Mtools 2.0.7 for AmigaDOS
-------------------------
Why use Mtools instead of CrossDOS?
-----------------------------------
CrossDOS is nice in most cases, but inusable in others:
- you cannot correctly write to MS-DOS partitions > 30MB
with CrossDOS, Mtools allow you this.
- CrossDOS is VERY SLOW when writing large files to devices such
as MO-Drives, it seems to be lacking reasonable write-caching.
Mtools are magnitudes faster in those cases.
(but CrossDOS is much faster than Mtools in writing many
small files)
What do you need to use Mtools on your Amiga?
---------------------------------------------
- You need to have the ixemul.library (by Markus Wild)
installed, you may find it where other PD-Soft, especially
gcc, is available.
You may use the command "ixconfig -i" to speed the
startup of the programs (ixemul.library else scans
all the environment variables...)
- If the media you'd like to access via Mtools differs from
the ones I have available (and preconfigured), you'll
need to edit the first structure in devices.c a little,
then compile the programs by saying "make" again, you'll
need gcc and the C=-includes to do this.
(see also the config-notes below)
Are there any problems with Mtools (in comparison to the unix-version)?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yes, there are. But nothing really serious: The command "mcopy"
determines the direction of the copy (from/to MS-DOS) by looking
at the destination name. Since MS-DOS also uses the colon to separate
a device-name, mcopy will think you want to copy from AmigaDOS to
MS-DOS if you give for example the command
mcopy a:foo.bar t:
... so avoid the colon in the destination path, and use the unix-syntax:
mcopy a:foo.bar /t/
... which will do what you wanted it to do.
You may also use (AmigaDOS-)wildcards in the source-name(s), if you
want to copy from AmigaDOS to MS-DOS, e.g.:
mcopy #?.bar a:
*BUT* if you want to copy in the opposite direction, from MS-DOS to
AmigaDOS, you need to use a different syntax:
mcopy "a:*.bar" /t/
Conclusion:
ADOS->MSDOS: AmigaDOS-wildcards, no double-quotes needed
MSDOS->Amiga: MSDOS-wildcards, double-quotes around the source-name(s) needed
IMPORTANT: Due to the limitations of the CLI-parameter length you
shouldn't use the wildcard expansion on the Amiga-side with very
large numbers of matching files - an error may occur.
Are Mtools able to format MS-DOS media?
---------------------------------------
LOW-LEVEL: NO!
HIGH-LEVEL: SOMETIMES... you may use mformat to write the
FAT etc. to a low-level-formatted (floppy-)disk,
but mformat is unable to write the FAT on great
partitions.
I've included an archive with the compressed initial data
for an 128MB MO-medium, you may "format" such an medium
by writing the data directly to appropriate device.
If you've got a copy of "dcp" for example, you may say
lha e MSDOS_128MB_FAT.lha
dcp MSDOS_MO_BLOCKS <your device:>
You can create archives with appropriate FATs for your media
by formatting them with an PeeeCeee, then read the FAT-blocks
from the device (for example with dcp, too).
How can I customize Mtools to work with my special hardware?
------------------------------------------------------------
Read the file src/Configure, then you'll be able to change the
src/devices.c file as you need it. But you'll also need to know
a few additional things:
- In the unix-version, all the I/O is done via (special-)files.
You may do this, too, by using the "flat:"-device (was
published on fish-disks), and the appropriate filename
in devices.c.
But there's a better I/O method, which is only available
in this Amiga-version of the Mtools: You may also specify the
name and the unit of a device, then this device will be used
directly.
device->name then holds the name of the device,
device->mode holds the unit-number,
device->heads must be set to -1 for a device (rather than a file)
- The device->tracks, heads and sectors are optional parameters,
you may set them to 0 if you don't know them. If you know them for sure,
set them, this will make the read & write caching more efficient.
If you're using a device (thus device->heads == -1), you may set
the sector-number to the number of blocks you wish to fit into the caches.
If you don't, a default-value of 128 blocks is the size of the caches.
Credits:
--------
The Amiga-specific changes to Mtools were applied by
Lutz Vieweg <lkv@mania.robin.de>
The device-access code was taken from the "device-streams.tar.gz"
archive by Christian E. Hopps
THANKS TO THE AUTHORS OF THE ORIGINAL MTOOLS, OF COURSE!
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