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A R J M E N U _______________________________________ User's Manual Copyright 1991 by Michael D McCombs ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Michael D McCombs 517 Ninth Ave. #310 Seattle, WA 98104 ARJMENU ii COPYRIGHT NOTICE ARJMENU is Copyright (c) 1991 by Michael D McCombs This document is Copyright (c) 1991 by Michael D McCombs No parts of ARJMENU or this document may be copied in whole or in part, except as provide in the license on the next page. DISCLAIMER Michael D McCombs, hereinafter referred to as the author, makes no warranty of any kind, express or implied, including, but not limited to warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose with respect to this software and its associated documentation. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES (INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, INTERRUPTION OF BUSINESS, LOSS OF INFORMATION OR DATA, OR OTHER PECUNIARY LOSS) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THIS PROGRAM, EVEN IF THE AUTHOR HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. Trademarks and Copyrights ARJ, ARJSORT, REARJ, UNARJ, and AV are Copyright (c) 1990, 1991 by Robert K Jung. XSPAWN is Copyright (c) 1991 by Whitney Software Other products mentioned herein are the property of their respective authors, ordinarily mentioned with the product. ARJMENU iii LICENSE ARJMENU is not, nor has it ever been, public domain software. ARJMENU is distributed under the Shareware (User Supported Software) concept. ARJMENU is free for the use of non-commercial, non-institutional and non-governmental users. A limited license is granted to commercial, institutional and governmental users to use ARJMENU for a trial period not to exceed four weeks in order to determine if ARJMENU meets their needs. Any use by a commercial, institutional or governmental user beyond this period is expressly forbidden. All users are granted a limited license to copy ARJMENU for the sole purpose of allowing others to try it, subject to the above restrictions and: ARJMENU must be distributed in unmodified form, including ALL files present in the original. ARJMENU may not be included with any other product for any reason without a special license from the author. No price or fee may be charged for ARJMENU, excepting that a subscription fee to a BBS or similar distribution system shall not be considered such a fee. Distributors of Shareware (User Supported) and Public Domain software MUST obtain written permission from the author before distributing ARJMENU and MUST follow the above conditions. Special license is obtainable for religious institutions, excepting schools, colleges or universities owned by religious institutions that offer courses other than those taught toward ordination or investment as minister, priest, rabbi, imam or other cleric. The following section contains further information on licensing. _______________________________________ Author's note: The above simply means you can use ARJMENU for free at home, but not at work. It can be distributed on BBS's as normal. The special license for religious institutions excludes all educational affiliates except seminaries or non-christian equivalents. The author reserves the right to judge what is a valid religious institution. ARJMENU iv REGISTRATION As noted on the page before, registration is not required for use of ARJMENU in a private home by a private user. Registration IS required by all other users after the original four week trial period. A donation of $15.00 (US) is suggested for all non-registering users. Such donations are what make it possible for authors like myself to continue to create and improve Shareware. You are also strongly urged to support ARJ, REARJ, ARJSORT, UNARJ, and AV, without which this program would not exist. The following page is a registration form and contains current prices. Commercial, institutional and governmental users should also read the following page which contains information on licensing multiple copies of ARJMENU. ARJMENU v ARJMENU version 1.00 ________________________________________________________________________ ____ copies of ARJMENU ............................ $20.00 ea. $_______ ____ copies of ARJMENU (disk requested)............ $30.00 ea. $_______ Subtotal $_______ - Discount $_______ Washington State residents or corporations + 8.3% (tax) $_______ Total $_______ Checks or money orders accepted, no PO's, no COD's _________________________________________________________________________ Name:____________________________________________________________ Company:____________________________________________________________ Address:____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Phone:(____)_______________ (In case of problems with your order) Where did you obtain ARJMENU? ________________________________________________________________________ Comments:_______________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ARJMENU vi COMMERCIAL, INSTITUTIONAL, GOVERNMENTAL AND QUANTITY PURCHASES All commercial, institutional, and governmental usage must be registered. Volume discounts and site licenses are available. The registration form on the previous page may be used to purchase multiple copies, using the following schedule for discounts: 1 - 10 copies no discount 11 - 20 copies 10% discount 21 - 50 copies 15% discount 51 - 100 copies 20% discount 101 - 200 copies 30% discount 201+ copies 40% discount Quantities in excess of 10 copies are site licenses and will receive one copy of the distribution diskette. The licensee is responsible for copying the disks (backup copies do NOT count toward the total number). The name that appears on the registration form is considered the contact and is the person to whom all correspondence will be directed. Prices and discounts subject to change without notice. Discounts apply only to one order, they are NOT cumulative. Special rates are available for religious institutions as noted in the License. Please write the author for details. ARJMENU vii C O N T E N T S Copyright........................................................... i Disclaimer.......................................................... ii License............................................................. iii Registration........................................................ iv Order form.......................................................... v Quantity discounts.................................................. vi Introduction........................................................ 1 Requirements................................................... 1 Terminology.................................................... 2 Mouse support.................................................. 3 ARJMENU activity............................................... 3 Installation................................................... 3 Configuration.................................................. 3 General operations.................................................. 5 Options menus.................................................. 5 Child processes................................................ 6 Order of selection............................................. 6 Quick Exit..................................................... 6 Specific operations................................................. 7 Main Menu Bar.................................................. 7 "Fast" menu.................................................... 7 "Add" menu..................................................... 8 "Extract" menu................................................. 8 "List" menu.................................................... 9 "Read" menu.................................................... 9 "Misc" menu.................................................... 9 "Shell" menu................................................... 11 "Config" menu.................................................. 12 "Quit" menu.................................................... 12 Defaults............................................................ 13 Tips & Techniques................................................... 14 Error messages...................................................... 18 Technical notes..................................................... 20 The future of ARJMENU ?............................................. 21 Contacting the author............................................... 21 Credits............................................................. 22 ARJMENU 1 INTRODUCTION ARJMENU is an attempt to bring the tremendous versatility of Robert Jung's ARJ to those for whom the DOS command-line is a curse and not a blessing. In the creation of ARJ, Robert added so many commands and switches that it can be very difficult to remember them all. Thus ARJMENU. With ARJMENU, all this power is available in a pop-up window environment with full mouse support. It is quite possible to do the vast majority of your archive operations without ever using anything but your mouse or the cursor keys combined with the Escape and Enter keys. ARJMENU is an ARJ shell utility. ARJ still provides the services, but you build the command-line without conscious thought via the menu structure. I have structured ARJMENU to break the process into a series of logical steps that should be more or less intuitive for the normal user. Features: ARJMENU is a user friendly, ANSI graphic interface for Robert Jung's powerful ARJ compression utility. 1. Provides "point and shoot" flexibility 2. Fully mouse supported 3. Provides access to all commands, switches and options of ARJ, REARJ, and ARJSORT 4. Allows loading an archived file to Buerg's LIST.COM 5. Allows virus checking of files in an ARJ archive with McAfee's SCAN.EXE 6. Allows use of the user's favorite editor to edit files in an ARJ archive 7. Supports multiple drives for greater flexibility 8. Supports external DOS commands via a DOS shell 9. Provides access to all files on disk with scrolling directories 10. Heavy error protection to prevent damage or loss to important files and data REQUIREMENTS ARJMENU requires about 150K RAM. To make ARJ fully operational, a full 640K is suggested, as ARJ requires 300K plus adequate memory to store path and file names. ARJ.EXE must be in a directory included in your PATH statement. See your DOS manual for details of the PATH statement if you are unfamiliar with it. ARJSORT also needs to have the DOS program SORT.EXE in the DOS PATH if the Order option is used. For full functionality Robert Jung's REARJ.EXE and ARJSORT.COM, Vern Buerg's LIST.COM, McAfee's SCAN.EXE and your choice of a text editor that accepts a file name on its command line should be PATHed. (ARJMENU 1.00 is written for ARJ version 2.21. Not all the commands available to ARJMENU will work on previous versions of ARJ.) ARJMENU 2 ARJMENU is designed for use with hard disk drives. It currently supports drives C through F. Your floppy disk drive(s) can be accessed. See the section on "Tips & Techniques", below. If you do not currently have a LASTDRIVE statement in you CONFIG.SYS, it would be best to add one. Again, refer to your DOS manual if this is unfamiliar to you. You will probably not be able to run ARJMENU on a "floppy only" system as all temporary files are written to the root directory of "C:". I strongly urge you to read the documentation that comes with ARJ. Robert Jung's excellent user's manuals will greatly enhance your use of ARJMENU. TERMINOLOGY The following terms are used throughout this manual: ARJ-pick-screen: A scrolling menu screen that shows all ARJ archive files in the current directory. Directories and drives may be changed to view all ARJ files available. Toggle with TAB to view files other than .ARJ. ARJ-file-pick-screen: A scrolling menu screen that shows the contents of the selected ARJ archive file. Directories may be selected to view all files in the archive. Command: The one-letter command selected for passing to ARJ.EXE. Current directory: The directory in which ARJMENU is currently operating. This will remain the same until changed by you from a pick-screen or upon exitting the program. It is indicated in a box on the pick-screens. File-pick-screen: A scrolling menu screen that shows all files in the current directory. Directories and drives may be changed to view all files available. Does not select files with the "Hidden" or "System" attributes set. Toggle with TAB to view only .ARJ files. Menu: A rectangular box with multiple selections. The choice may be made with the highlighted letter or either the Enter key or the left mouse button. Menu-bar: The main menu for selecting categories of commands. Selection is made with the highlighted letter or the Enter button or the left mouse button. Options: Options are switches for other programs. They are selected form the options menus. User input box: A dialogue box that appears in which you may enter the information requested. See "Defaults", below, for further details. ARJMENU 3 Variables: These are files on which you wish ARJ to operate - extract, delete, add, update, freshen, etc. May be either full names or wildcards may be used. Working directory: This is the directory in which ARJ.EXE builds its working files. If you are working on a nearly full disk, specifying a working directory will move most of the temporary files built by ARJ elsewhere to avoid "Out of disk space" problems. MOUSE OPERATIONS ARJMENU supports any two button mouse, and should work with most three button types. The left button simulates the Enter key, the right button simulates the Escape key. Movement right, left, up or down acts as the similarly marked cursor key. Pressing both buttons together simulates the Space key. ARJMENU ACTIVITY ARJMENU is disk I/O intensive - it reads and writes to disk extensively. It also creates several temporary files and directories to avoid DOS command-line length limits. All extra files and directories are eliminated by normal exit. For the curious, these temporary files are: AMADD.$$$, AMEXT.$$$ and AMEXC.$$$. ARJMENU also creates a working directory during some operations, called AMTMP.$$$. The XSPAWN module that swaps ARJMENU to disk during child processes, creates a working directory called AMXSPAWN on the root of the default drive. The swap files in that directory will be called SWPn, where n is a number from one to 10. ARJMENU is also memory usage intensive. While it occupies less than 2K when it spawns another process (ARJ, REARJ, ARJSORT, SCAN, LIST, or the user defined editor), it can occupy over 150K while conducting other operations. Certain TSR's may cause ARJMENU to not perform or open a hyperlink to Never-Never land. If ARJMENU does odd things, try removing all TSR's and run it again. INSTALLATION ARJMENU is installed by copying the executable ARJMENU.EXE to a directory on your disk that is defined in the DOS PATH statement. See REQUIREMENTS, above, for other files that must also be available on the PATH. CONFIGURATION The ARJMENU display is largely able to be configured to the user's personal taste. Select "Config" from the Main Menu Bar as described below and choose the colors, line style, shadows, and define your favorite text editor. Then ARJMENU 4 simply choose "Save to file" from the main configuration menu. This will write a file with your choices to the default directory. This file, ARJMENU.CFG, may then be moved to any directory named in your PATH. If you are using a green or white monochrome monitor, the default selection may be the best for you. With an amber monochrome monitor, you will probably wish to change the highlighted letter color to bright red or some other intermediate color. If you are going to use the text editor option of ARJMENU, you MUST choose an editor with the Config menu. You may also select the order of selection (command first or archive name first) from within this menu. ARJMENU 5 GENERAL OPERATIONS ARJMENU uses pop-up menus to logically assign the instructions for the other programs to use. You may select a menu item in two ways. Either scroll up or down to the selection desired with the cursor control keys or the mouse, or type the highlighted letter starting the selection. On menus with more than one selection beginning with the same letter, only the first one may be selected in this manner. Pressing Enter at this time will execute that selection: choose an option, produce another menu, launch a process, or other action as appropriate. Esc will exit any menu (except the Main Menu-Bar) without action and return you to the previous menu. Also, menus are "continuous" - reaching the bottom of a menu will start the cursor over at the top. An up movement at the top of a menu will act like the Esc key. Some information simply can't be entered by point and shoot, so pop-up user input boxes are used. These work in much the same way. Enter concludes the use of the box, Esc exits without input and aborts the operation, returning you to the menu - except in the Options menus, where it acts like an Enter. User input boxes are also used whenever it may be convenient to use DOS wildcard characters, as in selecting files to be included/excluded in an ARJ archive. All standard DOS wildcard usage is supported. ARJMENU also uses pop-up scrolling directory selection menus, called pick- screens. There are no highlighted letter features, but Home, End, PgUp and PgDn are active to permit more rapid searching through a large directory. ARJMENU supportss directories up to 500 files in size. In general, however, directories larger than 100 files slow DOS operations and should be avoided. This menu allows the changing of drives and directories. Selecting a <DIR> will change to that directory, "/" will pop-up a drive selection menu. TAB will cycle through *.*, *.ARJ and a user-input box. ARJMENU uses a similar scrolling menu for the contents of an ARJ archive. Because of the way an ARJ file is constructed, the directory structure is a construct rather than actual. However, it operates basically like the previous menu. The usage of both is documented in an information box that appears along with the menu on the same screen. Selecting a <DIR> will change to that path, selecting <ROOT> will return to the "base directory" of the archive. TAB will toggle to a user-input box. The whole process is intentionally self-explanatory. I provide instructions here, but, by and large, they are unnecessary. You will find yourself moving around in and using ARJMENU with complete comfort in a very short period of time, possibly even during your first session. OPTIONS MENUS The unique versatility of ARJ lies in its wide selection of options via switches. To support this, ARJMENU uses a series of interconnecting "sticky" menus - they remain after selection so that further selections can be made. In the "Add" category, there is a chain of three of these, ARJMENU 6 interchanged by selecting the "More options". In "Extract" there are two. The other categories do fit onto one screen as of ARJ version 2.21. Many of the switches require filenames, numbers or other user input, and for each of these a user input box is presented with enough information for you to enter that data. If the "Xclude files" (-x) switch is selected, either the file-pick-screen or the ARJ-file-pick-screen, as appropriate, is available for point and shoot entry. A description of what each of these switches does is beyond the scope of this manual, and you are urged to read the ARJ.DOC file that comes with ARJ to familiarize yourself with their functions. CHILD PROCESSES A "child" process is an operation started from within another operation that returns to the original. In this sense, ARJ, ARJSORT, REARJ, LIST, SCAN and your text editor are child processes of ARJMENU. ARJMENU is basically a sophisticated file manipulator and command line generator, and hands all actual processing of ARJ files to ARJ.EXE. As a child program is started, you will note the screen go blank for a brief moment as the new program loads into memory and the "parent" is moved from RAM to disk to allow more room for operation by the child process. The same thing will occur as the child program returns control to the "parent" - ARJMENU.EXE. While in the child program, that program controls your computer, not ARJMENU. This allows full utilization of all a programs resources..., and any of its failings. I carefully selected Vern Buerg's LIST.COM and John McAfee's SCAN.EXE for their durability and compatibility with ARJMENU and many other programs. ARJ.EXE, ARJSORT and REARJ.EXE are also very strong programs, not easily disrupted. Try to choose a text editor that is also robust and handles both critical errors (those that produce messages like "Abort, Retry, Fail?") and control-break situations gracefully. ARJMENU has built-in routines for handling these, but its not "in-charge" while the child process is running. ORDER OF SELECTION You may select from two different orders of entering information into ARJMENU. I recommend the novice use "Command first". Once you become experienced with ARJ and ARJMENU, try "Achive first". The main body of this manual is written for "Command first" - differences are discussed in some detail in "Tips & Techniques" later in this manual. QUICK EXIT ARJMENU may be exited at virtually any time with a <Ctrl> C - that is, holding down the CONTROL button and pressing "c". Remember, however, that the child process may have its own way of handling <Ctrl> C, and may not have the expected result if used while in such a process. USER INPUT BOX EDITOR The user-input boxes are fully editable. The usual editing keys are available: left and right cursor, <CTRL> left and right cursor (words), HOME, END, DEL, BKSP, and INS to toggle between "overwrite" and "insert". ARJMENU 7 SPECIFIC OPERATIONS MAIN MENU BAR The Main Menu-Bar is divided into categories of ARJ and other program commands. From left to right, these are: Fast Add Extract List Read Misc Shell Config Quit A category is selected by moving the cursor with the cursor control keys or the mouse to the desired entry, or typing the first letter. Pressing Enter or the down cursor key will pop-up the associated menu. Esc will return you to the Main Menu-Bar. On the far left of the Main Menu-Bar is the program Title. Selecting this will present the version number and the author's name and address. "FAST" MENU The FAST menu is for rapid access to the most frequently used ARJ commands. The command available on this menu are: Add (make) Extract Freshen List Update Each of these is a simplified version its counterpart command available in the Add, Extract or List category. Each starts with the presentation of the ARJ-pick-screen. Once the ARJ archive file is selected, all else is automatic. All these commands use the "all files" and directory defaults of ARJ. Specifically, this means: Add will place all files in the default directory into the archive file. Extract will extract all files in the archive to the default directory. Freshen will replace all files in the archive with newer versions that are located in the original directories - unless the -e option was used to create the original archive, in which case ARJ will look for newer ARJMENU 8 versions in the default directory. List will display the contents of the archive. Update will operate like "Fast - Freshen", except that all files in the default directory NOT in the archive will also be added. Not selecting an ARJ file (through the use of the Esc key) will abort the operation and return you to the "Fast" menu. "ADD" MENU The ADD menu provides access to the commands for adding files to a new or pre-existing archive. Each starts with the presentation of an ARJ-pick- screen. You may TAB to cycle through the selection options to the user input box. This box will also accept wildcards so that, for example, multiple archives can be freshened at once - i.e. c:\storage\*.arj. Both absolute and relative pathnames are acceptable. Pressing Esc while in this input box will abort the operation and return you to the "Add" menu. This step will be followed by a file-pick-screen for selecting files to be added/updated. Again, TAB from the pick screen will present a user input box. This allows wildcard entries as before. Pressing Esc while in this input box will retrun you to the "Add" menu. This will present a series of "Option" menus. This is the selection process for the ARJ switches. See OPTIONS MENUS, above, for more detail. "EXTRACT" MENU The EXTRACT menu provides access to the commands for extracting or deleting from an archive. Each starts with the presentation of an ARJ-pick-screen. TAB will, again, cycle through the possible file selection processes. This box will also accept wildcards so that, for example, multiple archives can be processed at once - i.e. c:\storage\*.arj. Both absolute and relative pathnames are acceptable. Pressing Esc while in this input box will abort the operation and return you to the "Extract" menu. This step will be followed by a ARJ-file-pick-screen for selecting files to be extracted/deleted. Again, TAB from the pick screen will present a user input box. This allows wildcard entries as before. Pressing Enter on a blank line in this input box will select the default "all-files" used in the "Fast" menu. An additional step is inserted at this point for selection of a directory to which to extract for both the "Extract" and "Xtract with full path" commands. For "Extract", all files will be extracted to this directory. For "Xtract", this directory will be used as the base directory from which the archive internal directory structure will be built. This will then lead to the "Options menu". ARJMENU 9 "LIST" MENU The LIST menu provides access to the commands for listing files in an archive. Each starts with the presentation of an ARJ-pick-screen. TAB selection presents the noranl file selection sequence and user input box. This box will also accept wildcards so that, for example, multiple archives can be listed at once - i.e. c:\storage\*.arj. Both absolute and relative pathnames are acceptable. Pressing Esc while in this input box will abort the operation and return you to the "List" menu. This step will be followed by a user input box for selecting which files to list by filename or wildcards. This allows you to view only that part of the archive you wish. Pressing Esc while in this box will select "all files" as in the "Fast" menu. This will be followed by the "Options menu". "READ" MENU The READ menu provides a variety of options for reading files within an ARJ archive. The "Print" selection provides access redirecting the contents of an archived file to another file or directly to the printer (with support for prn, lpt1, lpt2, com1, com2, etc.). The first thing you see if you choose "Print" is this choice. From there, it goes through the normal sequence of ARJ-pick-screen or ARJ input box, ARJ-file-pick-screen or wildcard or filename input box. The options available for the "Print" command are limited to those necessary to extract the file. The "Read with LIST.COM" command is similar. ARJMENU cycles through the usual sequence. After options are obtained, the file(s) are extracted and LIST.COM is loaded to read them. Any errors in the extraction process will bypass LIST and return you to the "Read" menu. The "Sample" command uses ARJ's built in file sampler to read the files. This command (the ARJ "s" command) is designed to take a quick look at the file to determine if it is the one you really want. The sequence is exactly like that of "Read - LIST.COM". The "Where is" command locates text within files archived in an ARJ archive. The sequence is the same, as ARJ asks for the words or phrases you are seeking after it is in operation. "MISC" MENU The MISC menu provides access to the various ARJ commands that do not logically fall into the other categories, plus McAfee's SCAN.EXE. Each uses a unique menu sequence, logical for its function. "Backup" uses The ARJ "a -v..." command structure to backup all or a ARJMENU 10 specified portion of your disk. The ARJ filename input box is presented first. Enter the name of the ARJ backup files (the extensions are automatic) and the drive/directory in which you want the files placed - frequently drive A:. Exiting without a filename aborts the function. This is followed by a "Files to include" input box, "Files to exclude" input box, volume size input box, and a "Command" input box. These complete the necessary command line options for creating an ARJ backup. Entering a blank while in any box will select the default values as defined by ARJ.EXE, which is fine for most backup operations. The "Options" menus follow - don't forget the "Recurse subdirectories" and "Match pathnames" options if doing a large scale backup. See Robert Jung's ARJ.DOC for details on the exact functioning of this command. "Tips & Techniques", later in this document, also provides some hints and guidelines. "Comment" accesses the ARJ file and archive commenting command. ARJ allows the user to define comments for both the archive itself and all its included files. "Comment" takes maximum advantage of this feature to allow both manual entry on a file by file basis or "batch" commenting - all files receiving the same comment, as in BBS "signed" archives. After the ARJ- pick-screen, a menu will appear with those options. Both the manual and batch comment selections for "enclosed" files allow commenting of the archive as well as individual files. If either of the "Batch" options is selected, user input boxes will appear for you to input the path and filename of the comment file(s). Selecting "Manual- enclosed" will bring up a ARJ-file-pick-screen for choosing those files you wish to comment. Esc will produce a user input box for the same purpose. Entering without a filename will ask ARJ to prompt for every enclosed file. Only a few options are available in the "options menu". "Join" activates the ARJ join command, a sophisticated process for merging two or more ARJ file together. The process begins with the selection of an archive name via the standard ARJ-pick-screen or ARJ filename input box. This is followed by another ARJ-pick-screen/input box combination for selecting the ARJ files to merge into the new archive. Enter without a filename defaults to all ARJ files. The "Options menu" follows. "Name" uses the ARJ command for changing the name of a file in an ARJ archive. The process is similar to other sequences. An archive name is selected via an ARJ-pick-screen or an input box. Files to rename are selected by the ARJ-file-pick-screen or an input box. This will lead to a limited "Options menu". "Order" simply uses ARJSORT.COM to reorder the files in an archive. It starts with ARJ filename selection via pick-screen or input box. You then get to choose the method by which the files will be sorted via an option menu. Finally, a short menu to choose normal or reverse order is presented. ARJSORT then takes over and reorders your archive. "Remove" accesses the ARJ command to strip pathnames from files in an archive. It follows the standard sequence of ARJ-pick-screen or ARJ filename ARJMENU 11 input box, ARJ-file-pick-screen or file input box. Pressing Enter without any file specifications in the final input box will remove the pathname from all files in the target archive. There is a short "Options menu" to follow. "Test" verifies the integrity of an ARJ archive. It uses the normal sequence to determine ARJ filename and internal files to be process. This is followed by a short options menu to allow for encrypted archives or some other common selections. "Virus scan" processes an archive with McAfee's SCAN.EXE to search for infected files before you use them. You are reminded that all the caveats that go with McAfee's documentation are in force. SCAN does NOT check for "bombs", "trojans" or some other damaging code, only for known viruses. The sequence consists only of selecting the ARJ archive to be processed. All executables, overlays and system files are tested. If the archive selected has none, SCAN is not run and you are returned to the main menu-bar. "SHELL" MENU The SHELL menu provides "external" commands for greater flexibility. The first, "Convert files with REARJ", taps into Robert Jung's file conversion program for changing archive formats. First, a modified ARJ-pick-screen is shown, followed by the archive input box, if no archive is selected from the pick screen. This allows the use of wildcards for "batch" operations - converting all .LZH files to .ARJ, for example. This is followed by the REARJ options menu. These options are described in detail in REARJ.DOC which accompanies the original ARJ archive. "Edit" loads selected files from within an archive to your editor. Again, this follows the normal sequence to select the archive containing the files to be edited and then the files themselves. If no files are selected, the process is terminated with a return to the "Shell" menu. If files are selected, they are loaded to the editor one at a time, and your editor controls the process while loaded. ARJ reads the date/time of the finished file, and if it is newer than the one in the archive, it is updated to the root directory of the archive. If you do not modify the file, ARJ ignores it and the next file is loaded. Note that the modified file is placed in the root - not necessarily to the same directory from which it was drawn. This allows automatic backup of the file unless it came from the root in the first place. In that instance, the original is replaced by the modified file. "Shell to DOS" executes a call to COMSPEC and leaves you with a DOS prompt so you may perform any normal DOS function. Upon shelling, ARJMENU reduces to less than 2K, so you may do almost anything you could if ARJMENU were not loaded. Simply type "EXIT" to return to ARJMENU. ARJMENU 12 "CONFIG" MENU The CONFIG menu provides you with control over the appearance of ARJMENU and allows the selection of the text editor of your choice. The colors, line styles and shadows you select during the process do not become permanent unless you save them, enabling you to choose different combinations for different sessions. As you select each item, it is immediately visible in the lowest menu, giving you immediate feedback on your selections. The default user editor is EDIT.COM from DOS 5.0. "Restore" from the "Config" menu will restore the defaults in your current ARJMENU.CFG, if it exists. ESC. will accept changes for the current session. "Colors" allows you to choose the combinations you find most useful or pleasing for everything but the screen background. As you select an item to change the color, a menu of possible colors (either eight or sixteen, depending on the item) appears. It is strongly suggested that you choose colors that do not clash - it can cause headaches and eye irritation. Still, "one person's poison is another's delicacy...." "Line styles" selects one, two or no lines in the menu and message boxes, as you please. "Shadows" either turns on or off shadows under menus, input boxes and message boxes, again, as you choose. "Order of selection" chooses the order you wish to issue information to ARJMENU. See "Tips & Techniques" for details. "Define editor" calls an input box for entering the name of your editor. Do not put in the full pathname, just the editor name. The box is larger than required for this, but you are still limited to a standard length DOS filename. "Restore Previous" exits the "Config" menu without writing the selections to the ARJMENU.CFG file. Instead, your previously defined ARJMENU.CFG is reread into memory to "undefine" any changes you may have made while in the Config Menu. menu. Escape without an existing ARJMENU.CFG on the DOS PATH will have the same effect as the "Exit" selection. "Write to file" saves the current configuration to a file called ARJMENU.CFG. If one previously existed on the DOS PATH, it will be overwritten. If there wasn't one to start with, a new one will be written in the default directory. "QUIT" MENU The QUIT menu is for exiting ARJMENU. "No" will return you to the main menu-bar, "Yes" will present you with the option of exiting to your original load directory (the directory that was the default when you entered ARJMENU) or the last directory you changed to with one of the pick-screens. No choice will be made if the current directory is the original. Esc on this final choice will abort the exit routine. ARJMENU 13 DEFAULTS A "default" is the value used by a program in the absence of one you supply. Software authors try very hard to set these to practical values that will work most often for most users. We are not always successful. ARJMENU, as a menu system that launches other programs, also has to deal with the default settings of these programs. I strongly urge you to familiarize yourself with the manuals for each of the programs mentioned in this document so that you know what defaults are used. ARJMENU, for the most part, uses the defaults of its "child" processes. For nearly all ARJ operations, this is "*.*", meaning "all files available". For example, list, sample, extract, add, and so on, will act upon all files in the archive or the default directory unless other specifications are provided by you. Other defaults for ARJ are: Binary mode (-t0) Maximum compression (-m1) All temp files in default directory (override with -w) Query if a file is to be overwritten (override with -y) Full pathnames used (override with -e) Do not select hidden files with wildcards (override with -a or -a1) Delete old ARJ file (override with -k) Huffman buffer size of 16384 bytes (override with -jh) To these, ARJMENU adds: Automatic disk size detection in backup mode PRN as default printer specification Automatic pause at end of screen for "Fast - list" LIST.COM uses a wide variety of defaults, nearly all user controlled. ARJMENU accepts all of these, merely loading the selected files for it to read. SCAN.EXE also uses a variety of defaults. ARJMENU supports only the basics of "all-files" and "check RAM". To use other SCAN features, it is necessary to extract the files and use SCAN from the command-line. ARJMENU also uses all defaults of both REARJ and ARJSORT. You should see those manuals for details. The same applies to your own editor. In all cases, I believe the defaults to fit the vast majority of user's needs the vast majority of the time. If you disagree, please write and let me know. Without that kind of input, they will remain the same. ARJMENU 14 TIPS & TECHNIQUES ARJMENU is designed to be intuitive and simple in operation. At the same time, it is designed to take full advantage of the tremendous flexibility of ARJ, REARJ, ARJSORT, SCAN and LIST. The simple interface supports all of this through the options menus and the user input boxes. The options menus are obvious - they link you to all of ARJ's switches. The seemingly innocuous input boxes supply an equal amount of power. Accessing the floppy drives As noted at the beginning of this manual, ARJMENU was written primarily for use on hard disks. You can't even access the floppy drives via the drive changing mechanism available with the Tab key on the pick-screens. But you certainly can with the input boxes. The input boxes pass their contents directly to ARJ without modification. So if you specify "A:\ARCHIVE.ARJ" in the ARJ filename input box, that is what ARJ will look for when launched. You can also load ARJMENU from a floppy drive and use the pick- screens on it, as this does not require a drive change. I recommend against this, however, as ARJMENU will attempt to save the swap file to the default drive - a very slow process on a floppy disk. Trying to access drive B: from a single disk drive machine will result in messages overwriting the ARJMENU screen. Also, since ARJMENU was written for a hard disk, attempting to access a floppy drive that is not ready because the door is open or the disk bad will result in a fatal ARJMENU error - see the section on error messages, below. Archives without the ".ARJ" extension The ARJ-pick-screen displays only files with the .ARJ extension, as testing every file in a directory to see if it is an ARJ archive is VERY time consumptive. If you wish to save and access ARJ archives with other extensions, use the TAB to view all the directory files. Again, this information is passed directly to ARJ and it will respond accordingly. Whenever possible, you are urged to use the .ARJ extension to avoid confusion at some future date. The "Fast" commands The commands available in the "Fast" menu are designed to give rapid access to the most frequently needed archive functions. They all generate an ARJ command of the type "ARJ command filename.ARJ". No switches are appended except in the "Fast - list" command, where a "-jp" is added for controlling the display of the files. The best way of using these commands is in an empty directory. Since ARJ defaults to all files in the current directory, you get maximum use with minimal waste when used in this manner. If gathering files from all over the disk, or desiring to extract only a few files from an archive, using the "full" commands in the other categories is best. ARJMENU 15 The "Fast - add" command provides a little more flexibility. Since an input box is available for the creation of a new archive, tricks can be played on ARJMENU. Instead of just specifying a filename, try adding switches after the entry. The input is passed to ARJ intact, allowing you to pass items up to the length limit of the input box. This is a good way, for example, to make a fast self-extracting archive. Simply append a "-je" to the end of the filename, and it gets done. Other options will work equally well, assuming they fit within the length limit of the box. The "full" commands The "full" commands are those contained in the "Add", "Extract", and "List" menus. Each of these also uses input boxes as alternatives to the pick- screens. This allows flexibility like that in the "Fast - add" command. While each of these also ends with an Option menu, there are circumstances where using the input boxes to add an option or two is considerably faster than using the Options menu. It is also in the "full" commands that the possibility of exceeding the DOS command-line limit of 127 characters becomes very real. Each option that requires additional information places it directly on the command-line. If several options that require path and filenames are used, you can very rapidly exceed the limit. To ease this situation, ARJMENU does have a "command-line adjustment" function that moves some items to an environment string and adjusts pathnames if possible. Even so, it remains possible to exceed the DOS limit. If you suspect that this may happen, you can do some things with the input boxes to eliminate the problem. The input box, your input, can be a relative path rather than the absolute path ARJMENU would normally write from a pick-screen entry. Frequently, this will be shorter. The intelligent use of wildcards to specify files can also reduce command- line length - by consolidating several entries into one. You can also place the files to be created (archive, list files, log files, etc.) into the default directory to minimize length. The "Read" commands The "print" commands use DOS redirection (">") to send the file to the printer or another file. Because of this, you cannot append one file to another with ARJMENU. Try the DOS command "copy file1 + file2 file3" to accomplish this - either from "Shell to DOS" of outside the program entirely. The "Read file(s) with LIST.COM" uses the ability of all recent versions of LIST to accept wildcards on the command line. You change between files selected for reading with the LIST commands "^PgDn/^PgUp". You can safely use LIST to read files other than those extracted while in this mode by using LIST's built in file selection facility. "Where" is one of ARJ's most powerful features, allowing rapid reading of ARJMENU 16 an entire archive to find which file has the text you seek. A good way to use this feature is by starting with "Where" to find the text and then "Read" the file with LIST. The "Backup" command One of the things that makes ARJ the "cream of the crop" in compression utilities is it ability to act as a backup utility as well as the usual features. The "Backup command" is actually selected use of the ARJ add command coupled with the "-v" series of switches. I have tried to make ARJMENU a good, solid interface for all your backup needs. Once again, I urge you to read Robert Jung's ARJ.DOC for the details of what is actually occurring. Simply following the menus and input boxes will allow you to shave time and disks from your previous multi-disk backups. The ARJ environment variable - ARJ_SW ARJ supports an environment variable for your "normal" switch selection. ARJMENU allows full usage of this feature. See ARJ.DOC for full details. One of the best uses for ARJ_SW is to set your "precautionary switches" (see below) and your choice of indicators - percentage (default), graphical (-i1) or no indicator (-i). Your use of any of these from the Options menu will override the ARJ_SW selection for that command. "Precautionary switches" ARJ comes with a wide selection of switches to protect you from loss of data and unintentional overwrites. The -k saves the original archive you are updating, the -q allows you to say "no" to particular files being updated, the -jk keeps the temporary archive upon error, the -jo does the same thing for overwrites on the add and move commands that -q allows for others, and the -jt tests the temporary archive to insure its validity before it is made final. If your data is important to you, you will wish to consider these switches for inclusion with your archiving as appropriate. The "missing switch" ARJMENU supports every option of ARJ except one, the "!" switch. This was left out because ARJMENU makes extensive use of files to shorten the command line. If the -! switch was selected, this facility would fail entirely. This should pose no handicap, however, as its usage is totally transparent to the user. ARJ does support different "include file" characters for the command line (generated by ARJMENU) and ARJ_SW. This allows you to use your favorites in ARJ_SW if you so choose. Input box cautions Pick screens ALWAYS use full pathnames. If you use an input box in conjunction with a pick screen, but don't use a full pathname, the selections may not work as anticipated. Generally, if you use an input box for one type of file selection, use it for all. ARJMENU 17 Order of selection ARJMENU allows you to select either the archive filename or the command as the first item of entry in a process. This is controled by the "Order of selection" menu under the "Config" menu. The default is "Command first" as this is perhaps easier for the novice. Changing to "Archive first" places the ARJ-pick-screen on the screen prior to any command selection. With "Archive first", the selected archive remains your archive upon which to operate until you change it. Changing it is accomplished by hitting "Space" while on the main-menu-bar. This presents ARJ-pick-screen for a new entry. If no filename is selected (by using the ESCAPE for the ARJ- pick-screen), you will be prompted with an ARJ-pick-screen every time you hit ESC or exit a first level menu. After a command is selected, the ARJ-pick-screen is omitted, as you have already selected the archive to manipulate. With "Command first", the order remains as specified in the main body of this manual. You can, however, use the "Space" on the main-menu-bar to select an archive. That archive selction will then act as mentioned above until replaced or ESC is chosen from the ARJ-pick-screen. As with anything on the "Config" menu, you can temporarily alter your usual order by going to the "Config" menu and selecting the way you want to work at that time. Escaping the "Config" menu without "Write to file" will install that option until you exit ARJMENU or change it. NOTE: "Archive first" does not effect the operations of the "Convert files with REARJ.EXE" command. It operates exactly as outlined on page 11. ARJMENU 18 ERROR MESSAGES ARJMENU is heavily protected to prevent loss of data and computer "hangs" form occurring. The following is a list of internal ARJMENU error messages that may be seen if something goes wrong: Archive: Bad archive header Archive: Bad header Archive: Can't read file or unexpected end of file Archive: Header CRC error Each of these represent an archive that has been corrupted or is otherwise unreadable. Restarts selection process. ARJ file: Memory allocation failure The ARJ-file-pick-screen could not allocate adequate memory to operate. You have inadequate memory or there are conflicting TSR's. Break signaled! Not really an error message. This message presents itself after you have pressed a "control break" to exit ARJMENU. Command: Inadequate environment space to adjust The command line passed to ARJ was too long and your DOS environment space is too small to adjust it. See TIPS & TECHNIQUES for suggestions on reducing the command line length. Restarts selection process. Command line: Exceeds 127 characters, unadjustable The command line passed to ARJ was too long and cannot be adjusted. See TIPS & TECHNIQUES for suggestions on reducing command line length. Device: Can't access requested drive If a floppy drive, check the disk and make sure the door is closed. If a hard disk drive, it doesn't exist, is non-standard, or is corrupted. If you chose a drive with a letter higher than exists on your system, use the LASTDRIVE environment variable to avoid this in the future. If unfamiliar with LASTDRIVE, see your DOS manual. Device: Can't open requested file The file you requested does not exist, is not on that path, or is not an archive file. This error returns you to the main menu to try again. Directory: Failed to make temporary directory Directory: Failed to find temporary directory Directory: Failed to remove temporary directory These represent errors in the use of ARJMENU required temporary directories. "Make" is usually caused by inadequate memory or a directory by that name already exists. "Find" and "remove" are generally caused by failure to remove files, deletion of the directory while shelled to DOS, or a hardware malfunction. If persistent, see a computer repair person. Directory: Memory allocation failure The ARJ-pick-screen or file-pick-screen failed to allocate adequate memory to operate. See ARJ file: Memory allocation error, above. ARJMENU 19 Menu: Memory allocation failure The menu drawing function failed to allocate adequate memory to operate. See ARJ file: Memory allocation error, above. XSPAWN error Something has happened to the ARJMENU swap file. It has been corrupted or deleted, a disk read error has occurred, or the ARJMENU kernel has gone permanently resident. Video: Not in text mode ARJMENU was unable to place your hardware into an CGA compatible text mode. You will be unable to use ARJMENU. In addition to these, each of the child processes, when running, has its own error messages. See the individual user manuals for information on these. ARJMENU 20 TECHNICAL NOTES ARJMENU is a sophisticated command line generator and shell for ARJ, ARJSORT, REARJ, LIST and SCAN. It accomplishes this by building and catenating a series of strings (character arrays) which are passed to specialized 'C' spawn functions. This function is XSPAWN from Whitney Software. XSPAWN swaps ARJMENU to disk, leaving behind a small kernel to reactivate the program upon completion of the child program. In several cases (SCAN, LIST and Edit), a series of programs are spawned to accomplish the desired result. The pick screens are a modified scrolling directory function I wrote several years ago. They use DOS specific 'C' functions, which makes the whole program non-portable to other OS's. These functions load the entire directory (or the entire table of contents of the ARJ file) into memory via a malloc() routine. This is a little slower than a "read and fill" operation, but is much faster at manipulation once loaded. The selection pick screens build a list file of the filenames to be processed - which, fortunately, ARJ supports. The command line adjustment function is unique to ARJMENU. Because of the way ARJMENU uses full pathnames on all files and the supporting ARJ_SW environment variable offered by ARJ, it is possible to test the command line length, strip the default directory if mentioned and shunt the user selected switches to the ARJ_SW variable. This results in approximately 80% of 128+ character command lines tested being adjustable to within DOS limitations. ARJMENU is written in 100% 'C', except for 5 small assembly functions used to check mouse movement. As a result of the number of 'C' switch statements used to handle ARJ's phenomenal number of options, the program is over 120K in size. I have use Fabrice BELLARD's LZEXE to compress it to save on the users disk space. If uncompressed, it will load faster, but occupy that much more space. Changing directories with the pick-screens is NOT just appearance. Once a new directory is chosen, the program remains there until you change it again or select "Original" upon exit. From experience, one frequently wishes to work in one directory for a period and then exit to DOS to do other functions like copy, edit, move, etc. ARJMENU 21 THE FUTURE OF ARJMENU While ARJMENU is a complete and fully functional program as it stands, if adequate user support is present, I already have plans for its future. Here are some of them, not in any particular order: Directory sorting by a method selected by the user Greater user configurability - especially the screen background User defined macros for frequently used combinations and/or files User defined virus scanner instead of SCAN.EXE only More user defined external programs - a hex editor, a file manipulator, etc. Built in file reader so LIST is not needed (though still available) EGA, VGA and Hercules support File finding utility that will search every ARJ archive on disk for the file you want. Support for EMS and XMS memory swapping Loading and executing a program from within an archive Support for any disk configuration Such additions/modifications are totally dependent on user support. As you send in your support, feel free to send suggestions with it. User supported software IS user designed software! CONTACTING THE AUTHOR I am not currently running my own BBS, but I can be reached at: Internet/ARPANet: mccombs@sumax.seattleu.edu USPS: 517 Ninth Ave. #310, Seattle, WA. 98104 My account at Seattle University is used daily except when on vacation, and is the fastest way to contact me. Your comments are welcome, even if negative. I will do my best to respond to everyone who writes. ARJMENU 22 CREDITS I would like to start with thanks to Robert Jung, not just for writing ARJ and the rest of those fine programs, but for his active interest and support in the writing of ARJMENU. He patiently sat through some incredibly "buggy" versions and offered only helpful advice and commentary. Robert is a fine man in general, as well as a superb software developer. I would like to thank Mike Lawler and ALL the other ARJ beta testers. Without the input and support they have given to Robert, none of this would be possible or even dreamed of. Also, Zbig Tyrlik, for numerous, well- thought-out suggestions. A great "THANK YOU" to my wife, Melina, for whom this project was started in the first place. She has exhibited patience and understanding above and beyond the call of duty for these last few months as I've remained locked steadfastly in front of my computer, oblivious to the world. I think only programmers and their spouses can truly appreciate what this means. Thank you, my love. And my greatest thanks I give to the Good Lord for His inspiration and salvific grace - without which EVERYTHING would be utterly meaningless. End ARJMENU.DOC