============================================================================== [ THE KAY*FOG RBBS | CPM-CC04.ART | posted 01/18/86 | 263 lines 14k ] The CP/M Connection Originally published in by Computer Currents Ted Silveira 2550 9th Street (copyright and all rights reserved) Berkeley, CA 94710 April 23, 1985 BASIC UTILITIES All computer users have to spend part of their time housekeeping-- checking disk space, formatting new disks, cleaning out dead files, backing up good ones, moving others from disk to disk. Fortunately, there are some public domain CP/M programs that make these jobs easier. These programs are basic utilities that no one, from novice to expert, should be without. (In fact, they were among the first programs to appear in the MS-DOS public domain after the IBM PC came out. People who migrated from CP/M to IBM just refused to give up these timesavers they'd gotten so used to.) FIVE BASIC UTILITIES SD98 (Super Directory, version 9.8) SD gets the vote as my "most used" program. It's a small program with a number of options, but its main function is simple. It shows the directory of a disk, with the files sorted into alphabetical order, and gives the size of each file, the free space left on the disk, the space used on the disk, and the number of files (see Listing 1 for an example). With one command, SD answers the three most common questions: Where's that file? How big is it? How much space is left? Until I got SD, I had to use CP/M's DIR to answer the first question and STAT to answer the second and third. But DIR doesn't alphabetize its display of files, and STAT is 6K and slow, with a display that's hard to read if your disk has many files. SD is fast and small (2K, if you reassemble to eliminate unneeded options, about 4K otherwise). And it has a very clean display, which you can even modify to list files vertically, in four columns, rather than horizontally as in Listing 1. Good-bye STAT and DIR. I now put SD on all my program disks. SD also has some special options. It can show every disk and user area in one command. It can pause the display after every screenful. It can show system files or not. It can adjust the width of its screen display. And it can write its output into a disk file. People with hard disks will find the first two useful, Osborne owners the third, and almost everyone the last. You'll also find other directory programs in the public domain: D, S, XDIR, and others, some of which are SD masquerading under another name. All will do the job for most people. People who have hard disks will probably want the original SD. SD98 is the latest, but I've used versions back past SD78--they work fine. UNERA30 (UNERAse, version 3.0) UNERASE is my least-used program, but I put it on every program disk, too. As its name suggests, UNERASE recovers erased files. If you've ever typed ERA *.BAS when you meant to type ERA *.BAK, you'll understand the peace of mind this program gives. It's a life-saver. When you first erase a file, it doesn't get wiped off your disk. Instead, CP/M goes to the disk directory and marks the file as erased, making the disk space the file occupied available for use. UNERASE simply goes to the disk directory and marks the file active again. Your file will be recovered, safe and sound, as long nothing else has been written to that disk. If something has been written to the disk in the meantime, there's a very good chance that it has overwritten your erased file. The time to use UNERASE is immediately after an accidental erasure. UNERASE only takes up 2K and is worth many times its weight in gold. UNERA30 is the latest version; I've also used earlier versions successfully. FBAD60 (Find BAD sectors, version 6.0) FINDBAD is another insurance program. It checks a formatted disk for bad sectors and "locks out" any it finds by writing them into a special file named [UNUSED].BAD. As long as the bad sectors are in this file, CP/M won't try to use them. I use FINDBAD to check every disk after formatting. Though formatting programs catch most bad sector problems, FINDBAD has found a few that have slipped through (saving me certain grief). I also use FINDBAD periodically on any disk that is aging or behaving suspiciously. Disks do deteriorate, and though disk errors can happen for various reasons--such as a disk not being seated properly in the drive--I always like to check. FINDBAD's disk testing is non-destructive: you can test a disk without damaging any files on it. FBAD60 is the latest version. The earlier versions I've tried have worked well, but FBAD60 gives you a choice of either checking another disk or exiting to CP/M when it's done, a good feature if you're checking several disks. NSWP207 (New SWeeP, version 2.07) If SD is the most used program on my disks, NSWP is the most useful. It's my major housekeeping tool, and I'd hate to be without it. If you take a look at the NSWP menu shown in Listing 2, you'll get an idea what it can do. It does not slice, dice, or julienne, but it does nearly everything else. You can copy, rename, and delete individual files. You can tag files for mass copying or deletion and rename groups of files using wildcards (renaming *.OBJ to *.COM, for example). You can squeeze files into a special compressed (but generally unreadable form) for storage and then unsqueeze them again. You can check disk space, set file attributes (like read-only or system), send files to the printer, and view text files on the screen, even squeezed ones. Just try getting PIP to do all that. Perhaps best of all, once NSWP is running, you can remove disks and insert new ones as often as you want; you never have to exit the program just to hit ^C. This feature alone makes NSWP indispensable. When I changed my computer from single-sided to double-sided drives, I spent a long afternoon with NSWP transferring all my files onto new disks. Without NSWP, I would have been barking mad long before I finished. As you can see in Listing 2, NSWP presents the files on a disk one by one in a vertical column, in alphabetical order. You can act on the file your cursor is next to and can move either up or down the list. The menu scrolls off the screen as the list grows, of course, but you can get it back at any time by typing a question mark (?). You can back out of any command up until the last moment, and NSWP always asks for verification before deleting files. NSWP207 is the latest version. It takes up 12K on your disks and is worth every bit; you'll never go back to PIP once you've used it. There are similar programs you may run across, but most don't bear comparison. WASH is older than NSWP and not as flexible. SWEEP is very similar to NSWP (which was modeled on it) but is slower and much bigger (28K or so). The only other program you may want to consider is DISK7, which shows up in two versions, DISK76 and DISK77B (the differences are minor). DISK7 doesn't have NSWP's squeeze/unsqueeze, file attribute, mass rename, or mass delete commands, and some of its other commands are not as flexible. But it has all of NSWP's most used functions, it's equally fast, and it takes up only 4K on your disk. If your disks are crammed full, DISK7 may be for you. THREE MORE PROGRAMS FOR SERIOUS COLLECTORS If you get serious about collecting public domain software, there are three more programs you'll want in your basic kit. SQ111 (SQueeze, version 1.11), USQ120 (UnSQueeze, version 1.20) These two make a set. SQ squeezes a file into a special compressed form, which may be as little as 70-75% of its original size. There are programs, like NSWP, that will let you view squeezed text files, but you can't edit them or do anything else useful--they're mainly for storage. USQ, as you've guessed, unsqueezes a squeezed file, returning it to its original form. USQ and SQ use an error-checking system to make sure that a newly-unsqueezed file is identical to the original unsqueezed file. And both allow you to copy a file to another disk while you squeeze or unsqueeze it. You need to be able to squeeze and unsqueeze files because all RCP/Ms (Remote CP/M bulletin board systems) and even some users' groups squeeze many of their files to save space. To use these files, you'll have to unsqueeze them, and you'll probably want to squeeze your own files for backup storage. NSWP can handle these chores, of course, but at times, SQ and USQ are handier. For one thing, you can use them with CP/M's SUBMIT program to do batch processing; you can't do that with NSWP. Try to get the latest versions of these programs, SQ111 and USQ120. These versions were written in assembly language, so they're much smaller and faster than earlier versions, which were written in the C language. You may also find these programs under their original names, NSQ111 (for New SQueeze) and NUSQ120 (for New UnSQueeze). The RCP/M or users' group where you get them should also have a file called SQUEEZE.DOC, SQ/USQ.DOC, or something similar, which explains the ins and outs of squeezed files. DE-LBR (DE-LiBRary) Along with squeezed files, you'll also need to be able to handle library files, which have the filetype LBR and are used heavily on RCP/Ms for convenience and compactness. A LBR file is really several smaller files gathered together in a collection that CP/M treats as a single large file. To use the LBR file, you must be able to extract all the member files from the library; you can't do much with them until you do. The simplest way to deal with LBR files is to use a program called DE- LBR, which does only one thing--extract member files from a LBR file with little fuss. Two other programs, NULU11 and LU310, let you build and rearrange LBR files as well as extract members, but most people have no reason to build LBR files, though they can be useful on a hard disk. If you want to build libraries, NULU11 is the best. For most people, DE-LBR is plenty. WHERE TO GET THESE PROGRAMS All these programs are available in some version on every RCP/M I've ever seen; they're basic stock. They'll also be available through any users' group that has a software library, though the RCP/Ms are more likely to have the latest versions. If you don't have a modem to call the RCP/Ms, and you don't belong to a users' group or know anyone who does, then scratch together $20 or so and join either FOG or PicoNet, both of which have large public domain libraries available in a variety of disk formats. You can also look in the "Networks and User Groups" section in Computer Currents for groups catering to specific machines, like BAMDUA for Morrows and BAKUP for Kaypros. Those of you who also have MS-DOS computers will find versions of all these programs, under similar names, in the MS-DOS public domain. FOG PicoNet P.O. Box 3474 P.O. Box 391566 Daly City, CA 94015 Mountain View, CA 94039 (415) 755-4140 (408) 847-0867 Listing 1 (Caption: "Typical display from SD showing sorted list of files and file sizes, along with number of files, space used, and free space on disk.") -WS .110 2K | ABBREVS .TXT 2K | BR .COM 2K | CAPSEX .TXT 2K CLEANUP .COM 14K | CLEANUP .OPT 2K | FIXKEY .COM 20K | FOGINDEX.COM 12K HRDSFT .COM 2K | MAGE31 .COM 2K | MAINDICT.CMP 138K | MARKFIX .COM 4K NAMES .CMP 6K | NOTE .FIL 2K | NSWP .COM 12K | PASSIVE .TXT 2K PATTERNS.TXT 16K | PHRASE .COM 6K | PHRASE .OPT 2K | PRINT .FIL 2K REVIEW .COM 6K | SD .COM 2K | SMARTKEY.COM 6K | SPELL .COM 4K SV .COM 2K | TW .COM 4K | TWDFAULT.CMP 2K | UNERASE .COM 2K UPDICT .CMP 12K | WC .COM 2K | WS .COM 16K | WS2 .DEF 2K WSMSGS .OVR 28K | WSOVLY1 .OVR 34K >>> drive:A user:0 files:34 space used:370k (14k free) <<< Listing 2 (Caption: "Typical display from NSWP207, showing menu of functions and partial list of files on disk.") NSWEEP - Version 2.07 07/17/1984 (c) Dave Rand, 1983, 1984 Edmonton, Alberta A - Retag files | Q - Squeeze/Unsqueeze tagged files B - Back one file | R - Rename file(s) C - Copy file | S - Check remaining space D - Delete file | T - Tag file for mass E - Erase T/U files | U - Untag file F - Find file | V - View file L - Log new disk/user | W - Wildcard tag of files M - Mass file copy | Y - Set file status. P - Print file | ? - Display this help X - Exit to CP/M | cr, sp - Forward one file 370K in 34 files. 14K free. Tagged files = 0K ( 0K). 1. A0: -WS .110 2K : 2. A0: ABBREVS .TXT 2K : 3. A0: BR .COM 2K : 4. A0: CAPSEX .TXT 2K : 5. A0: CLEANUP .COM 14K : 6. A0: CLEANUP .OPT 2K : ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ted Silveira is a freelance writer and contributing editor to several computer-oriented publications. He appreciates suggestions or feedback and can be reached through the KAY*FOG RBBS (415)285-2687 and CompuServe (72135,1447) or by mail to 2756 Mattison Lane, Santa Cruz, CA 95065. ------------------------- End of CPM-CC04.ART Text -------------------------