BCOPY.COM
Command

Douglas Boling
1989 No. 1 (Utilities)


Purpose:A memory-resident utility that copies files in the background so
the user does not have to wait until the copying is completed before continuing
his work.

Format:[d:][path]BCOPY [source [target]] [/X][/U]

Remarks:The source and target parameters have the same usage in BCOPY as
in the DOS COPY command, save that if the source is a directory, BCOPY will not
automatically assume an implicit \*.*. DOS wildcard characters (* and ?) are
supported, however, and a source filename need not be repeated as part of the
target filespec unless the name is to be changed. If initially run with the /X
command line switch, BCOPY will use one page of Expanded memory for its data
buffer, thus saving 4 KB of conventional RAM. Run with the /U switch, BCOPY
will uninstall itself from memory, if possible. BCOPY will always complete all
copying tasks in its queue before deinstallation.

BCOPY does not support the DOS COPY /A and /B switches: it makes
straight binary file copies and does not stop at a Ctrl-Z end-of-file marker.
Nor does BCOPY allow using the plus (+) sign to combine multiple source files
into a single copy. Note: unlike the DOS COPY command, BCOPY does not return a
Target Disk Full error message, so care must be exercised to ensure that
adequate storage space is available. Since the principal use of BCOPY is to
load files to a RAMdisk during the execution of an AUTOEXEC or other batch file,
however, this should not present a problem in normal use.

Available for downloading from PC MagNet (see the BCOPY by Modem
sidebar), BCOPY.COM is already compiled and ready to run. BCOPY.BAS will
automatically create BCOPY.COM when run once in BASIC. To create BCOPY.COM from
the BCOPY.ASM source code requires use of a macro assembler (IBM or Microsoft,
Version 2 or later) and the following commands:

MASM BCOPY;
LINK BCOPY;
EXE2BIN BCOPY BCOPY.COM;