Where do you put the autoexec lines for a dosbox?

mm wrote:
On Wed, 19 Aug 2009 08:13:58 +0700, Jaelani
wrote:

mm wrote:
In Win98, where do you put the config.sys and autoexec lines for a
dosbox?

I need to use a shell and/or set command before I go from win98 to a
dos box:

shell=C:\PROGRAMS\4DOS\4dos.com /p
and/or
set comspec=C:\PROGRAMS\4DOS\4dos.com

4DOS I just found out is available free now for DOS, Win98, and even
winXP. (I have paid for it already, but can't find the disks to
install it in this computer.)

The installation in XP went fine, including its putting an icon in
the QuckLaunch bar. Although it does have the problem that too many
operations are displayed in the GUI and requires alt-tab to get back
to the dosbox. There is no native dos in XP so they pretty much had
to get the box to work.

My XP is broken now and until I get it fixed, I'm back to win98SE.
A different version of 4DOS is available for that, and installation
was easy and it works fine in native DOS.

The last time I did this I knew how, but it's been 10 years or so
and I can't remember.

For Windows 9x, just add/edit the SHELL option in your CONFIG.SYS.

No, that doesn't do it. (Having to explain it to you caused me to
remember he solution. 3 paragrpahs down.) The 4dos install does that,
and it works in native DOS, but if I start a dos box from within
win98, it's straight microsoft dos as if 4dos were never installed.

This was true the first time too, 10 years ago.

Did you download & install the latest free one from that site you
posted? I just did so on your recommendation. (You're right-- that LIST
command is really something. So... thanks!) But I haven't had the
problem you reported. Whether I click an old DOS shortcut that loads
Command.com or the new one that loads 4DOS.COM, I get...

4DOS XMS swapping initialized (55K)
4DOS running under Windows 98

4DOS 7.50 (Win98) DOS 7.10
Copyright 1988-2004 Rex Conn & JP Software Inc. All Rights Reserved

....And all works the same as far I can see so far. Even when I click
Command.com, itself, 4DOS.com seems to be what I get. And in all cases,
MEM/C shows 4DOS has been loaded instead of Command.com...

Name Total Conventional Upper Memory
-------- ------------- ---------------- ----------------
4DOS 4,064 (4K) 4,064 (4K) 0 (0K)
4dos 2,576 (3K) 2,576 (3K) 0 (0K)

The only thing that loads Command.com now is that .pif Jaelani
mentioned... DOSPRMPT.PIF. When I click that one, seems I get my old
MS-DOS, & MEM/C shows...

4DOS 4,064 (4K) 4,064 (4K) 0 (0K)
COMMAND 7,456 (7K) 7,456 (7K) 0 (0K)

(I used to have two icons, one that went to a MSDOS box and one that
went to a 4DOS box, but alas that harddrive started going click click
click, and I had no backup for files I wrote that weren't in the
normal data areas.)

Aha! Having to explain this to you in order to ask my question better
reminds me of the answer. In order to have my choice, I had two
shortcuts. So one way is to make a shortcut on the desktop for 4DOS
in which the command is

C:\PROGRAMS\4DOS\4DOS.COM /p or whatever fits your files.

Well, my shortcut command line reads...
C:\JPSOFT\4DOS\4DOS.COM

Your path is different. But the point is there is no "/p". That belongs
in Config.sys. Here is what the install added to the bottom of my
files...

Config.sys
-------------
shell=C:\JPSOFT\4DOS\4dos.com /p

Autoexec.bat
-----------------
SET PATH=C:\JPSOFT\4DOS;%PATH%
set comspec=C:\JPSOFT\4DOS\4dos.com

Doing that makes it run autoexec.bat again, maybe because of the /p.

According to 4DOS HELP, "/p" does cause Autoexec.bat to run again, & it
makes the DOS window permanent. Can you exit it after you start it that
way? Also, if you open more than one that way, I think more resources
are used, & they may not share the global settings.

But regardless it works now, so thank you for the help, and I want to
remind all DOS users and win98 users how great 4DOS is.

One can then edit the properties of the shortcut and decide if he
wants full-screen dos or a box. It's possible to copy and paste from
a box.

My personal favorite is the List command, which will display the
internals of any file, in hex or text. List *.* will display every
file in a directory, only needing esc to go to the next file. And
it's incredibly quick because the file isn't mored to a work area in
RAM aiui, and there is no chance of making a change to it by accident
(which once happened to me with an editor, where the editor put one
character at the end for some reason.)

On another occaiosn, when I deleted about 200 files because my
directory structure was bad, and when I deleted a subdirectory, two
levels down it found the root directory and was deleting files in the
root directory. They were all redeemable with Norton Undelete, but I
didn't always know what the first letter was. List enable me to look
inside easily, hunt for the name minus the first letter, and then
learn what the first letter was. About 2/3 of the files had their
names inside of them.

For Windows XP... well, you can't do that since Windows XP is a native
32-bit OS - unlike Windows 9x/Me. Use TCLite instead (freeware, from
the same creator of 4DOS, formerly named 4NT).

Good advice to other readers. I have TC Le it might be called now,
and it works fine, and for free like you say. I guess Because XP is
like NT, 4DOS won't work there.

www.jpsoft.com

They hide the free stuff a little bit among all the stuff they want to
sell. But that seems fair.

--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
Should things get worse after this,
PCR

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Jaelani
writes:
mm wrote:
No, that doesn't do it. (Having to explain it to you caused me to
remember he solution. 3 paragrpahs down.) The 4dos install does
that, and it works in native DOS, but if I start a dos box from
within win98, it's straight microsoft dos as if 4dos were never
installed. [snip]

Ah, that could probably be the "DOSPRMPT.PIF" (in WINDOWS directory)
when under Windows 9x/Me. That PIF file is used as the default DOS box
environment when running DOS programs and it defaults to COMMAND.COM
(if I remember correctly). Just change it to your 4DOS.COM. Mine was
set to "%COMSPEC%". The other one is "Exit To Dos.pif" which is used
when exiting to DOS prompt (terminating Windows).

I faintly remember, too, seeing a mention of another filename - I
think it might have been AUTOEXEC.DOS or something like that - which
was/is "run" when you open a DOS box from within Windows, much like
AUTOEXEC.BAT is for true DOS. (I can't remember if there was/is an
equivalent for CONFIG.SYS, though.)

I believe there was, but according to a post of cquirke's in my Keepers,
the *.dos files were Win95 files (I think he said). I think they served
the same purpose as the the *.wos files in Win98. The *.wos files I know
work like this...

Warm Booted MS-DOS mode ("Re-boot" to DOS)

a. Accessed from a "Warm Boot" .pif that IS BOTH checked "MS-DOS mode"
AND bolted "Specify a new MS-DOS configuration", in it's Properties,
Program tab, Advanced button.
b. Accessed from START button, if you've altered "exit to dos", as
described.
c. Does a warm boot, using Config.sys and Autoexec.bat as configured
in the pif. (The system files are renamed *.wos & the pif files are
extracted for the session.)
d. Dosstart.bat is NOT run.
e. "EXIT" restores the system Config.sys & Autoexec.bat & warm boots
to Windows. (Ctrl-Alt-Del & "WIN" should NOT be used.)


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
Should things get worse after this,
PCR

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Jaelani
writes:
mm wrote:
No, that doesn't do it. (Having to explain it to you caused me to
remember he solution. 3 paragrpahs down.) The 4dos install does
that, and it works in native DOS, but if I start a dos box from
within win98, it's straight microsoft dos as if 4dos were never
installed. [snip]

Ah, that could probably be the "DOSPRMPT.PIF" (in WINDOWS directory)
when under Windows 9x/Me. That PIF file is used as the default DOS box
environment when running DOS programs and it defaults to COMMAND.COM
(if I remember correctly). Just change it to your 4DOS.COM. Mine was
set to "%COMSPEC%". The other one is "Exit To Dos.pif" which is used
when exiting to DOS prompt (terminating Windows).

I faintly remember, too, seeing a mention of another filename - I
think it might have been AUTOEXEC.DOS or something like that - which
was/is "run" when you open a DOS box from within Windows, much like
AUTOEXEC.BAT is for true DOS. (I can't remember if there was/is an
equivalent for CONFIG.SYS, though.)

I believe there was, but according to a post of cquirke's in my Keepers,
the *.dos files were Win95 files (I think he said). I think they served
the same purpose as the the *.wos files in Win98. The *.wos files I know
work like this...

Warm Booted MS-DOS mode ("Re-boot" to DOS)

a. Accessed from a "Warm Boot" .pif that IS BOTH checked "MS-DOS mode"
AND bolted "Specify a new MS-DOS configuration", in it's Properties,
Program tab, Advanced button.
b. Accessed from START button, if you've altered "exit to dos", as
described.
c. Does a warm boot, using Config.sys and Autoexec.bat as configured
in the pif. (The system files are renamed *.wos & the pif files are
extracted for the session.)
d. Dosstart.bat is NOT run.
e. "EXIT" restores the system Config.sys & Autoexec.bat & warm boots
to Windows. (Ctrl-Alt-Del & "WIN" should NOT be used.)


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
Should things get worse after this,
PCR

On Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:05:54 -0400, "PCR" wrote:

mm wrote:
On Wed, 19 Aug 2009 08:13:58 +0700, Jaelani
wrote:

mm wrote:
In Win98, where do you put the config.sys and autoexec lines for a
dosbox?

I need to use a shell and/or set command before I go from win98 to a
dos box:

shell=C:\PROGRAMS\4DOS\4dos.com /p
and/or
set comspec=C:\PROGRAMS\4DOS\4dos.com

4DOS I just found out is available free now for DOS, Win98, and even
winXP. (I have paid for it already, but can't find the disks to
install it in this computer.)

The installation in XP went fine, including its putting an icon in
the QuckLaunch bar. Although it does have the problem that too many
operations are displayed in the GUI and requires alt-tab to get back
to the dosbox. There is no native dos in XP so they pretty much had
to get the box to work.

My XP is broken now and until I get it fixed, I'm back to win98SE.
A different version of 4DOS is available for that, and installation
was easy and it works fine in native DOS.

The last time I did this I knew how, but it's been 10 years or so
and I can't remember.

For Windows 9x, just add/edit the SHELL option in your CONFIG.SYS.

No, that doesn't do it. (Having to explain it to you caused me to
remember he solution. 3 paragrpahs down.) The 4dos install does that,
and it works in native DOS, but if I start a dos box from within
win98, it's straight microsoft dos as if 4dos were never installed.

This was true the first time too, 10 years ago.

Did you download & install the latest free one from that site you
posted?

Yes.

I just did so on your recommendation. (You're right-- that LIST
command is really something. So... thanks!) But I haven't had the

I forgot to mention that when text editors still had limits on how
long a file can be (maybe some still do?) List had not limit on how
long a file could be, although a 50 meg file won't fully show up
immediately. But iirc a 1 meg file does.

When searching a whole directory, with list *.*, just say F and then N
enough times, then escape for the next file, then N again for next.
Escape, N, escape, N, etc. will look for the same string in every
file. Far faster than anything in Windows. Also good to way W when
you start, to wrap the lines to 80 characters. If you say W at the
start, it's good until you end that execution of List. Unless you say
W again.

I used to crash a lot in win3.1, and it would often take some of my
files with it. I woudl have to run scandisk and save the unallocated
clusters as files, and then go through them with List, looking for
data that had disappeared.

Win98 and XP still crash occaionally, but I don't think they've ever
deleted one of my files, or any other file, in the process.

More below.

problem you reported. Whether I click an old DOS shortcut that loads
Command.com or the new one that loads 4DOS.COM, I get...

4DOS XMS swapping initialized (55K)
4DOS running under Windows 98

4DOS 7.50 (Win98) DOS 7.10
Copyright 1988-2004 Rex Conn & JP Software Inc. All Rights Reserved

...And all works the same as far I can see so far. Even when I click
Command.com, itself, 4DOS.com seems to be what I get. And in all cases,
MEM/C shows 4DOS has been loaded instead of Command.com...

Name Total Conventional Upper Memory
-------- ------------- ---------------- ----------------
4DOS 4,064 (4K) 4,064 (4K) 0 (0K)
4dos 2,576 (3K) 2,576 (3K) 0 (0K)

The only thing that loads Command.com now is that .pif Jaelani
mentioned... DOSPRMPT.PIF. When I click that one, seems I get my old
MS-DOS, & MEM/C shows...

4DOS 4,064 (4K) 4,064 (4K) 0 (0K)
COMMAND 7,456 (7K) 7,456 (7K) 0 (0K)

(I used to have two icons, one that went to a MSDOS box and one that
went to a 4DOS box, but alas that harddrive started going click click
click, and I had no backup for files I wrote that weren't in the
normal data areas.)

Aha! Having to explain this to you in order to ask my question better
reminds me of the answer. In order to have my choice, I had two
shortcuts. So one way is to make a shortcut on the desktop for 4DOS
in which the command is

C:\PROGRAMS\4DOS\4DOS.COM /p or whatever fits your files.

Well, my shortcut command line reads...
C:\JPSOFT\4DOS\4DOS.COM

Your path is different. But the point is there is no "/p". That belongs
in Config.sys.

That's where I got it, but even if it doesn't belong in an icon, it's
not the cause of any problem. Because before that, I had no 4dos
icon, with or without /p and I didnn't get 4dos when I ran "command".
And I still don't, but that's the way it was 10 years ago also.

Here is what the install added to the bottom of my
files...

Config.sys
-------------
shell=C:\JPSOFT\4DOS\4dos.com /p

Autoexec.bat
-----------------
SET PATH=C:\JPSOFT\4DOS;%PATH%
set comspec=C:\JPSOFT\4DOS\4dos.com

Yes, all this was done by the 4dos 7.5 install.

Doing that makes it run autoexec.bat again, maybe because of the /p.

According to 4DOS HELP, "/p" does cause Autoexec.bat to run again, & it
makes the DOS window permanent. Can you exit it after you start it that
way?

Yes. It doesn't seem different from any other 4DOS called from win98.

Besides running authoexec.bat, I also get these instructions
afterwards:

"You are already running Windows.

_ Press ALT+ENTER to switch this MS-DOS prompt between
windowed and full-screen display.
_ Type Exit and press Enter to quit this MS-DOS prompt and
return to Windows.
_ Press ALT+TAB to switch to Windows or another application."

That's actually pretty helpful because I had forgotten the first one,
and like I saw, one can copy and paste from a dosbox, but not from a
full-screen dos screen.

So maybe I'll remove the /p, maybe not.

Also, if you open more than one that way, I think more resources
are used, & they may not share the global settings.

I haven't done it so far, but I used to sometimes open both MSDos and
4Dos, because they original msdos commands are sometimes useful.

I don't use global settings anymore, maybe I never did. I did have a
long list of bat files that did a lot of good things. They are on the
disk that started making noises, but they are also on earlier hard
disks, and I could go get them.

Another advantage of 4dos ist that it with the right parameter, it
will show the files of a directory in their unsorted order. IIRC
MSDos won't do this. The unsorted order is usually or always the
order in which the files were added to the directory. What I never
got straight is, if a file is deleted from a directory, will a file
that is added later get its entry in the spot that the deleted file
had, and thus appear earlier than it would have in unsorted order, if
the most recently added always came last. Was that clear? Anyone
know what the answer is.

But regardless it works now, so thank you for the help, and I want to
remind all DOS users and win98 users how great 4DOS is.

One can then edit the properties of the shortcut and decide if he
wants full-screen dos or a box. It's possible to copy and paste from
a box.

My personal favorite is the List command, which will display the
internals of any file, in hex or text. List *.* will display every
file in a directory, only needing esc to go to the next file. And
it's incredibly quick because the file isn't mored to a work area in
RAM aiui, and there is no chance of making a change to it by accident
(which once happened to me with an editor, where the editor put one
character at the end for some reason.)

On another occaiosn, when I deleted about 200 files because my
directory structure was bad, and when I deleted a subdirectory, two
levels down it found the root directory and was deleting files in the
root directory. They were all redeemable with Norton Undelete, but I
didn't always know what the first letter was. List enable me to look
inside easily, hunt for the name minus the first letter, and then
learn what the first letter was. About 2/3 of the files had their
names inside of them.

For Windows XP... well, you can't do that since Windows XP is a native
32-bit OS - unlike Windows 9x/Me. Use TCLite instead (freeware, from
the same creator of 4DOS, formerly named 4NT).

Good advice to other readers. I have TC Le it might be called now,
and it works fine, and for free like you say. I guess Because XP is
like NT, 4DOS won't work there.

www.jpsoft.com

They hide the free stuff a little bit among all the stuff they want to
sell. But that seems fair.

On Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:05:54 -0400, "PCR" wrote:

mm wrote:
On Wed, 19 Aug 2009 08:13:58 +0700, Jaelani
wrote:

mm wrote:
In Win98, where do you put the config.sys and autoexec lines for a
dosbox?

I need to use a shell and/or set command before I go from win98 to a
dos box:

shell=C:\PROGRAMS\4DOS\4dos.com /p
and/or
set comspec=C:\PROGRAMS\4DOS\4dos.com

4DOS I just found out is available free now for DOS, Win98, and even
winXP. (I have paid for it already, but can't find the disks to
install it in this computer.)

The installation in XP went fine, including its putting an icon in
the QuckLaunch bar. Although it does have the problem that too many
operations are displayed in the GUI and requires alt-tab to get back
to the dosbox. There is no native dos in XP so they pretty much had
to get the box to work.

My XP is broken now and until I get it fixed, I'm back to win98SE.
A different version of 4DOS is available for that, and installation
was easy and it works fine in native DOS.

The last time I did this I knew how, but it's been 10 years or so
and I can't remember.

For Windows 9x, just add/edit the SHELL option in your CONFIG.SYS.

No, that doesn't do it. (Having to explain it to you caused me to
remember he solution. 3 paragrpahs down.) The 4dos install does that,
and it works in native DOS, but if I start a dos box from within
win98, it's straight microsoft dos as if 4dos were never installed.

This was true the first time too, 10 years ago.

Did you download & install the latest free one from that site you
posted?

Yes.

I just did so on your recommendation. (You're right-- that LIST
command is really something. So... thanks!) But I haven't had the

I forgot to mention that when text editors still had limits on how
long a file can be (maybe some still do?) List had not limit on how
long a file could be, although a 50 meg file won't fully show up
immediately. But iirc a 1 meg file does.

When searching a whole directory, with list *.*, just say F and then N
enough times, then escape for the next file, then N again for next.
Escape, N, escape, N, etc. will look for the same string in every
file. Far faster than anything in Windows. Also good to way W when
you start, to wrap the lines to 80 characters. If you say W at the
start, it's good until you end that execution of List. Unless you say
W again.

I used to crash a lot in win3.1, and it would often take some of my
files with it. I woudl have to run scandisk and save the unallocated
clusters as files, and then go through them with List, looking for
data that had disappeared.

Win98 and XP still crash occaionally, but I don't think they've ever
deleted one of my files, or any other file, in the process.

More below.

problem you reported. Whether I click an old DOS shortcut that loads
Command.com or the new one that loads 4DOS.COM, I get...

4DOS XMS swapping initialized (55K)
4DOS running under Windows 98

4DOS 7.50 (Win98) DOS 7.10
Copyright 1988-2004 Rex Conn & JP Software Inc. All Rights Reserved

...And all works the same as far I can see so far. Even when I click
Command.com, itself, 4DOS.com seems to be what I get. And in all cases,
MEM/C shows 4DOS has been loaded instead of Command.com...

Name Total Conventional Upper Memory
-------- ------------- ---------------- ----------------
4DOS 4,064 (4K) 4,064 (4K) 0 (0K)
4dos 2,576 (3K) 2,576 (3K) 0 (0K)

The only thing that loads Command.com now is that .pif Jaelani
mentioned... DOSPRMPT.PIF. When I click that one, seems I get my old
MS-DOS, & MEM/C shows...

4DOS 4,064 (4K) 4,064 (4K) 0 (0K)
COMMAND 7,456 (7K) 7,456 (7K) 0 (0K)

(I used to have two icons, one that went to a MSDOS box and one that
went to a 4DOS box, but alas that harddrive started going click click
click, and I had no backup for files I wrote that weren't in the
normal data areas.)

Aha! Having to explain this to you in order to ask my question better
reminds me of the answer. In order to have my choice, I had two
shortcuts. So one way is to make a shortcut on the desktop for 4DOS
in which the command is

C:\PROGRAMS\4DOS\4DOS.COM /p or whatever fits your files.

Well, my shortcut command line reads...
C:\JPSOFT\4DOS\4DOS.COM

Your path is different. But the point is there is no "/p". That belongs
in Config.sys.

That's where I got it, but even if it doesn't belong in an icon, it's
not the cause of any problem. Because before that, I had no 4dos
icon, with or without /p and I didnn't get 4dos when I ran "command".
And I still don't, but that's the way it was 10 years ago also.

Here is what the install added to the bottom of my
files...

Config.sys
-------------
shell=C:\JPSOFT\4DOS\4dos.com /p

Autoexec.bat
-----------------
SET PATH=C:\JPSOFT\4DOS;%PATH%
set comspec=C:\JPSOFT\4DOS\4dos.com

Yes, all this was done by the 4dos 7.5 install.

Doing that makes it run autoexec.bat again, maybe because of the /p.

According to 4DOS HELP, "/p" does cause Autoexec.bat to run again, & it
makes the DOS window permanent. Can you exit it after you start it that
way?

Yes. It doesn't seem different from any other 4DOS called from win98.

Besides running authoexec.bat, I also get these instructions
afterwards:

"You are already running Windows.

_ Press ALT+ENTER to switch this MS-DOS prompt between
windowed and full-screen display.
_ Type Exit and press Enter to quit this MS-DOS prompt and
return to Windows.
_ Press ALT+TAB to switch to Windows or another application."

That's actually pretty helpful because I had forgotten the first one,
and like I saw, one can copy and paste from a dosbox, but not from a
full-screen dos screen.

So maybe I'll remove the /p, maybe not.

Also, if you open more than one that way, I think more resources
are used, & they may not share the global settings.

I haven't done it so far, but I used to sometimes open both MSDos and
4Dos, because they original msdos commands are sometimes useful.

I don't use global settings anymore, maybe I never did. I did have a
long list of bat files that did a lot of good things. They are on the
disk that started making noises, but they are also on earlier hard
disks, and I could go get them.

Another advantage of 4dos ist that it with the right parameter, it
will show the files of a directory in their unsorted order. IIRC
MSDos won't do this. The unsorted order is usually or always the
order in which the files were added to the directory. What I never
got straight is, if a file is deleted from a directory, will a file
that is added later get its entry in the spot that the deleted file
had, and thus appear earlier than it would have in unsorted order, if
the most recently added always came last. Was that clear? Anyone
know what the answer is.

But regardless it works now, so thank you for the help, and I want to
remind all DOS users and win98 users how great 4DOS is.

One can then edit the properties of the shortcut and decide if he
wants full-screen dos or a box. It's possible to copy and paste from
a box.

My personal favorite is the List command, which will display the
internals of any file, in hex or text. List *.* will display every
file in a directory, only needing esc to go to the next file. And
it's incredibly quick because the file isn't mored to a work area in
RAM aiui, and there is no chance of making a change to it by accident
(which once happened to me with an editor, where the editor put one
character at the end for some reason.)

On another occaiosn, when I deleted about 200 files because my
directory structure was bad, and when I deleted a subdirectory, two
levels down it found the root directory and was deleting files in the
root directory. They were all redeemable with Norton Undelete, but I
didn't always know what the first letter was. List enable me to look
inside easily, hunt for the name minus the first letter, and then
learn what the first letter was. About 2/3 of the files had their
names inside of them.

For Windows XP... well, you can't do that since Windows XP is a native
32-bit OS - unlike Windows 9x/Me. Use TCLite instead (freeware, from
the same creator of 4DOS, formerly named 4NT).

Good advice to other readers. I have TC Le it might be called now,
and it works fine, and for free like you say. I guess Because XP is
like NT, 4DOS won't work there.

www.jpsoft.com

They hide the free stuff a little bit among all the stuff they want to
sell. But that seems fair.

"mm" wrote in message ...

Another advantage of 4dos ist that it with the right parameter, it
will show the files of a directory in their unsorted order. IIRC
MSDos won't do this.

I seem to remember that it used to be the default for MSDOS.
Pre Windows days. (not sure though).

Anyway..

Do a:
DIR /-o
Not explicitly documented in the DIR /? screen, but "o" being the "sort"
switch, "-o" will do an "unsort".


The unsorted order is usually or always the
order in which the files were added to the directory. What I never
got straight is, if a file is deleted from a directory, will a file
that is added later get its entry in the spot that the deleted file
had,

Yes, assuming DOS services are being used. There's no reason to scan the
dir structure any further than to find the first empty "slot".

In DOS you can test this by doing
DIR /-o
DEL (some file in the middle)
COPY CON XXXXXXXXX.XXX (type a char, then F6)
Then do another DIR /-o


It's likely the Windows services would do the same, but in that case you would
have to scan to find multiple empty slots to house a certain size LFN,
if needed.

"mm" wrote in message ...

Another advantage of 4dos ist that it with the right parameter, it
will show the files of a directory in their unsorted order. IIRC
MSDos won't do this.

I seem to remember that it used to be the default for MSDOS.
Pre Windows days. (not sure though).

Anyway..

Do a:
DIR /-o
Not explicitly documented in the DIR /? screen, but "o" being the "sort"
switch, "-o" will do an "unsort".


The unsorted order is usually or always the
order in which the files were added to the directory. What I never
got straight is, if a file is deleted from a directory, will a file
that is added later get its entry in the spot that the deleted file
had,

Yes, assuming DOS services are being used. There's no reason to scan the
dir structure any further than to find the first empty "slot".

In DOS you can test this by doing
DIR /-o
DEL (some file in the middle)
COPY CON XXXXXXXXX.XXX (type a char, then F6)
Then do another DIR /-o


It's likely the Windows services would do the same, but in that case you would
have to scan to find multiple empty slots to house a certain size LFN,
if needed.

"PCR" wrote in message ...
mm wrote:

You're right-- that LIST
command is really something.

My personal favorite is the List command, which will display the
internals of any file, in hex or text. List *.* will display every
file in a directory, only needing esc to go to the next file.

If it's the List program I think you're talking about, that was one of
the "must have" programs from the DOS days..

"PCR" wrote in message ...
mm wrote:

You're right-- that LIST
command is really something.

My personal favorite is the List command, which will display the
internals of any file, in hex or text. List *.* will display every
file in a directory, only needing esc to go to the next file.

If it's the List program I think you're talking about, that was one of
the "must have" programs from the DOS days..

On Fri, 21 Aug 2009 21:31:54 -0400, "Bill Blanton"
wrote:

"PCR" wrote in message ...
mm wrote:

You're right-- that LIST
command is really something.

My personal favorite is the List command, which will display the
internals of any file, in hex or text. List *.* will display every
file in a directory, only needing esc to go to the next file.

If it's the List program I think you're talking about, that was one of
the "must have" programs from the DOS days..

I'm still living in the 50's! I've looked, and not found anything as
good, in win98 or XP. Not for free and afaict, not for money. It was
when I described what I wanted in an XP group that someone reminded me
of 4dos. And it's free.