Notes

The Handy DOS Utility Package

This is a read-me file that I distributed with a package of utilities. The following file describes each program briefly.
The Handy DOS Utility Package
Charles Curley

        Welcome to the Handy DOS Utility Package. These are programs I
have found useful over the years. Some I wrote, others I found on BBSs or
got from other sources. All are short programs that can make life with DOS
much easier. Use as many or as few as you want. All are public domain, so
there is no registration fee for any of them.

        Some of these have functions which have been incorporated into
recent version of MS-DOS. These programs are easier to use because they
provide those functions without command line switches.

allbut.exe
        This program can be used to reduce the memory in your transient
program area. It is useful for testing programs to see how they run in
limited space. You will have to reboot (see reboot, below) to remove it.

caplock.com
        Use this program to turn on the caps lock key. This program and
nolock, below, control the state of the cap locks key from batch files.
Together, they are useful for programs that require the cap locks key in
one state, such as IBM CAD.

cmps.exe
        This program will compare, byte for byte, two given files. It is
very useful for comparing two Forth screens files. Run it with no
arguments (nothing else on the command line) for more information.

doset.exe
        This program generates mandelbrot sets. Run it with no arguments
for an explanation of how to use it and a suggested starting point.
Warning: this is a disk space hog!

fct.exe
        Use this program to count the number of bytes in the files
specified by the argument, if any. The default argument is *.*. Only one
optional argument is recognized, a file specification. This program
counts the files of a given type. For example, the following command line

fct *.c

counts all the C programs in the current directory.

        Note that the file sizes are returned, not the space occupied on
the disk. To obtain the latter, round each file size up to the next
cluster size. Maybe Version 2 will do that. This program only works in
the current directory.

fn.exe
        To find files use this program. It finds all file names on the
drive. The user may pipe the output for further processing. Options:

        A. No arguments. The program prints out the contents of the
        current directory and all directories below it.

        B. One argument, which is taken as a path. All files in the given
        path and subdirectories are printed out. To force the argument to
        be taken as a path, append a trailing slash ("\") to it.

        C. One argument, which is taken as a file specification. Only
        files meeting that file specification in the current directory and
        lower directories are printed out. To be taken as a file
        specification, the argument must not end in a slash ("\").

        D. Two arguments, a path followed by a file specification. These
        must be separated by at least one space. The path specifies the
        starting directory. All files in the given path and lower
        directories which meet the file spec are printed out.

        This program can be dangerous, as it can and will find hidden and
system files and directories. When used with the program rms (see below),
it will remove them as well! If you are planning to use fn with rms,
preview the results by running it first alone, or by piping the results
into more (a dos utility) The syntax:

fn <path> <filespec>                    to see the results
fn <path> <filespec> | more             to see the results with pauses
fn <path> <filespec> | rms              to delete the files and
                                        directories

Use the F3 key to make the command line re-appear so you can edit for
each new command.

Four flags are supported. Preceed the flags with a dash (-) or a
slash (/). Flags must be combined, e.g: -adl

        -?      Help, prints out a summary of the commands.
        -a      Attributes, preceeds each entry in the list with a set
                of file attributes, such as Hidden and Modified.
        -d      Date, prints out the last modified date and time of each
                file before the file name.
        -l      Length, prints out the length of the file before each
                file name. In addition, the /l switch causes the total
                length of all the files to be printed out at the end of
                the program.

fn -dl <path> <filespec>                to see the date and lengths of the
                                        files selected.

ln.exe
        This program is used to format a text file for printing. It works
with pnt, below. ln puts line numbers and spaces in the beginning of each
line. Use indirection to process a file. It will also tell you the
longest line length encountered. The use may print the resultant file, or
may edit it to delete portions of the file which are not of interest,
e.g., revision histories, routines not changed.

lptx.com
        This program re-directs printers to files. Run it with a question
mark (?) to get more information. It is useful for processing a printout
further.

ls.exe
        This program makes a listing of the contents of the current
directory. DOS's DIR command prints out extraneous material, such as the
volume label and serial number, etc. ls prints out only the names of the
files, so the result may readily be redirected to a file for further
processing, e.g., building batch files. Subdirectories are shown by a
trailing slash ("\"). An optional file specification may be used to limit
the output to files of interest. Unlike fn, above, this program only
works in the current directory.

mapmem.com
        This program shows a map of main memory. It will tell you what
terminate and stay resident (TSR) programs are already loaded on your
system.

nolock.com
        nolock turns off the caps lock and num lock keys on the keyboard.
Useful in batch files, especially AUTOEXEC.BAT. See caplock, above.

pnt.exe
        This is a partial implementation of the Unix utility, pr. It
prepares one or more files for printing. Inserts form feeds and a time
and date stamp at the top of each page. A banner may be specified by
enclosing it in double quotes ("), and preceding it with a dash (-). The
default page is 58 lines of text and the header. To change the number of
lines of text, precede the new count with a dash.

        For example, to print all the C source in the current directory at
54 lines per page, with a banner:

pnt *.c -54 -"This is a test banner" > lpt1

        Use this with ln, above, to get useful printouts of your source
code.

ppage.com
        This program forces a form feed on line printer 1 (LPT1). It's
easier than getting up and wrestling with the printer.

reboot.com
        reboot reboots the system. Use it to automate reconfiguring your
system with or without some terminate and stay resident (TSR) programs.
For example, some games require a completely 'clean' system with no TSRs,
while a business user might want her fax program resident. One can write
batch files which change the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files, and then
reboot the computer to effect the changes.

rms.com
        This utility removes typed in file specifications. You can pipe
the results of other programs into rms by having it follow the pipe
symbol on the command line. See fn above for an example. Warning: this
program will remove (delete) hidden, system, or read- only files! It can
be downright vicious!

To quickly clean off a floppy diskette:

fn a:\ | rms

This line will kill off system files such as IO.SYS and read-only files
such as COMMAND.COM on DOS version 6.0 and higher. This program will not
delete directories which have files or subdirectories in them.

upchuck.exe
        Use this program to compare the times and dates on two given
files, and copy the more recent one into the older. It is useful for
sneakernet updates. Run it with no arguments for more information.

upchucks.exe
        This program walks through the given source directory. It compares
the time and date on each file in it with the time and date on the same
file in the destination directory. It copies the more recent one into the
older. Useful for sneakernet updates. Run with no arguments for more
info. This program will create empty subdirectories in the destination
directory. It will create the destination path, if needed. Unlike DOS'
xcopy, it will also copy hidden and system files. The syntax is always:

upchucks source destination

where source and destination are path specifications. If you want to
specify the current directory, use a period ("."). E.g, to update the A
drive floppy from the current directory:

upchucks a:\*.* .

whereis.com
        Use this program to scan the current disk from the root directory
for a given file specification. Compare with fn above.

z.com
        This is a small, somewhat buggy text editor with its own quirks.
Its interface is similar to that of WordStar.

Charles Curley