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Text File | 1994-09-17 | 37.0 KB | 653 lines

░░░░ ░░░░ ░░ ░░ ░░░░░░ ░░░░░ ░░░░ ░░ ░░ ░░░░░░ ░░░░░ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓▓▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ░░░░ ░░░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ ░░░░ ░░░░░░ ░░░░░░ ░░░░░░ ░░░░░ ░░░░ ░░░░ ░░░░░ ░░ ░░ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓▓▓▓ ▓▓ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ░░░░ ░░░░ ░░ ░░ v 0.93 by Colonel Hawk Productions Disclaimer (don't take this too seriously :) ---------- You are using CCopy at your own risk! The author (Tarmo Toikkanen) is NOT liable for any damage caused by the use of CCopy or by the inability to use CCopy. If you are not sure about this, or if you do not accept this, then do not use CCopy. Simple. Contents -------- Section Line Page Screen -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- Disclaimer 27 1 2 Quick Start 53 1 3 Introduction 65 2 3 General Information 89 2 4 Command Syntax 141 3 7 Command Line Options 178 3 8 Examples 334 6 15 Enhanced CON Access 488 9 22 Prompts 539 9 24 Specific Information 584 10 26 Future Improvements 614 11 27 Contacting the author 622 11 28 Quick start ----------- Just run CC without any options to see the command line options. Otherwise, if you know how to use the DOS command 'COPY', you can use this program as well. Reading these documents isn't necessary in the beginning, but it is highly recommended so that you learn to use all the advanced features CCopy can provide. This documentation is filled with tips on how to use all the options effectively. Especially the section 'Command line options' should be read well, and 'Examples' is another chapter that should be worthwhile. Introduction ------------ Copying large files to a disk is one of the most frustrating things I know. When the file should fit perfectly on the disk, one single bad block can ruin your day. Or would you like to sit around some two minutes and then get a message in the lines of "Insufficient disk space"? Controlled Copy takes care of this problem permanently. Another frustrating thing is that you never know how much more time the copying is still going to take. Ten seconds? Two minutes? Controlled Copy solves this problem as well. These two major drawbacks in the DOS copy program were the main reason behind the development of CCopy. A simple thing like checking the available disk space and calculating the total size of all files was the first function coded. And now, at the end of several months of coding, recoding, adjusting, fine-tuning and beta-testing, CCopy is much much more than just a copy program with a safety mechanism. All the numerous command line options and runtime dialogs have been designed to give as much flexibility to the user as possible. Another consideration has been compatibility with MS-DOS's copy and 4DOS's copy, so all the options that they include will most probably still work the same way. And while designing the screen layout to be as informative, beautiful and simple as possible, we have not neglected to keep the performance at a high level (at least as fast as the normal copier). General information ------------------- Controlled Copy works very much like the normal copy command in MS-DOS. In fact it can do all the things the normal copy can do, with an identical command line, and it does lots more. The interface has been designed to be as similar to the normal copy as possible, as well as the popular 4DOS's copy program. CCopy is more flexible and user-friendly than either one of them while retaining their simple interface. CCopy has been kept as fast as the conventional copy programs, and perhaps even a little faster. CCopy has been built to be extremely safe. As it isn't a commercial product I cannot guarantee that it will always work perfectly, but I _can_ guarantee, that when it copies a file, it copies it 100% correctly. The only problems may be the sort that CCopy doesn't understand your command line arguments correctly, but as the results are shown on the screen, you can always spot those errors. However, extensive beta-testing for several months has been performed on all kinds of situations to ensure maximum working efficiency. Four actively used computers have used CCopy exclusively since the beginning of year 1994. All errors reported have been corrected within 24 hours and new features have been developed in the mean time. And, for most of the time, CCopy actually works. :) CCopy accurately checks available disk space before each file, so that nothing is copied for naught. CCopy also shows bars, percentages and estimated time left (the ETA :) so that you always know how much has been done and how long you have to wait. A final beep at the end (if you want to) tells you when the copying has been finished. Other small improvements are the update and refresh options (explained in detail later on), which are found in all the archive programs; now your file copier has the same capabilities. A great help in copying to several disks is the automatic pause capability, which allows you to switch diskettes when they're full - no need for any XCopy-archive-bit-manipulation. CCopy works out pretty nicely under multitasking systems too, in case you run out of free disk space. Even the append copy (where several files are sequentially copied to one single file) is easier to use, no plus-signs in between are needed (but are accepted, of course). Subdirectory copy is also included, where you can copy a directory's contents and all its subdirectories with their contents to another location. And combining it with the move-option will effectively move entire directory trees from one location to another. Multiple source masks are naturally supported (although care should be taken when using multiple masks with subdirectory copying), which means you can copy files from several locations and/or several different mask conformations (see examples later on). Moving files (with the /M option) from one directory to another (within the same drive) is done by altering the file's directory entry in the FAT on the disk, so that all files regardless of size are moved at an extremely fast rate. When using /S and /M (or /SM), you can move entire subdirectory trees containing several hundred megabytes in just a few seconds. You no longer need a separate file mover in addition to the file copier; CCopy replaces both of them. Command syntax -------------- CC source1 [source2 [source3...] destination] [options] You always have to provide at least one source mask, and others can be added whenever needed. The last mask is always the destination, unless you provide only one mask in which case the destination will be the current working directory in the current drive (see examples later on). This is the way the DOS copier works, so nothing difficult there. Options must always begin with a '/' character, otherwise they're considered normal file masks. All the options can be entered anywhere on the command line and they can be written without spaces and slashes in between (see examples, again). All options are handled from left to right, with the contents of the enviroment variable CCOPY handled first. This allows you to define your favourite options in the enviroment variable, and then disable them on the command line whenever you need to. When using 4DOS aliases, you should enter the '%&'-sign after any options that are defined there so that you can disable them at any time, for example: ALIAS CC=C:\UTILS\CC.EXE /4r %& Command line parsing is very much enhanced from the original DOS copy program's parser. For example, you can now move up in the directory tree more easily. If using MS-DOS's copier, you would have to type: COPY ..\..\WORD\*.TXT D:\FILES whereas with CCopy you can type: CCOPY ...\WORD\*.TXT D:\FILES You can move up as many steps as you want; two dots for one level, three for two levels, four for three levels, etc. You can also enter directory names more freely, meaning that you can add the backslash after it if you want to, but it is never required (although the trailing backslash in the destination has a special meaning). Again, see examples. CCopy supports 4DOS extended wildcards which means that a mask like "*t*.*" will copy all files that have a 't' somewhere in their name (MS-DOS would copy all files). CCopy always interprets "." as "*.*". You can also enter wildcards in the destination, in which case the files' names will be changed accordingly (standard DOS copy operation). See examples. Command line options -------------------- Command line options can be entered anywhere on the command line and quite freely: CC /V0 *.* /D /C e: /S ; correct, options can be entered anywhere CC *.* /V0/D/c/s e: ; correct, no blanks in between are needed ; and case is irrelevant CC *.* e: /sdv0c ; correct, only the first slash (/) is needed CC *.* e: /sd 4c ; WRONG, "4c" looks like a file mask All available options are listed here: /R replace: Automatically overwrites any already existing files when a file with the same name is being copied. Use with caution. /K keep: If a file with the same name already exists in the destination directory, the file will automatically be skipped. /U[-] update: If a file with a same name already exists on the destination drive, it will be automatically overwritten if it is older than the file that is being copied. Appending a minus sign disables this option. /C[-] changed: Files are copied only if a file with the same name exists on the destination directory and it is older than the file that is being copied. Appending a minus sign disables this option. TIP: When you get a new version of a program, you can use this option to copy only the files that you need over the previous version files: CC A:\PKZIP204\*.* C:\ZIP\ /C If you have only the executables and documents (*.EXE, *.DOC) in C:\ZIP, then only they will be copied and all other unimportant files are skipped. /P[-] prompt: Asks confirmation before copying each file. This option overrides any /C and /U options and they can't be activated even if entered after this option before prompting has been disabled (by /P-). Appending a minus sign disables this option. TIP: Use this when you can't define the source files very easily on the command line. When CCopy is running, you can skip/accept/rename each file individually or skip/accept all later files. /M[-] move: Source files are deleted after they have been copied. Use with caution. Moving files within one disk drive is done by altering the directory information without touching the actual contents of the file - resulting in extremely fast performance. Note that it isn't safe (or allowed) to use /A (append) while moving files. Appending a minus sign disables this option. TIP: Using /MS you can move entire directory tree structures easily. /N nothing: Copies nothing, but shows what would happen. Still reads the files normally, just doesn't write them. TIP: Use this when you're doing a complicated copy with many options, exclude masks and source masks to see that you haven't made a mistake. Use /NP to get CCopy to pause at every file. /V[+|-]verify: Temporarily enables DOS verify flag or disables it (/V-). TIP: You don't need to define VERIFY ON to slow down your computer, but rather use /V when you need to copy files to diskettes. This way the files are safe and disk access is slowed down only during that copy procedure. /Vx view: Defines what you see on the screen during copying. What information to show about each file is defined by 'x'. Default value for x is 3. /V0 : Nothing will be displayed /V1 : Only file names are shown (browse mode) /V2 : File names and sizes are shown /V3 : File names, sizes and progress indicators are displayed /V4 : Only one progress indicator is shown on one single line TIP: /V0 and /V4 leave the screen untouched after the copy procedure - but /V4 still shows progress during copying /Tx totals: Defines what information is shown after copying all files. What information will be shown at the end of copy is defined by 'x'. Default value for x is 2. /T0 : No information - nothing will be displayed /T1 : Normal information - total files and total bytes copied /T2 : Extended information - total files, total bytes, total copy time, free disk space and copying speed /Q quiet: Same as /v0t0, meaning that nothing will be written on the screen. TIP: Good for batch operations /O[-]optimize: When copying several files to diskettes you might want to fill the disks as well as possible. Using this option forces CCopy to copy all files that fit on the disk, rather than asking for a new disk whenever the next file won't fit. If you use sub- directory copying (/S) this option will be disabled, for obvious reasons. Files are not copied in the original order, but in decreasing order of size, which ensures that all disks are filled as well as possible. Appending a minus sign disables this option. TIP: Use this whenever you need to copy files to several disks to ensure that they are filled as well as possible. /B[-] beep: Beeps when copying is finished or when a prompt is displayed. Different tones for errors, prompts and finish. Appending a minus sign disables this option. TIP: Use this during diskette copying, so that you don't need to come to the screen every now and then to check if you need to do something - CCopy will beep every time copying stops: prompts, errors, completion. /S[-] subdirs: Copies all subdirectories of the directory specified in the command line. If a file mask is given in the source parameter, that file mask will be applied to all subdirectories. Please be careful if you use this option with several source masks. Appending a minus sign disables this option. /D[-]dir-copy: This option is for all those who write quickly and not so perfectly. In effect, this option requires that the destination is always a directory, never a file. In case the destination isn't a directory, you will be prompted for confirmation before proceeding. You can then choose that CCopy creates the destination directory for you or copies the source file into a single file. If you append a backslash at the end of the destination, this option will be activated automatically. Appending a minus sign disables this option, but not if a backslash is used as mentioned before. See examples. TIP: Using this option as a default means that you need one extra keypress when copying a file to another name, but prevents you from the accident of mistyping the destination directory name. /H[-] hidden: All hidden and system files are also copied. Appending a minus sign disables this option. Be careful when using /H with /M, as you may accidentally move some important system files. When not using the /H-option, all copied and moved files will have only the archive-attribute set and all others unset. This means that any read-only files will be copied into normal files. When using the /H-option, all files retain their attributes so that read-only files remain unwritable as opposed to normal operation. System files and hidden files (and all combinations thereof) also remain unchanged. Appending a minus sign disables this option. /A[-] append: Appends all source files in sequence to the end of the destination file. You can also use plus-signs between file masks to append them together. If there's a plus-sign between every mask, then the first one is used as the destination and all others are appended to it, otherwise you must put a plus- sign between each mask except before the last one, which will then be the destination. You aren't allowed to move files while using /A. Appending a minus sign disables this option. TIP: Use this with CON to type to the end of a file. CC CON D:\COMMENTS.TXT /A /4[-] 4DOS: 4DOS description support. When this option is enabled, CCopy transfers the comments in DESCRIPT.ION just like the normal 4DOS copy program. When calculating free space on destination drive, the description file is not taken into account and may not fit into the disk, but this is quite rare as the size increase is often quite small. /[] range: Only files that fall within the range are copied. This feature is from 4DOS, and now includes all three versions; size, date and time ranges. See examples for instructions. [] exclude: If a file mask is inside brackets (note that there is no slash in front), it will be translated as an exclude mask. If a file matches any given exclude masks it will be skipped. You can have up to ten different exclude masks, but note that they must not contain a path, only a file mask. See examples. TIP: If you accidentally open an archive file in the directory where you keep your archives, use this to clean the mess: CC *.* [ *.ZIP *.ARJ *.LZH] /M E:\TEMP Examples -------- CC /R *.EXE D:\TOOLS\FRACTINT\*.* C:\FILES CC /R *.EXE D:\TOOLS\FRACTINT\. C:\FILES CC /R *.EXE D:\TOOLS\FRACTINT\ C:\FILES CC /R *.EXE D:\TOOLS\FRACTINT C:\FILES All these four lines are operate identically. They copy all files in the current directory with the extension EXE to C:\FILES, and all files in D:\TOOLS\FRACTINT as well, while overwriting any existing files (/R). CC *.zip /U a: /B Copies all files with an extension ZIP to drive A, asking for another disk when there's no more space left (this works automatically) and beeping at the end and at the prompts. If a file by the same name exist already and is older than the file to be copied, it will be automatically overwritten, otherwise the source file will be skipped. CC *.* d: /R /4-Q Copies all files in the current directory to drive D's working directory automatically overwriting all duplicate files and displaying nothing on the screen. (Good for batch files operations.) 4DOS's description capability is also disabled (in case it has been enabled earlier in an alias definition of CCOPY enviroment variable). CC D: You can't make the command line much shorter. Copies all files from drive D's current directory to the current working directory of the current drive. CC D: E: . This line, on the other hand, copies all files from the current directory of drives D and E to the current working directory. Note that since more than one source mask is used, the destination must be defined. (Dot means current directory.) CC D: E: This version copies all files from drive D to drive E, not the current working directory (as opposed to the previous command line). CC ...\TC\*.EXE D:\TEMP /cN Copies all exe files from a subdirectory called TC two steps up from current working directory (i.e. if you are in C:\TOOLS\ASM\WORK this command would copy files from C:\TOOLS\TC). And all files that don't have an older version of them in D:\TEMP will be skipped automatically. And finally, /N-option (notice the combining of the two options) prevents actual disk writing to just show you what files would get copied and what would be skipped. CC . D:\DRVFILES /D CC . D:\DRVFILES\ Both these lines copy all files from the current working directory to a directory on drive D. The /D-option means that in case you mistype the directory name accidentally, no copying will be done if you don't specifically want to. Appending a backslash (the second example) does the same thing, but the /D-option can be added to a batch file or an alias list to make CCopy default to it. So if you write something like D:\DVFILES your files won't be copied into a file DVFILES in the root directory. CC *.exe *.bak Will copy all files with the extension EXE into files with the extension changed into BAK. For example: TESTER.EXE and NEWFILE.EXE would be copied into TESTER.BAK and NEWFILE.BAK. CC *.* OLD_*.* Will copy all files in the current working directory into files that begin with 'OLD_'. For example: DATAFILE.DAT, TESTER.EXE, NEWFILE.EXE, MYPROG.BAT and DATA.BAK would be copied into OLD_FILE.DAT, OLD_ER.EXE OLD_ILE.EXE, OLD_OG.BAT and OLD_.BAK respectively. As you can see, you can easily mess up the file names when using wildcards in the destination, so be careful. CC file1.dat+file2.dat +file3.dat allfiles.dat CC file?.dat allfiles.dat /A Both lines do the same thing, append the three files into a single file. The plus-signs function just like in the normal copy-program. They are implemented simply for compatibility's sake, as the second format is a lot simpler; consider this for example: "CC *.* all.dat /A". Quite hard to do with plus-signs. Note that you can freely have spaces between plus-signs and file names. CC message.txt COM2 CC print.me PRN CC test.zip NUL CC CON PRN These lines demonstrate how to send files to different devices like modems and printers (or the null device - only usable as a file read speed test). The last line will use CCopy's enhanced console interface (see next chapter) to send characters typed from the keyboard to the printer. CON can also be used to write text and control characters to a file, eg. CC CON file.ext. Using the /A-option will append your typing to the end of the file. CC *.txt e: /[s100k,150k] CC *.txt e: /[s 100k,+50k ] CC *.txt e: /[s100000, 150000] All lines have the same effect, which is that only if a file is between 100,000 and 150,000 bytes long will it be copied. The 's' after the first bracket means a size range, and 'k' means 1000 bytes. 'K' means one kilobyte (1024), 'm' means million bytes and 'M' one megabyte (1024*1024). Note that you can always enter extra spaces between brackets. CC *.zip /[s1M] d:\temp As you can see the upper limit is optional. This line will copy all .zip files that are at least 1 megabytes long. CC a:*.zip /[s400k,150000] CC a:*.zip /[S150k,+250000] CC a:*.zip /[s400000,-250k] Again, all these lines do the same thing. Unlike in 4DOS, it doesn't matter which of the numbers is larger, and you can use either plus or minus signs in front of the second number (4DOS only allows plus-signs). The signs mean that the other limit is that much higher or lower than the first one. CC *.zip e:\ /[D8-20-94,8-24-94] CC *.zip e:\ /[d20.8.94,24.8.1994] CC *.zip e:\ /[D20/08/94,+4] These three lines demonstrate the use of the date range (notice the 'D' in the beginning). All the lines operate identically. If you use the minus- sign in between the numbers, the first number will be the month and the second the day. Using any other sign (dot, comma, slash, etc.) means that the first number will be the day and the second one the month. The year can be entered with just two digits or all four. Also, using a plus on minus sign before the second set of numbers will make them relative to the first one (in days). CC a: /[d-1] CC a: /[D-1,+1] When the first number is preceded by a plus or minus sign, it will be relative to the current date, i.e. here it would mean all files from today or yesterday. If the second date is omitted, the current date will be used in its place. The second line works likewise, as the second number is one greater than the first one, i.e. today. CC a: /[D-1,+0] Copies files only from yesterday. CC a: /[d22.9.93@15:00,+2@10:05] Using the '@'-sign you can enter a time for each (or just one) limit. In this case all files newer than 22.9.93 15:00 and older than 24.9.93 10:05 are accepted. Again, like with the size range, it doesn't matter which date is larger. CC *.exe d:\temp\*.bak /[t11:00,13:05] CC *.exe d:\temp\*.bak /[t11:00,+125] CC *.exe d:\temp\*.bak /[t13:05,-125] All three lines work in the same manner. All files that have a time stamp between 11:00 and 13:05 are copied. Again, you can use relative numbers (in minutes) in the second time. CC *.exe d:\temp\*.bak /[t-120] If the first time is relative, it will be relative to the current time. This line copies all files that have a time stamp of 0 to 2 hours less than the current time. CC a: /[d+0@-120] Copies all files that are less than two hours old (current date and 120 minutes less than the current time). CC . [*.exe] [ *.com] a:\backup CC . [ *.exe *.com ] a:\backup These lines demonstrates the use of exclude masks. All files, except those with the extension 'exe' or 'com' will be copied. Again, note that extra spaces between brackets are ignored (4DOS users will appreciate this) and several masks can be entered in single brackets. CC . [ *.zip *.arj *.lzh] \TEST /M This is a good line to remember if you have a lot of ZIP-files. In case you accidentally open one of them in the same directory, this command line will easily move the correct files and clean the directory for you. And, if you still aren't sure how your command line will behave, use the /N-option (no copying) or the /P-option (prompts before copying each file), or both (/np) to be on the safe side. Especially when using some complex selection ranges it's always a good idea to use /NP to make sure you don't mess anything up. Enhanced CON access ------------------- COPY CON file.ext This line is very familiar to all those who were around when good text editors weren't. Nowadays EDIT file.ext is much easier and more effective to use. You might think that the copy command supports the console only for compatibility's sake, but there is, in fact, one thing that COPY CON does better than MS-DOS edit and most other editors as well: control characters. Not many editors let you write BEEPS (ascii 7) or page breaks manually, but COPY CON does. It interprets all 'unprintable' ascii characters into control codes, like ^A,^B,^M and so on. CCopy takes this process one step further and allows you to enter ANY ascii codes into a file. Normal writing still works fine, but now backspace, tab, enter, ESC and all other keys are written directly into the file. An added feature is that everything is printed on screen (that's right - everything) by using direct VGA memory manipulation. Now all the smileys (ascii codes 1 and 2) and the rest of them are visible, not merely ^X -symbols. Note that MS-DOS and 4DOS copiers cannot write escape characters (27) to a file as they interpret it as an editor command. In fact, CCopy is the only program I am aware of that can write escape codes entered directly from the keyboard (EDLIN could do that as well, but - sadly - it has been replaced by MS-EDIT). Special keys may be entered from the keypad as well, by depressing ALT and 'dialing' the ascii code on the keypad (not keyboard). Another way of entering some control characters is by depressing control and pressing an appropriate letter key; ^A,^B,...,^X,^Y, are all available this way. (Except ^C and ^Z which are used to close the file.) MS-DOS and 4DOS copiers use this method, but on the screen they show only those symbols from ^A to ^Z. CCopy shows the real ascii characters. When you've finished typing, pressing CTRL-Z or CTRL-C will close the file and proceed normally with the copying (if there are other source files). At one point you may mistype a letter and want to remove it with backspace. Pressing backspace alone will just echo ascii 7 to the screen and the file. And instead of just entering ascii 13 (carrier return), you might want to enter the return combination (13+10: carrier return and line feed). Remember that CC CON is primarily for entering those tough control characters, not a fully developed text editor. But because some special functions are quite useful (like those described earlier) they are implemented in CCopy. By using either SHIFT-key these special functions become available: Backspace: No longer echoes ascii 7 but removes last character. Enter: Inserts CR/LF (13+10) instead of CR (13) and starts a new line on the screen. CTRL-Z: Closes the file without writing the ^Z-character to the file. CTRL-C: Closes the file without writing the ^C-character to the file. Remember that CON cannot be used as a destination and that whenever one or more of your source masks are the console, the destination must be a single file, no wildcards or directory names are allowed. Of course, CCopy makes always sure that no dangerous stunts are pulled. Using the /A-option will easily and effectively allow you to write to the end of the file. Prompts ------- There are several different prompts that you can encounter when using CCopy, but most of them only require a yes/no response and are pretty self- explanatory. A few may need some explaining however: (1) Copying FONT.TXT => FONT.BAK FONT TXT 2Kb Overwrite FONT.BAK (older,smaller)? [y/n/a/s/r] The information in parantheses concerns the already existing file that is about to be overwritten. In this case we see that FONT.BAK is older and smaller in size than FONT.TXT. The possible answers are in brackets. Responses: Y)es, overwrite the old file with the new one N)o, skip this file and continue with the next one A)ll, automatically allow all following files to overwrite already existing files (same as /R-option (replace)) S)kip, automatically skip all following files that would overwrite an already existing file (same as /K-option (keep)) R)ename, lets you enter a new name for this file (no path, just the name) (2) If the destination drive doesn't have enough free space to accomodate all the files that you've specified, you will be prompted: Not enough free space for all files. Continue anyway? [Y/n] If you choose to continue, CCopy will pause when the disk is full and wait for you to change the diskette or make more free space (or stop there). Note that all the possible responses are in brackets, and if one of them is capitalized, it is the default response which will be used if you press any key that isn't listed. (3) For added security, CCopy asks for confirmation if you're appending files and haven't specified the /A-switch. This has been implemented simply because quite often this type of command is due to a misspelling: CC *.* D:\FILES\BACXKUPS when the correct directory name is D:\FILES\BACKUPS. A normal copy program would copy all your files one after the other to a file name BACXKUPS. And if you had moved those files the next step would be UNDELETE.EXE (which possibly wouldn't be able to get all the files back). Specific information -------------------- Controlled Copy reads and writes files in 48kB blocks. Larger blocks would mean faster operation, but then the screen update intervals would become too long and increasing the block size over 48 kBytes doesn't improve the performance enough to be worthwhile. And 48kB is 6 times 8kB which is the most common cluster size; so every read and write is exactly 6 clusters long, which does have a slight positive effect. Without screen update during copy, Ccopy is a bit faster than the ordinary copy program and with screen update only 0% to 1% slower, depending on the disk drives' speed and the speed of your video controller. This delay however is too small to be noticed without timing the procedures and since you get a much nicer enviroment with Ccopy, then why continue using the normal copy? Support for an enviroment variable is implemented. You can define all your favorite options in a variable named CCOPY. Any options that are entered in the command line will override the options of the enviroment variable. Example: SET CCOPY=/V1T2B/H /4 (all slashes are optional). All screen updates are done using standard BIOS-calls, so that CCopy doesn't mess up your windows if you use a multi-tasker. A notable exception is the enhanced console interface, which writes directly to video memory. No color or graphics monitor is required, everything works well in a B&W 80 column screen. Controlled Copy has been coded entirely in Borland's Turbo C++ 3.1. DOS errorlevel codes returned by Ccopy are as follows: 0 - succesful operation 1 - not enough free space 2 - error in command line 3 - unexpected (serious) error Future improvements ------------------- Known improvements: Advanced optimization for copying to disks Possible improvements: SRDisk (ReSizeable Ram Disk) size altering support Contacting the author --------------------- Your support is greatly appreciated! If you at any time feel that there is something this copier lacks, inform me about your ideas and, if they are reasonable, useful and possible, they will be added. YOU can affect the way this program will develop in the future. And if you at any time discover an error in the program, _please_ try to inform me. As this program constantly develops and grows, some of the older functions may start acting erroneously and I possibly can't do a foolproof test scan on all aspects of the program. But when you report a bug, I know what to look for and I'll be able to fix it within 24 hours. Of course, you must wait a few weeks for the next release, but by then CCopy will be better than new. (Actually it _will_ be new.. :-) And finally, if you have nothing to report, you can still let me know what you think of the program. It's always nice to get comments, so that I know someone finds this utility useful. So... For any bug reports, improvement ideas and comments: 1) Post a message to the following e-mail address: ttoikkan@gamma.hut.fi 2) Write a message in Metropoli BBS to Tarmo Toikkanen. One node to Metropoli: (358)0-455 4829 3) Call (358)0-493 169 (voice only) 4) Send snailmail to: T. Toikkanen Ruusulankatu 19 A 26 00250 Helsinki FINLAND Tuesday, 6th September, 1994 - Colonel Hawk