Ian & Stuart's Australian Mac 1

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13 Command Reference !, REM identifies comments (REM stands for the word remark). Syntax ![text] REM [text] Parameters text is one line of text which is ignored by MacDOS. Note that a space is needed after the command name when the REM format is used, while the exclamation mark can be immediately followed by the text. MacDOS vs DOS DOS only supports the REM format. Notes Input and output redirection As MacDOS ignores whatever text follows the remark commands, I/O redirection and piping of remarks are not "seen" by MacDOS. Examples ! REM REM this is a remark !*********** another remark ************ ! we want to switch off the following command temporarily !echo off REMARK: rejected because REM is not followed by a space ALARM sets MacDOS' way of reporting errors and warnings. Syntax alarm [ ON | OFF ] Parameters [ ON | OFF ] With ON, ALARM directs MacDOS to report errors and warnings via alerts. When an alert is displayed, execution is suspended until you acknowledge the message. With OFF, ALARM directs MacDOS to report errors and warnings via concise messages. Execution is not suspended. Without parameters, ALARM reports the current setting. MacDOS vs DOS DOS does not support ALARM. Examples ALARM ON alarm Off alarm > aFile CALL starts a program while executing in batch without terminating the current batch program. Syntax call program [batch parameters] Parameters program is the filename of an application, an AppleScript, or a batch program, possibly preceded by an absolute or relative path. batch parameters parameters to be passed to the program if it is a batch. Switches There are no switches for the CALL command, although some of the parameters for a batch program to be executed may take the form of switches. MacDOS vs DOS The two implementations are identical, but MacDOS can execute CALL from the prompt, while DOS only accepts it within batch programs. Notes Output redirection You can redirect the output of batch programs when you CALL them, but CALL does not accept output redirection in any other case. Recursion Recursive calls of Batch programs, whether directly or through a chain of batch programs, is certain to cause an error unless you use a terminating condition. This is due to the fact that MacDOS supports a maximum of 16 nested CALLs. File extension Batch filenames traditionally terminate with ".BAT", but do not need to. When they do terminate with ".BAT", you do not need to type it. MacDOS first attempts to locate the filename as typed. If the search is unsuccessful, MacDOS then appends the extension ".BAT" and tries again. As MacDOS first tries to find a filename exactly as typed by you, you have to be careful when the same folder contains two files with the same name except for the terminating ".BAT". In that case, you need to type the ".BAT" in order to distinguish between the two files. When MacDOS adds the extension ".BAT", it expects to find a batch file and reports an error in all other cases. Examples CALL A_BATCH %1 %2 %3 The currently executing batch program starts the batch file A_BATCH and passes on to it its own first three parameters. call "Microsoft Word" The currently executing batch program launches MS Word and then continues execution. Frequently occurring errors E27: File or directory not found The CALLed program or one of the folders specified in the path could not be found. CD, CHDIR change the current folder (ie. DIRectory) or display its name. Syntax cd folder chdir folder The two commands are functionally identical. Parameters folder is a name preceded by an absolute or relative path which specifies the new folder. When you use two dots as folder name, CD attaches to the folder which contains the current folder. When you use as folder name a volume ID followed by a colon, CD displays the current folder of the given volume. Without folder name, CD displays the current volume and folder. MacDOS vs DOS The two implementations are identical. Examples cd aFolder attaches to the folder named aFolder and contained in the current folder. cd .. attaches to the folder which contains the current folder. In DOS, that folder is usually referred to as the "parent directory". chdir 1:\ attaches to the root folder of the start-up volume. chdir 2:sub1\sub2 attaches to the sub2 folder contained in sub1, where sub1 is a folder contained in the current folder of volume 2. cd "\desktop folder" attaches to the folder which contains items displayed on the desktop of the current volume. Frequently occurring errors E27: File or directory not found The requested folder could not be found. Perhaps it exists but on a different volume. CLOSE closes a file opened with the command OPEN. Syntax close fileID Parameters fileID is the file-identification number returned by OPEN. MacDOS vs DOS DOS does not support CLOSE. Notes Errors CLOSE does not generate an error message if it fails to close a file. The intent is to encourage you to be on the safe side and perhaps close the files more than once rather than not at all. Examples close 3 CLOSE %FileID% Frequently occurring errors E13: Syntax: invalid arguments The fileID was not a number. Perhaps you passed a variable name without enclosing it between percent signs, or the variable contained an alphabetic string. See Also OPEN, READ CLS clears the MacDOS window. Syntax cls MacDOS vs DOS The two implementations are identical. CONFIRM directs MacDOS to ask for confirmation before overwriting or removing existing files. Syntax confirm [ ON | OFF ] Parameters [ ON | OFF ] CONFIRM ON directs MacDOS to ask confirmation. CONFIRM OFF directs MacDOS to stop asking for confirmation. Without parameters, CONFIRM reports the current setting. MacDOS vs DOS DOS does not support CONFIRM. Examples confirm ON confirm oFf CONFIRM >aFile COPY copies one or more files between locations. Both data and resource forks are copied. Syntax copy source [,...] [destination] [/A] [/C=creator] [/D] [/P] [/R] [/T=file type] [/U] [/V] Parameters source [,...] is a name preceded by an absolute or relative path which specifies the file or group of files to be copied. A group of files is identified via a wildcarded filename or a folder name. To copy several sources, you can specify them one after the other separated by commata. destination is a name preceded by an absolute or relative path which specifies the file or folder to which the source[s] are to be copied. Switches /A directs MacDOS to append files to the destination file, so that its initial content is preserved. This switch only takes effect when the destination is an individual file. /C=creator specifies that only files of a particular creator are to be copied. Note that no spaces are allowed on either side of the equal sign and that the creator string is four characters long. Therefore, if a creator includes spaces, you must double quote the switch (eg. copy \ "/c=ABC " copies all the files created by 'ABC ' in the root folder). /D specifies that only data forks are to be copied. Nevertheless, when both /D and /R are ON, MacDOS behaves as if they were both OFF; ie. it copies both forks. /P prompts you for confirmation before overwriting existing destination files. /R specifies that only resource forks are to be copied. Nevertheless, when both /D and /R are ON, MacDOS behaves as if they were both OFF; ie. it copies both forks. /T=file type specifies that only files of a particular type (eg. TEXT) are to be copied. Note that no spaces are allowed on either side of the equal sign and that the file type is four characters long. Therefore, if a file type includes spaces, you must double quote the switch (eg. copy \ "/t=ABC " copies all the files of type 'ABC ' in the root folder). /U specifies that source files overwrite existing destination files only if the source was updated more recently. /V re-reads destination files to verify that they have been copied correctly. MacDOS vs DOS Source When you specify several sources in DOS, you must separate them by plus signs. DOS then appends them to each other in a very complex way. With MacDOS, you separate the sources with commata and MacDOS merges them only if you specify a single file as destination. Destination Wildcarded destinations are illegal in MacDOS. This limitation is mainly due to the fact that wildcarding is more powerful in MacDOS than in DOS. The matching of source and destination wildcarded identifiers would have become very complex and too difficult to use. Copying empty files Unlike DOS, MacDOS copies zero-length files. Switches MacDOS provides several switches which are not available in DOS but does not provide the /A/B switches to distinguish ASCII and binary copying. MacDOS always performs binary copies. Merging into one of the sources When several files are merged into a single file which coincides with one of the sources, MacDOS overwrites that source with the result of the merging. Unlike DOS, MacDOS performs correctly regardless of whether the destination file coincides with the first source or with one of the following sources. Updating the date/time In DOS, the command "copy source+,," assigns the current date/time to a file. With MacDOS, you can achieve the same result through the switch /D of the RENAME command. Notes Commata between source files The comma is only allowed between source files. Therefore, a list of sources must not terminate with a comma. Creators, file types, and finder flags When copying a file, MacDOS assigns to the destination the same creator, file type, and finder flags. This is also true when several files are merged into a single destination file, but only if all individual source files to be merged have identical parameters. When this is not the case, the parameters which are not identical are replaced by defaults. The default for both creator and file type is ????, while the default for the finder flags is all- zeroes. For example, when several text files with different creators are merged into a single file, the new file has a ???? creator but is of type TEXT. Dates When copying files, MacDOS assigns to the destinations the same creation and modify dates of the corresponding sources. When several files are merged into one destination, MacDOS ignores the source dates and sets the destination date to the current date and time on copy completion. The /U switch You can use the switch /U to implement a simple backup batch program, as only files updated after the last COPY are actually copied. Order of copying To know the order in which groups of files are copied, execute a DIR command with no sorting options. This might be important when several files are merged into one. Copying of resource forks Note that MacDOS does not merge resource forks when concatenating files. Therefore, it really only makes sense to append data forks. If you do concatenate files which have resource forks, the resource forks appended to the first one will not be accessible via ResEdit or similar editors. Examples In all the following examples, \Dir1 contains: "FILE1.TXT", "FILE1 TXT", "FILE2 TXT", "FI TXT", "FI BLA", "FILE1 BLA", "FILE3 BLA", "FILE1 ZAP", "FILE3 ZAP", and folder "Dir2", while Dir2 is empty. The attach point is Dir2. COPY Dir1\*.* Dir2 then contains FILE1.TXT COPY "Dir1\FILE3 ZAP" Dir1\ZZZ Dir2 remains empty, but a copy of "FILE3 ZAP" named ZZZ is made in Dir1 COPY "Dir1\*1 *" ZZZ Dir2 then contains ZZZ, which is the result of concatenating "FILE1 TXT", "FILE1 BLA", and "FILE1 ZAP" COPY DIR1\*3*, Dir1\*2* Z23 Dir2 then contains Z23, which is the result of concatenating "FILE3 BLA", "FILE3 ZAP", and "FILE2 TXT" COPY Dir1\*2*,Dir1\*1.* Dir1\FILE1.TXT Dir2 remains empty, but the file "FILE2 TXT" is appended to FILE1.TXT in Dir1. COPY Dir1 Dir2 or COPY Dir1\FI* Dir2 or COPY ..\*?*?* \Dir1\Dir2 Dir2 then contains "FILE1.TXT", "FILE1 TXT", "FILE2 TXT", "FI TXT", "FI BLA", "FILE1 BLA", "FILE3 BLA", "FILE1 ZAP", and "FILE3 ZAP" Frequently occurring errors E13: Syntax: invalid arguments This error is generated in a number of occasions. Check that the destination argument is either a folder name or a filename without wildcards. Also check that a list of source filenames does not end with a comma, as commata are only allowed between source files. E27: File or directory not found The source parameter did not identify any file at all or one of the folders specified in the path could not be found. Note that creator and file type are case sensitive. Therefore, /T=text will not find any file of type TEXT. E28: Bad switch Perhaps you failed to specify a creator or file type correctly. The equal sign is mandatory and all four characters which form the OSType must be provided. DATE displays and sets the system date and the date format. MacDOS uses the format set through DATE whenever it needs to display a date (starting a LOG file, in a DIR listing, etc.). Syntax date [format | date] Parameters format is a string which specifies order and number of digits of year, month, and day. It also specifies the separators to be used between the fields. The default format is yyyy/mm/dd. The characters 'y', 'm', and 'd' used to specify the date format can be in upper or lower case. date is the new system date. It is specified in the current format. The Macintosh only accepts dates in the interval 1904 to 2040. Without parameters, DATE displays the current system date in the current format and prompts you for input. You can reply with either a new date or a new format. If you want to leave both system date and format unchanged, hit the return key. MacDOS vs DOS DOS does not let you change the date format via the command DATE. Notes Parameter or not parameter You will probably execute DATE interactively when changing the system date. In that case, execute DATE without parameter, so that MacDOS displays the current settings before prompting you for the new date. This will ensure that you use the correct format when typing the new date. Format default Format settings are forgotten when you quit MacDOS. Therefore, it is advisable that you write in autoexec.bat a DATE command which specifies your preferred format. Formats in input and in output MacDOS allows some flexibility when a new date is set: • It ignores leading zeroes. For instance, 00001998, 008, and 0000998 all indicate the year 1998 regardless of whether the year is being displayed as 0001998, 1998, or 0000000001998 (with formats yyyyyyy, yyyy, and yyyyyyyyyyyyy respectively). • It accepts a full value also when its number of digits exceeds the field length. For instance, 1998, 998, 00098, and 008 are all valid inputs regardless of whether the format is yyyyyy, yyy, y, or yyy. This applies to months and days as well, so that October, November, and December can be entered when the length of the month field is a single character. • It uses the current year as a base for the new year setting. For instance, if the current year is 1998, some of the possible inputs to change it to 1999 are: 0001999, 09, 99, 1999, 00999, and 0000099. The bottom line is that you can choose the output format for dates without imposing too many constraints in input: as long as you type the correct number of fields in the correct order and with the correct separators, you will probably be ok. Examples The following examples illustrate how to change the date format. The 5th day of December 1949 (my birthday!) is used to show the result of the change. date mm/dd/yy 12/05/49 date dd/MM/yyyy 05/12/1949 date yy-m;ddddd 49-2;00005 date yyYYyyy/dd 0001949/05 date yyy 949 date dd mmKyy 05 12K49 date YY/ 49 As you can see, you can mix and match year, month, and day as you please. Separators must be present and must be single characters but they can be different from each other. The characters yYmMdD0123456789 cannot be used as separators. Some invalid date formats are: mm/dd//yy double separator mmJJdd double separator yyyyDmm 'D' is not a valid separator mm1dd2yy '1' and '2' are not valid separators When setting the system date, you have to follow the current format, but leading zeroes can be omitted. date 10/11/12 sets completely different dates depending on the format and the current date. If the current date is January 1st 1993, here are some possible outcomes: format: mm/dd/yy date: 11th October 1912 format: dd/mm/yy date: 10th November 1912 format: yy/mm/dd date: 11th December 1910 If the current date is January 1st 2001, the same formats result in the following dates: format: mm/dd/yy date: 11th October 2012 format: dd/mm/yy date: 10th November 2012 format: yy/mm/dd date: 11th December 2010 This is due to the fact that MacDOS adds the leading digits of the year on the basis of the current year. The following examples show some valid combinations of date formats and date inputs: format current date date input resulting date yyyy 16 Aug 1993 4 16 Aug 1994 y/m/d 20 Dec 2001 5/4/3 03 Apr 2005 mmmm/dd 07 Mar 1998 1/1 01 Jan 1998 dd-mm-yy 07 Mar 1998 7-3-2000 07 Mar 2000 And here are some examples of date inputs which would be rejected: format current date date input why yyyy 16 Aug 2000 41 year > 2040 y/m/d 20 Dec 2001 5/4/31 April has 30 days yy 29 Feb 1996 8 1998 not a leap year dd;mm;yy 13 Mar 1997 14;3 year is missing dd;mm;yy 13 Mar 1997 14;;98 month is missing mm-dd-yy 13 Mar 1997 0-15-98 day < 1 Frequently occurring errors E47: Invalid date or date format You probably used the wrong separators or omitted some fields. See Also TIME DECR decrements or shortens values of global variables. Syntax decr [+ | -]var [by {number | string}] "decr var", equivalent to "decr +var by 1", decrements by 1 numeric values and removes one character from the end of alphanumeric strings. Parameters [+ | -]var is the name of a global variable, possibly preceded by a plus or a minus sign. No space is allowed between the sign and the variable name. DECR uses the sign to decide whether to perform string operations at the end or at the beginning of var's value. number is a signed integer number. DECR uses number differently depending on whether var contains a numeric value or not: • When var contains a numeric value, DECR replaces it with the value obtained after subtracting number. • When var contains an alphanumeric string which cannot be interpreted as a number, DECR removes from it number characters. The characters are removed from the beginning if the variable name is preceded by the minus sign, otherwise they are removed from its end. When number is negative, DECR actually extends the content of var by appending or prepending spaces (depending on the presence of the minus sign before the variable name). string is an alphanumeric string which cannot be interpreted as a number. DECR removes string from the string contained in var. The string is removed from the beginning if the variable name is preceded by the minus sign, otherwise the string is removed from its end. MacDOS vs DOS DOS does not support DECR. Notes Removing numeric characters When the BY-string is numeric, DECR decrements a numeric variable by that amount or removes that number of characters from an alphanumeric variable. If your purpose is to remove digits from a variable (eg. the terminating '1' from the string "1341"), you can achieve this result by adding an alphabetic character to the variable before removing the digit (ie. INCR var BY x followed by DECR var BY 1x). Decrementing too much When the number of characters that you want to remove from a string is greater than the length of the string, DECR removes all the characters contained in the variable without returning any error. The variable is then automatically removed from the environment if it is user- defined, or reset to its default if it is a system variable. Examples initial var command resulting var "25" decr var "24" "25" decr -var "24" "+25" decr var by 30 "-5" "25" decr var by -3 "28" "-7" decr var by -30 "23" "abcde" decr var "abcd" "abcde" decr -var "bcde" "abcde" decr var by 3 "ab" "abcde" decr var by -1 "abcde " "abcde" decr -var by -3 " abcde" "ab de" decr var by de "ab " "a cde" decr -var by "a " "cde" "abcde" decr +var by 7 var removed "abcde" decr var by abcde var removed "abcde" decr var by fgh fails Frequently occurring errors E63: Requested variable has not been defined You attempted to DECRement a variable that did not exist. Remember that empty variables are automatically removed unless they are system variables. E72: String search failed This error is often due to the fact that DECR is case sensitive. Therefore, the removal of a substring does not succeed if you do not match upper and lower cases sequences. You also get this error if you erroneously typed DECR instead of INCR. See Also INCR, SSTR, TOUPPER DEL, ERASE remove from the system (ie. DELete) one or more files. Syntax del file [/C=creator] [/P] [/T=file type] erase file [/C=creator] [/P] [/T=file type] The two commands are functionally identical. Parameters file is a name preceded by an absolute or relative path which specifies the file or group of files to be deleted. A group of files is identified via a wildcarded filename or a folder name. Switches /C=creator specifies that only files of a particular creator are to be deleted. Note that no spaces are allowed on either side of the equal sign and that the creator string is four characters long. Therefore, if a creator includes spaces, you must double quote the switch (eg. del \ "/c=ABC " deletes all the files created by 'ABC ' in the root folder). /P prompts you for confirmation before deleting each file. /T=file type specifies that only files of a particular type (eg. TEXT) are to be deleted. Note that no spaces are allowed on either side of the equal sign and that the file type is four characters long. Therefore, if a file type includes spaces, you must double quote the switch (eg. del \ "/t=ABC " deletes all the files of type 'ABC ' in the root folder). MacDOS vs DOS The two implementations are identical. Notes Deleting everything Under certain circumstances, MacDOS prompts you for confirmation before beginning execution of the DEL command. This happens when you type one of the following three commands: • DEL * to delete all the files in the current folder. • DEL *.* to delete all the files of the current folder which have a DOS-like name. This particular case has been copied from DOS because DOS users would expect to be prompted. • DEL foldname to delete all the files in the folder named foldname. MacDOS suppresses this prompt while executing in batch or when you request to be prompted before deletion of each individual file (CONFIRM is ON or the DEL option /P is ON). Deleting files vs removing folders DEL only operates on files. Therefore, when you pass to DEL the name of a folder, MacDOS deletes the files contained in the folder rather than the folder itself. If you want to remove a folder, you have to use RMDIR. Trashing vs DELeting DELetion is equivalent to moving files to the Trash Can and then emptying the trash. That is, DELeted files are totally removed from the system. If you want to have a behaviour similar to the Macintosh Finder, use the batch program trash.bat included as example in the MacDOS package. Examples DEL oldDocs /t=WDBN /p deletes all MS-Word documents in the folder named oldDocs. It also asks confirmation before deleting each file. DEL * /t=TEXT /c=MSWD deletes all text files produced with MS-Word in the current folder. DEL 1:\Trash removes all the files contained in the Trash Can of the start-up volume. DEL 2:\*old* deletes all the files in the root of volume 2 whose name contains the string "old" (watch out; such a command also deletes files like myGoldenFile, FOLDERlist, Soldano.txt, etc. which are not necessarily old). Frequently occurring errors E27: File or directory not found The file parameter did not identify any file at all. Perhaps, you asked to delete the contents of a folder but the folder did not contain any file. See Also RD, RMDIR