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This page displays the COHERENT manpage for dos [Manipulate files on MS-DOS file systems].
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dos -- Command Manipulate files on MS-DOS file systems dos [-]dFflrtx[flags] [device] [file ...] The command dos allows the COHERENT user to manipulate an MS-DOS file system, which may be either a hard-disk partition or a floppy disk. It can build an empty MS-DOS file system, label it, list the files in it, transfer files between it and COHERENT, or delete files from it. The given device must be a special file that specifies an MS-DOS file system, such as floppy-disk drive /dev/fha0 or hard-disk partition /dev/at0a. The default device is /dev/dos, which the system administrator should link to the most commonly used device name. dos converts between the differing file-name conventions of COHERENT and MS-DOS. An MS-DOS file argument may be specified in lower or upper case, using `/' as the path-name separator. When transferring files from MS-DOS to COHERENT, dos converts an MS-DOS file name to a COHERENT file name in lower case only. If the MS-DOS file name contains no extension, the COHERENT file name contains no `.'. When transferring files from COHERENT to MS-DOS, dos converts all alphabetic characters in a COHERENT file name to upper case; if a period `.' appears at the beginning or end of a file name, dos converts it to `_'. dos truncates the part of the file name before the last `.' to a maximum of eight characters and truncates the extension to a maximum of three characters. The command line must specify exactly one of the following functions. d Delete each file from the MS-DOS file system. This option also allows the user to delete empty directories. F Create an empty MS-DOS file system on a formatted diskette. This option is analogous to the COHERENT command /etc/mkfs. The COHERENT commands /etc/fdformat and /etc/mkfs initialize a COHERENT diskette in two steps. The MS-DOS command format initializes an MS-DOS diskette by performing both the physical and logical formatting operations with one command. To initialize an MS-DOS diskette under COHERENT, use the command /etc/fdformat -v devicename, followed by the command dos F devicename. If file is named, dos copies it to the boot block of the file system. The dos command cannot build a file system on a hard- disk partition. f Force removal of readonly files on the MS-DOS side. l Label the MS-DOS file system. The command line must specify exactly one file argument, which gives the label. r Replace each file on the MS-DOS file system with the COHERENT file of the same name. If a given file argument specifies a COHERENT directory, dos replaces its subdirectories recursively to the MS-DOS file system unless the s flag is used. If no file is specified, dos copies all files in the current directory to the MS-DOS file system. t List the files on the MS-DOS file system. If no file argument is given, dos lists the entire MS-DOS file system; otherwise, it lists each file. If a file argument specifies an MS-DOS subdirectory, dos lists its contents. dos lists directories first in alphabetical order, then ordinary files in alphabetical order. x Extract each file from the MS-DOS file system to a COHERENT file of the same name. If a given file argument specifies an MS-DOS subdirectory, dos extracts its contents recursively unless the s flag is used. If no file is given, dos extracts all files from the MS-DOS file system to the current COHERENT directory. The following flags are available. a Perform ASCII newline conversion on file transfer. When moving files from COHERENT to MS-DOS, this option converts each COHERENT newline character `\n' (ASCII LF) to an MS-DOS end-of-line (ASCII CR and LF); when moving files from MS-DOS to COHERENT, it does the opposite. By default, dos performs binary file transfer, without newline conversion. k Keep the file modification time (mtime) on extract and replace operations. By default, dos gives extracted or replaced files the current time. With this option, dos gives the extracted or replaced file the same time as the original file. n List files in order of creation (newest file last) rather than in alphabetical order. This option applies only to the table-of-contents function. dos always lists directories before files, with or without the n option. p Perform a piped extract or replace (for use in pipelines). The command line must specify exactly one file argument. For extract, dos reads the given file and writes it to the standard output. For replace, dos reads the standard input and writes it to the given file. s Suppress extraction or replacement of subdirectories. By default, dos extracts or replaces subdirectories recursively. v Verbose option. Provide additional information about each function performed. [1-9] A digit specifies a logical drive number on an extended MS-DOS partition. For example, dos tv2 /dev/at0c lists the directory of the second logical drive on extended MS-DOS partition /dev/at0c. dos Commands dos is an obsolete command. It has largely been superceded by the following family of COHERENT commands that manipulate MS-DOS file systems: doscat Concatenate a file on an MS-DOS file system. doscp Copy files to/from an MS-DOS file system doscpdir Copy a directory to/from an MS-DOS file system dosdel Delete a file from an MS-DOS file system dosdir List contents of an MS-DOS directory dosformat Build an MS-DOS file system on a floppy disk doslabel Label an MS-DOS floppy disk dosls List files on an MS-DOS file system dosmkdir Create a directory in an MS-DOS file system dosrm Remove a file from an MS-DOS file system dosrmdir Remove a directory from an MS-DOS file system For details, see these commands' entries within the Lexicon. Examples The first example copies all files located in directories sources and include, as well as any subdirectories, from floppy drive /dev/fva1 to correspondingly named subdirectories in the current COHERENT directory: dos xavk /dev/fva1 sources include Note that fva1 is a high-density, 3.5-inch floppy disk in floppy-disk drive 1 (a.k.a., drive B:). The files will be copied with ASCII newline conversion and will retain the time and date that they had under MS-DOS. The next example copies a file from an MS-DOS partition on your hard disk. Suppose that C: is the primary MS-DOS partition on your first hard drive. The following command copies file C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT to /autoexec.bat in your COHERENT root partition: dos xa /dev/at0a /autoexec.bat You will want to use the a switch any time you are transferring a text file. Suppose that the second partition on your first hard drive (COHERENT device /dev/at0b) is an extended MS-DOS partition with two logical drives, D: and E:. To copy a COHERENT text file /tmp/foo to D:\TMP\FOO, use the command dos ra1 /dev/at0b /tmp/foo To copy non-text file frotz in the current COHERENT directory to MS-DOS file E:\DBF\AX\FROTZ, use the command dos rp2 /dev/at0b dbf/ax/frotz < frotz See Also commands, fdformat, mkfs, MS-DOS Notes dos is an obsolete command. It has been retained for compatibility with earlier versions of COHERENT. We urge you to use the other members in the dos family of commands, which have a cleaner syntax and are much easier to use. dos does not check for unusual characters in a COHERENT file name or for file names that differ from other file names only in case. The dos family of commands now support large file systems, such as those created by MS-DOS versions 4.0 and 5.0. The COHERENT system's dos family of commands do not understand compressed MS-DOS file systems created by programs such as Stacker or MS-DOS 6.0 dblspace. If you are running MS-DOS with file compression, you must copy files to an uncompressed file system (for example, to an uncompressed floppy disk or to the uncompressed host for a compressed file system) to make them accessible to the COHERENT dos commands.