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Text File | 1992-03-07 | 18.4 KB | 437 lines

shroom.doc - readme file for Shell Room Utility Copyright (C) Davis Augustine 1990-1992. All rights reserved. Last Modified: 7mar92. Version 1.9c Files ----- SHROOM.COM - The program. SHROOM.DOC - This documentation file. Description ----------- SHROOM is a utility that gives a DOS application's shells more room. It does this by intercepting the shell operation, swapping out the application program, freeing up the memory, and then performing the shell operation. It also intercepts the exit from the shell, so that it can swap the application back in before returning to it. The program is none the wiser. Features -------- o Easy to use. o Detects swap file overflow (disk full) and asks whether you want to abort back to the application or continue with a partial swap. o Detects TSR loading and unloading during the shell. Frees the TSR's resources and puts a warning message. o Small resident size (about 6k). Frees nearly all of the memory. o Allows you to increase COMMAND.COM's environment size. o Works with all major DOS applications. o Fully user specifiable swap file path. Ie., you can put it on a virtual disk. o Swaps allocated memory only, avoiding unnecessary writes and reads of free memory. o Intelligent command line parsing. Searches DOS's PATH for program to load, allows passing of args to the program. Automatically tries .COM and .EXE extensions if not specified by user. o Verbose mode for inquisitive users. o Quiet mode for apathetic users. o Uses DOS "make temp file" facility to prevent network clashes. Installation and Operation -------------------------- o To install, just copy SHROOM.COM into a directory in your PATH or the directory from which you will run the application. o For help, use the question mark switch, eg. "shroom -?". o To load, just type the normal command used to invoke the application, with "shroom " prepended. Eg, if the application is called "edit", then you would use the command "shroom edit". Arguments are passed to the application just as before, so eg. you can say "shroom edit letter.doc". o To shell out, use whatever shell command is provided by the application. You will see a message from Shroom saying that it is swapping the program out, after which the normal shell prompt and actions will appear. When you exit the shell, you will again see the "swapping" message from Shroom and then be deposited back into the application as usual. Help Screen - Displayed by the "-?" switch: ------------------------------------------- Usage: shroom [-?hLnpqv] [-e #] [-s path] [-t targets] [-z #] prog [args] -?h : print this help message -L : display shareware license -n : display program notes -p : proceed (without asking) with partial swap if disk full -q : quiet mode - display error messages only -v : verbose mode - provide running commentary -e # : set ERRORLEVEL returned if unable to load prog (default = 254) -s path : specify DRIVE:DIR in which to create swap file -t targs : specify which shell programs cause swapping -z # : specify environment size for COMMAND.COM prog : application program to execute args : command line to pass to the application Example: shroom -p -e 99 -s E:\ -z 800 wp letter Notes Screen - Displayed by the "-n" switch: -------------------------------------------- ********** NOTES ********** PROGRAM LOADING: The application must be a .EXE or .COM file. You can leave off the file extension and Shroom will try to find a matching .COM or .EXE file. Shroom searches for the application program first in the current directory, then in Shroom's home directory, and finally in the directories of the PATH environment string. SHROOM SWITCHES AND ARGUMENTS: All text surrounded by square brackets, as in "[-hnv]", is optional. Switches can be given in any order, and can be in upper or lower case, and may be separated by spaces (or not). The space between a switch and its argument is optional, ie. you can say "-z800" or "-z 800". Although all our examples use dashes as the switch character, a slash can also be used: eg. "Shroom /v /p ...". ENVIRONMENT SIZE: Many people have run into the following problem: you type the command "SET MYVAR=WHATEVER" and get back the message "Out of environment space." This occurs when a TSR is loaded or while a .BAT file is running. You get around this by adding a line like "SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM /E:2000" to your CONFIG.SYS file, thus increasing the minimum environment space to 2000 bytes. However, when you shell out from an application and then run a .BAT file, you find that the environment size has again been restricted and the CONFIG.SYS line has no effect. What you need is the amazing new "-z #" switch from Shroom. It causes Shroom to append the string " /E:#" to COMMAND.COM's command line, thus setting the desired minimum environment space for the new shell. Note that in DOS 3.0, # is the size in paragraphs. In later versions it is in bytes. EXIT RETURN CODES: Shroom exits immediately if it cannot load the application, returning an ERRORLEVEL of 254, unless you have changed the value with the "-e #" switch. If it can load the application, then Shroom exits when the application does, and returns the application's exit code. SWAP FILE: Shroom stores the application in a temporary swap file during the shell. The swap file always has extension ".OOM". The main part of its name is derived from the application name followed by some digits. Eg., "WP_000.OOM". When you exit from the shell, Shroom reads the file back in and then deletes it. Obviously, you should not delete, rename or otherwise modify the swap file while you are in the shell. If you crash the system while in the shell, then the swap file will still be there after you reboot (unless you were using a ram disk), and it is a good idea to delete it then. The file is readonly so you will need to run attrib -r on it first. Shroom (among many other programs) looks for the environment variable TEMP at startup. If TEMP is defined, then Shroom takes its definition as the default location of the swap file. If TEMP is not defined, then the current directory becomes the default swap file location. If you give the -s DRIVE:DIR switch on the command line, then that overrides the default location. The swap file location is determined only once, during Shroom's startup. Changing your current drive or directory while in the application or a shell will not affect where the swap file goes. Finally, if you have a ram disk with enough room, it makes an excellent home for the Shroom swap file. It is fast and "self-deleting" if you crash the PC. TARGET LIST: (Most people don't need to worry about this.) When Shroom notices that a program is being shelled, it checks the name of that program against the target list. If it is in the list, then Shroom goes ahead and does its thing, swapping the application and freeing its memory. If the shelled program is not in the target list, then Shroom lets the program load and execute normally without any swapping. The purpose of the target list is to prevent unwanted swapping. There are a few applications which "shell" their own overlays, and if Shroom swapped them then the overlays wouldn't have anyone to talk to! The default target list contains just your command shell, as defined by the COMSPEC environment string. The -t switch is used to change the target list. It takes a list of filenames separated by commas. The file names are case independent and should not have drive or directory paths. The ~ (tilde) string can be used to refer to the COMSPEC definition. For example, "shroom -t ~, SUBPROG.EXE ..." would cause swappping on the default shell and when SUBPROG.EXE is spawned. Typical shells are COMMAND.COM, 4DOS.COM, NDOS.COM and SH.EXE. Another special string is * (asterisk). It is the wildcard target list, which causes Shroom to spawn on all shell operations. It should be the only -t argument, as in: "shroom -p -t * -v ...". APPLICATIONS THAT DO "BACKGROUND PROCESSING": You may have a communications package which allows you to initiate a file transfer and then shell out to do other things. This will probably not work if the package was Shroom'ed, because the application is actually unloaded from memory (and from the interrupt vector table) during the shell. The background processing code will not be there anymore! ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: Shroom is processor (8086, 286, 386, etc) independent. It does not do any floating point. It doesn't care about or use expanded or extended memory (a future version will be able to swap to extended mem). It works with DOS Extender (eg. Pharlap) based applications. It may work in the Windows, Desqview and other pseudo or real multi-tasking environments, but you're basically on your own (caveat sharer). LOADING TSR'S INSIDE SHELLS: In general, it is not safe to load a TSR while shelled out of an application, unless you delete the TSR before exiting the shell. A variety of memory and interrupt handling problems can occur. This is true even when you are not using Shroom. If you are using Shroom, then any TSR's that were loaded during the shell will be automatically unloaded when you return to the application. If a TSR was loaded "high", then it will stay loaded high but may cause problems if it uses any interrupts that the application uses. Shroom displays the message: "WARNING: Interrupt ## used by application, changed in shell." if that occurs. UNLOADING TSR'S INSIDE SHELLS: The sequence in mind is: You Load a TSR, enter an application, shell out, then unload the TSR. The main danger in doing this is that unloading the TSR may restore interrupt vectors that the application had remapped. The chain would be changed from TABLE->APP->TSR->SYSTEM to TABLE->SYSTEM, thus "cutting out" the app. Fortunately, Shroom is able to detect when this occurs. If you see the message "WARNING: Interrupt ## used by application, changed in shell", then that is what happened. You should probably save your changes to a new temp file if possible, and exit the application. You're not guaranteed to be able to do this, so be sure to hold your breath. You don't really need to know what interrupts are or understand any of the above. The bottom line is: don't play with TSR's when shelled out of an application. If you can't resist the urge to, then at least Shroom will provide some insurance by catching and attempting to deal with conflicts when they occur. REPORTING BUGS: If Shroom is not working as advertised for you, please tell me about it and I'll try to fix it. Shroom problems are usually due to conflicts with other software packages. You should send a problem report via regular or electronic mail with a description of the malfunction and a listing of your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files. Use the switches "-v -o FILE" to create a log of the malfunctioning session. You may also be asked to send a copy of the misbehaving application so that I can debug with it. (It usually takes more time to obtain the software and/or reproduce the bug than it does to fix it.) Shareware License - Displayed by the "-L" switch: ------------------------------------------------- ********** SHROOM SHAREWARE LICENSE ********** This is a copyrighted software work which is distributed as shareware. Under this license agreement you are granted the right to use Shroom on all machines and environments that it supports. You are also free (and encouraged) to pass copies of this shareware on to others as long as it is not for payment and not bundled with anything else that is for payment. The shareware registration fee is $25 for single users, $95 for groups (up to 12 users). To receive a diskette, please add $25 for shipping and handling and specify diskette type. Send check or money order to: Davis Augustine P.O. Box 390178 Cambridge, MA. 02139 Commercial distribution licenses, source code and customized versions are also available at reasonable rates. Please write to the above address or send me email at CompuServe id 72230,3053. I would also appreciate any comments, questions, suggestions or bug reports. The latest Shroom release can usually be found in CompuServe forums WPSGA, lib 9, and IBMSYS, lib 3. ---------------------- | REVISION HISTORY | ---------------------- Changes in v1.9c (7mar92) -------------------------- Change nonsensical swap file names to app_###.OOM. (Thanks to users ML and RMB). Make swap file readonly. (Thanks to users JB, ML, et al). Show DOS error codes in decimal instead of hex. Changes in v1.8k (15dec91) ------------------------- Fix shroom's exit code when -v switch used. Was always exiting with ERRORLEVEL 0 when -v was given. (Thanks to user B). Changes in v1.8j (30oct91) ------------------------- Allow tilde in target list to indicate COMSPEC file. Add -o F switch to redirect output to a file. (Thanks to user RE). Changes in v1.8g (14sep91) ------------------------- Use TEMP environment string as default swap file location. Previously we used the current directory. You still use the "-s PATH" switch to override the default. (Thanks to users LC, ML). Start application with full path name, not just command name given (eg. C:\BIN\COOLPROG.EXE, not COOLPROG.EXE). Makes Clipper work (was giving "overlay not found" error). (Thanks to user LM). Make it work better with systems (such as MKS) where / (slash) is the path separator, instead of backslash. Wasn't finding app if it was in same dir as Shroom. Detect and warn user when interrupts used by the application have been changed in the Shell, apparently by unloading a TSR. Improve TSR detection and deciding when to unload it and when not. Changes to interrupt handling to work better with PC NFS and some other software. Fix application startup so it is not fooled by APPEND. If a directory containing app was APPENDED, Shroom would think app was in the current directory. (Thanks to user DG). Add sections on TSR's and reporting bugs to notes. Make -q suppress startup message, too. (For user ML). Show command being passed to app, besides app name (unless -q). If verbose, show exit codes from shells and from app. Also if verbose, show swap file location at startup. Changes in v1.7d (14aug91) -------------------------- Fix problem with -z # switch when comline is not empty. Was overwriting existing comline instead of inserting in front of it. (Thanks to user LH). Changes in v1.7b (6aug91) -------------------------- Fix problem with Fortran programs. Was causing "Floating point not loaded" error at application load time. Hey, don't blame me, the bug is in the Fortran startup code! (Thanks to users RS and DF). Disable control-C during swapping. Would cause system hang and other strange behavior (especially by the user!). Bring back group shareware registration, by popular demand. Changes in v1.6d (21jul91) -------------------------- Fix state saving and restoring to work better with other TSR's. With a few TSR's, system would reliably hang when you exited the application back to DOS, if a shroom swap occurred in the application. (Thanks to user ML) Changes in v1.6c (22jun91) -------------------------- Get default target list from the COMSPEC environment string. So, if you use a shell other than COMMAND.COM, Shroom will automatically recognize it. (Thanks to user MB) Fix problem in 1.6b, where swapping may have not been done with some applications. Was failing to handle lowercase shell names correctly. Changes in v1.6b (14jun91) -------------------------- Only swap out specified shell programs. Default list is COMMAND.COM. Add -t switch to specify others. (Thanks to user LH) Add -z switch to allow increasing the environment space of COMMAND.COM. (Thanks to user DM) The -v switch as part of its verbosity shows the shell program being executed and its command line. Changes in v1.5d (3may91) -------------------------- Search for the application in Shroom's home directory, too. (Thanks to user CS) Changes in v1.5c (26apr91) -------------------------- Fix a bug in 1.5b, when checking for unswappable blocks. Caused some applications to swap zero bytes. (Thanks to user JG) Mention CompuServe home library in license. Changes in v1.5b (29mar91) -------------------------- Fix a bug in swapping. Leave alone any high blocks that are allocated by TSR's. This caused shells to hang when Shroom was used with some software (such as QCache). (Thanks to user RM) Changes in v1.5a (24mar91) -------------------------- Add -q switch for quiet mode. Suppresses the "SHROOM: swapping..." messages but still lets error messages through. Add -p switch to force partial swaps. If Shroom is unable to swap all of the application out, it normally asks you whether you want to proceed with the shell or return to the application. With the -p switch, it always proceeds with the shell without asking you. Add -e errorlevel switch to allow you to specify the exit value returned by Shroom if it is unable to load the application. This allows you to choose a value which does not conflict with those returned by your other applications. This feature is only useful to those who make serious use of "if ERRORLEVEL..." statements in DOS batch files. (Thanks to user WB) Add -n switch to show program notes, and add more information to the notes. There is now a help screen (-h), a shareware license screen (-l) and a notes screen (-n). Properly delete the temporary swap file when the user aborts the shell on disk full error (ie. when you pick 'A' to return to the application). In previous versions of Shroom, the file was never deleted, thus leaving temporary files with names like "0A982331" lying around. Changes in v1.4d (14mar91) -------------------------- Shroom returns the ERRORLEVEL of the application program which was executed. If the application fails to execute, then Shroom returns an ERRORLEVEL of 2. Previously, Shroom always returned ERRORLEVEL 0 if the application was successfully executed.