Category : Utilities for DOS and Windows Machines
Archive   : DOSNIX90.ZIP
Filename : DOSNIX.DOC

DOSNIX ver. 0.90
Copyright (c) 1990 G. Vrooman




DOSNIX is a collection of UNIX style utilities specially written
for MSDOS. DOSNIX includes versions of the UNIX CAT, CHMOD, CP,
LS, MV, MVDIR, RM, TEE and TOUCH commands and a greatly simplified
version of the FIND command. With DOSNIX you can:

Manipulate text files. (CAT,TEE,APP)

Locate and remove files. (FFIND)

Move files across drives. (MV,MVDIR)

Make multiple copies of files. (CP)

Erase floppy disks without reformatting. (RM)

Display, copy and move hidden and system files. (LS,CP,MV)

Change file dates and times. (TOUCH)

Change file attributes. (CHMOD)

Display directories in different formats. (LS)

Display entire contents of disk drives. (FFIND)

Move complete directory structures. (MVDIR)

Remove complete directory structures. (RM)








DOSNIX OPTIONS:

Most DOSNIX commands have a simple format which can
be enhanced by the use of UNIX style option strings.
The option string is always the first argument after
the command and always begins with a '-'. See the
Command Summary for the options available with each
command.



INSTANT HELP:

A brief summary of each command can be obtained on line
by executing the command followed by a '-?'. If a command
normally requires arguments, executing the command without
arguments will also display help information.



USING DOSNIX:

DOSNIX is based on UNIX although the author has deviated
from UNIX standards whenever convenient. If you are
familiar with UNIX you should have no problem with DOSNIX.
If you are not familiar with UNIX, books on the subject
are available in most book stores.



NOTE:

UNIX is a registered trademak of AT&T corporation
MSDOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft corporation




LIST OF DOSNIX COMMANDS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------



APP append standard input to file(s).

CAT Copy text file(s) to standard output.

CHMOD Modify attribute(s) of file.

CP Copy file to new file or directory.

FFIND Find all copies of file in specified path.

LS List contents of directory.

MV Move file to new file or directory.

MVDIR Move directory and all subdirectories to new location.

PG Display text file in page format.

RM Remove file(s).

TEE Copy standard input to standard output and file(s).

TOLOWER Convert standard input to lower case.

TOUCH Modify file time and date.

TOUPPER Convert standard input to upper case.







SUMMARY OF DOSNIX COMMANDS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------



NAME:

APP Append standard input to file.


SYNTAX:

app file1 [file2..file5] Appends standard input
to up to five files.



DESCRIPTION:

APP is a non-UNIX command meant to replace the DOS '>>'
operator. Using '>>' to append files will not remove the
'End of File' marker from the first file. APP can be
used with the dos '|' operator and any command which
writes to standard output. For example:

cat file1 file2 | app file3

Appends output of CAT to file3. See CAT.

app < file1 file2

appends file1 to file2. WARNING: Do not use
'app < file1 > file2'. This will erase file2.

APP is meant for use with text files only and use with
binary files is not recommended.





NAME:

CAT Copy text file(s) to standard output.


SYNTAX:


cat Copies standard input to
standard output.

cat file1 Copies file1 to standard
output. Usually the screen.

cat file1 file2 > file3 Concatenates file1 and file2
and stores in file3.




DESCRIPTION:

CAT reads one or more files and copies them to the standard
output. If no input file is given, CAT will read the standard
input until a '^Z' is found. For example:

cat *.c > source

will concatenate all files with an extension of '.c' and store
them in 'source'.

cat file1 file2 | app file3

concatenates file1 and file2 and appends the result to file3.

cat > temp

stores whatever is typed on the keyboard in 'temp' and is
similar to the DOS command 'copy con temp'. 'ctl z' can be
used to terminate this operation.

CAT is meant for use with text files only and use with binary
files is not recommended.






NAME:

CHMOD Change attribute(s) of file.


SYNTAX:

chmod [+x] file1 Adds attribute x to file1

chmod [-x] file1 Removes attribute x from file1



ATTRIBUTES:

+a Set archive bit.
-a Clear archive bit.
+h Add hidden attribute.
-h Remove hidden attribute.
+r Add read only attribute.
-r Remove read only attribute.
+s Add system attribute.
-s Remove system attribute.



DESCRIPTION:

CHMOD is used to modify the attributes of a file.
Attributes can be grouped together in any sequence
but each attribute must be preceeded by a '+' or a
'-'. For example:

chmod -a *.*

removes the archive bit from all files in the current
directory,

chmod -a+r list.txt

removes the archive bit and makes 'list.txt' read only,

chmod +h+s widget.com

makes 'widget.com' a hidden, system file.







NAME:

CP Copy file to new file or directory.



SYNTAX:

cp [-abcfinopst] file1 file2 Copies file1 to file2


cp [-abcfinopst] file1 [file2..filen] dir

Copies any number of files
to directory.

cp [-abcfinopst] dir1 dir2 Copies files in dir1 to dir2.

cp -m[abcfinospt] source dest1 [dest2..destn]

Makes multiple copies of source
dest may be either file or
directory.


OPTIONS:

a Copy hidden and system files. Prompt
before overwriting protected files.
b Copy only files with archive bit set.
c Clear archive bits after copying.
f Copy hidden and system files. Overwrite
protected files without prompting.
i Interactive mode. Prompts before copying.
m Make multiple copies of single file.
n No delete. Do not overwrite existing files.
o Overwrite existing files without prompting.
Does not overwrite protected files.
p Preserve file attributes when copying.
s Copy files without echoing to screen.
t Update file time and date when copying.



DESCRIPTION:

CP copies one or more files to a new file or directory.
If more than one source file is specified or wildcards
are used, the last argument must specify an existing
directory or an error will occur. If a directory is
is used as a source, all files in the directory will be
copied but subdirectories will not be copied.

Each file is echoed to the screen as it is copied and exist-
ing files are not overwritten without prompting. If an
existing file is protected the user will be notified and
prompted a second time before the file is overwritten. Options
are provided to override these features when desired.

The '-i' option will prompt the user for a yes or no answer
before copying each file. Used with wildcards or directory
names this option provides an interactive method of copying
files.

Hidden and system files can be copied using the '-a' option
or the '-f' option. If the '-f' option is used all existing
files, even protected files, will be overwritten without
prompting the user.

The '-o' option can be used overwrite existing files but
will not overwrite protected files. If the '-n' option
is used, no files will be overwritten and the user will not
be prompted. The '-n' option overrides all other options
in this respect.

If the '-s' option is used, files will not be echoed to the
screen when copying. This option can be used with the '-o',
'-f' or '-n' options when no screen output is desired.

Unlike the MV command, file attributes are not carried over
and the archive bit of the new file is set. The '-p' option
can be used to preserve the attributes of the old file.

In normal use CP will carry over the time and date of the old
file. If the '-t' option is used, the new file will be stamped
with the current DOS time and date.

CP can be used for backups with the '-b' option. When this
option is used, only archive files are copied. The '-c'
option will clear the archive bit on both files after the
copy is made.

Sometimes it is necessary to copy a file to several
different drives or directories. CP can be used with the
'-m' option to make as many copies of a file as needed.






NAME:

FFIND Find all copies of file in specified path.


SYNTAX:

ffind [-adilmr?] [path] filename Finds all files in path
with same name.


OPTIONS:

a Include hidden and system files in search.
d Include directories in search.
i Remove files interactively.
l Display in long format, showing
attributes, size, time and date.
m Display totals for each directory.
r Remove files when found.
? Display help screen.



DESCRIPTION:

FFIND will search the specified path for all copies of a given
file. 'path' should be a valid directory name. If 'path' is
omitted the search will begin from the root directory of the
current drive. Wild cards can be used in file names and all
subdirectories will be searched. For example:

ffind temp
or
ffind \ temp

will search the entire current drive for all files named temp,

ffind d:\ temp

will search all of drive d for all files named temp, and

ffind \games poker.exe

will search the directory '\games' and all subdirectories for
all files named 'poker.exe'.

The '-r' option will delete files when found. For example:

ffind -r c:\ *.bak

will search drive c for all files with an extension of '.bak'
and remove them. The '-i' option is similar to the '-r'
option except that the user is prompted before each file is
removed.

FFIND will locate hidden and system files with the '-a'
option but the '-r' option cannot be used to remove protected
files. Use the '-i' option to remove these files.

The '-l' option can be used to display complete information
on each file located.

The '-m' option wiil display the total number of matching
files in each directory along with the total number of bytes
used. For example:

ffind -alm c:\ *.* > disk.map

will create a complete usage map of the user's hard disk and
store it in 'disk.map'.






NAME:

LS List contents of directory.


SYNTAX:

ls [-ablpu?] [path1]..[pathn] Displays contents of dir.



OPTIONS:

1 Display one entry per line.
a Display hidden and system files.
b Do not pause when screen is full.
l Display files in long format, showing
name, attributes, size, time and date.
p Put a backslash after each subdirectory.
u Do not sort files.
? Display help screen.


DESCRIPTION:

LS displays the contents of a directory sorted across
the screen in five columns. The arguments can be either
files or directories. If wildcards are used, all matching
files will be listed. If no argument is used, the current
directory is displayed.

The '-c' option will display the directory sorted down each
column rather than across each row.

If the '-l' option is used, one entry per line is displayed,
showing name, attributes, size of file in bytes, and time and
date of last modification. A modified DOS format is used
which is more readable than the standard UNIX format.
Attributes displayed in this format are:

Subdirectory.
A Archive bit is set.
R File is read only.
H File is hidden.
S File is system.

At the end of each display the size of the directory in bytes
is shown. The size of any subdirectories is not included in
this figure. Also shown is the remaining space left.

If the '-1' (one) option is used, one entry per line is dis-
played showing only the name.

In the previous two formats LS will pause after displaying one
page of information. Typing 'q' at this point will terminate
the program. Typing any other key will continue the display.
The '-b' option will suppress this feature and provide a
continuous output which can be redirected.


If the '-a' option is used, any hidden or system files
contained in the directory are also displayed. If the '-l'
option is not used, the '-p' option will append a backslash
to the end of each subdirectory name, allowing the user to
distinguish between files and subdirectories. The '-u'
option will provide unsorted output if so desired.






NAME:

MV Move file(s) to new file or directory.


SYNTAX:

mv [-afnost?] file1 file2 Moves (renames) file1 to file2.

mv [-afnost?] file1 [file2..filen] dir
Moves any number of files
to new directory.

mv dir1 dir2 Renames dir1 to dir2. dir1
and dir2 must be in same
parent directory.


OPTIONS:

a Move read only, hidden and system files.
Prompt before overwriting protected files.
f Move and overwrite all files without prompting.
i Interactive mode. Prompt before moving.
n No delete. Do not overwrite existing files.
o Overwrite existing files without prompting.
s Move files without echoing to screen.
t Update file time and date when moving.
? Display help screen.


DESCRIPTION:

MV moves one or more files to a new file or directory.
If more than one source file is specified or wildcards
are used, the last argument must specify an existing
directory or an error will occur. If a directory is
is used as a source, all files in the directory will be
moved but subdirectories will not be moved.

Each file is echoed to the screen as it is moved and exist-
ing files are not overwritten without prompting. If an
existing file is protected the user will be notified and
prompted a second time before the file is overwritten. Options
are provided to override these features when desired.

The '-i' option will prompt the user for a yes or no answer
before moving each file. Used with wildcards or directory
names this option provides an interactive method of moving
files.

In normal use MV, ignores hidden and system files and prompts
the user before moving read only files. Hidden and system
files can be moved using the '-a' option or the '-f' option.
The '-a' option will move read only, hidden and system files
without prompting but will still prompt the user before over-
writing protected files. If the '-f' option is used all
existing files, even protected files, will be overwritten
without prompting the user.

The '-o' option can be used overwrite existing files but
will not overwrite protected files. If the '-n' option
is used, no files will be overwritten and the user will not
be prompted. The '-n' option overrides all other options
in this respect.

If the '-s' option is used, filenames will not be echoed to
the screen when moving. This option can be used with the '-o',
'-f' or '-n' options when no screen output is desired.

In normal use MV will carry over the time and date of the old
file. If the '-t' option is used, the new file will be stamped
with the current DOS time and date. Unlike the CP command, MV
will also carry over the attributes of the old file.







NAME:

MVDIR Move directory and all subdirectories to new location.


SYNTAX:

mv dir1 dir2 Moves dir1 to dir2



OPTIONS:

s Move files without echoing to screen.
? Display help screen.



DESCRIPTION:

MVDIR will move a directory and all its subdirectories
to the specified target. If the target directory does
not exist a new directory will be created. If the target
directory does exist a directory will be created within
the target directory having the same name as the old
directory.

MVDIR has three modes of operation totally independent
of user input. If both old and new directories are in
the same parent directory, MVDIR will rename the old
directory. If old and new directories are not in the same
parent directory but reside on the same drive, MVDIR will
create the new directory structure, rename the files and
then remove the old directory. If old and new directories
reside on different drives MVDIR will create the new
directory structure, copy the files over and then remove
the old files and directory. If an error occurs in this
last mode, such as a disk full error, MVDIR will abort and
leave the old directory intact.








NAME:

PG Display text in page format.


SYNTAX:

pg Displays standard input
one page at a time.

pg file1 file2 .. filen Displays contents of files
one page at a time.


DESCRIPTION:

PG can be used to display text files or standard input.
PG will display one page of text and then pause. Pressing
the space bar will display the next page of text. Typing
'^D' will display the next half page of text. Hitting 'Enter'
will display the next line of text. Typing the digit d
will display d lines of text. Typing 'q' will term-
nate the program and return to DOS.

Output from other programs can be piped to pg using the '|'
operator. For example:

ffind c:\ *.* | pg

will allow the user to page through the output of FFIND
which in this case is a complete list of files on drive C.







NAME:

RM Remove file(s).


SYNTAX:

rm [-fis] file1 Removes file1.

rm -r[fis] dir1 Completely removes dir1.



OPTIONS:

f Remove protected files without prompting.
i Remove files interactively.
r Recursively remove subdirectories.
s Remove files without echoing to screen.




DESCRIPTION:

RM is the UNIX equivalent of the dos 'del' command. If a
protected file is specified, RM will prompt the user before
removing unless the '-f' option is used. Ordinarily each
file is echoed to the screen as it is removed. The '-s'
option is used to override this feature. The '-i' option
can be used with wildcards to allow the user to pick and
choose which files will be removed.

The '-r' option is used to remove directories. A directory
cannot be removed unless this option is used. The directory
along with all files and subdirectories will be completely
removed.

WARNING:

rm -r \

will completely erase the current drive. Use the '-r'
option with care.






NAME:

TEE Copy standard input to standard output and file(s).


SYNTAX:

tee [-a] file1 [file2]..[file5]
Copies standard input to
standard output and files.


OPTIONS:

a Append output to specified file[s]
s Suppress standard output.


DESCRIPTION:

TEE can be used with the DOS '|' operator and any command
which writes to standard output. For example:

cat file1 file2 | tee file3

concatenates file1 and file2 while displaying them on the
screen and stores them in file3.

ls -lc dir1 | tee file1

displays dir1 in long format and stores the output in file1.

The '-a' option can be used to append the output to existing
files. If the '-a' option is not used, existing files will
be overwritten. For exeample:

tee -a file2
displays file1 and appends it to the end of file2

tee file2
displays file1 and overwrites file2.

The '-s' option can be used to suppress standard output
and write to specified files only. For example:

cat source1 | tee -s file1 file2 file3

will make multiple copies of source1 without displaying
it on the screen.

TEE is meant for use with text files only and use with
binary files is not recommended.





NAME:

TOLOWER Convert to lower case.



SYNTAX:

tolower Converts standard input to
lower case and writes to
standard output.



DESCRIPTION:

TOLOWER is a filter which will convert all upper case
characters to lower case. All other characters are left
unchanged. For exeample:

tolower < file1 > file2

converts file1 to lower case and stores the result in file2.







NAME:

TOUCH Modify file date and time.



SYNTAX:

touch [-t] [mm/dd/yy;hh:mm:ss] file1
Changes date and time of file1



OPTIONS:

t User selected time and date.



DESCRIPTION:

TOUCH will change the date and time of the specified file
to the current DOS date and time. If the '-t' option is
used the user can supply the date and time as the next
argument in the format mm/dd/yy;hh:mm:ss. If the date and
time argument is omitted the user is prompted to enter the
date and time of his choice. Wildcards can be used in file
names.






NAME:

TOUPPER Convert to upper case.



SYNTAX:

toupper Converts standard input to
upper case and writes to
standard output.



DESCRIPTION:

TOUPPER is a filter which will convert all lower case
characters to upper case. All other characters are left
unchanged. For exeample:

toupper < file1 > file2

converts file1 to upper case and stores the result in file2.








DOSNIX ver. 0.90 is a Beta Test version and registration is
not required. Individuals are free to use this program to their
hearts content. Copies can be made and distributed provided
that all utilities, documentation and licensing information
are included. Users who do register will be sent a copy of the
latest version with many improvements and enhancements, along
with a free bouns program. The fee for registration is $20.00.

Businesses are invited to use DOSNIX on a trial basis and then
apply for a site license. Please write to me at the address below
to register or to obtain information on site licenses.


Gerald M. Vrooman
RD 1 Box 56
Chenango Forks, NY
13746


DOSNIX has NO warranty, either expressed or implied. You
use DOSNIX entirely at your own risk. The author is not
responsible for any damages that occur from the use of
this program, or for any modifications made to this program
after it was released.