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R M D Safe Directory Tree Deleter version 2.00 (C) 1994 Richard Schaaf RMD V2.00 2 1 Feb 94 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Copyright Stuff and Disclaimer........................ 3 2. Introduction.......................................... 3 3. System Requirements................................... 3 4. Installation.......................................... 3 5. Usage................................................. 4 5.1 Syntax.......................................... 4 5.2 Disabling/Enabling Individual Checks............ 4 5.3 Optimization.................................... 5 5.4 Move Up Mode.................................... 5 5.5 Verbosity Levels................................ 6 5.6 Help System..................................... 7 5.7 Environment Variables........................... 7 5.7.1 The NO_RMD variable...................... 7 5.7.2 The RMD_SW variable...................... 7 6. Command Line Parsing.................................. 8 7. Hints/Tips............................................ 8 8. Author................................................ 9 9. Planned Enhancements.................................. 9 10. History...............................................10 RMD V2.00 2 1 Feb 94 RMD V2.00 3 1 Feb 94 1. Copyright Stuff and Disclaimer ================================= This program is freely distributable provided that all files in this archive are distributed together. Please keep in mind that the author is the exclusive copyright holder. You may use this program as you seem fit but you are not allowed to make modifications to it without the explicit consent from the author. The author cannot be held responsible for damage (including lost files) incurred, either direct or indirect, by using the files in this archive. The author also does not guarantee the program will work as indicated in this file although every effort has been made to make sure it does. If you find an instance where it does not work as documented, please report it to the author at the address stated in section 8. 2. Introduction =============== This command recursively removes directory trees. The idea behind using RMD and not "alias rmd=del /s/x/z" or "alias rmd=del /s/x/y/z" is that the former always asks for acknowledgment (leading to an automatic "Y" answer after some time) and the latter never asks anything (leading to unintended deletes). RMD tries to predict whether the directory it is about to delete is a directory that the user actually wants to delete. If it thinks the operation is suspect, it will ask the user for confirmation, otherwise it will just go ahead and delete it. If you find RMD useful, please send me a postcard at the address in section 8. IN ANY CASE, SEND ME EMAIL IF YOU CAN. THAT IS THE ONLY WAY YOU WILL BE KEPT INFORMED ABOUT UPDATES AND GET SWIFT REPLIES TO BUG REPORTS AND ENHANCEMENT REQUESTS. 3. System Requirements ====================== A PC running DR/PC/MS-DOS 3.3 or higher and 4DOS5.0c or later. 4. Installation =============== Start "install.btm". This program will guide you through the installation process. Finally, decide where you would like RMD to put its temporary file. RMD uses the following algoritm for determining where to put its temporary file: if 4DOSTEMP is set then use it else if TEMP is set then use it else if TMP is set then use it else use the root directory of the boot drive end if RMD V2.00 3 1 Feb 94 RMD V2.00 4 1 Feb 94 5. Usage ======== 5.1 Syntax ---------- RMD [del flags] [answer flags] [/o<123>] [/u<012>] [/v[v]] [/c] [/h] [/?] dirs Where : delete flags = flags that are passed to the "del" command (all flags that rmd does not recognize are passed to the del command) answer flags = assume yes for certain checks (section 5.2) /o1 /o2 /o3 = optimize directories (section 5.3) /u0 /u1 /u2 = move up flags (section 5.4) /v and /vv = verbosity level; will give more information (section 5.5) /c = display copyright and version information /h and /? = starts the on-line help system (section 5.6) dirs = one or more directories that should be deleted RMD will warn the user if a directory is suspect, or better: - if the directory is not on the current drive, and/or - the directory is the root directory of a drive, and/or - the directory is "higher" than the current directory, and/or - the delete would delete a directory in the NO_RMD variable (section 5.7.1) (This is only true if the check has not been disabled, see section 5.2) If a directory is suspect the user will be asked for confirmation. At that point the user has the following options: Y = Delete this directory N = Skip this directory A = Always delete (don't check for suspect directories) Q = Quit (don't delete anything) H = Help ! = Shell out to 4DOS (COMSPEC has to be set for this to work) An argument is always skipped if: - the argument is on a drive that is not ready - the argument does not exist - the argument exists but is not a directory - the argument is a directory on a CD-ROM - the argument is a directory on a network drive (unless overridden with /y+w:<drives>) 5.2 Disabling/Enabling Individual Checks ---------------------------------------- Individual checks can be disabled or enabled with the "answer flags". The answer flags disable (/y+) or enable (/y-) individual check for specific drives. Checks that can be disabled or enabled are: The different drive check (type=D) The root directory check (type=R) The higher directory check (type=H) The NO_RMD check (type=N) The network drive check (type=W) The complete definition of the answer flags is as follows: RMD V2.00 4 1 Feb 94 RMD V2.00 5 1 Feb 94 answer flags = [/y+<type>[:drives]] [/y-<type>[:drives]] [/yes] [/fd] where /yes = /y+d/y+r/y+h/y+n /fd = /y+d:AB/y+r:AB If no drives are specified, the flag applies to all drives. Example: /y+d/y-d:c disabled the different drive check unless that other drive is drive C 5.3 Optimization ---------------- There are two kinds of optimization. The first kind (/o1) removes directories that will be deleted anyway from the list of directories. For example: "rmd /yes .. ..\q" in "c:\tmp" will be translated to "del /s/x/y/z c:\ c:\q", but "c:\q" will have been deleted already by the "del /s/x/y/z c:\". If you specify the "/o1" flag, rmd will execute "del /s/x/y/z c:\" Note that specifying the "/o1" flag does not only reduce the number of parameters to the "del" command but also prevents some accidental deletes. Assume there is a file "c:\test\q. Consider "rmd q q" in "c:\". This will be translated to "del /s/x/y/z q q". The first "q" will delete the directory "c:\q", as expected and as probably intended. The second "q", however, will remove all files named "q" on drive C, including "c:\test\q" !!! Now consider "rmd /o1 q q". In this case, RMD will notice that the intended delete is "del /s/x/y/z q" and not "del /s/x/y/z q q". Therefore it will delete the directory "c:\q" and not the file "c:\test\q". The second kind of optimization (/o2) does not modify which directories are passed to the "del" command, but does modify the way they are passed to that command. When "/o2" is not given, all directories will be fully expanded before they are passed to the "del" command. For instance, issuing "rmd ." in "c:\tmp" will be translated to "del /s/x/y/z c:\tmp". This may lead to command lines that are too long to be handled. When the "/o2" flag is given, RMD will try to make the parameters as short as possible. To do this it will try whether specifying a directory relative to the current directory is more efficient than specifying it fully expanded. When issuing "rmd /o2 ." in "c:\tmp", rmd will issue the command "del /s/x/y/z .". Note that "rmd /o2 c:\tmp" in "c:\tmp" will also be translated to "del /s/x/y/z ." The "/o3" flag is equivalent to "/o1/o2". 5.4 Move Up Mode ---------------- The moveup mode determine what happens if you delete a directory that is higher than the current directory. /u0 : don't move up the directory tree /u1 : move up unless the directory starts with "." /u2 : always move up the directory tree (See example below) RMD V2.00 5 1 Feb 94 RMD V2.00 6 1 Feb 94 When using "/u0" (the default), all files will be deleted but the directories leading to the current directory will be left as they were before the delete operation. Using "/u2", everything below the highest directory parameter that is in the list of directories leading to the current directory is deleted. Option "/u1" is an intermediate. It does the same as "/u2" unless the directory parameter starts with ".". In that case, this directory will be left on the disk. (Any help with clarifying this paragraph is greatly appreciated!) Example: assume the directory structure of drive C is as follows: C:\ └───A ├───B │ └───D └───C and the current directory is "c:\a\b\d" For n=0,1,2, the command "rmd /yes/u<n> .. ..." will delete all files in "\a", "\a\b", "\a\c" and "\a\b\d". Furthermore, the resulting directory tree and the current directory are listed in the following table: ┌────────┬────────────────┬───────────────────┐ │ switch │ directory tree │ current directory │ ╞════════╪════════════════╪═══════════════════╡ │ /u0 │ C:\ │ c:\a\b\d │ │ │ └───A │ │ │ │ └───B │ │ │ │ └───D │ │ │ │ │ │ │ /u1 │ C:\ │ c:\a │ │ │ └───A │ │ │ │ │ │ │ /u2 │ C:\ │ c:\ │ └────────┴────────────────┴───────────────────┘ However, "rmd /yes/u1 c:\a\b c:\a" gives the same result as "rmd /yes/u2 .. ...". 5.5 Verbosity Levels -------------------- There are two verbosity levels: /v : - display the directory that is currently being looked at - display "performing optimization" when optimization is enabled - before the del operation, display the number of directories that have been skipped - display the del command that will be performed /vv : - display the /y+ options in effect for the directory that is currently being looked at - display the directory that is currently being looked at - display "performing optimization" when optimization is enabled - before the del operation, display the number of directories that have been skipped - display the del command that will be performed RMD V2.00 6 1 Feb 94 RMD V2.00 7 1 Feb 94 5.6 Help System --------------- The help system consists of a number of screens that contain an extract of the information in this document. At any time you can jump to any page by pressing the page number. Furthermore, <Page Up> takes you to the next page, <Page Down> to the previous page, <Home> to the first page, and <End> to the last page. Press <escape> to exit the help system. 5.7 Environment Variables ------------------------- 5.7.1 The NO_RMD variable If you want to protect certain directories against accidental removal you can include them in the "NO_RMD" environment variable. The format of this variable is "<directory(1)>;.....;<directory(n)>". All directories in the "NO_RMD" variable should end with a "\" character. For instance, "c:\tmp\" is a valid value for the "NO_RMD" variable whereas "c:\tmp" IS NOT! If rmd would delete a directory that is in the NO_RMD variable, RMD will warn you. Note that this is different from previous versions of RMD. Previous versions only warn if you tell it to delete a directory in the NO_RMD variable, not if the deletion is caused by the deletion of a directory that is higher in the directory tree. For example, assume that "NO_RMD=c:\a\b\". In this situation, RMD versions previous to this one would warn if you entered "rmd c:\a\b", but not it you entered "rmd c:\a". From now on, RMD will warn in both cases. 5.7.1 The RMD_SW variable The "RMD_SW" environment variable contains default switches for RMD. The advantage is that "RMD_SW" is parsed before the command line. The difference of defining default switches with "RMD_SW" and not with "alias rmd=c:\4dos\rmd.btm <options>" will be further explained in the section "Command Line Parsing". RMD V2.00 7 1 Feb 94 RMD V2.00 8 1 Feb 94 6. Command Line Parsing ======================= The usage of RMD is not as rigid as mentioned above. In reality, switches and directories can be mixed almost arbitrarily. Not all flags apply to the entire commandline. To determine which flags apply, RMD uses the following algorithm. parse the flags in "RMD_SW" max_parameter := #of parameters parse all flags at the end of the command line (assume there are n parameters with flags at the end of the command line) max_parameter := max_parameter - n for i = 1 to max_parameter if parameter(i) contains flag(s) then # f.i. /fd or ./yes parse the flag(s) end if if parameter contains a directory then perform checks on directory using current options if OK to remove then add it to the list end if end if next i Note that all flags apply from where they occur up until the end of the command line. There are exceptions to every rule, therefore let me state the exceptions to this rule: - flags that are passed to the DEL command are applied to the entire command line - the /o1, /o2 and /o3 apply to the entire command line WARNING: using the "/u0", "/u1" and "/u2" flags can produce unpredictable results when used after the first directory. Because of the way RMD parses the parameters, it may be better to define default options in the "RMD_SW" environment variable and not in an alias. Let me give an example: Personally I want the following default options: "/fd/u1/o3". If we define "alias rmd=c:\4dos\rmd.btm /fd/u1/o3" everything works fine until we want to override the "/u1" by using "rmd . /u2". The "/u2" is parsed first, setting the "move up mode" to 2. Next the "/fd/u1/o3" is parsed, resetting the "move up mode" to 1. Alternatively, we could define "alias rmd=c:\4dos\rmd.btm %& /fd/u1/o3", but again, if we try "rmd . /u2", the "/u2" will be overridden. Now consider using "RMD_SW=/fd/u1/o3". In this case, the "/u1" will be parsed before the "/u2" flag, thus the "/u2" will override the "/u1" as intended. 7. Hints/Tips ============= Instead of using the "rmd.btm" file directly, you can define an alias "rmd" that calls "rmd.btm" and includes your favorite switches. Personally I have defined "rmd=c:\4dos\rmd.btm /fd/u1/o3" RMD V2.00 8 1 Feb 94 RMD V2.00 9 1 Feb 94 8. Author ========= While I could tell all sorts of interesting stories about myself, let me keep it with name and address for now. If you have any requests for enhancements or bug reports (seems impossible :) please email or write: Richard Schaaf Walcherenstraat 2 1025 PN Amsterdam the Netherlands internet: rscha@ctp.com In any case, SEND ME A POSTCARD! Also: If you have an urge to give me money, CDs (Simtel?), Games, or anything else, please don't hesitate! :-)) 9. Planned Enhancements ======================= At this point, the "/o2" flag always leaves directories on drives other than the current one fully expanded. I'm currently considering how useful it is to change this. RMD currently does not support include lists ("c:\a;b"). This may or may not be implemented in a future release. I would like to, somehow, integrating the RMD help with the 4DOS help system. As soon as JP software sends me the 4DOS utility disk I ordered, I will see whether this is possible with the help compiler on that disk. RMD V2.00 9 1 Feb 94 RMD V2.00 10 1 Feb 94 10. History =========== v2.00 Feb. 1, 1994 Corrected some errors in the manual Added warning if RMD would delete a directory in the NO_RMD variable but that directory is not one of the parameters Added RMD_SW variable Changed command line parsing Added /o1, /o2, /o3 flags Added "Shell out" capability at warning messages /vv no longer displays the individual checks /v and /vv display "performing optimization" when the /o1, /o2 or /o3 flag is given /noenv is ignored (obsolete) change in behavior of /u1 flag v1.10 Jan. 25, 1994 (internal beta version) Total rewrite of time-critical parts in C Separate versions for 8088/8086/80186/V20/V30, 80286 and 80386/80486/80586 Added installation program Minor bugfixes v1.02 Jan. 19, 1994 (Never released) <esc> is now equivalent to "Q" at the warnings Minor performance enhancement v1.01 Jan. 17, 1994 Added environment space checking Added the /noenv flag Added drive ready check Added CD-ROM checking Added network checking Added /y+w flag Added /u0 /u1 /u2 flags Fixed some spelling errors v1.00 Jan. 12, 1994 First released version v0.99 Jan. 4, 1994 Final test version. Thanks to Michael Schaap (mscha@ctp.com) for helping me with testing and debugging this one!