COHERENT manpages
This page displays the COHERENT manpage for MS-DOS [That other operating system].
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MS-DOS -- Technical Information That other operating system MS-DOS is the native operating system of the IBM-AT and compatible computers. As such, it needs no introduction to most users. Many customers have asked, however, how MS-DOS and COHERENT compare in terms of their capabilities; and many have also asked for a chart that maps familiar MS-DOS commands to their COHERENT equivalents. This article attempts to fulfill these requests. MS-DOS vs. COHERENT MS-DOS differs significantly from COHERENT in practically every aspect of its design. For example, its file system is incompatible with COHERENT; its shell command.com differs significantly from COHERENT's suite of shells; the manner in which it loads and executes a program differs completely from COHERENT's. The most noticeable difference in design, however, is that MS-DOS is a single-user, single-process operating system, whereas COHERENT is a multi- user, multi-tasking operating system. Single-user means that only one user can use MS-DOS at any given time: whoever sits at the keyboard ``owns'' the machine and all its facilities. Multi-user means, of course, that more than one user can use COHERENT at any given time, via terminals or modems plugged into the computer's serial ports. The number of users who can use your COHERENT system at once is limited only by your computer's speed, available memory, and by the number of serial ports that can be plugged into your computer. Single-tasking means that MS-DOS can do only one task at a time: it loads a program into memory, runs it to completion, then awaits your request to execute another program. Multi-tasking means that COHERENT can execute more than one program at a time. To grasp how multi-tasking can simplify some work, consider the task of formatting floppy disks. Under MS-DOS, you pop the floppy disk into the drive, invoke the MS-DOS program format, answer its queries, then go get a cup of coffee while the machine grinds away. Formatting a box of high- density floppy disks ties up your machine for the better part of an hour, which is largely wasted time for you. Under COHERENT, however, you can format a floppy disk in the background -- that is, you can tell COHERENT to execute the disk-format program unsupervised, and let you work with another program. For example, if you wish to low-level format a 5.25-inch, high- density floppy disk in drive 0 (that is, drive A), use the following command: /etc/fdformat -v /dev/fha0 & Try it. You'll notice that the COHERENT prompt returns immediately: while COHERENT is formatting your disk for you, you can edit a file, play a video game, dial out to a remote system, or even format a second disk in your machine's B drive (should you have one). Multi-tasking also means that you can program COHERENT to execute programs untended, even while you are away from your machine. The UUCP system is a good example of this feature. UUCP lets you exchange mail and files with remote systems via modem; once the system is set up, it runs automatically, without requiring that you sit at the keyboard to run it. This discussion only gives you a taste of the advantages COHERENT enjoys over an obsolete system like MS-DOS. The following documents contain information that MS-DOS users will find helpful: -> The tutorial Using the COHERENT System introduces COHERENT to new users. If you are new to COHERENT and have not yet read this tutorial, you should do so before you continue any farther. -> The Lexicon articles floppy disks and hard disk discuss the in's and out's of using mass-storage device with COHERENT. The article floppy disks in particular discusses in detail all the steps required to format and manipulate MS-DOS-style floppy disks under COHERENT. -> The Lexicon articles modem, printer, and terminal discussion how to connect these devices to COHERENT, and introduce the set of commands with which you can manipulate them under COHERENT. -> The Lexicon article execution describes in detail how COHERENT loads and executes a program. This article is aimed at the technically knowledgeable, but neophytes may find parts of it helpful. -> The Lexicon article commands summarizes all commands available under the COHERENT system. This article will help you grasp the scope of COHERENT's suite of commands, and will help you explore them systematically. -> The following Lexicon articles describe COHERENT commands for manipulating MS-DOS files and disks: doscp Copy files to/from an MS-DOS file system. doscat Concatenate a file on an MS-DOS file system. doscp Copy a file to/from an MS-DOS file system. doscpdir Copy directories to/from an MS-DOS file system. dosdel Delete files from an MS-DOS file system. dosdir Show the contents of an MS-DOS directory. dosformat Write an MS-DOS file system onto a floppy disk. doslabel Label an MS-DOS floppy disk. The MS-DOS file system can reside on a floppy disk or an MS-DOS portion of a hard disk. dosls List contents of an MS-DOS file system. dosmkdir Create a directory on an MS-DOS file system. dosrm Remove a file on an MS-DOS file system. dosrmdir Remove a directory from an MS-DOS file system. COHERENT Equivalents to MS-DOS Commands The following table lists the most commonly used MS-DOS commands, and gives COHERENT equivalents. Note that often there is no single COHERENT command that equates to a given MS-DOS command. COHERENT often offers several alternatives, and you can select the one that best suits your needs. Every COHERENT command has its own article in the COHERENT Lexicon; look there first for details on how to use the command. BACKUP This command copies a directory's files to a formatted floppy disk to back them up. To do so under COHERENT, use the command: find . -print | cpio -ocm > /dev/rfha0 Note that cpio requires a formatted, defect free floppy disk, however you do not need to create a filesystem on the floppy disk prior to using cpio. Note that if you want COHERENT to prompt you before it backs up a file, use the command: find . -print | cpio -ocmr > /dev/rfha0 See the article on the archiving command cpio for details on this command -- especially important if you expect to retrieve your backed- up files. Note, too, that the device /dev/rfha0 corresponds to a 5.25-inch, high-density floppy disk in drive 0 (drive A). See the article floppy disks for a list of the devices that correspond to different sizes and configuration of floppy disks. BREAK Abort a command. Aborting a command under COHERENT varies, depending upon whether the command is running in the foreground or the background. The keystroke <ctrl-c> aborts most commands that are running in the foreground. To abort a command that is running in the background, you must use the kill command. See its Lexicon entry for details on how to use it. CHDIR or CD Change to another directory. To do so under COHERENT, use the command cd dir where dir is the directory to which you wish to go. The directories `.' and `..' are used by both COHERENT and MS-DOS; since MS-DOS ``borrowed'' its directory structure from UNIX (of which COHERENT is an implementation), the similarity should not be surprising. Note that MS-DOS requires that before you can change to directory on another physical device or partition, you must first switch to that device by typing its name before you use the chdir command. COHERENT has no such restriction. CHKDSK Check the integrity of a file system. Under COHERENT, use the command: /etc/fsck [option] [filesystem] Read the Lexicon entry on fsck before you attempt to run it! COMP Compare the contents of two files. To do so under COHERENT, use the following command to compare two binary files: cmp [option] file1 file2 cmp displays the bytes which differ between the files. To compare the contents of two text files, use the command: diff [option] file1 file2 COPY Copy the contents of one file into another; create the target file if it does not already exist. Under COHERENT, say: cp oldfilename newfilename To copy a set of files into a directory without changing their names, use the following form of the command: cp file1 ... fileN directory DATE Reset the current date and time. Under COHERENT, use the command: date yymmddhhmm.ss Only the superuser can reset the system's date and time. When date is used without an argument, it prints the date and time on the standard output. DIR Type the contents of a directory. Under COHERENT, use the command: ls -l DIR/W List a directory's contents in columnar form. Under COHERENT, use either the command: lc or the command: ls -C DISKCOPY Copy one floppy disk track-by-track to another floppy disk. COHERENT has no exact equivalent to this command; however, you can copy the contents of one disk to another by using the following set of commands. First, place a write-protect tab on your source disk; insert the disk into drive 0 (drive A), then type the following command: dd if=/dev/fha0 of=/tmp/filename This copies the contents of the 5.25-inch, high-density floppy disk in drive 0 into file /tmp/filename. For a table of devices that correspond to other sizes and configurations of floppy disks, see the Lexicon article floppy disks. Second, insert formatted destination diskette into drive 0, and then type the command: dd if=/tmp/filename of=/dev/fha0 This command copies the files in directory /tmp/filename onto the target floppy disk. Note that the target disk must be formatted before it can receive files; see the Lexicon article floppy disks for information on how to do this. EDLIN Perform simple-minded editing of text files. Under COHERENT, the ed editor performs line editing, but is much more sophisticated than edlin. COHERENT also includes the vi and MicroEMACS screen editors, which are more useful still. ERASE or DEL Remove a file or a directory. To erase a file, use the command: rm file1 [... fileN ] To erase a directory, use the command: rmdir directory To erase a directory and all files and directories below it, use the command: rm -r directory FIND Find a pattern within a text file. Under COHERENT, use the command: egrep [option] pattern [file ...] egrep is an extremely useful command; see its Lexicon entry for details on how to use it. FORMAT Format a floppy disk. To format a floppy disk for MS-DOS, use the command dosformat. To format a floppy disk for COHERENT, use the command fdformat. For details, see the respective Lexicon entries for these commands. Under COHERENT, use the command MEM Find how much space is left free on your hard disk. Under COHERENT, say: df [options] See the Lexicon entry on df for details. MKDIR Create a new directory. Under COHERENT: mkdir directory ... MODE Set parameters for terminals and ports. Under COHERENT, use the command stty. This command comes with many options; see its Lexicon entry for details. The default speeds of all ports and terminals reside in file /etc/ttys. The superuser can use a text editor to edit this file to change any or all default settings. MORE Display text a screenful at a time. Under COHERENT, use the commands more or scat. PRINT Print files via a serial port. To print a file on a dot-matrix printer, use the command: lpr file1 [ ... fileN ] To print a file on a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet printer, use the command hpr file1 [ ... fileN ] Note that before these commands can be used, the appropriate devices must be linked to your system. See the Lexicon article on printer for details. Note, too, that COHERENT uses a spooling system to manage the printing of files; thus, attempting to print a non-existent file will not hang the system. PROMPT Change the command.com prompt. The COHERENT shells store the prompt format within the environmental variable PS1. This variable is usually defined in each user's .profile file; this file holds commands that are executed whenever the user logs in. To change the definition of your prompt, edit .profile to define PS1 to suit your preference, then log in again. Note that the information that can be embedded within the prompt varies between the Bourne and Korn shells. See the Lexicon articles sh and ksh for details on those shells and their prompts. RENAME Rename a file. Under COHERENT, use the command: mv oldfile newfile mv can also be used to move files from one directory or file system to another. RESTORE Restore a file saved with the BACKUP command. Under COHERENT, insert the floppy disk upon which the cpio utility saved its backup archive; then type the command: cpio -icv < /dev/rfha0 Note that this command assumes you are using /dev/rfha0, which describes a 5.25-inch, high-density floppy disk in drive 0 (drive A). For a table of devices that correspond to other sizes and configurations of floppy disks, see the Lexicon article floppy disks. TREE List all directories on a file system. Under COHERENT, use the command: find / -type d | more To list all files and directories that are subordinate to the current directory, use the command: find . | more The COHERENT command ls -lR also lists a directory tree, in a somewhat different output format. MS-DOS 6.0 and COHERENT Release 6.0 of MS-DOS offers a feature of dynamic file compression that creates some difficulties for machines that have both COHERENT and MS-DOS on their systems. To begin, MS-DOS 6.0 assumes that it is the only operating system on your computer. When you install MS-DOS 6.0, by default it overwrites the COHERENT master boot block. If at all possible, you should install MS-DOS 6.0 onto your system first, then install COHERENT so that its Master Bootstrap is in control of your machine. Second, MS-DOS 6.0 offers a compression utility called dblspace, which compresses MS-DOS file systems on the fly. The COHERENT dos commands do not understand compressed MS-DOS file systems created by the MS-DOS 6.0 utility dblspace or by such programs as Stacker. If you are running MS-DOS 6.0 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. See Also COHERENT, doscat, doscp, doscpdir, dosdel, dosdir, dosformat, doslabel, dosls, dosmkdir, dosrmdir, floppy disks, hard disk, modem, printer, terminal, Using COHERENT