Category : OS/2 Files
Archive   : AMOS111.ZIP
Filename : AMOS.DOC

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Copenhagen, Denmark, 27. jan. 1994

About this document
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This document is structured into several parts.
* A Brief Introduction
* A Word of Warning on the use of AMOS
* Benefits of Registering AMOS
* Information to Crackers wishing to look at AMOS
* Disclaimer and Legal Matters
* AMOS User's Guide
* Noteworthy Quirks in AMOS
* Future Plans for AMOS Releases
* Registration/Support Sites

Please refer to CONTENTS.TXT for a complete list of the files contained as

a part of the AMOS archive.


What is AMOS?
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Short version:
--------------
AMOS is a DOS-program, that enables you to read and write your HPFS-formatted
harddisk drives from native DOS.

Long version:
-------------
AMOS is a DOS program for OS/2 users. For the program to have any value, you
need to run an OS/2 system with at least one drive formatted using the HPFS
file system.
The HPFS file system is IBM's shot at a file system, the purpose of which is
to replace the FAT file system, which is outdated, slow and gives only a small
degree of data security.
In spite of all the good things about HPFS, it has at least one major drawback:
HPFS drives cannot be read or written from "real" DOS. Normally, this is no
problem, since OS/2 takes care of all HPFS handling and maintenance. But in
some situations, it would be very nice indeed to have at least some degree of
access to your HPFS-drives from real DOS...

For example:
* You wish to install a patch for OS/2. This normally requires that you
reboot the machine, using the two first disks of OS/2. Using AMOS, you
simply boot DOS, either using a boot disk or Dual Boot/Boot Manager, and
then copy the needed files.
* You have made an error in OS/2's CONFIG.SYS. Sometimes, OS/2 simply halts
the system with the annoying message "Please correct the error and restart
the system". Without AMOS, you once again have to go through the tedious
process of booting the two floppies, after which you discover that IBM has
forgotten to supply a text-mode editor with OS/2.
* You accidentialy deleted an important HPFS-partition using FDISK. Even if
you immediately re-establish the partition, OS/2 cannot read data from the
partition. Most of the time, AMOS can.
* You deleted a partition. This caused the drive-letters to change, and
since these are hardcoded into your CONFIG.SYS file, OS/2 cannot boot.
Only option is to re-install, if OS/2 is located on HPFS. With AMOS, you
simply correct the driveletters in CONFIG.SYS using the built-in editor.
* Something has gone terribly wrong, and you simply cannot make OS/2 boot.
All of your data reside on an inaccessible HPFS-drive, and you cannot get
them away from your HPFS-drive. Use AMOS!
* You simply want to play the newest DOS-game, a game that of course uses
VCPI or some other weird DOS-extender that OS/2 doesn't like. Just start
AMOS, and copy the desired files from your HPFS-drives to your FAT gaming
partition...
* You want to know more about your HPFS-drives. You might want to investigate
EA's, harddisk fragmentation, file fragmentation, etc - and you don't want
to spend several hundred $ on commercial programs less powerful than AMOS.


A Word of Warning - Read This Carefully!
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AMOS is *NOT* perfect. What I have done in AMOS is to reverse engineer HPFS
by looking at HPFS-drives, and deduct the format of HPFS-drives from that
information.

Since this is the case, something has most certainly slipped my attention -
something that may cause you loss of data.

Therefore, use AMOS for what it is made: An emergency tool. AMOS can be
invaluable on the day where you would have lost all of your data, but if you
use it in a production environment, use it with great care.


Benefits of registering
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The unregistered version of AMOS can read your HPFS-drives, but can not make
any changes on them. By registering, you get access to write functions for
HPFS-drives as well.
Most important, when you register, you can EDIT your CONFIG.SYS, even if it
is located on a HPFS-drive.
Further, the unregistered version has a delay of 10 seconds when you start it
up. In the registered version, this delay is removed.

Last, but not least, registering makes me keep the spirits high. If nobody
registers, development of AMOS will of course cease...


Information to crackers
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Most, if not all shareware utilities on the market today, are being "cracked"
by some wise guys who do not wish to pay for their software. This section
is devoted to this kind of people:
* Do NOT try to patch AMOS - it's unique protection scheme makes patching
impossible, and might endanger data on your hard drives.
* Do NOT try to alter AMOS.EXE in any way; AMOS will probably detect this, and
abort with an error message.
* Do NOT distribute any altered versions of AMOS. When an unsuspecting user
tries to register an altered version, AMOS refuses to register. If you
have only a cracked version of AMOS, you can always get the newest version
by download from the BBS, or by file requesting AMOS from the below
mentioned systems.
! Some wise guy cracked an earlier version of AMOS. He only succeeded in
removing the delay from the startup-sequence, and fortunately no harm has
come from his attempt (As far as I know). I do, however, strongly advice
against use of any such cracked copies of AMOS. After all, AMOS accesses
your harddisk at the lowest level - one single byte of code changed by
an incompetent (or unlucky!) cracker might spoil it! Register instead 😉


Disclaimer and legal matters
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The AMOS software and documentation is subject to the following licensing
terms and conditions.

* AMOS is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties,
expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties
of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author
assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may
result from the use of the AMOS software.

* AMOS is distributed as a "shareware program" and is provided at
no charge to the user for evaluation for a period not extending 30
days, after which You are required to register. Feel free to share
it with your friends, but please do not give it away altered or as
part of another system. The essence of "user-supported" software is
to provide personal computer users with quality software without
high prices, and yet to provide incentive for programmers to
continue to develop new products.

* The AMOS distribution package, all programs, the documentation
and support files are copyrighted 1993-94 by Allan Mertner. All
rights are reserved. You may copy this package for backup purposes.
You may also copy and share unmodified copies of the whole
distribution package, providing that the copyright notice is
reproduced and included on all copies.

* You may not sell the product for a fee and/or distribute the product
along with other products without written permission, nor may you
modify or remove the Copyright Notices from the programs or the
documentation files. User clubs, if they are NOT commercial, are
allowed to ask a small amount of money for distribution and storage
when they want to share this package amongst their members.

* It is expressively forbidden to modify, adapt, translate, reverse
engineer, decompile and/or disassemble the software in the AMOS
package. Patching the medium at places that carry the software is
seen as a program change and is also forbidden.

* The registered software is licensed to run in conjunction with one
user and one PC only.


AMOS user's guide
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Basically, AMOS is a command shell like the one you know from DOS or OS/2.
When you first start it, you get a command prompt that looks like the OS/2
prompt, and should look something
like this:

[C:\]_

Sometime in the future, it is my plan to make AMOS a device driver, which
simply mounts your HPFS-drives for use with DOS. Actually, work on the
device driver is progressing pretty well...

Do NOT try to make any write operations using AMOS in an OS/2 DOS box. OS/2
does not permit direct sector writes from DOS-boxes (Reports "Unknown
function", which I find rather cute). If you do try, AMOS will kindly
remind you that writes in DOS-boxes is not possible.
All other functions do perform very well in DOS-boxes, though.

For now, just use your normal DOS and OS/2 commands. DIR works. COPY, DEL
and TYPE do as well. With OS/2 wildcards. Even EDIT works, given that the
file you wish to edit is no larger than 30k (I made this primarily for
CONFIG.SYS-editing). Try it out. If in doubt, try it anyway 🙂

Important note on the DEL command: DEL asks for NO confirmation - it simply
deletes the specified files or directory.

For a complete list of all commands, switches, and functions, please refer to
the list below.

Syntax Description
CD Change Directory. Changes the current directory to Arg, if
this is a valid directory. If not, AMOS will issue a cryptic
error message.
Example: CD \TEST changes to the \TEST dir
CD ..\TEST

CLS Clears the screen

COPY Copies the file(s) A1 to the directory A2. It is possible to
copy more than one file using wildcards, but it is NOT
possible to copy to new filenames. With COPY, the /n-switch
is valid, and reverses the file-selection.
Example: COPY *.EXE C:\TEST copies all EXE-files to C:\TEST
COPY *.TXT C:\ /n copies all but TXT-files to C:\
COPY F:* copies all files on F: to the
current drive and directory

DATE Shows current date, and lets you edit it.

DIR Displays a listing of files and directories. As in OS/2, you
can specify a directory and/or wildcards as argument. DIR
accepts some switches as well, some of which are unique to
AMOS:
/s lists all subdirectories as well
/n reverses the file-selection
/p pauses the listing when the screen is full
/d shows directories only
/f show fragmentation information (Both FAT and HPFS-volumes)
Fragmentation occurs, when a file is not located in
contiguous sectors on the hard disk, and the number
shown is the number of sector-runs a particular file or
directory occupies.
Example: DIR *.EXE shows all EXE-files in current dir
DIR *.EXE /n shows all but EXE-files
DIR /d /n shows all files, and no directories
DIR /f shows all files, including fragmen-
tation information

DEL Deletes files specified as argument. Wildcards valid. Please
note, that AMOS asks for *NO* confirmation, even if you write
"DEL *"!
If you write DEL name, where name is a directory, all files in
that directory will be erased. No asking.
You can use /n with DEL to reverse file selections.
Example: DEL *.EXE Remove all EXE-files
DEL C:\*.EXE /n Remove all but EXE-files on C:\
DEL E:\OS2 Remove the file E:\OS2. If E:\OS2
is a directory, remove ALL files
in that directory.

EA Shows Extended Attributes defined for file(s) specified as
Arg. The listing includes the names and types of all EA's
defined for the file/directory, and sometimes the value as
well. If the value is not shown, EA writes
< xxx bytes not shown >, indicating the size of the EA.
This command works on HPFS drives only.
Example: EA E:\* Shows a list of all files and dirs
having associated EA's, like this:
File OS!2 2.1 Desktop :
EA '.ICONPOS' <200 bytes not shown>
EA '.LONGNAME' [String] OS/2 2.1 Desktop
EA '.CLASSINFO' <193 bytes not shown>
File RemDup.cmd :
EA '.TYPE' [String] Plain Text
EA 'REXX.METACONTROL' [UserEA] <0C><00>OS/2 ...
EA 'REXX.LITERALPOOL' <539 bytes not shown>
EA 'REXX.VARIABLEBUF' <223 bytes not shown>
EA 'REXX.TOKENSIMAGE' <2382 bytes not shown>

EDIT Starts the internal textfile-editor on the file specified as
argument. The editor is a simple fullscreen editor, with only
the most basic of editing functions - enough for CONFIG.SYS.
It is not possible to create a new file using EDIT - you can
only edit existing files.
Editor keys:
ESC Exits the editor.
Cursor keys Moves the cursor around the screen 🙂
PgUp Advance cursor one page
PgDn One page back
Home Go to start of line
End Go to end of line
Ctrl-PgUp Goes to top of file
Ctrl-PgDn Goes to end of file
Ctrl-Left Word left
Ctrl-Right Word right

When you press ESC to exit the editor, you will be asked if
you want to save the changes (y), discard them (n), or return
to the editor (ESC).

EXIT Exits from AMOS to DOS.

FREE Shows a freespace map of the current drive. Using this
feature, you can get an overview of the level of freespace
fragmentation on the drive.
This feature also works for FAT drives.
The first argument is the desired drive-letter; the second is
an inverse magnification factor M between 0 and 10.
When using an M-factor of 0, one character in the map
represents 8 sectors on the disk, when M=1, one character
equals 16 sectors, etc. When M=10, information on 8192
sectors are represented in one character.
If you supply no parameter, AMOS will prompt you for a
magnification factor.
Example: FREE D: 4
FREE 8
[E:\]free E: 8
Free space map of drive D:
One character represents 2048 sectors
"Û" represents all used, "ú" all free...
ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³±±ÛÛÛÛ±±Û±±±Û±Û±Û°±°±úúú±±±ÛÛÛÛÛ±Û±±±ÛÛÛ±ÛÛ±Û±±±Û±Û±±±±±±±ÛÛÛÛ±±³
³±±±±±Û±±±ÛÛÛ±Û±±±±°ú°úúú±ÛÛÛÛÛÛ±±±úúúúúú±úúúúúú°ÛÛÛÛÛÛ±±°úúúúúú°³
³°úúúúúúú°úúúúúú°°úúúúúúú°úúúúúú°°úúúúúúú°úúúúúú°°úúúúúúú°úúúúúú°³
³°úúúúúúú°úúúúúú°°úúúúúúú°úúúúúú°°úúúúúúú° ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

In the example output shown above, a magnification of 8 is
chosen - else the example would have taken up a bit more of
space. The dotted (.) spaces represent 2048 consecutive free
sectors, and the filled spaces (Û) represent blocks of 2048
sectors all used. The ones in between shows that some of the
sectors are occupied.

HELP Shows a short description of all available commands.

MAP Shows a listing of all partitions. The list includes the
type of each drive, current directory, total drive space and
free space. For HPFS drives, the time of the last CHKDSK
operation is noted as well.
Example: MAP on my machine gives the following output:
Drive Size/kB Free/kB Type Last CHKDSK /F
C:\ 118,668 75,420 BIGDOS n/a for FAT
D:\ 160,618 36,086 HPFS 11-11-93 15.35
E:\ 1,349,428 74,897 HPFS 11-11-93 15.36
F:\ 208,813 51,681 HPFS 11-11-93 15.39
G:\ 8,001 7,812 HPFS Never

AMOS says "Never" to Last CHKDSK /F date, if the drive has
not been CHKDSK'ed since it was formatted HPFS.

RD Removes the directory , if is a valid, empty
directory. If not, AMOS tries to explain what went wrong.
Example: RD C:\DOS Removes C:\DOS
RD TEST Removes TEST
RD OS2* Error message: Wildcards not allowed.

TOUCH Sets the file date and time for all files and directories
matched by to current time. This command works with
HPFS drives only.
Switches to use with TOUCH:
/n Reverses the file-selection
/d Selects directories only

TREE Shows a list of all directories from and below . Abort
by pressing .
Example:
[C:\OS2\DLL]tree
139 files: C:\OS2\DLL
2 files: C:\OS2\DLL\DISPLAY
3 files: C:\OS2\DLL\IBMNULL
5 files: C:\OS2\DLL\HP
44 files: C:\OS2\DLL\HP\PCL
3 files: C:\OS2\DLL\HP\PCL\LASERJET
4 files: C:\OS2\DLL\PLOTTERS

Total files in listed directories:
200 file(s) 10,546,247 bytes used

TIME Shows current time in an editable format. Allows you to
change system time...

TYPE

Types all files matching to the screen. Use with
textfiles only, since all other files look weird on
the display. Abort the listing by pressing .
Example: TYPE C:\*CON* makes AMOS type both CONFIG.SYS,
CONFIG.BAK and TESTCON.EXE on drive C:\.
If you specify the /p-option, the display pauses every time
the screen is full.

WIPE Wipes all free sectors on the disk, writing "HPFSWipe" in all
unoccupied bytes. I use this primarily for test reasons, but
is quite useful for data security.
WIPE functions only on HPFS drives, and only in the registered
version.
IF you use WIPE, be SURE that you make a CHKDSK /F before you
do so! AMOS can NOT handle allocation errors when wiping.

Quirks in AMOS
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* Freespace
On FAT drives, AMOS asks DOS how much space is free, so I suppose that no
errors should occur here. On HPFS-drives, I have been unable to find out
how much available space there is.
However, I do have a method of finding out which sectors are occupied and
which are not, so I simply count these. Since OS/2 reserves some of this
space for directory information and the like, this gives a number a bit
higher than the one OS/2 reports.

* Many files
Problems may occur when reading or writing huge directories - by huge I mean
dir's with more than 4000 files! This is a gray area, since it seems that
OS/2 also has problems when handling such structures...

* Low on diskspace
Beware of low diskspace! Since AMOS reports every single free byte on the
disk, COPYing files that only just fit may result in an error. HPFS uses
heaps of information on every file, meaning that each file has a slight
overhead in disk space consumption. COPYing a 4 byte file typically
uses 1024 bytes or even more!

* Legal characters in file/dir-names
No checking of valid filenames is performed. Thus, you could create a
directory named "/!' !..," and AMOS wouldn't complain.
OS/2 will, though - be sure of that!
Example:
With AMOS, you can create a directory named "HI OS2" by typing
MD HI OS2
on the command line. This even works on a FAT drive! OS/2 has no
objections to this, but DOS has! This directory cannot be accessed
from DOS, nor can it be accessed from an OS/2 DOS box.

* Trouble accessing files with spaces in the name
Setting "'s around filenames in is not supported in AMOS. Thus, you
cannot COPY such files as easily as under OS/2. It _is_ possible, though:
COPY F:HELLO MATE
copies the file "HELLO MATE" from drive F: to the current drive.

* Attribute support
AMOS does not respect the DOS or HPFS attributes "System", "Hidden", and
"Read Only". No confirmation is asked for when deleting/modifying files
with one or more of these attributes set, nor are Hidden files treated in
any special way.


Future releases of AMOS
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At the moment, I have the following plans for AMOS releases. A total lack of
registrations probably cancels the plan, though.

Users having registered AMOS v1.x are entitled to free upgrades. A small
handling fee is charged for sending you a new registration-file.


1st Quarter 1994: AMOS v1.x:
These will be more bugfix-releases, with more extras added. Look
forward for a sector-editor, an EA-editor, full EA-support, and
maybe even a FAT <-> HPFS converter.


3rd Quarter, 1994: AMOS v2.x:
AMOS in a device driver/TSR version. This version will (hopefully)
enable you to mount HPFS-drives as "normal" drives, using them
as normal drives.
Since this actually is not as simple as it may sound, the release
date is a ... guess!

AMOS v2.x will cost at least the same as does AMOS v1.x. Users
having registered AMOS v1.x will be charged an upgrade fee for
AMOS v2.x.


Support site information
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Allan Mertner
Enghavevej 20A, 2tv
DK-1674 Copenhagen V
Denmark

I can be contacted through the following networks and node numbers:
FidoNet : 2:234/107
2:234/156
2:234/157
2:234/158

OS2Net : 81:445/14

CryptoNet : 70:450/0

CompuServe : 100327,2035
AMOS registration ID : 1808

Rainbow BBS:
BBS Line 1 : +45-3325-7322 (ZyXEL 19k2 / v32bis)
BBS Line 2 : +45-3325-7321 (v32bis)
BBS Line 3 : +45-3325-7320 (HST 16k8 / v22bis)
BBS Line 4 : +45-3325-7319 (ZyXEL 19k2 / v32bis)