax follows the xdir rules. If not set, no coloring is used. HELP.ANCHOR=<color> HELP.BOLD=<color> HELP.ITALICS=<color> This will set the colors for anchors (links), bold text and italics (<A>, , and tags) when displaying HTML. The <color> syntax follows the xdir rules. If not set, no coloring is used (the respective tags are simply ignored). Certain colors are preset in the default profile. Defining shortcuts: HELP.<topic>=<books> <topic>=<books> You can define any <topic> as a "help alias" to another INF file or several of them, joined by the "+" sign. Now, if <topic> is given as a command line argument to xhelp and an environment variable HELP.<topic> has been defined, xhelp will open up the INF file(s) described by the variable. This is used in the default profile: SET HELP.REF=MLRXSHL0+MLRXSHL+CMDPAK So typing "help ref" will open up all three INF books of MLRXSHL/CommandPak. The simple <topic>=<books> is the standard syntax of OS/2's VIEW.EXE (undocumented, I believe), which is retained for compatibily. For example, the OS/2 Toolkit defines a number of these variables in CONFIG.SYS. As a result, in the preceding example, SET REF=MLRXSHL0+MLRXSHL+CMDPAK would also work. However, the HELP.<topic>=<books> syntax is recommended for use with xhelp, since it reduces the probability of help environment variables interfering with those for other functions. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.5. Help File Format ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ xhelp can process a subset of the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). When a "<HTML>" tag is found in the text to be displayed, HTML processing is enabled (see next page for details). This is checked for in the following three situations: xhelp processes its own message file; xhelp is given a file location (help <file>); xhelp is given a text directly (help "<text>"). In all three cases, if no "<HTML>" tag is found, the given text is displayed "as is". A xhelp message file ("XHELPxxx.MSG", with xxx being a three-digit country code) is considered to be a joint collection of independent messages in one file. Each message therein can either be HTML or simple text and must be enclosed by <TOPIC NAME="msgid">This is the message text</TOPIC> tags. Everything enclosed within these two tags will be extracted and treated as if it were a separate file. Thus, if a "<HTML>" tag is found in the extracted message, it will be formatted as HTML, otherwise displayed as normal text. The "NAME" attribute identifies the message name; this is case-sensitive and must be surrounded by double quotes. Browse through the provided example to see more. For example, if you enter "help alias" at the command line, then xhelp searches for the <TOPIC NAME="aliasHelp"> tag in XHELP001.MSG; next, the text preceding the next occurence of </TOPIC> is extracted. Since this alias help message contains a <HTML> tag, it is formatted as HTML and displayed. Now, if you want to translate CommandPak into another language, all you have to do is finding out your country code (as described in the OS/2 Online Reference); then copy XHELP001.MSG to XHELPxxx.MSG (with xxx being your country code) and, translating, work your way through the message file. If you consider your help file worth publishing, please contact me and I will include it in CommandPak's next release. If you want, you can also change all the HTML messages to simple text to speed up display. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.5.1. Message File Example ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ The following is an excerpt from XHELP001.MSG, defining the displayed message when you enter "help" without any arguments. In this case, xhelp searches for a message with the message ID "helpHelpFirst", as defined in the first line. Note the "<HTML>" tag right after the the "<TOPIC>" tag; this is neccessary to enable HTML processing, since each message within "<TOPIC>" and "</TOPIC>" is treated as if it were a separate file. Also note the escape sequences "<" and ">" to display the "<" and ">" chars. Remember, all line breaks and repetitive spaces are ignored in HTML; the use of tags is neccessary for this. <TOPIC NAME="helpHelpFirst"><HTML>This is an overview of MLRXSHL/CommandPak (type <A HREF="">help <command></A> for more): <UL FIRST=2 NEXT=16><LI> cd <TAB>can now change drives also and remembers the last directory. <LI>dir / ls <TAB>is a new and all-improved DIR command with coloring and more. <LI>ren / mv <TAB>extended rename and move; extra features <LI>alias <TAB>lets you define your own commands. <LI>def <TAB>can redefine keys, even with whole command lines. <LI>rule <TAB>lets you define rules for command-line editing. <LI>rx <TAB>allows you to process REXX commands at the command line. <LI>recurse <TAB>will execute a command line recursively in subdirectories. <LI>open <TAB>will open a directory as a WPS folder. <LI>ln <TAB>will create "links" via WPS shadows. <LI>pushd / popd <TAB>will save/recall directories. <LI>less <TAB>is a far better "more" than "more". <LI>query <TAB>is a command for querying different system information. <LI>fl <TAB>is a more-or-less graphical directory browser. </UL>Type <A HREF="">help <command></A> to find out more about a certain <command>. Type <A HREF="">help keys</A> to read a summary of the new command-line editing functions. Type <A HREF="">help ref</A> to view the online reference with an in-depth introduction and reference on CmdShl and the other functions. Type <A HREF="">help help</A> to learn about usage of the "help" command. Type <A HREF="">exit</A> to close this session. </TOPIC> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.6. Supported HTML Tags ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ When formatting HTML, just like any HTML browser, xhelp will ignore any carriage returns / line feeds (ASCII code $0d, $0a) and repetitive spaces in the text, but rather recalculate the format of the output at every call. In order to format the text, the use of so-called "tags" is neccessary. These are put into angle brackets ("<tag>"); xhelp is not case-sensitive in respect to these tags. Tags that are not recognized by xhelp are ignored completely. As a consequence, all text following an open angle bracket ("<") is ignored until a closing angle bracket (">") is encountered. If you need angle brackets as characters in the text, you have to replace them with certain escape sequences (see next page). It is neccessary to enclose the text to be displayed in "<HTML>" tags; this also applies for a "subtext" as defined by <TOPIC>. Otherwise, the text will not be reformatted, but simply displayed on the screen as it is (via "say <msg>"). Use of the "<TITLE>" and "<BODY>" tags is not required and ignored. Presently, only the following HTML tags are supported: <TOPIC NAME="msgid"> </TOPIC> This tag is only checked for when xhelp searches its own message file; otherwise, it will be ignored. <HTML> This must surround the text to enable HTML formatting. </HTML> <HEAD> Everything in here will be completely ignored. </HEAD> Start a new line. Start a new paragraph; xhelp will issue two line breaks. Presently, no arguments are supported. <TR> In "real" HTML, this starts a new row within a table; here, a line break (like ) is enforced. All other table tags are ignored. <HR> Horizontal rule. <UL> Unordered list; each list element is introduced with <LI> <LI>. No bullets are printed to introduce list </UL> elements. Lists may be nested. <UL> knows two arguments not used in HTML: <UL FIRST=xxx NEXT=xxx> FIRST specifies indentation for the first line of each list element, NEXT for the following lines. "xxx" must be specified in text-mode spaces. See the default help files for examples. <TAB> can be used within a list (as described above) to jump to a predefined position. As for now, the only "tab" defined is the NEXT position as described above. xhelp uses this all the time for displaying a command on the left, and the description of it on the right. Bold text; xhelp will display the enclosed text in text the color specified in the environment variable "HELP.BOLD". Text in italics; xhelp will display the enclosed text in text the color specified in the environment variable "HELP.ITALICS". <A HREF= > Anchor; in "real" HTML, this defines a hyperlink. text xhelp just highlights these with the color specified in </A> "HELP.ANCHOR"; no further function is provided. Highlighting only occurs when "HREF" is given.  parsing "real" HTML files containing JavaScript. <IMG> Images of any kind will be replaced with a symbol in the color specified for text in italics. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.7. Special Characters in HTML files ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Certain special characters sometimes need, sometimes can be described with the use of special escape sequences: in HTML, all of these start with an ampersand ("&") and end with a semicolon (";"). The following list contains all HTML escape sequences that are supported by xhelp (plus a few xhelp-specific ones). As opposed to the rest of HTML, escape sequences are case-sensitive. Sequences that are not recognizes by xhelp will be skipped without producing any output. Please note the following in respect to codepages: Not all characters can be displayed on your screen, depending on the codepage you use. In the list below, mind the remarks made to certain characters. See the OS/2 online reference for details on codepages. xhelp supports both codepage 437 and 850; with OS/2 Warp 4 (or Warp 3 with ObjectREXX installed), it can detect the codepage on its own; otherwise it will assume use of 437, since this seems to be more safe. Characters that cannot be displayed with your current codepage will be replaced by a character that comes close (e.g. a simple "Y" instead of the Yen sign). You might run into trouble when using "strange" codepages (other than 437 or 850, one of which should be supported on every computer), which I have not tested. Adding "chcp 437" to your profile might help; see the OS/2 online reference for details. I have omitted certain sequences that are supported by HTML, which I considered not too important though or which are not supported by the standard codepages. If you feel that something crucial to your language is missing, please contact me. REQUIRED escape sequences (for characters that have a special meaning in HTML): < open angle bracket ("<") > closing angle bracket (">") & ampersand ("&") non-breaking space The following characters are provided for compatibility when displaying "real" HTML files; as opposed to with HTML browsers, their use is NOT required, since the characters can be put into the text directly as well. § £ ╨¼ ¥ ╨¡ % ¢ ╨½ % ¶ µ ╤å « ╨╛ » ╨┐ ½ ╨╗ ¼ ╨╝ ² ┬ñ ± ╤æ ¤ Notices: Characters marked with "%" are supported on codepage 437 only. The following language-dependent special characters are both supported directly as well as by the below escape sequences. ä ╨ö * ë ╨Ö * # ï ╨¢ * # ö ╨ñ * ü ╨æ * ß ╤ü æ ╨í * á ╨░ * # é ╨Æ * í ╨▒ * # ó ╨▓ * # ú ╨│ * # à ╨ò * # è ╨Ü * # ì ╨¥ * # ò ╨Ñ * # ù ╨º * # â ╨ô * # ê ╨ÿ * # î ╨£ * # ô ╨ú * # û ╨ª * # ç ╨ù * å ╨û * ñ ╨┤ * ¡ ╨╜ Notices: Characters marked with "*" can also be capitalized (e.g. "Ü" instead of "ü"); characters marked with "#" are, when capitalized, only supported when using codepage 850. The following are supported by xhelp only and are not part of HTML: &larrw; ↝ &uarrw; &darrw; ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.8. Known Limitations ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ xhelp processes HTML messages on a mixed per-character/per-word basis. On my Pentium-133 with Warp 3 installed, output speed is acceptable; I presently have no access to slower computers. If you experience terminally slow output, you can rewrite the help message files (XHELPxxx.MSG) so that they do not use HTML output, which is WAY faster. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.9. History ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.64 Jan 1, 1998 --- New features: Help files updated for xcp and watchdrv. 1.63 Dec 20, 1997 --- New features: Support for different codepages added. Many more escape sequences. Support for different languages via HELP.COUNTRY added. Second, German help file CMD049.MSG provided. Moved all help messages into CMD001.MSG. Change for environment variables describing INF books: "help <var>" will now look for environment variable HELP.<var> (instead of only <var>). Environment variables HELP.COLOR, HELP.ANCHOR, HELP.BOLD, HELP.ITALICS are now evaluated; default is now no coloring at all. Help for OS/2 SYS/REX messages improved. Adjusted for use with MLRXSHL's HELP.COMMAND variable. --- Bugfixes: Can now also handle non-OS/2 files that do not end their lines with "0d0a"x (e.g. from UNIX). 1.62 Dec 14, 1997 --- New features: "help list" will work without ObjectREXX too. Now displays both known commands AND (new) all INF files on BOOKSHELF. The message format has completely been reworked. xhelp now uses a subset of the HTML syntax to display files and formats the output on-the-fly according to the current screen size. Added processing of external HTML and text files. Added processing of text directly from the command line. 1.61 Dec 6, 1997 --- Initial release. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6. ln ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ What's that? Installation Starting watchdrv / command line options Known limitations ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.1. What's That? ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ In the UNIX world, "ln" is a standard command for creating "links". Since most UNIX filesystems do support links, this command really operates on the filesystem, creating a directory entry as if a new file was created, which does not point to a new file though, but to an existing file. This means you can have several directory entries actually pointing to the same file. Links are really helpful when organizing your directories. In OS/2, unfortunately, they do not exist, at least not on the filesystem level (with the exception of the "Toronto Virtual File System", TVFS, an IBM employee written software, which does provide links). OS/2 does provide a similar mechanism on the WPS level though: the well-known shadows. See the "What are abstract WPS objects?" section for details on this. "ln" now uses shadows to create links. In conjunction with "xdir", you can now create and view shadows on the command line. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.2. Installation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ ln is installed automatically by the installation script provided with this package. It does not require anything special, although you should put it on your PATH. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.3. Starting ln / Command Line Options ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ ln follows the syntax of the UNIX "ln" utility, although not all functions can be implemented in OS/2 (e.g. there is no difference made between "soft" and "hard" links). Syntax: ln [-<options>] <filespec> [<dir>] with: <filespec> the file to be linked; this can be a full path specification. Wildcards ("*") are allowed. <dir> This is the location where the link(s) shall be created in. When not specified, the current directory is used. Options: -f "force" mode: replace existing links. -v be verbose: show each file while linking. Example: ln G:\OS2\DLL\*.dll will create shadows for all DLLs in the \OS2\DLL directory. The shadows will be placed in the current directory. Use "xdir -W" to see them or open a WPS folder (e.g. with the "open" command). ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.4. Known Limitations ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Not all UNIX options have been implemented yet; most of them don't make sense with OS/2 anyway. ln cannot handle filenames including spaces yet. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7. open ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ open is a command for opening a directory as a WPS folder. Its syntax is simple: open [<dir>] with <dir> being the directory to open. If <dir> is omitted, the current directory is opened. open is now (CommandPak V1.63) implemented as a CmdShl alias in the default profile. It uses CmdShl's "CD" command to switch to the specified directory; as a result, <dir> can be anything that "CD" understands, even a directory specified with the CDPATH environment variable. Example: open \OS2 will open the OS2 directory on the current drive. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8. recurse ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ recurse is a command for executing a given command line in every subdirectory of the current directory. Its syntax is simple: recurse [<cmdline>] with <cmdline> being the command line to be executed in each subdirectory. If <cmdline> is omitted, a help message is issued. recurse is now (CommandPak V1.63) implemented as a CmdShl alias in the default profile, following a suggestion by Martin Lafaix. This way, recurse can now even use aliases and CmdShl built-in commands. Example: recurse ren -d * will remove .LONGNAME extended attributes from all files in all current subdirectories, provided that "ren" has been defined as an alias to xren. Trouble is, with recurse being a CmdShl alias, pressing Ctrl+C during execution will probably terminate the session due to a CMD.EXE bug. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9. watchdrv ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ What's that? Installation Starting watchdrv / command line options Known limitations History ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.1. What's That? ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ watchdrv (for "watch drive", obviously) is helpful when you insert and remove CD-ROMs frequently. watchdrv will monitor your CD-ROM drive and open the respective drive folder as soon as you insert new media. You can even specify sounds that will be played upon inserting and removing media. watchdrv is not really a command-line utility since it best runs in a separate session, but I thought it was useful in CommandPak's context anyway. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.2. Installation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ watchdrv is installed automatically by the installation script provided with this package. A program object is created. watchdrv requires nothing special; you can put it anywhere. A location on the PATH is recommended. For sound support, MMPM/2 is required though, since watchdrv uses "play.cmd" in the /MMOS2 directory to play sounds. watchdrv will happily run in the background when minimized. You can put the watchdrv object into your startup folder to have watchdrv started automatically when you boot OS/2. watchdrv now (CommandPak 1.64) uses xhelp.cmd to display its messages, thus using the language that was set in the HELP.COUNTRY environment variable. If you have only set this variable in your profile, you might want to add a SET HELP.COUNTRY=xxx to CONFIG.SYS; otherwise, watchdrv will only recognize your language setting when started from within CmdShl. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.3. Starting watchdrv / Command Line Options ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ watchdrv recognizes a few command line options when started; most importantly, the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive. Syntax: watchdrv [<drive>] [-t:<val>] [-si:<file>] [-so:<file>] [-i] [--play] with: <drive> being your CD-ROM drive (e.g. "L:"). This is not checked; if you specify a harddisk here, watchdrv will wait forever, since there will never be new media in there. Theoretically, it is also possible to monitor floppy disks ("watchdrv a:"); trouble is that this makes the computer really slow, since there is continuous mechanical activity on the disk drive. If the drive is omitted, watchdrv will monitor the last available drive (which, at least on non-network computers, should be the CD-ROM drive). Options: -t:<val> This defines the frequency of drive checking in seconds. The default is 2. -si:<file> This defines the sound file to be played when media is inserted. You must specify the full path to the sound file. -so:<file> The same for when media is removed. -i ignore media at startup; if not specified, watchdrv will already open a folder at startup when media is inserted. --play play audio CD-ROMs automatically (not implemented yet). Example: watchdrv L: -t:5 -si:G:\MMOS2\sounds\crash.wav will check drive L: every five seconds and play a sound when media is inserted. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.4. Known Limitations ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ If the specified drive does not exist or is not removeable (e.g. when a hard disk is specified), watchdrv will watch that drive forever. The "--play" function (for playing audio CD-ROMs) is not working yet and maybe never will. I've tried to implement it with the REXX multimedia functions, but when calling these repeatedly, the machine becomes terminally slow. If anyone has a better idea how to realize this, please contact me. watchdrv cannot auto-close folders when media is removed. Instead, OS/2 will annoyingly give error messages when you remove a CD-ROM from your CD-ROM drive while its WPS folder is still open. The only thing watchdrv can do is play a sound upon removing media ;-) so close your WPS folder manually first before opening your CD-ROM drive. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.5. History ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.64 January 1, 1998 --- New features: Language support added to watchdrv.cmd and XHELPxxx.MSG. 1.62 December 14, 1997 --- New features: If drive is omitted, watchdrv will take the last available drive automatically. 1.00 somewhere in september 1997 --- Initial release.