dos(1)

dos: doscat, doscp, dosdir, dosformat, dosmkdir, dosls, dosrm, dosrmdir -- access and manipulate DOS files

Synopsis

doscat [-r | -m] file ...

doscp [-R] [-r | -m] file1 file2

doscp [-r | -m] file ... directory

dosdir directory

dosformat [-fqv] drive

dosls directory ...

dosmkdir directory ...

dosrm [-R] file ...

dosrmdir directory ...

Description

The dos commands allow access to files and directories on a DOS hard disk partition or diskette. The DOS partition must be bootable, although not active.

Below is a description of the dos commands:

doscat
Copies one or more DOS files to the standard output. If -r is given, the files are copied without newline conversions. If -m is given, the files are copied with newline conversions. If neither option is given, -r is assumed.

doscp
Copies files from/to a DOS diskette or a DOS hard disk partition to/from a UNIX file system. doscp will rename a file while it is copying. For example, the command:

doscp a:file1 file2

copies the file named file1 from the DOS disk to the UNIX® file system and renames it file2.

If directory is given, one or more files are copied to that directory. If -R is given, recursive copying of DOS files to UNIX and UNIX files to DOS is allowed. If -r is given, the files are copied without new line conversions. If -m is given, the files are copied with newline conversions.

doscp cannot be used to copy files between two floppy drives.

dosdir
Lists DOS files in the standard DOS style directory format. (See the DOS DIR command.)

dosformat
Creates a DOS 2.0 formatted diskette. It cannot be used to format a hard disk partition. The drive must be specified using the UNIX special file names. For example, if your system has two floppy drives, the first a 3.5" and the second a 5.25", then the following special file names would be used to format low and high density floppies:

DOS Format UNIX special file name
1.4 MB /dev/rdsk/f03ht
720 KB /dev/rdsk/f03dt
1.2 MB /dev/rdsk/f15ht
360 KB /dev/rdsk/f15d9t 

 
 DOS Format   UNIX special file name 
 1.4 MB       /dev/rdsk/f03ht 
 720 KB       /dev/rdsk/f03dt 
 1.2 MB       /dev/rdsk/f15ht 
 360 KB       /dev/rdsk/f15d9t

In the above special file names, f0 refers to the first floppy drive, and f1 refers to the second floppy drive.

The -f option suppresses the interactive feature. The -q (quiet) option is used to suppress information normally displayed during dosformat, but it does not suppress the interactive feature. The -v option prompts the user for a volume label after the diskette has been formatted. The maximum size of the volume label is 11 characters. The -2 option is supplied for compatibility and does not affect dosformat.

dosls
Lists DOS directories and files in a UNIX system style format (see ls(1)).

dosrm
Removes DOS files. If -R is given, recursive copying of DOS files to UNIX and UNIX files to DOS is allowed.

dosmkdir
Creates DOS directories.

dosrmdir
Deletes DOS directories.

The file and directory arguments for DOS files and directories have the form: 

   device:name

where device is a UNIX system path name for the special device file containing the DOS disk, and name is a path name to a file or directory on the DOS disk. The two components are separated by a colon (:). For example, the argument: 

   /dev/rdsk/f0t:/src/file.asm

specifies the DOS file file.asm in the directory /src on diskette /dev/rdsk/f0t.

NOTE: Always use slashes (not backslashes) as file name separators for DOS path names.

Arguments without a device: prefix are assumed to be UNIX files.

For convenience, the user-configurable default file /etc/default/msdos can define DOS drive names to be used in place of the special device file path names. It may contain the following lines: 

   A=/dev/rdsk/f0t 
   C=/dev/rdsk/0s5 
   D=/dev/rdsk/1s5

The drive letter A may be used in place of special device file path name /dev/rdsk/f0t when referencing DOS files (see ``Examples''). The drive letter C or D refer to the DOS partition on the first or second hard disk.

The commands operate on the following types of disks:

In the case of doscp, certain name conversions can be performed when copying a UNIX system file. File names with a base name longer than eight characters are truncated. Filename extensions (the part of the name following the separating period) longer than three characters are truncated. For example, the file 123456789.12345 becomes 12345678.123. A message informs the user that the name has been changed and the altered name is displayed. File names containing illegal DOS characters are stripped when writing to the DOS format. A message informs the user that characters have been removed and displays the name as written.

All DOS text files use a carriage-return/linefeed combination, CR-LF, to indicate a newline. UNIX system text files use a single newline LF character. When the doscat and doscp commands transfer DOS text files to UNIX system text files, they automatically strip the CR. When text files are transferred to DOS, the commands insert a CR before each LF character.

Under some circumstances, the automatic newline conversions do not occur. The -m option may be used to ensure the newline conversion. The -r option can be used to override the automatic conversion and force the command to perform a true byte copy regardless of file type.

Examples

   doscat /dev/rdsk/f0t:tmp/output.1 
   doscat A:prog/output.1 
   
 
   dosdir /dev/rdsk/f0t:/prog 

 
   dosdir /D:/prog 
   
 
   doscp /mine/file.out /dev/rdsk/f0t:/mine/file.2 

 
   doscp /tmp/f1 /tmp/f2 D: 
   
 
   dosformat /dev/rdsk/f0d8dt 
   
 
   dosls /dev/rdsk/f0t:/src 

 
   dosls B: 
   
 
   dosmkdir /dev/fd0:/usr/docs 
   
 
   dosrm /dev/rdsk/f0t:/docs/memo.txt 

 
   dosrm /A:/docs/memo1.txt 
   
 
   dosrmdir /dev/rdsk/f0t:/usr/docs

Files

/etc/default/msdos Default information
/dev/rdsk/f0t Floppy disk devices
/dev/rdsk/0s5 Hard disk devices 

 
 /etc/default/msdos   Default information 
 /dev/rdsk/f0t        Floppy disk devices 
 /dev/rdsk/0s5        Hard disk devices

References

directory(3C)

See your DOS Documentation.

Notices

The programs mentioned above cooperate among themselves so no two programs will access the same DOS disk simultaneously. If a process attempts to access a device already in use, it displays the error message ``Device Busy'', and exits with an exit code of 1.

The device argument to dosformat must be specific. For example, use /dev/rdsk/f03ht not /dev/rdsk/f0t or a:.

The DOS partition hard disk device names correspond as follows:

/dev/dsk/0s5
is equivalent to /dev/hd0d

/dev/rdsk/0s5
is equivalent to /dev/rhd0d

/dev/dsk/1s5
is equivalent to /dev/hd1d

/dev/rdsk/1s5
is equivalent to /dev/rhd1d

All of the DOS utilities leave temporary files in /tmp. These files are automatically removed when the system is rebooted. They can also be manually removed.

You must have DOS 3.3 or earlier. Extended DOS partitions are not supported.

30 January 1998
© 1998 The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. All rights reserved.