Dec 292017
 
XEQ Combine small .COM files into 1 to save space due to cluster size.
File XEQ115.ZIP from The Programmer’s Corner in
Category File Managers
XEQ Combine small .COM files into 1 to save space due to cluster size.
File Name File Size Zip Size Zip Type
XEQ.COM 4648 3283 deflated
XEQ.DOC 11744 4612 deflated

Download File XEQ115.ZIP Here

Contents of the XEQ.DOC file


comment *
XEQ
-----
XEQ - COM File Library and Command Executor

This program allows COM files to be stored inside XEQ's code and executed
by the command:
XEQ command
For example, if BEEP.COM has been added to XEQ then:
XEQ BEEP
will execute the BEEP program stored inside XEQ. The original BEEP.COM
can be removed from the hard disk (onto a backup floppy!!!). If the
specified command is not in XEQ it is passed to the DOS for execution as
if directly typed at the DOS prompt.

PURPOSE
The purpose is to prevent wasted hard-disk space by those pesky
little COM files we don't seem to be able to do without. When hard disks
are formatted they are given an allocation size (called a cluster size)
and this is typically 2048 or 4096 bytes. So when you save a 7 byte
COM file like BEEP.COM, it takes up a full cluster. By combining these
COM files into this program or LIBRARY, several COM files can be stored
in one file (the XEQ program itself) and still be accessed without this waste
in hard disk space.

In order to make the body of XEQ as small as possible, only a limited
number of options are available. They are

XEQ [/R] Execute if it is in the library
or passes it to DOS for execution if not
XEQ /A(command> Add .COM to library if not existant
XEQ /D Delete command from library if existant
XEQ /E Extract command from library to .COM file if existant
XEQ /LList the in the library

COMMAND DETAILS

/R - run a command

If no switch is given, the /R is assumed. If the given command name
is in the library it is executed directly from there. XEQ internally
relocates the stored file in memory so that the memory image is
identical to the image if it had been loaded from the COM file on
disk. This includes the way DOS loaded a COM file and the pretests
for argument suitability and register set up. Thus ALL COM files
should execute normally when run from within XEQ.

If the command is not found in XEQ then the string is passed to a DOS
shell for execution. A second copy of COMMAND.COM is spawned with the
command added after the /C switch. Therefore the command can be an
internal, external, batch, EXE or COM file. (NOTE: SEE TSR LIMITATION
BELOW.)

/A - add a command

Adds a COM file to the XEQ library. The filename given must either
have no extension or .COM and the name part can contain standard DOS
wildcards. A drive and/or path may be given to the target file.
If the file is already in the library it will not be added. A warning
message is given in this eventuality. Similarly if there is
insufficient room to add a file, the addition of this file will be
skipped with a warning. When wildcards exist, XEQ will attempt to add
all files even if a given file cannot be found or is too big. Any attempt
to add the current XEQ.COM file to itself (even if renamed under
DOS3.x) will be prevented. (In DOS 2.x this safety feature can be
thwarted by renaming XEQ.COM. A file called XEQ.COM is the only one
excluded from being added.)

/D - delete a command

Removes the named command from the library. The filename given must either
have no extension or .COM and the name part can contain standard DOS
wildcards. A prompt asks for confirmation of the delete. 'Y' will
delete the command, 'N' will skip deleting the command, 'G' will GO
and delete this command and all further matching ones without asking
again and 'A' will abort the entire delete process. Obviously 'G' is final
and cannot be aborted once selected. Abort will cancel the effect of
any 'Y' answers previously, AND NO COMMANDS WILL HAVE BEEN DELETED.

/E - extract a COM file

When the /E switch is used to extract a COM file, a full path for the
resulting file may be specified. If the file already exists at that location,
extraction does not occur. The filename given must either
have no extension or .COM and the name part can contain standard DOS
wildcards. The extracted file has the same date stamp as the COM file it was
originally stored from. The file is NOT deleted from the library.

/L - list the library files

Displays a list of all files stored in XEQ. The original time and
date stamp are displayed along with the file's byte size. At the end
of the list the remaining space in XEQ is displayed, along with an
indication of how much space has been saved by using XEQ (and
deleting the original COM files). This computation is based upon
the following:

DOS 2.x
The value is the difference between the total clusters used by
XEQ.COM on the default drive and the sum of all the clusters which
would have been used on the default drive if each command was in its
own COM file.
The results can be misleading if say, you run XEQ/L while
the drive default points to a floppy with a cluster size of 1024, but
the DOS path executed XEQ.COM from the harddisk with a different
cluster size. In this case the savings indicated are the bytes saved
IF XEQ.COM WAS LOCATED ON THE DEFAULT DRIVE.

DOS 3.x
The value is as above, but uses the cluster size of the drive it
found XEQ.COM on and assumes that the COM files would have been on
that drive if they were in seperate files.
Under DOS 3.x the savings always relate to the drive the path found
XEQ.COM on and is independent of the default drive cluster size.


LIMITATIONS

As a COM file can only be 64K long, COM files cannot
be added to XEQ if this figure would be violated, as XEQ is a COM file
itself. The /L command indicates the amount of space left and any
attempt to add a file which would exceed the 64k limit is prevented. Any
number of COM files can be added until this number is reached.
When a command is added or deleted from XEQ, a new copy of XEQ must
be rewritten to disk. How it is written back depends on the version of DOS
you are running.

DOS 2.x users

The revised library is always written to the current drive and directory as
XEQ.COM, regardless of where the original copy of XEQ was found
(it may have been loaded from elsewhere because of DOS's path
capability). Therefore to update the original copy of XEQ, the /D or /A
commands should be performed in the drive and directory of the
original. If not, then the original copy of XEQ will still exist in its
original location and the updated version in the current drive and
directory. The new version of XEQ will always be called XEQ.COM, regardless
of whether the original program was called XEQ.COM or not.

DOS3.x users

The revised library will be written over the original using the original's
name. Thus doing a proper update of the original. The library can be given
any name and this will be retained during the updating.

MULTIPLE LIBRARIES

For DOS 2.x user it is recommended that only one library XEQ.COM exist on the
system. As adding or deleting from a renamed library file results in
the new copy being called XEQ.COM on the current drive, care would
have to be taken to prevent the overwriting of a legitimate XEQ.COM,
and the new XEQ.COM would have to be renamed to the original name of
the revised library.

For DOS 3.x users multiple libraries are more feasible as the updated library
is always the original file no matter what it was called or where it
was located. Thus maintaining multiple libraries is much simpler. CED
(see below) can be used to avoid the need to remember which library
contains a given command.

TERMINATE & STAY RESIDENT PROGRAMS

TSR programs can be stored inside XEQ and will install just like the
original program. HOWEVER, NEVER RUN A TSR PROGRAM THROUGH XEQ WHICH
IS NOT STORED IN XEQ. When XEQ cannot find a program it passes the name to
DOS to run in a shell. If this program is a TSR it will freeze more
memory than needed. XEQ has no way of knowing if a program it is
about to execute externally is a TSR.

Beginning with version 1.10, XEQ will put the name of the file being
run into the space between the end of the environment table and the
start of the program. This is where DOS 3.x puts the running program
name and XEQ will only duplicate this when running under DOS3.x. The
purpose of this is to allow the running program to know its own name
and to let TSR memory map programs like MAP.COM and MAPMEM.COM
show the real program name which is resident. A limitation exists for
this however. The name stored is of the form d:/filename.COM. The
space available to store this string cannot be increased and is set
by the original running of XEQ. So if XEQ was in the root of C: the
name would originally be C:\XEQ.COM. So only 3 letters of the program
XEQ is running could be used, thus possibly truncating the name.
Several possible solutions exist. First call XEQ a new name of 8
letters, or run XEQ from a subdirectory such that the subdirectory
name, separating backslashes and the current XEQ name (you may
have renamed it to X, possibly) add up to more than 8 characters.
Then there will always be room for the full name of the program XEQ
is running.

USAGE TIP

The CED utility and its synonym feature can make the use of XEQ
transparent in use. For example, if BEEP.COM is stored inside XEQ then a
synonym like
SYN BEEP XEQ BEEP
will cause BEEP to be run out of the XEQ file just by entering BEEP.

DISCLAIMER

Hardwood Software Associates guarantees XEQ.COM will do NOTHING
useful at all. You use it at your own risk (make backups of the COM files
stored within XEQ before deleting them from your hard disk). However, it
seems to perform as described here and may be of use to you.

Colin J. Stearman [71036,256]
Senior Associate
HS Associates
143 Ash Street
Hopkinton, MA 01748

======================================================================
EDIT LOG
REVDATENAMEDETAIL
1.0114-MAR-87C.STEARMANFixed bug if COM file name
is one character
1.02 27-MAR-87 C.STEARMANAligned file size column
Added disk bytes saved calc
1.03 1-APR-87 C.STEARMAN Fixed bug if in list if file
was longer than 9999 bytes.
Fixed error in saved space
computation
1.102-APR-87C.STEARMANUnder DOS 3.x updating writes
to original file. Also updates
command name in environment
for MAP, added wildcard,
fixed yet another space
computation bug, used local
stack for external run only
1.11 13-APR-87 C.STEARMANRevised space saved compute,
see note above
1.12 16-APR-87 C.STEARMAN Fixed bug in load_run module
which did not initialize stack
correctly. Bug manifested it-
self when MODE was run
internally. Returned bad
parameters message
1.13 22-APR-87 C.STEARMAN Fixed wrong message of file
not found in /A
Improved construction of PSP
when running internals. May
clean up some compatability
problems. Fixed drive validity
test. If wild cards in argu-
ments, did not set AX correct-
ly per DOS loaded.
1.14 29-APR-87 C.STEARMAN Fixed bug when executing ext-
ernal commands. Local stack
trashed passed command string.
Also stack crash caused by
allowing XEQ.COM to grow to
large. Caused random crashes.
Added confirm delete
1.15 30-MAY-87 C.STEARMANCleaned up help screen and
identified which library file
was accessed. Fixed bug in
extract where a 1 character
filename did not have .COM
added to it.
======================================================================
*


 December 29, 2017  Add comments

 Leave a Reply

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

(required)

(required)