Misc. Utilities for DOS [page 2 of 2]

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OTHER MISC PROGRAMS


Linkln- Link executable files to file names in other directories.

* * * * * [added 1998-10-03]

reviewed by H. Schwartz (10-2-98)

In Unix, the ``ln'' program lets you link a real file in directory A, to a filename in directory B. Within directory B, the filename ``points to'' the real file and reacts (to commands) exactly like it was the real file. Linkln allows you to link executable files (i.e., exe and com files) to file names in other directories, within DOS (using a tool like bat2exec, you can also create links for bat files). Why would you want to do this? Doing so lets you execute programs from any directory, without the problems related to DOS's PATH variable.To execute programs in any directory, DOS has you set the PATH variable to all directories containing executable programs. However:

Using linkln, you place all your executable file names in, and set PATH to, only ONE directory. Advantages:

  1. Faster execution of programs and less wear on your disk.
  2. Saving environment space and ram, since the PATH variable need contain only one directory.
  3. Saving disk space: Linkln stores a filename, not a real file, in a directory. This requires about 12 bytes instead of the minimum 2Kbytes or so (1 cluster) required for a file of any size.
  4. For convenience or clarity, you may wish a file to show up in different directories, with different names. You can link a file to file names in one or many directories, using any file names you want.

Cautions:

Free only for private use. Author: Oliver Fromme, Germany (1994)

download linkln11.zip (25K)

Note that Simtel.Net carries linkln10.zip, but it contains a bad bug.


man- ("PCMan") Helpfile system for DOS.

* * * * * [added 1998-10-01]

reviewed by H. Schwartz (10-1-98)

Have you ever promised yourself you would organize all those documentation files that come with software programs, so you could find them when you need them? This helpfile is a great tool for doing this. It is an extension of the Unix ``man page'' helpfile system - essentially a menu browser for help files (with 4dos type descriptions), a viewer, and a data-base to search for the files you want.

What makes this one better than other helpfile systems?

Author: Stuart Herbert, UK (1994)

download pcman19b.zip (116K)


TCAP- TSR logs console text input/ output to file.

unrated [added 1998-06-23 updated 2002-07-20]

From the docs: "TCAP is a text capturing utility. Console I/O is copied to a file. TCAP's purpose is somewhat like the "script" program available on Unix systems, with respect to its ability to log text from the console while it is running. It can remain resident in memory (i.e., as a TSR program) to capture text from several programs or commands, or capture text from a single program. Both program output and text input by the user are captured. Captured text input does not include editing characters, such as backspaces, only the final text is captured. TCAP captures text from both standard-out and standard-error." Good documentation.

    TCAP [options] [filename] [/C command [parameters]]
         /?            display a help screen
         /B=size       specify Buffer size in kilobytes
                       (minimum=7, maximum=64, default=8)
         /ON[-I|-O]    turn capturing ON
         /OFF[-I|-O]   turn capturing OFF
         /OVERWRITE    destroy initial contents of capture file
         /APPEND       Append text to capture file (default)
         /N            No filename swap (with /C option only)
         /P+ or /P-    enable or disable Path searching (with /C option only)
         /I            make entire command-line case-Insensitive
         /L+ or /L-    enable or disable use of Long filenames
         /Lx           prevent filename shortening when long names are unavailable
         /Q            quiet mode
         /U            stop text capture and Uninstall TCAP
         filename      specify the name of the capture file  (defaults to TCAP.TXT)
         /C            run and capture text from 'command', using the indicated parameters

Author: Tim D. Kannel (2002). Suggested by Marianna Van Erp.

2002-07-20: v3.2 (2002-07) available: "addition of -i and -o components to /off and /on switches; addition of cmdproxy.exe companion program; minimum buffer size has been increased again.'

download tcap32.zip (17K)


TSR Utilities (TSRCOM)- Remove memory resident programs that can't remove themselves.

* * * * *

Several TSR programs are listed on these pages- many of which have no option to uninstall themselves from memory. It's often wise to uninstall DOS TSR's [e.g., to free memory when a TSR is needed only temporarily, or when running programs with which a tsr may conflict (e.g., Windows)]. The TSR Utilities are compatible with a wide range of memory managers and can remove TSR's loaded to upper memory. From the docs: "The TSR Utilities are a collection of programs useful for managing DOS memory, particularly for managing memory-resident programs, also known as TSR's...The most popular use of these utilities is for removing TSR's from memory without rebooting the PC. There are many other uses, however, especially if you are a software developer." Released in 1993.

download tsrcom35.zip (80K)


Tee- Send program's output to both screen and file.

unrated [added 1999-08-22]

If you want to see the output of a command on screen- but at the same time wish to save it to disk, tee is the program to do it. Tee is based on a Unix tool of the same name.

Syntax: <command> | tee <filename>

Win32 versions also available on Home Page. Author: Brian Friesen (1999)

download tee16.zip (8K)


SLOWDOWN- Slows down PC to allow running of older programs.

unrated [added 1998-07-15 updated 2002-03-28]

One of the more flexible "slowdown" tsr programs available- freeware or shareware.

From the docs: "SLOWDOWN is a program that temporarily "slows down" your computer so that you can run programs that require a slower computer (usually, a 4.77 MHz PC/XT or an 8 MHz PC/AT)...There are other "slowdown" programs out there that have already been designed and marketed, so what makes SLOWDOWN different enough from the others that I even bothered to write it? The main thing is flexibility... SLOWDOWN can be used to either "permanently" slow down your computer (letting you run several programs in a row, slowly), or to just slow down one particular program (and when that program is done, your computer automatically returns back to its normal, faster speed). Secondly, SLOWDOWN will let you run any type of program - either executable files (.COM or .EXE) or Batch files. Some other "slowdown" programs will only work with COM or EXE files. Thirdly, SLOWDOWN can either simulate a PC/XT, a PC/AT, or can be "fine- tuned" to simulate almost any speed you want it to."

[Notes: While progs like SLOWDOWN are usually used to run old games on a fast PC, they can also be used to circumvent the notorious Borland Pascal "Runtime 200" error generated by some old BP compiled programs on faster PC's.]
SYNTAX: SLOWDOWN [SLOWDOWN Options] [executable filename w/ options]
  /?,/H        - Show this HELP screen
  /U           - UNINSTALL from memory
  /Q  /V       - Be QUIET or VERBOSE about the details (default = VERBOSE)
  /E  /D       - ENABLE or DISABLE the Hot-Keys (default = ENABLE)
  /K:ShiftMask - Hot-KEY Shift Mask (default = Ctrl-Alt)

  /X[:nnn]   - Run the computer the same speed as an XT (4.77-MHz 8088)
  /A[:nnn]   - Run the computer the same speed as an AT (8-MHz 80286)
  /R[:nnn]   - Run the computer at the REMEMBERED Speed (default = 65535)
  /M:nnn     - Run the computer the same speed as a nnn-MHz 80486 (0-5000)
  /P:nnn.nn  - Run the computer at nnn.nn% of normal speed (0.00-100.00)
  /S:nnn     - Run the computer at a SPEED of nnn SU's (0-65535)
  /nnn       - Slow the computer Down by nnn SU's (0-65535) (default = 0)
  /T         - Show TABLE of various computer Speeds in SU's

Author: Bret Johnson (2002)

2002-03-28: v3.0 (03-02) available

download slodn300.zip (33K)


UPCT- Ultra precision command timer.

unrated [added 1998-03-26]

A small utility for benchmarking duration of processes.

Usage: UPCT [COMMAND_SEQUENCE]
Meaning: Any command plus parameters you would normally
enter at the DOS command prompt, including redirection.
To get UPCT to time duration of a batch file run from the command line, try this syntax:

UPCT CALL MY.BAT

Here's the output after running a batch file that turns this web site into a text file:Command executed: C:\COMMAND.COM /C call HTSTR.BAT
Parameters: HTSTR.BAT
Raw total count: 128403478 cycles on the 8253/4 programmable interval timer.
Elapsed time: 107614357.1 microseconds = 1 minute and 47.6144 seconds.

No documentation included in zip. Author: Erik de Neve (1993). Suggested by Robert Bull.

download upct16.zip (7K)


InkUtils - Valuable collection of DOS/ Win9x-ready utilities.

* * * * * [updated 1999-02-21]

Author's description: "The Inkutils are a suite of 11 DOS / Win 9x DOS utilities that range from a mouse driven, 4DOS / NDOS aware full-screen description editor (with unique file-import and 4DOS / NDOS auto-config features) to an interactive point and click SmartDrive (or compatible) disk cache controller. There's also a popup TSR calculator that can be loaded in less than 1.7K. A friendly menu style user guide with full documentation for each Inkutil is also included. Windows 9x long file names and UNC pathnames are supported througout the Inkutils.

The following utilities are included:

Formerly shareware, now freeware. Author: Mark Incley (www.inkland.org), UK (1999). Suggested by Lars-Erik Sandberg.

Get ink153.exe from SAC (255K)


Cache Control- Mouse compatible control center for MS-DOS SmartDrive.

unrated [added 1998-03-05 updated 1999-02-21]

A slick and friendly full screen interface for the SmartDrive cache program: "...allows cache settings to be changed by intuitive point-and-clicking rather than using the less friendly command line options." Change settings for individual drives by clicking on drive buttons and selecting read/write caching options. Current settings are displayed under drive buttons. Good built-in help. EXE size= 14.4K.

Function Keys:

Formerly shareware, now freeware. Author: Mark Incley (www.inkland.org), UK (1997). Suggested by Lars-Erik Sandberg.

Part of the Inkutils set (v1.53;2-99):
Get ink153.exe from SAC (255K)


Berkely Utilities- Unixish tool set for DOS.

unrated [added 2001-11-16]

(Revise description) "The Berkeley Utilities are a set of 40 UNIX-like utilities for MS-DOS... It is not as complete a set of UNIX commands as can be found in some other packages (e.g. MKS) but it contains some useful utilities you don't find elsewhere (e.g. cb, xstr)....[T]hey now work with long filenames under WIN95/98, and df can understand multi-gigabyte partitions)...Compared to the GNU utilities, [the Berkeley Utilities] utilities have the advantage that they are much smaller (20K on average instead of 100K). Compared to MKS utilities, they have the advantage that each utility is self contained (it can run separately without any other support file, and each utility contains an help screen)...

The Berkeley Utilities follow rigorously the unix System V syntax and include all the options found on any unix system plus a few carefully chosen ones. They used to sell for $200 and are now free."

Author: OPENetwork. (2001)

Download the Berkely Utils (separately or as a complete package with pdf documentation) from OPENetwork Home Page.


UXUTL- Comprehensive collection of command line Unix utilities for DOS.

* * * *

[Also see the more current GNU Txtutils and Fileutils (386+, DJGPP)]

This set of UNIX utilities was originally developed for use with the author's unixish MS Shell 2.x but the tools can be used as standalone programs. The UXUTL set is split into four archives (a, b, c, and d) and mainly consists of file and text processing programs. Documentation (included with the "a" set) is sparse- you'll need to acquire the corresponding Unix MAN docs to appreciate the full potential of these programs. One util I use frequently from this package is TEE- it allows you to redirect output to the screen and to a file *simultaneously.* Here are the contents of A-D:

A: basename- Display file namename, bmgrep- Fast pattern matching utility, cal- Display calendar, cat- Concatenate files, cdiff- Context difference,cgrep- Search file for pattern and display context, chmod- Change file attributes, cmp- Compare two files, comm- Select or reject lines common to two sorted files, cp- Copy files, cpio- Archive files, csplit- Context or line file splitter, cut- Cut data out of a file.

B: date- Display / change date and time, dd- Data copy, df- Display Disk Free space, dirname- Extract directory name from filename, du- Display disk usage, expr- Evaluate arguments as expression, fgrep- Search file for string, find- Search dir tree for files matching req., fold- Fold long lines to stdout, fstat- Print file status information, grep- Search file for pattern, head- Display file headers, ls- List directory

C: m4- M4 Macro processor, make- Makefile processor, mkdir- Make path, mv- Move files, od- octal dump, printarg- Print arguments to stdout, printenv- Print environment to stdout, rm- Remove files, rmdir- Remove directories, setschar- Set switch character, sleep- Wait for n seconds, sort- Sort files, split- Split file into n line parts.

D: strings- Display the strings in files, sym- Display symbolic info from obj and lib files, tail- Print tail of file, tee- Copy stdin to one or more files and standard output. touch- Change a file's time stamp or size, tput- Output a termcap string, tr-Translate characters, uniq- Display unique lines, wc- Count number of words in file, which- Display the dir containing a command from PATH.

Author: Ian Stewartson (1994)


End-user fixes for Borland Pascal 7 CRT bug (Runtime Error 200)

unrated

  1. BP7PAT- Patches BP7 EXE's generating RTE 200 on fast PC's.
  2. CRTFIX- Patches BP7 EXE's generating RTE 200 on fast PC's; handles wide range of CPU freq.
  3. PROT 200- TSR runtime fix for Borland Pascal 7 compiled exes with runtime error 200 on fast PC's.
  4. TP7P5FIX- TSR runtime fix for Borland Pascal 7 compiled exes with runtime error 200 on fast PC's.

These programs are intended for users of "fast" PC's (e.g., Pentiums >~200 mhz). They can breathe life back into countless older Borland Pascal compiled DOS programs which may generate an error message on execution ("Runtime error 200 at xxxx:xxxx.") and abort. Several programs listed on this site generate that error. For the end user three types of remedies to the TP/BP CRT problem exist: (1) EXE patchers, which modify the original executable (CRTFIX and BP7PAT, below, or numerous other available patchers); (2) TSR runtime fixes (e.g., PROT200, TP7P5FIX, below) which don't modify the original exe- but instead detect and prevent the error at execution; and (3) CPU slowers (e.g., SLOWDOWN).

(1) Attempts at exe patching are not always successful because some compressed exes won't be easily uncompressed (required for patching) or may contain anti-hacking code which defeats a successful patch. In addition, patching may infringe upon a program's copyright. Importantly, there is now discussion indicating that some patchers may not generate an effective patch for the latest high mhz PC's (e.g., Pentium II/III >400); you may have to experiment with several patchers to find one that works for your PC. The CRTFIX patcher is designed to generate a fix appropriate to a PC's CPU frequency. CRTFIX has the added advantage of offering several options (create backup of original, search for buggy files on disk and log list to file, etc.).

(2) The TSR fix can be more desirable if you use a large number of programs with the error. Limitations of the TSR fixes include less than 100 percent effectiveness and the additional (if small- 1K) memory cost of running the TSR.

Authors: BP7PAT [added 1999-05-14]: PHaX (1999), Home Page; CRTFIX [added 2000-10-02 updated 2001-06-27]: Eugene Toder (2001); PROT 200 [added 2000-01-24]: Pap­k Martin, Slovakia (2000); TP7P5FIX [added 1999-08-16]: Author: Marek Futrega (1998).

  1. download bppat102.zip (includes BP7PAT, 6.5K)
  2. download crtfix16.zip (includes CRTFIX, 20K)
  3. download prot200.zip (70K)
  4. download tp7p5fix.zip (2K)

Also see J. R. Stockton's pages for more information on the BP CRT issue.


Escape- TSR aids in escaping DOS programs, avoiding system crashes.

unrated [added 2001-10-07]

Escape allows the user to interrupt programs and prevent some potential system crashes- it's more broadly effective than Ctrl-Break. Uses XMS memory when available.

ESCAPE v3.6(c)1994-2001 Selcuk Ayguney / David Lindauer
Usage: ESCAPE    to install
       ESCAPE /R to restore interrupt table
       ESCAPE /U to uninstall
Press F12 to ESCAPE from any program.

Author: David Lindauer (v3.6), based on original code by Selçuk Aygüney. (2001) Suggested by Wørm (The Wørm's Dos Software Page) and Selçuk Aygüney.

download escape3.zip (1.2K, no docs)


HBREAK- TSR aids in escaping DOS programs, avoiding system crashes.

unrated [added 2000-01-08 updated 2000-02-21]

Hbreak is a TSR which allows the user to interrupt programs and prevent some potential system crashes- it's more broadly effective than Ctrl-Break. HBREAK can interrupt a variety of programs (e.g., try it with EDIT). Warnings: Don't load tsr's after HBREAK. The default hotkey is CTRL-ALT-C (modifiable). HBREAK requires around 3.2K of memory, and self-installs into high memory by default.

"...HBREAK relocates the first 8 hardware INTs from habitual zone of 8-0Fh to new zone 50-57h: this is the only alternative location that MS-DOS 5.0 EMM386 support. This is not conflictive with Windows 3, but /R=0 switch avoid this action (perhaps necessary on some future systems): this option decrease the efficacy. The EMS memory assigned will be recovered (and the XMS with QEMM386 and similar memory managers) in the most of cases."

Author: Ciriaco García de Celis, Spain (1993, 1996).

HBREAK [/R=0|1] [/T=scan code] [/S=«shifts»] [/ML] [/U] [/?|H]
/R=0        prevent INT relocation.
/U          uninstall (if possible).
/ML         forces installation in conventional memory
/T and  /S  Activation keys may be selected with /T and  /S

02-21-00: A link to v5.5 (1996, never widely released), has been added. No version history available- but on the surface 5.5 uses slightly less memory than 5.2. No docs are included with 5.5. Much thanks to Stephen Kitt for obtaining the file.

download hbreak52.zip (v5.2, 7K)
or
download hbreak55.zip (v5.5, 8K)


LFNDOS-TSR provides Win9x Long Filename (LFN) API to DOS programs (under *plain* DOS).

unrated [added 1999-06-20 updated 1999-09-25]

"Any DOS program which can use long file names, for example DOS 7 Command.com, edit.com and all DJGPP programs, can load and save using them with LFNDOS. Designed for Win95 users using DOS-mode, although it works under old DOS versions too!" Be sure to read the docs first for a discussion of limitations, bugs, and incompatible programs. Source available from home page.

New in v1.06 (8-99): see docs.

Author: Chris Jones (1999). Home Page.

download lfndos.zip (37K)


MoonCalc- Lunar calculator with v. good graphics.

* * * * * [added 1999-12-18 updated 2002-05-05]

MoonCalc..."provides information relating to the position, age, phase, orientation, appearance and visibility of the moon for any given date, time and location on earth. It also provides the Julian Day Number, Magnetic Declination, time and direction of moonrise and moonset, interval between sunset and moonset, interval between sunrise and moonrise, date/time of astronomical new moon (conjunction), full moon, apogee and perigee and predicts the likelihood of visualising the young moon from a particular location. MoonCalc provides Hijri calendar data including location dependent Hijri date conversion using predicted crescent visibility. Data pertaining to solar and lunar eclipse in any year are also shown." V. good interactive graphics.

2002-05-05: v6.0 (2001-10) available.

Author: Dr. Monzur Ahmed, UK (2001). Home Page.

download moonc60.zip (500K)


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