STraTOS 1997 April & May

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HDSCAN/HDSCAN Professional (The ST Hard Disk Utility) (c) 1987 by Todd Burkey Note: This documentation must be included in an ARC file with the HDSCAN program if you wish to distribute the program on BBS's or Club Disks. Any modification of the program or this document is expressly forbidden. HDSCAN is Shareware. HDSCAN Professional is not! This documentation covers the features of both the shareware version as well as the Professional one to give you an idea of the different features. DISCLAIMER: I spend all my money on computers that outdate themselves within a year, so I really don't need a disclaimer...although with GEMDOS and the XBIOS occasionally doing undocumented things, I should say that "LET THE USER BEWARE". Oh yes, don't use the program if you have more than 2,500 files on a hard disk. There. Safe. INTRO: Whew, even with the bugs and poor documentation on the ST, I think this program was easier to write on the ST than any computer I have had (MAC, AMIGA, IBM PC, and CP/M). Basically, HDSCAN started out with my developing a set of window region scrolling routines and then trying to figure out what to do with them. I had been waiting for a product to come out like XTREE or PCTOOLS (IBM PC programs), or even a PD program like SWEEP. Anything to make dealing with my hard disk easier. Since I had a lot of requests to make DISKTOP support hard disks (and I really didn't think that would be useful), I decided to go ahead and try to write my own utility. Special thanks to whoever wrote BLASTER, since seeing it scan the hard disk so quickly got me on the right track for this program (HDSCAN will typically read a 30 meg drive...all partitions...in around 3 seconds or so, gathering file names, sizes, dates, paths, etc.) I will keep this file short, since HDSCAN does have a help key. HDSCAN is first and foremost a utility that lets you tag files throughout your hard disk and then copy (or erase) them in one pass. Because I got carried away, HDSCAN also lets you hexdump any file on the hard disk, view any file (even binary files if you like), rename a file, show the free space on drives A and B, select for display files matching a specific string (i.e. to just see all file names that have NEO in them), select just files in one directory, select all the files on all partitions of the hard disk to scroll through, and more that will make sense when you try out the program. Recently added features allow you to view the contents of arc files, arc all Tagged files together into one file, edit a file at the press of a key using your own favorite .tos/.ttp editor (i.e. me.tos), and even run any TOS program you want by pressing a user-definable function key (F1 to F10). This latter feature really opens up a lot of possibilities. You can, for example, assign LESS.TTP to the F10 key and then every time you press F10, HDSCAN will pass the full path of the file you are currently scrolling over to the LESS.TTP program. Or, you could assign PCOMMAND to the F1 key and drop into a PC DOS like shell at the touch of a key. My favorite is assigning TINYLOOK.TTP to the F10 key. That progam loads in a tiny picture, switchs resolution, shows the picture, and then pops me back into HDSCAN where I can Tag the picture for future deletion or mass copying! Get enough auxillary programs set up under HDSCAN and you won't spend much time searching through the desktop again! And all that is Shareware. I am really trying hard to put as much into the PD version to give people a useful tool. Version 2.0 is not public domain (I have to make a living some way or other) and has some embellishments that I think most of you will appreciate. In 2.0, you can sort by date, name, and size all the selected files in ascending or descending order. For example, you can select all PAS files (all partitions), sort them by reverse date, then easily tag all the new files for copying to floppies. Or maybe sort the entire drive by name to help find duplicate files (this will make more sense when the 40 folder limit gets fixed). The sort in 2.0 is a recursive quicksort, so even a thousand items will be sorted in a few seconds. Even already sorted stuff won't slow down my version of the qsort (Quicksort'ing sorted data is usually horribly inefficient unless it is randomized first.) 2.0 also has a file compare capability, just in case you can't remember if a file is really a duplicate. Finally, 2.0 will better support people who want to use HDSCAN to reorganize their hard disks...with stuff like auto regeneration of the arrays after a mass copy from hard disk to hard disk, and hard disk 'DISKINFO' style info updated on the fly to keep things organized. USING HDSCAN: HDSCAN works best if you have a hard disk. After a bit of soul searching I added floppy support as well. If you don't have a hard disk, or do and want to read off of floppies as well as the hard disk, create a file called: HDSCANAB.DAT in the directory you run HDSCAN from (the file can be empty or have data in it, HDSCAN just looks to see if the file exists so that it knows whether to bother you with prompts or not). If you plan on looking at arc files while in HDSCAN, be sure ARC.TTP is in the directory as well. Also, if you want to do any file editing, copy me.tos into the directory as well (the name is hardcoded-you can rename your favorite editor to that name or simply reassign one of the function keys to call up your editor.) If you want to use external programs, modify the file called HDSCAN.KEY which is included in the HDSCAN release. The format is very simple, one function key per line in the format of: F1=C:\BIN\WC.PRG F2=D:\PICTURE\TINYLOOK.TTP etc.. If you don't own a hard disk, the best thing to do is to create a RAM disk on drive C and copy HDSCAN.PRG, HDSCANAB.DAT, HDSCAN.KEY, ARC.TTP, ME.TOS, and all of the 'External' programs you plan on running to it. This makes everything lightning quick and should make perusing your floppies a breeze. I even do the same thing if I plan on looking at pictures. To run HDSCAN, double click on HDSCAN.PRG and a screen will appear in front of you. I don't use GEM windows for speed reasons, so I will explain here what you are looking at. Most noticable on the screen will be a tall box near the right of the screen filled with file names. That is the 'selected file' window and you can scroll up and down through all selected files with the arrow keys and the [HOME] and SHIFT [HOME] keys to quickly get to a file. The file you are currently selecting will be highlighted. As you scroll through the files, you will notice that the directory the file is in, its' size, and its' date, are automatically updated in windows near the top left of the screen. Next to the file size window is a window that will make more sense later. It displays the total size of all tagged files. This proves useful when you are moving around the hard disk, deciding which files will fit on which floppies. Below the these two windows is a long window used for prompts. Look in this window if you aren't sure why something isn't happening...it might be asking you a question. Below the prompt window is a big free space which I am sure will eventually get filled up. Right now it is useful as a billboard. Below that is a status line that basically tells you 1) what you have selected (i.e. ALL will appear if all partitions are chosen, DIR will appear if you have selected a single directory to work in, and a string of 1-8 characters will appear if the selection was made using a wildcard string search), 2) the sort order (always RANDOM for 1.0 users, although, if your hard disk isn't too fractured, the files will be somewhat alphabetical), and 3) the number of selected files. TAGGING STuff: A few more things and you will be all set to go. First, tagging. To tag a file, simply scroll to the file you want and press the 'T' key. You will see a '*' appear in a little scrolling region next to the file name and the file window will scroll to the next file (so you can just keep pressing T to select a bunch of files.) As each file is tagged, you will see the total tagged size increase in the TOTAL TAGGED window. To untag, a file, just use the 'U' key. To untag all files, type ALT U. For my own sanity, I chose to show the directory names in the file window as well (they have a 'D' next to them, so you can't accidentally tag or delete them.) SEARCHING AND SELECTING STuff: Most of the time, you will probably just want to search out a few files for tagging and don't want to scroll over all 1000 or so files on the hard disk. To save some time, if you press the 'S' key, you will be prompted for a <9 character string to search for (you can enter stuff like NEO, PRG, READ, etc but no *, ? wildcards are supported...also it doesn't allow you to enter a '.' as part of the string.) Also, you might only want to select the files in one directory. To do so, pressing the TAB key will turn the PATH: window into a little scrolling region allowing you to use the arrow keys (up/down) to quickly choose the appropriate directory. When exitting the TAB key option, you are given the choice of pressing TAB (to select all the files in the currently selected directory) or A (to select all the files in all directories below and included the currently selected directory.) Every once in a while, you may want to regenerate the list of files (i.e. you have been doing some heavy deletes and don't care to see the 'X'ed out deleted files on the file list anymore). To do so, just press the ! key. Note that this command will let you switch floppies and also will let you see the results of all the copying TO the harddisk you have been doing. Note, this command automatically deselects everything. DANGEROUS STuff (Copy/Erase all Tagged files): Once you have everything selected, pressing the 'M' key will invoke the mass copy routine. This will prompt you for the destination path and allow you to copy all tagged files (with or without an interactive query on each file). Once copied, the '*' next to a file name will become a '#' to show that the copy was successful. If you later want to re-tag the '#' files, possibly for mass erase ('E' key), you can do so by pressing the ALT T keys. Note: to erase just one file, place the scroll bar over the file and press the D key. VISUAL STuff (Viewing and Dumping files): One nice feature of HDSCAN is that by pressing the 'V' key, you can view the file that you are currently selecting in the file window. The view option does a character by character analysis of the file, just displaying the ascii printable characters on the screen, so it can be used for looking for strings in a binary file. Note that because I chose to allow looking at binary files, I also turned off highliting (ESCp/ESCq) and tabbing that sometimes appears in files. If you want to get a HEX dump, press the 'H' key and you will get a page by page listing of your file in both HEX and ASCII. If you have ME.TOS in the same directory that you ran HDSCAN from, you can invoke the editor on the file you are currently pointing at in the scroll window by pressing the '*' key (shifted 8). ME.TOS will load in, read in the file, allow you to edit and save the file, and then return you to HDSCAN when you are done. ARC STuff: To get a verbose listing of the contents of an ARC file, move to the file you want to look at and then press the = key. While the verbose listing is being displayed, you can press the CTRL-S key to pause the listing and the CTRL-Q key to continue the listing. To add all Tagged files to an ARC file, just move the scroll bar over the arc file you want to add the Tagged stuff to and hit the + key. You will be asked for a path name (in case you want to add to an ARC file that doesn't exist) and you can either hit return (to select the file you were scrolling over, or type in the full pathname of the file you want to create or add to (i.e. C:\TEST\PICT1.ARC is a full pathname). The tagged files will then be arc'ed together. NEAT STuff: These features are, of course, found in the non-PD version of HDSCAN. HDSCAN Professional allows you to sort all selected files (don't confuse tagged with selected...selected files are simply everything you can currently scroll past in the file name window, whereas tagged files are those you have tagged with the T key for some future purpose.) By pressing the O key, you will tell HDSCAN that you wish to sort the selected files. HDSCAN will prompt you for the sort key (S-Size, N-Name, D-Date) and then for whether you want to see the sort in ascending or descending order (descending date is a useful way to tag what has changed since your last backup...specialy if you are currently selecting all partitions of your hard disk at once!) Ascending name is useful to find all those duplicate files. One note on sorting: I always fall back to RANDOM order when you do a new selection by either search (S) or directory select (TAB). This provides the fastest response assuming you aren't always wanting to see the stuff sorted. The other important feature added to the Professional version is the file compare option. This feature allows you select a file for comparing by pressing the ALT-C keys. When you do so, a C will appear next to the file name and you will be prompted to go find another file to compare it against. When you have the scroll bar over the other file, press ALT-C again and the two files will be compared. For sanities sake, I will just show the first 15 differences (byte locations and values) that the program finds. Note that you can do any number of file searches and directory matches in between selecting the first and second compare files. Other features will be added to the Professional version as people convince me that they need them. POWERFUL STuff: Because I got tired adding features to the program and it was getting big, I decided to add one more feature. This is probably the most powerful feature (and the most confusing) as well. I decided to make the F1-F10 keys into user definable keys. I have mentioned already how to create the HDSCAN.KEY file, so will only mention here that to use the program you have assigned to the key, just press the appropriate function key. If you forget what the key assignments are, just press the ? key and you will be given a listing of the keys (along with a summary of disk space). Be very careful not to run a GEM window type program from within HDSCAN, as you could end up totally garbaging up the HDSCAN display upon return from the program. Currently, I have run the following programs from within HDSCAN with no ill effects: ARC.TTP, ME.TOS, TINYLOOK.TTP, WC.PRG, OD.PRG, LESS.TTP, MORE.TTP, GALAXY.TTP, LINE3.PRG, DCOPY17.TOS, PCOMMAND.PRG, and a variety of other shells and even a few terminal programs. This is just using the GEMDOS Pexec call, so no fancy code is involved. NOTE: if you are writing an utility to use as a HDSCAN 'External' program, remember that the string that is passed in from HDSCAN contains the complete directory path with the file name you are pointing to, so be sure to allow sufficient character space (127 chars max). FINAL Stuff: Finally, to rename a file, just hit the 'R' key and type in the new name. The file name you are currently selecting in the file window will be renamed. I hope that I have covered all the basics about the commands in this short document. Check out any Read.me files for further information. That's it. Three words of caution before you continue. First, while copying, HDSCAN does not check to see if the destination file already exists...it will just overwrite the destination file. Second, I don't do any bounds checking on input, so if you feel you must have long directory names that require you to type in over the scroll window graphics, go ahead. You can't hurt anything that pressing the HELP key twice won't solve. I know that I should really go in and prevent that from happening, but this program was designed not to be restrictive and should allow you to use it in ways I haven't planned for yet (planning for the unplanned?) Also, be careful about using the 'E' key. If you tag some files in one directory, then do a search for some other files and tag some of them, be aware that the previously tagged files will also get erased (unless you un-tagged them of course). Just because you can't see the file anymore in your currently selected subset of the disk does not mean it isn't tagged (that will be obvious, actually, if you look at the total tagged window). Happy computing... -Todd Burkey BBS: 612-542-8980 (20+megs of STuff online) Send Contributions/Orders to: Todd Burkey c/o Mindtools 3546 Pilgrim Ln Plymouth, MN 55441 If you like the program, use it, and want to help fund further development, please send $10. If you want to order the product version (2.0), it is only $20 (plus 6.00% tax in Minnesota). I will mail it anywhere in the USA/CAN at no extra charge ($3.00 shipping for overseas orders). A word of caution to other people writing software out there. I had a real fun time working around the bios/gemdos bug/feature that makes the GEMDOS buffer fill up when you read keyinput with Bconin(2) calls. I tried playing around with the head and tail pointers in IOREC and even had a messy method working where I was constantly adjusting the key repeat rate, until someone steered me to eating the 'type ahead' key presses with : while(Cconis()!=0) Crawcin(); placed at strategic portions in my code. What a mess. If you want to see what happens if you just do a Crawcin()/Gemdos(7) call, just try holding ctrl-V down in some of the EMACS editors on a big file (got at least 10 bombs when I did that). Or you can try it on my 'V'/'H' options (I didn't bother eating chars in those routines.) So far I have found LOTS of PD and even some non-PD stuff that has the same problem. There has to be a better solution than the one I used.