OVERVIEW
--------
UZfulnix is a subset of useful Unix(TM) utilities for PCs
running MS-DOS 3.x and later. This toolset is really intended for the
hard-core Unix user, although certain programs are worth looking into by
the DOS- oriented, specially if they do not modify files (eg. df, du,
more, tail, which). The toolset is designed to complement the GNUish
MS-DOS tools (although there is some overlap). The current release
contains the following utilities: basename, cal, cat, cmp, date, dd, df,
du, find, more, mv, od, pwd, rm, sleep, strings, sum, tail, tee, time,
touch, uudecode, uuencode, wc, which.
INSTALLATION
------------
The simplest alternative to install UZfulnix is to follow these
instructions:
1) Make a separate directory (using mkdir from the DOS prompt) and copy
the files from your distribution medium (either extract it from a
downloaded archive file (PKZIP, LHARC, ZOO, ...), or copy from the
diskette) into that directory. It is highly recommended to install
into a newly created directory, so that you can easily upgrade or
uninstall later.
2) Edit the file C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT to add the directory which contains
the UZfulnix executables to the PATH variable. The order of the
directories in the PATH variable matters, and we recommend to put
the UZfulnix directory at the beginning of the list (specially
before the DOS directory!).
3) Reboot the computer. You are ready to use the UZfulnix utilities.
To uninstall UZBlank in the event you are not going to use it,
simply reverse the steps above, that is:
1) Remove the directory from the PATH variable.
2) Remove the executables.
USAGE
-----
The utilities are designed to emulate the original Unix
functionality (in particular, the SunOS 4.1.3 variant) as closely as
possible. For this reason, if you have access to the Unix manual pages,
they will provide the most complete documentation. Alternatively, any
book on Unix utilities will show you sample usage of most of them. Since
they are well documented in other places, we present here only a brief
description of each program:
basename - print base file name of a pathname
This command is often used in shell scripts. For example:
$ for file in rcs/*.*
do
rcs -nversion1: `basename $file`
done
NOTE: this command by itself does not modify any files.
DOS equivalents: NONE
cal - print calendar
NOTE: this command by itself does not modify any files.
DOS equivalents: NONE
cat - concatenate files
No command line options implemented.
Can be used to concatenate two or more files, such as
C:\> cat a b c > d
NOTE: this command only modifies files if you redirect the output
(eg. with the > construct).
DOS equivalents: type
cmp - binary compare 2 files
NOTE: this command by itself does not modify any files.
DOS equivalents: fc /b
date - print current date and time
Supports most of the System V output formats. Does not set time
(yet).
NOTE: Since COMMAND.COM also has a built-in 'date' command, you
have to rename or copy this command to something like 'udate'.
NOTE: this command does not modify any files.
DOS equivalents: date, time
dd - copy data in a variety of formats and sizes
All the useful options are implemented:
if=name Input file name. The standard input is the default.
of=name Output file name. The standard output is the default.
ibs=n Input block size, n bytes. The default is 512 bytes.
obs=n Output block size, n bytes. The default is 512 bytes.
bs=n Set both input and output block size to n bytes.
skip=n Skip n input records before starting to copy.
seek=n Seek n records from beginning of output file before copying.
count=n Copy only n input records.
This command is most useful to split a large file into multiple
smaller pieces, eg.
C:\> dd if=foo of=a:bar bs=50k count=28
will copy the first 1.4MB of the file foo to the file bar on
floppy drive a:.
NOTE: this command DOES modify files, so be careful.
DOS equivalents: NONE
df - display free disk drive space
Displays used and available disk space of disk partitions.
By default, displays information for the hard-disk partitions.
With arguments, you can get information for floppies.
C:\> df
Drive Total Used Available
kbytes kbytes kbytes
--------------------------------
C: 204436 183668 20768
C:\> df a:
Drive Total Used Available
kbytes kbytes kbytes
--------------------------------
A: 1423 323 1100
NOTE: this command by itself does not modify any files.
DOS equivalents: dir (incomplete)
du - print disk usage of files and directories
This command displays disk space used by files and directories.
For a directory, it displays the space used by all the files
underneath. This command is most useful with the -s switch, to
determine whether you can fit a subdirectory onto a floppy
without compression.
NOTE: this command by itself does not modify any files.
DOS equivalents: NONE
find - find files
Finds files that match certain criteria, then either displays
them or executes a command on them. All useful options are
implemented:
-name expr match files by name
-type file-type match files by type
-mtime time-expr match files by modification time
-print print matching files
-exec expr execute a command for each matching file
Here are some examples:
C:\> find . -name a*.exe -print
displays all executable files that start with 'a' in all
directories on the C: drive, while
C:\> find windows -name *.ini -exec grep load NUL {} \;
executes the 'grep' command to find the string 'foo' in all
Windows INI files (the NUL argument makes grep display the
filename for any matching strings as well).
NOTE: this command does not modify any files except possibly
with the -exec option.
DOS equivalents: NONE
more - page a file
This version of 'more' blows away the MS-DOS excuse of a file
pager. Most of the features of the SunOS 'more' have been
implemented, including backward scroll with 'b', string search
with '/', editor invocation with 'v', skip file with ':n', etc.
'?' will give you the help message.
NOTE: this command by itself does not modify any files.
DOS equivalents: more
mv - move one or more files
Moves files, even between disk partitions. Does not move
directories (yet).
NOTE: this command DOES modify files.
DOS equivalents: ren
od - octal dump
Only the -x option is implemented.
NOTE: this command by itself does not modify any files.
DOS equivalents: debug
pwd - present working directory
NOTE: this command by itself does not modify any files.
DOS equivalents: NONE
rm - remove one or more files
The -r, -f and -i options have been implemented.
NOTE: this command is the most dangerous of the entire toolset,
thus has been disabled. You will have to explicitely rename the
file from RM.DIS to RM.EXE to enable this command. We recommend
using it only if you fully know its behaviour. See also the
'LIMITATIONS' section below.
DOS equivalents: del, deltree
sleep - sleep for a specified period of time
This command is most often used in scripts, if you want to
wait for a certain amount of time.
NOTE: this command by itself does not modify any files.
DOS equivalents: NONE
strings - find printable strings in one or more files
NOTE: this command by itself does not modify any files.
DOS equivalents: NONE
sum - checksum one or more files
NOTE: this command by itself does not modify any files.
DOS equivalents: NONE
tail - view the end of a file
The -f option is implemented.
NOTE: this command by itself does not modify any files.
DOS equivalents: NONE
tee - output to a file and stdout
NOTE: this command DOES modify files.
DOS equivalents: NONE
time - give execution time of a command
NOTE: this command by itself does not modify any files.
DOS equivalents: NONE
touch - touch one or more files
This command is used to update file modification timestamps.
NOTE: this command by itself does not modify any file contents.
DOS equivalents: NONE
uuencode/uudecode - encode/decode a uuencoded file
The uuencode/uudecode utilities are used to encode binary data
for transmission over 7-bit channels, such as most of the
currently deployed e-mail protocols. The utilities in this
toolset are compatible with the Unix counterparts, although
there will be warning messages displayed (which you can ignore).
To encode a binary file (eg. FILE.BIN), just say
C:\ uuencode FILE.BIN FILE.BIN
and it creates a file called FILE.UUE, which contains the
encoded contents of FILE.BIN. The file FILE.UUE can be
included in e-mail messages, and decoded by the recipient.
To decode a uuencoded file, just say
C:\ uudecode FILE.UUE
and the original file is extracted. The filename of the original
file is contained in the "begin" line at the beginning of the
uuencoded file.
wc - count words and lines in one or more files
NOTE: this command by itself does not modify any files.
DOS equivalents: NONE
which - print path for an executable
NOTE: this command by itself does not modify any files.
DOS equivalents: NONE
LIMITATIONS
-----------
Due to "features" of the DOS environment, the programs have the
following limitations:
- only DOS filename wildcards are supported. Be specially careful with
the 'rm' command, since *a.* does not expand in DOS to what you think
it should! This will be fixed in a future release.
- these tools override the default MS-DOS error handler to work correctly
in a MS-DOS window under MS-Windows, ie. they will not go into full-screen
mode on I/O error.
SUPPORT
-------
If you are a registered user, UZful Software provides on-line
support via e-mail at uzful@mv.mv.com . When you report a problem,
please include
- the version of the UZfulnix utility,
- the type of PC you have, and
- the symptoms of the problem (any special circumstances that make
the problem appear? Can you repeat the problem?). The more info
you provide, the quicker we can fix the problem.
If you have additional suggestions on how to make the product even more
useful, please drop us a line.
UZful Software
"We make the useful simple."
