Now, ready for Windows XP SP2.
Microsoft started to ship Windows XP, Service Pack 2 (SP2).
XXCOPY Version 2.85.8 supports Win XP SP2
New mechanism to detect the OS (Windows) environment.
Starting with V.2.85.7, XXCOPY no longer tests the
OS (Windows) environment using the timestamp of
key DLL files (KERNEL32.DLL, USER32.DLL). Rather,
it checks the Microsoft Windows Service Pack number.
When XXCOPY is invoked, it compares the Service Pack number
of the system against the list of the highest SP numbers that
it has been tested with. If the current SP number is not
supported by the version, XXCOPY will display a warning message
for a while (2 minutes). You may terminate the program by the
<ESC> key, or let it automatically resume the operation.
The latest release, v.2.85.7 expressly supports the following
Windows Versions:
Windows 95 4.00.0950
Windows 95 OSR2 4.00.1111
Windows 98 4.10.1998
Windows 98 SE 4.10.2222
Windows ME 4.90.3000
Windows NT 4 4.0.1381 SP6a
Windows 2000 5.0.2195 SP4
Windows XP 5.1.2600 SP2 (Release Candidate 2)
Windows 2003 5.2.3790 SP1
This new scheme eliminates the uncertainty faced by the
user after installing a new Microsoft security patch.
The previous versions with the default /WV switch generated
a user-prompt that had to be answered by the user. Although
the /WV0 switch could suppress the version-mismatch warning,
it would deprive the user of the benefit of seeing the warning.
Finally, when a brand new version of Windows is encountered
(a Windows version not listed above, e.g., Windows Longhorn),
the default behavior (absence of a user response in time) is
to terminate the operation.
Bugfix on /A/H which did not process hidden directories
Starting with v.2.85.6, file selection via /AT/AX should not be
mixed with the simpler method using /H/Ho/H0. Unless an uncommon
combination of attribute bits is used, the simpler scheme is
recommended. When the /AT/AX specifier is used, /H/Ho/H0 scheme
should not be used to avoid confusion.
Now, /RC can be combined with the /SX, /SL, /SR operations
In earlier versions, the /RC (Remove-after-Copy) switch would
disable a directory-flattening operation. This restriction is
now removed.
Volume confirmation feature
/ILS<name> Runs the command if name matches the src volume label
/ILD<name> Runs the command if name matches the dst volume label
These switches allows you to make your backup batch files immune
from inadvertent changes in drive letter assignments.
(A driver letter may change when a disk fails or in a dual-boot
environment which may cause a catastrophic loss of files.)
The new cache control feature
/CA Enables all cache. Same as /CA7 (default).
/CA0 Cache control: src-rd = OFF dst-wr = OFF dst-rd = OFF
/CA1 Cache control: src-rd = OFF dst-wr = OFF dst-rd = ON
/CA2 Cache control: src-rd = OFF dst-wr = ON dst-rd = OFF
/CA3 Cache control: src-rd = OFF dst-wr = ON dst-rd = ON
/CA4 Cache control: src-rd = ON dst-wr = OFF dst-rd = OFF
/CA5 Cache control: src-rd = ON dst-wr = OFF dst-rd = ON
/CA6 Cache control: src-rd = ON dst-wr = ON dst-rd = OFF
/CA7 Cache control: src-rd = ON dst-wr = ON dst-rd = ON
Hint: you may add /CA4/V2 when you record a CD-R using XXCOPY.
A few new macro keywords were added.
Some users had need to use a date string which does not allow
a leading zero. So the following new keywords are added.
/$M$ // 1 or 2 digit month (without leading zero)
/$D$ // 1 or 2 digit day (without leading zero)
/$H$ // 1 or 2 digit hour (without leading zero)
/$N$ // 1 or 2 digit minute (without leading zero)
/$S$ // 1 or 2 digit second (without leading zero)
Now, you may combine
/$M-D-YY$ // 7-4-03 for July 4th 2003 in the US convention
/$IIII-IWK-K$ // ISO-8601 Week-Date notation
Also, the computer name can be specified by macro
/$HOST$ // the computer name (up to 15 characters)
Improved /NX (SFN-preservation) operation
The SFN-preservation algorithm that was used in the
previous versions of XXCOPY suffered a serious
performance penalty in NT/2000/XP/2003 platforms.
This version uses an improved method which runs
more efficiently.
Supports Windows XP SP1 and Windows 2000 SP3.
When you install Windows XP Service Pack 1 or
Windows 2000 Service Pack 3, one of the key DLL
files is replaced. XXCOPY detects this change
when it checks the OS version and generates a warning prompt.
The current version (v.2.82.4 or higher) eliminates this warning.
Context-sensitive help for Prompt buster switch.
When you encounter a user-prmpt, typically (Y/N) ?
You may respond to it by typing "?".
XXCOPY will provide a short help text that tells
you what switch would disable the particular user-prompt.
Command Switch accepts an optional colon as delimiter.
Once upon a time (before /CF (command File) was introduced),
the command line was such a precisous space, the command syntax
could not afford a delimiter between the command letter(s) and
its parameter. Now, we can talk about readability.
To improve the readability of command text (in both the command
line and in the text for the /CF file), XXCOPY now accepts an
optional colon that can be placed immediately after the switch
letter(s).
e.g., /WS5 -> /WS:5
/X*.dir -> /X:*.dir
/INn* -> /IN:N*
/oNc:\mylog.txt -> /oN:c:\mylog.txt
Note: XXCOPY already accepts a comment // like this
A comment may appear either on the command line or
in the command file text (in /CF file).
New switch /IA:- and /IP:
An improvement of the /IA (If-Absent) and /IP (IF-Present) switches
with the name of a file/directory.
/IA:mystuff // Continue only if "mystuff" is absent.
/IP:mystuf // Continue only if "mystuff" is present.
/IA // Continue only if the dst directory is absent
/IP // Continue only if the dst directory is present
Note: the item for absence/presence may be a directory or a file.
New macro item added:
/$WWW$ // Day of the week in three-letter (e.g., SUN)
/$W$ // Day of the week in ordinal value (0-6 for Sun-Sat)
/$HOST$ // The name of the host (current) computer
Improvements on /W; Now, /WS and /WE accept a delay value.
/$WS<n> // Waits for n seconds at the start of the program.
/$WE<n> // waits for n seconds at the end of the program.
Note: n is in seconds by default; you may add a sufix letter
for S(econds), M(inutes), H(ours), or D(ays).
The following existing switches are still supported.
/W // Same as /WS (compatible with XCOPY).
/WS // Waits for a user key at the start of the program.
/WE // Waits for a user key at the end of the program.
=-=- The following items are from recent updates -=-=
A few bugs were removed.
Versions between 2.80.0 and 2.80.3 were affected by the bug.
/DB#xxH /DB#xxM /DB#xxS did not compute the right age.
Now these switches should work correctly.
Due to inconsistent implementations by Microsoft among the
various Win32 platforms, XXCOPY encountered problems when
a read-only file with the H (hidden) and/or S (system)
attributes was to be overwritten, under Windows NT/2K/XP/2003
(no problems under Windows 9X/ME). This problem is now fixed.
File selection by the file timestamp
/DA: and /DB: are enhanced with a time value in addition to
the date value (add T or @ followed by a time value).
Examples:
/DA:2001-10-25T13:15:30 (conform to the ISO 8601 standard).
/DB:2001-10-25@13:15 (@ may be used between date and time)
/DB:2001-10-25@13 (sec and/or min can be omitted)
New security related features, /SC and /SF are added.
This is for a copy operation from an NTFS volume to another.
With the /SC (Security Copy) switch, when a file (or a
directory) is copied, its security information (permissions
and/or auditing info) will also be copied.
With the /SF (Security Fixup) switch, only the security info
in the source will be copied to their corresponding items in
the destination (if present) without changes in any other
aspects (no file contents and other attributes are affected).
In both the /SC and /SF cases, you may fine-tune the
scope of the security information to handle by appending
a digit (1 - 3) as shown below:
/SC /SF // same as /SC3 and /SF3 respectively
/SC3 /SF3 // both permissions and auditing.
/SC2 /SF2 // only with auditing (SACL)
/SC1 /SF1 // only with permissions (DACL)
/SC0 /SF0 // cancel /SC or /SF switch
Note: the user must log on with the Administrator's privilege
to use /SC and /SF.
New /INSTALL:<directory> to specify XXCOPY's home
directroy.
The Progress Bar (/PB) has been completely reworked. The
older method of displaying the bar graph on the DOS Box
screen was discarded. The new method utilizes a pop-up
window which no longer relies on the ANSI-compatible DOS Box
setting. As a bonus feature, the Halt/Resume/Abort buttons
are provided. The /PB switch now works on Win9x and NT/2000/XP.
The new /LTREE switch allows you to list directories only. It
supports exclusion and also timestamp parameters applied to
the directory (/DA /DB /DO) which are otherwise applied to
files only.
Two new switches are added.
/PC Prompts on Creating a new file
/Po Prompts on Overwriting an existing file (same as /Y)
These pair now handles each of the two cases in writing
a file. Previsously, the /Y switch was responsible for
the user-prompt on the file-overwrite case, but, there was
no counterpart on file-creation. The /Po switch was created
to form a symmetry: it is equivalent to /Y switch with the
opposite polarity (i.e., /Po is the same as /-Y which is
the default).
The new /FF switch is added for "Fuzzy Filetime" match.
It provides more flexible control of the leeway in filetime
matching. It improves upon the /FT (Filetime Truncate)
and /FR (Filetime Round-Up). The new /FF switch accepts
an optional parameter to specify direction and magnitude
of the slack value in S(econds), M(inutes), H(our), or even
D(ays). The default /FF (without any parameter) is useful
for incremental backup between a FAT and an NTFS file system.
As a totally redesigned scheme as an advanced XXCOPY-PRO feature,
the control of the console display and log file output are
organized with a total of seven related switches in the new
/o switch group (/oP, /oI, /oX, /oF, /oS, /oD, /oE). Each of
these switches can be independently controled for the console
and the log file output.
The new /FM switch allows you to specify the output format
for the log file output (/oF) and for console display (/L).
A few more /X parameter cases which were not previously
articulated in the documentation are now officially supported.
e.g., /Xabc\*\ and /Xabc\?\ which are equivalent to
/Xabc\*\* and /Xabc\?\* respectively.
The debut of XXCOPY-PRO which is now specifically targeted for
professional users who accesses networked computers.
It allows a 60-day free test drive for new users.
The popular XXCOPY-Freeware is still available for home users
with a stand-alone computer. Advanced features are still
available in the Freeware version as a demonstration.
The new /CF (Command File) feature allows you to store the
XXCOPY command line in a text file. It allows you to add
comments, connects lines for a very long filename.
The log output is now cleaned up. Now, you have more control
on the log file contents. ( /OP, /OI, /OX, /OF, /OS, /OD)
Highlights of recent releases:
The long-awaited Progress Bar is finally here. Add the /PB
switch to a large XXCOPY job to display a progress bar at the
top of the screen. Another progress bar will be shown for
an individual copy for files larger than 1 MB (customizable).
Click to subscribe to xxcopy
The DOS Box display (the short-help text).
The progress bar pop-up window.
XXCOPY is a trademark of Pixelab, Inc.