MANUAL FOR DUTILS2
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ED. NOTE: Having used Mike's useful DUTILS, I'd suggest using it with
an Interlace screen, or keep in mind that there are BACK-TO-FRONT gadgets.
That is, things might be happening behind the main Dutils window (such as
when you Edit files or whatever), and it may be worth even setting up a
special disk for your Dutils use - set Preferences to Interlace, save,
reboot, and spread out the windows. This is a very powerful program if
you care to experiment with it. ( See Jonathan Potter's Basic_Tute for
how to set up special disks.)
DUTILS2 can be used to back up and restore the virus-vulnerable boot
blocks of your games disks - it's worth doing this as soon as you get a
new game. (See "Utilities_Readme" for a further discussion of this.)
Note that when you open Dutils2, you'll see a "rainbow" effect, which is
simply the program being "unpacked", ie de-compressed, before being
loaded. This is useful for reducing the size of a program - Dutils2 was
about 63K before being packed to 37K or so.
Mike tells me to inform people who have already sent in a SHAREWARE
contribution for the original DUTILS ($10 suggested if you use the program
regularly) that they will get the final manual for DUTILSII, along with
any serious enhancements, as they occur. He's been flat out like a lizard
drinking with the development of this version, and hopes that everyone
understands that he's got a normal job, wife, kids and so forth. He also
wants to make the point that SHAREWARE WORKS...sometimes, at least with
Dutils, and wants to thank everyone who took the trouble to send in a
contribution over the last couple of months. And there's no doubt that if
the users of shareware products send in something (like dollars or disks),
these talented programmers will keep putting out high-quality, low-cost
software. Whip out the cheque-book, Beryl!
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INTRODUCTION
DutilsII is the second version of my Dutils program, now with an
Intuition user interface. As you will see when run run DutilsII it looks
somewhat like one of the Directory Utility type programs that have been
evolving for some time on the Amiga. This should not be surprising as it
has most of the functionality of these programs, with a lot more added.
I have built in VIRUS DETECT and KILL functions for both the SCA and
BYTE BANDIT viruses, a SECTOR EDITOR, a FILE EDITOR, DISKCOPY, FORMAT,
DISK ERROR CHECK, MULTIPLE FILE SOUND PLAYER, MULTIPLE FILE SLIDE SHOW
and other utilities.
In this document I will not be describing how to drive a Directory
Utility program, only where DUTILS differs. The final user manual, (yes, I
am actually writing one), will provide more detail.
GENERAL LAYOUT
The top left of the screen contains the usual file display. One
difference here is that any selected file or directory will be highlighted
in system colour 3. DUIII actually uses 2 different colours, I found this
confusing. The top right of the screen is the track and sector selection
area. There is a bunch of gadgets here to select which drive, cylinder and
sector to use for the sector editor, or any other track/sector read
operation, while below it is a similar cluster of gadgets for the
destination drive. This drive is the TARGET drive of write operations,
e.g. Format. There is one odd gadget in the source drive area, this is the
'NUMBER OF SECTORS' gadget. The value entered here is used by the 'Backup
Sectors' function. More on this later.
The bottom of the window contains all of the FUNCTION SELECTION GADGETS
as well as 3 STRING GADGETS. The 'S' (or SOURCE) string gadget is used
to enter or display the drive volume and subdirectory selection. The 'D'
(or destination) string gadget is used to specify a DESTINATION or
second filename. This string gadget can be used to enter parameters for
a number of other functions. These will be discussed in their relevant
sections later. Between these 2 string gadgets is a gadget marked
'S -> D'. As may be inferred, clicking this gadget will copy the source
filename to the destination string gadget. This saves time and
keystrokes. NB: Unlike some DirUtil type programs this is not a swap
function, it copiess to D only.
The FUNCTION SELECTION GADGETS.
As discussed above, the 4 rows of gadgets at the bottom of the window
are used to select a function to be performed. These will be discussed
seperately below.
The top row of gadgets.
These should be quite self-explanatory to those who have used a DirUtil
type program before. They select which drive (or volume) should have its
directory displayed. The Parent gadget takes the source filename back one
level of subdirectory nesting while the Root gadget goes right back to
the root directory.
e.g. source filename is df0:devs/printers. Clicking PARENT will change
the source filename to df0:devs and the displayed directory will be
updated also. Clicking Root would have changed the filename to df0:.
The second row of gadgets.
The DISKCOPY function provided by Dutils uses the Drive selection
gadgets at top right of the screen to determine the source and destination
drives. They default to source = 0, and destination = 1. Any 2 different
drives may be selected. NB: Dutils does NOT support a single drive diskcopy
at this time. You will next be prompted via an Auto-Requester as to whether
you wish to VERIFY the diskcopy. If you select YES, then after the read/write
pass an additional read back of the written data will be done. As this takes
longer and if you use good quality media, I generally do not recommend that
you use Verify. If a read error should occur on the source disk then you will
be prompted as to whether you wish to format the destination track. The
positive response causes Dutils to format the corresponding track on the
destination drive. If you select NO then the destination track will be
left untouched. If the destination disk has not be used before this will
leave a 'hole' in the structure of disk. ie A future diskcopy operation
will again see an error as the destination track has absolutely no data
at all. On the other hand if you format the track, a future diskcopy will
go through without error but the directory structure may well have a hole
in it. Obviously, if part of a file was on the source track that could
not be read then the destination file structure is mangled. I'd suggest
that to recover as much data as possible format the destination track.
NB: On subsequent errors Dutils will format or leave the destination
track as you have previously selected, ie you will not be prompted
further. When the copy is complete, you will be prompted as to whether
you would like to copy again. At this point you may change the destination
or both source and destination diskettes and do another copy.
As Dutils uses trackdisk.device exclusively to do the disk read/write
operations it is generally quite reliable and does not introduce spurious
errors on the copied disk as some well known commercial copiers seem to do.
The diskcopy operation is not intended to backup protected software.
THE FORMAT FUNCTION.
FORMAT provides an AmigaDOS compatible format function without icons
for the disk or trashcan. The disk label may be entered into the D string
gadget before Format is invoked. If no label is specified Empty is assumed.
[ie, your formatted disk will be called EMPTY.]
NB The destination drive (default is df1:) is used as the target
for the format. You will be prompted as to whether you wish a VERIFY
pass. Like the Diskcopy function, verify is not mandatory, but can be
very useful for checking suspect diskettes. If errors show up in the
verify pass, consider throwing that diskette out. It just isn't worth
losing data to save a couple of bucks on a suspect disk! The FORMAT VERIFY
works somewhat differently to the DISKCOPY VERIFY in that FORMAT will format
the whole disk, then verify the whole disk from cylinder 0 to cylinder 79 in
one pass. The verify pass may be interrupted by clicking on the Stop gadget
at lower right.
THE ERROR CHECK FUNCTION.
Error Check (ERRORCHK) performs a read pass over the selected
source drive in a similar manner to the DiskCopy or Format functions.
You will be prompted as to whether you wish the error report to be dumped
to the printer as well as the screen. If you wish this you will be further
prompted to enter a comment to be printed along with the error report, if
any. If an error occurs a descriptive error message will be displayed on
the screen. NB: This function is quite reliable. If it reports an error it
really is there, conversely if no error is reported then none exists.
This should be so for all programs but a certain program that is
very widely used and quite well known not only erroneously reports errors
on tracks that do not have errors but typically reports the error codes
as 1 higher than they really are, eg error 21 is reported as error 22.
THE FILECOPY FUNCTION.
FILECOPY copies the selected file (or files) to the
nominated destination subdirectory. If the SOURCE is in fact a directory
and there is a path to c:copy, then a directory copy (along with all
subdirectories) will be performed. NB: Dutils is not yet capable of
copying subdirectories by itself. It needs to use the AmigaDOS 'copy'
command. If no path exists to 'copy'then a directory copy will not be
performed.
THE RENAME FUNCTION.
The first selected source file is renamed to the nominated
destination filename. NB: Only the FIRST slected source file will be
renamed. A planned update will allow multiple source files to be renamed.
This will in fact implement the useful 'Move' option of DirUTil type
programs.
THE DELETE FUNCTION.
All selected source files are deleted. If a directory is selected
as the source file and a path exists to the AmigaDOS delete command the
directory (and all subdirectories below it) will be deleted. See FILECOPY.
THE MAKEDIR FUNCTION.
A directory will be made in the current directory with the name
specified in the D string gadget.
THE GETDIR FUNCTION.
The selected subdirectory will be examined, sorted and displayed.
This directory will become the current directory.
THE ALL/NONE FUNCTION.
This gadget implements the functions of 2 gadgets normally found
in DirUtil type programs, namely All and Clear. Clicking once will
select and highlight all files (but not sub-directories) in the current
directory. Clicking again will deselect all files but not effect any
subdirectory selected.
THE INSTALL FUNCTION.
DUTILS provides an AmigaDOS compatible INSTALL function. INSTALL
is used to make a disk bootable or to overwrite virused boot sectors,
i.e., cylinder 0, head 0, sectors 0 and 1. The DUTILS INSTALL has the
added benefit of being able to install boot sectors that will NOT be
infected by the SCA virus. I have left the option to install 'Normal',
i.e., absolutely AmigaDOS compatible, boot sectors as well. This way if
the Anti-SCA virus protection should prove to be a time-bomb.....
well, I did give YOU the option. I will also be investigating a possible
anti-BYTE BANDIT boot sector. It appears that if this is possible it
won't be compatible with anti-SCA virus boot sectors. As the BYTE BANDIT
virus is considerably more of a nuisance it should take precedence.
N.B.: Do NOT install protected disks. This may destroy their ability to
boot. See BACKUPS/RESTORES below for more detail.
The full manual will have a detailed description of viruses, how
to deal with them and avoid them. [ED: see also MegaBites this issue, and
the Virus Eliminators/Checkers on MD6.]
THE BackupS FUNCTION.
The Backup Sectors function along with its counterpart
RestoreS(ectors) are more ANTI-VIRUS UTILITIES. The Backup Sectors
function is designed to allow any sectors (on the source drive), but
primarily the BOOT SECTORS (as discussed in Install above) to be saved in
a file on another disk. The file used should be specified in the D string
gadget. With a copy of the boot sectors of your favourite games stored
safely away you need never fear losing another protected disk to a virus
again. NB A lot of games (eg all Psygnosis games and many others) use the
boot sectors to provide a loader to load their copy protected program code.
The viruses also like to live in the boot sectors. As only 1 program can
live there guess which loses out...that's right, NOT the virus!
As a file holding the boot sectors of a disk is only 1024 bytes
you can store a lot of them on 1 diskette. Cheap insurance I'd say! It's
not always easy to pick the disks with custom boot sectors but as a rule
of thumb backup any that change screen colour or display a picture
on the screen very shortly after you insert the disk into df0:.
I'd suggest you go through your collection of disks and backup
the boot sectors 'Real Soon Now'. I wonder if software distributors would
feel it a breach of copyright if these boot sector files appeared on
electronic bulletin boards?
THE RestoreS FUNCTION.
RestoreS (ie Restore Sectors) is the companion to Backup Sectors
discussed above. Use this function if you have a disk that has had its
special boot sectors infected by a virus. The selected source file will
be written into the sectors specified in the destination drive selection
area (mid right hand side of window).
THE COMPARE FUNCTION.
The Compare function is actually two fuctions in one. If a source
file and a destination file are both specified a FILE COMPARE will be
invoked. If this is not the case a disk comparison will be done.
FILE COMPARE
The File Compare is on a byte by byte basis, not line by line.
As with many Dutils functions you will be asked to enter the starting
address for the comparison, i.e. you do not need to start at the beginning
of the source file. You will next be prompted as to whether you wish to
print the results. At each 10 mis-comparisons you will be prompted as to
whether you wish to continue with the COMPARE.
DISK COMPARE
The Disk Compare requires 2 drives. At each 10 mis-comparisons you
may skip to the continue, quit, skip to the next sector, or skip to the next
track. As usual you have an option to print the results.
LIST FILE FUNCTION.
The LIST FILE function is similar to the TYPE function except
that the text is output using any imbedded carriage return codes to
terminate the line. This gives a formatted appearance to ASCII (document)
files. You may scroll through the file using the FORWARD gadget below
the display window. The STOP gadget is also active at this point. It
allows you to end the LIST function before the end of the file is reached.
Binary (executable programs, etc) may display as garbage, in this case use
the TYPE function instead.
A future enhancement will provide a backward and print option
for this function.
THE EXTRACT FILE FUNCTION.
The ExtractF(ile) function is used to copy any part of any file
to another file. This can be particuarly useful in extracting sound
effects for example. Firstly, you will be prompted to enter the starting
address within the source file, then the number of bytes you wish to
extract. As the file is being extracted the number of bytes left to
extract will be displayed at the bottom of the window. This is to let you
see the progress of the function.
THE SEARCH FUNCTION.
SEARCH allows you to find a string of up to 5 characters in a file.
The search string must be specified in the D gadget before invoking SEARCH.
Hex numbers may be imbedded within the search string by preceding them with
a '\' character. eg TheC\12 -> would search for 4 ASCII characters, 'TheC',
followed by 12 hex. You may embed hex characters anywhere within the string.
N.B.: following a \you must give 2 valid hex characters otherwise Search
will not parse the search string correctly.You may select multiple files to
be searched. In this case you will be prompted at the completion of the
search of each file. This is to leave the results on screen for your perusal.
Acknowledging that the search has finished starts the search of the next
file. If you select a single file to search, you will be see several more
prompts. Firstly, you will need to specify the starting address. You will
also be given the opportunity to copy the results to the printer. Near the
top left of the window you will be able to observe the progress of the search,
i.e., the address of current point in the file being compared against the
search string is displayed. You may interrupt the search by clicking on
the STOP gadget.
THE PLAY FUNCTION.
The play function is one of the more unusual aspects of Dutils,
it allows reproduction of sound effects. In a somewhat similar manner
to SEARCH above it behaves differently depending on whether you select 1
or multiple files. If you select multiple files, Play will load them and
play them at the default playback rate of 10000 samples per second.
That's 10000 bytes for each second of sound. That's why sound effect
files can be so big. If the file is IFF the playback rate will be
extracted and used. If the file is IFF and stereo it will be played back
in stereo. If only a single file is selected you will next be asked if
you would like the sound to repeat. If you select YES you will see
another requester asking whether you would like a pause between repeats.
If you choose to repeat the sound effect you may interrupt the repetitions
by clicking on the STOP gadget. Next you will be asked whether you wish
to vary the playback rate. A value of 20000 samples/sec obviously plays
the sound at twice normal speed. A value of 5000 samples/sec allows half
speed. It can be quite amusing to create quite different sounds from a
sample just by altering the playback rate. The playback rate should
be entered into the D gadget before selecting play. Simply enter the
decimal value (eg 10000). You will finally be prompted as to whether you
would like to PLAY the file again.
THE SHOW FUNCTION.
The SHOW function displays IFF pictures. Selecting multiple
files can give a SLIDE SHOW EFFECT. If a decimal number is entered into
the D gadget before SHOW is clicked that value will be interpreted as
being a number of seconds to keep the last picture on screen before the
next is displayed. Otherwise click the left mouse button when ready to
proceed.
We are now down to the BOTTOM ROW OF GADGETS. These are mainly
for EDITING FILES AND SECTORS with the exception of ABOUT and STOP.
THE ABOUT FUNCTION.
Clicking on ABOUT simply displays some info about the program.
There is a way to avoid seeing this screen each time you run DUTILS. All
registered users will be informed how to do this. Until you register you
will see it.
THE BACKWARD AND FORWARDS GADGETS.
These are used simply to move backward and forward in a file or
sector display, once that display is on screen.
THE RUN FUNCTION.
This is one of the most useful functions of Dutils. It has 2 modes of
operation also. If you select a (executable) file and then click RUN, Dutils
will attempt to run the program. This generally works provided that the
program being executed has a path to any other files it may need, and that
enough memory is left. The other way to use this function is to enter any
valid command line into the D gadget and then click RUN. e.g., Entering the
following: 'copy fonts all df0:dummy' will (provided there is a path to
'copy') copy the whole fonts directory including all sub-directories within
the fonts directory. The results of running either way are put into the
DUTILS-OUTPUT window which is actually behind the main window of Dutils. You
may examine this window anytime by using the usual WINDOW FRONT/BACK GADGETS.
THE TYPE AND HEXTYPE FUNCTIONS.
These are basically the same except that TYPE displays the
file or sector selected in ASCII printable characters, with any
unprintable characters displayed as periods. HexType displays in both
Hex and ASCII, but can display only 1 quarter as much data on screen as
TYPE. If a file is selected and TYPE or HEXTYPE is clicked then that
file will be displayed on screen. You will get the opportunity to select
the starting address. If a file is not selected when TYPE or HEXTYPE is
selected then the selected sector will be displayed.
THE EDIT FUNCTION.
To use EDIT you must have previously selected a file or sector
and clicked TYPE or HEXTYPE. EDIT works on that data shown on screen
only. Clicking EDIT now will cause a prompt to be displayed asking the
starting address to edit. You may specify any address in the range
displayed. You may now skip over bytes of data by pressing return, go back
through the data by pressing BACKSPACE or stop the EDIT function by
pressing the 'ESC' key. If data has been modified, i.e., you actually did
edit something, you will asked to confirm the write back of the modified
data. If you answer negatively the disk data will not be updated.
THE PRINT FUNCTION.
PRINT will only print data displayed on screen by TYPE or
HEXTYPE, or by LIST. If you choose to print the screen data, you will be
asked to enter a comment as explained above.
THE STOP GADGET.
STOP is used to interrupt functions like FORMAT, DISKCOPY, SEARCH,
etc. A requester will be displayed asking you to confirm the ABORT of
that function. If no operation is underway STOP has the same
functionality as clicking the WINDOW CLOSE GADGET, that is, to terminate
DUTILS. Termination of DUTILS must be confirmed by another requester.
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