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EDIR
A FULL SCREEN DIRECTORY EDITOR
VERSION 3.01
COPYRIGHT (C) 1986,1987 BY ROSE DEVELOPMENT
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
TABLE OF CONTENTS
-----------------
LICENSE AGREEMENT......................................... 2
INTRODUCTION.............................................. 3
A SHORT COURSE ON MS-DOS DISK DIRECTORIES................. 5
EDITING DIRECTORIES WITH EDIR............................. 6
Installation.......................................... 6
Getting Started....................................... 7
EDIR COMMAND REFERENCE................................... 10
Quick Summary........................................ 10
PgUp................................................. 11
PgDn................................................. 11
Home................................................. 11
End.................................................. 11
Up-Arrow............................................. 11
Down-Arrow........................................... 11
Mark................................................. 11
Unmark............................................... 11
Cut.................................................. 12
Paste................................................ 12
Organize............................................. 12
Sort................................................. 12
Trim (compress) directory............................ 13
Display paste or safe buffer......................... 13
Edit individual directory entry...................... 14
Perform DOS type operations.......................... 15
Help................................................. 17
Write directory to disk.............................. 17
Quit to DOS.......................................... 17
MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS AND USAGE TIPS................. 18
EDIR 2.00 TO 3.00 CHANGES................................ 20
ROSE DEVELOPMENT LICENSE AGREEMENT
EDIR is the copyrighted property of Rose Development.
It is based on the concept of user supported software which
is an attempt to provide software at a low cost to the end
user.
Version 1 is provided to you free of cost and may be
copied and shared freely, provided that it is distributed
ONLY in its original unmodified form and no fee is charged
for such distribution.
Version 2 and later releases cannot be distributed. You
can use these versions on a single machine and copy them for
backup purposes only.
The latest release of EDIR can be obtained by sending a
nominal contribution of $30 to Rose Development. Registered
users will be informed about future releases and can get
updates at a nominal charge.
DISCLAIMER
EDIR is provided "as is" without warranty on any kind.
In no event will Rose Development be liable to you for any
damage, including loss of profits, savings, data, time or
other incidental or consequential damages arising due to use
of this program.
We have tried to make EDIR as "bullet proof" as
possible. It has been tested on several IBM PCs, XTs, ATs
and 100% compatibles with various disk configurations
including double sided/double density drives, high density
drives and hard drives. Unlike some other file handling
programs, EDIR can handle and distinguish between 12 bit and
16 bit FAT entries with equal convenience. It does not have
any artificial limits as imposed by some other programs. It
has been built with extensive error handling from the very
beginning. However, we do recommend you to test this program
if you have an uncommon configuration. It is always a good
idea to have a recent backup of all your important disks.
Please fill out and mail your registration forms so that we
can provide continued support for new and uncommon hardware.
MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
IBM PC/XT/AT or 100% compatible
MDA, CGA, EGA, Hercules Graphics or Compaq dual-mode adapter
MS-DOS/PC-DOS version 2.00 or higher
192K RAM
Rose Development
P.O. Box 1906
Palatine, IL 60078.
- 2 -
INTRODUCTION
EDIR is a full screen directory editor that allows you
unlimited flexibility in manipulating MS-DOS directories. It
gives you full control over the order in which the
individual directory entries will be stored on the disk. It
can sort directories by filename, extension, date, size or
any other arbitrary order that may seem logical to you. For
example, suppose the DOS 'DIR' command currently lists a
directory in the following order:
. <DIR> 11-09-86 5:52p
.. <DIR> 11-09-86 5:52p
PRACTICE TXT 3140 9-10-85 6:36a
TEST DOC 12876 12-29-84 10:30p
TEST EXE 2409 12-29-84 10:25p
LIB <DIR> 11-09-86 6:05p
TEST1013 RES 324 10-13-86 8:54p
HELP <DIR> 11-09-86 6:10p
TEST1009 RES 324 10-09-86 10:45a
EDIR lets you change this order to your taste. A few
possibilities are shown below:
1. Directories first, then files (in the desired order).
. <DIR> 11-09-86 5:52p
.. <DIR> 11-09-86 5:52p
LIB <DIR> 11-09-86 6:05p
HELP <DIR> 11-09-86 6:10p
PRACTICE TXT 3140 9-10-85 6:36a
TEST1013 RES 324 10-13-86 8:54p
TEST1009 RES 324 10-09-86 10:45a
TEST DOC 12876 12-29-84 10:30p
TEST EXE 2409 12-29-84 10:25p
2. Files first, then directories (in the desired order).
Note that . & .. entries must remain in place due to DOS
requirements.
. <DIR> 11-09-86 5:52p
.. <DIR> 11-09-86 5:52p
PRACTICE TXT 3140 9-10-85 6:36a
TEST1013 RES 324 10-13-86 8:54p
TEST1009 RES 324 10-09-86 10:45a
TEST DOC 12876 12-29-84 10:30p
TEST EXE 2409 12-29-84 10:25p
LIB <DIR> 11-09-86 6:05p
HELP <DIR> 11-09-86 6:10p
- 3 -
3. Directories first, then files (in sorted order).
. <DIR> 11-09-86 5:52p
.. <DIR> 11-09-86 5:52p
HELP <DIR> 11-09-86 6:10p
LIB <DIR> 11-09-86 6:05p
TEST DOC 12876 12-29-84 10:30p
TEST EXE 2409 12-29-84 10:25p
TEST1009 RES 324 10-09-86 10:45a
TEST1013 RES 324 10-13-86 8:54p
PRACTICE TXT 3140 9-10-85 6:36a
In addition to changing the order of entries, EDIR
gives you number of other facilities to manage your
directories. To mention a few, you can change filenames,
file attributes, date and time stamps on files. You can also
create, copy, delete, move and view files in a very
convenient manner.
The power of EDIR comes from the fact that you can
manipulate the directories interactively. It is a full
screen editor designed to edit directories, very similar to
the full screen editors designed to edit documents.
This document describes the use of EDIR to effectively
organize your disk directories.
- 4 -
A SHORT COURSE ON
MS-DOS DISK DIRECTORIES
This section is not mandatory reading, but would
certainly help to better understand the operation of EDIR.
MS-DOS can create two types of directories on disk. The
root directory has a fixed size and is always present. On
the other hand, subdirectories have variable size and they
may or may not be present. Subdirectories are allocated in
units called 'clusters'. A cluster is simply a group of
sectors. The number of sectors in a cluster is fixed and is
determined by the type of the disk, e.g. a double-sided
double-density disk has 2 sectors/cluster whereas the high
density diskette on a PC/AT has 1 sector/cluster.
Information about files and subdirectories under a
certain directory is stored in directory entries. Each entry
contains the following information about the corresponding
file or subdirectory: filename, extension, attributes, date
and time of creation, starting cluster number and file size.
Each directory entry occupies 32 bytes on the disk. When a
directory cluster gets full with entries, new entries are
added to the directory by assigning an unused cluster to the
directory.
A directory entry that has never been used has a hex 00
as the first character of its filename. DOS deletes a
directory entry by making the first character of its
filename a hex E5. Deleted entries are not listed by the
'DIR' command. Thus deleted entries create small "holes" in
a directory. When DOS needs to add a new directory entry to
the directory, it writes over the first available "hole"
(deleted entry), if one exists. That is why filenames seem
to appear at unexpected places when you create new files in
a directory that has deleted entries in it.
EDIR lets you interactively manipulate the order of
directory entries with the following restrictions which are
necessary for the proper operation of DOS:
1. In a system disk (a disk that has DOS on it) the first
two files in the root directory must be IO.SYS and
MSDOS.SYS (IBMIO.COM and IBMDOS.COM in case of PC-DOS).
EDIR will not let you move these two files. It will
actually pull out these two entries into a 'safe buffer'
before letting you manipulate the directory entries. When
writing the directory back to the disk, the two entries
will be inserted at the right place. The same holds good
for the . & .. entries in a subdirectory.
2. DOS assumes that the never used entries in a directory
will always be at the end. So EDIR strips these entries
before letting you manipulate the directory and reinserts
them at the right place before writing it back to the
disk.
- 5 -
EDITING DIRECTORIES WITH EDIR
Installation
EDIR version 3.01 distribution disk has the following files
on it:
EDIR301.EXE - EDIR program
EDIR301.DOC - This document
EL25.COM - EGA utility (switch to 25 line mode)
EL43.COM - EGA utility (switch to 43 line mode)
Copy EDIR301.EXE to a directory of your choice and rename it
as EDIR.EXE. Make sure that the directory where you copy
EDIR is in your DOS search path.
If your computer has an EGA adapter, you may also want to
copy EL25.COM and EL43.COM to a directory on your disk.
These utilities allow you to switch your display between 25
and 43 line modes (see "Miscellaneous Suggestions..."
section for more details). Again, make sure that these files
are copied to a directory that is in your DOS search path.
Example: If you want to set up EDIR on your C: drive in a
directory called \UTIL, you would execute the following set
of commands:
C> COPY A:\EDIR301.EXE C:\UTIL\EDIR.EXE
C> PATH=C:\UTIL
The PATH command can also be put in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file in
the root directory. If you want to copy the two EGA
utilities to the C: drive, execute the following command:
C> COPY A:\EL*.* C:\UTIL
Now you are ready to use EDIR. The next section provides a
quick tutorial on EDIR.
- 6 -
Getting Started
An editing session with EDIR consists of the following
steps:
1. Go to the directory that you want to edit.
2. Invoke EDIR.
3. Manipulate directory entries using EDIR commands.
4. Store the directory back to the disk using the EDIR write
command.
To try out some of the features of EDIR, go to a large
enough directory (at least 30 entries) and invoke edir. For
example, if you want to edit a directory called \DOC\MEMOS
on the C: drive, then execute the following set of commands
(assume that your current default drive is A:)
A> C:
C> CD \DOC\MEMOS
C> EDIR
EDIR comes up with a screenful of directory entries and a
main menu displaying the commands that are available to you.
The screen format is as follows:
_______________________________________________________
| |
| EDIR version no. & current directory name |
|_______________________________________________________|
| |
| Main menu |
|_______________________________________________________|
| |
| |
| |
| Directory entries (one per line) |
| |
| |
| |
|_______________________________________________________|
| |
| Message window |
|_______________________________________________________|
Each directory entry contains the following information
about the file or directory: filename, extension,
attributes, date and time of creation, size and starting
cluster number. The file attributes have the following
meaning:
A Archive - set whenever a file is modified
D Subdirectory
V Volume label
S System file
H Hidden file
R Read-only file
- 7 -
An entry that has been deleted is shown with a ? as the
first character of its filename.
The entry at which the cursor is placed is called the
"Current Entry". The current entry can be changed by the up-
arrow and down-arrow keys on your keyboard. You can page
through the directory rapidly using the 'Page-Up' and 'Page-
Down' keys. Also, you can get to the top or bottom of a
directory very quickly using the 'Home' and 'End' keys. Try
using these keys to view various parts of the target
directory.
The entries you are looking at are in the main buffer of
EDIR. EDIR also has a paste buffer which is useful for
moving entries within the main buffer. Let's try this with
an example. Bring the cursor to an entry that you want to
move. Press 'C' (CUT) on your keyboard. The entry pointed by
the cursor is deleted from the main buffer and is placed in
the paste buffer. Let us look at the contents of the paste
buffer now. To do this press 'D' (DISPLAY). The menu changes
to a 'Lotus' style menu, which gives you two choices: Paste
and Safe. The choice 'Paste' is initially highlighted and a
description of this choice is displayed on the following
line. You can change the highlight to appear on 'Safe' by
pressing the right arrow key or by typing the first letter
of the word 'Safe', i.e. 'S'. All the multiple choice menus
within EDIR work the same way. For now, set the highlight to
'Paste' and select it by pressing the <Enter> key. The paste
buffer is now shown on the screen. It has only one entry at
this time - the entry that you had cut earlier. Press any
key to get back to the main buffer. Now move the cursor to a
point where you want to insert the entry that is in the
paste buffer. Press 'P' (PASTE) and the paste buffer will be
inserted BEFORE the entry pointed by the cursor.
If more than one entries are cut before pasting them back to
the main buffer, then they are appended to the paste buffer
(as opposed to overwriting the paste buffer). So if you
wanted to group the 3rd, 14th & 22nd entries in a directory,
you would first cut them into the paste buffer using the
'CUT' command three times and then paste them at the desired
location in the main buffer using a single 'PASTE' command.
Try this sequence and watch the contents of the paste buffer
as you progress.
Now try some sorting capabilities of EDIR. EDIR can sort
directories by filename, extension, file size or date & time
of creation. To see how sort works, press 'S' (SORT). EDIR
prompts you to select the primary key for sorting and gives
you a menu to choose from. Select 'Extension' to sort the
directory by file extension. Now you are prompted to select
the secondary key. What does that mean? Well, if two files
happen to have the same primary key, then sort uses the
secondary key to resolve their order. Let us choose
'Filename' as the secondary key. Now EDIR asks you if you
want the result in ascending or descending order. Select
'Ascending' for right now. As soon as you make this
- 8 -
selection, EDIR sorts the directory according to your
specifications and displays the result. Page through the
directory to confirm the results.
Now if you want to save this edited directory on the disk,
simply press 'W' (WRITE), otherwise press 'Q' (QUIT). EDIR
will ask for your confirmation in each case. In case of
'Write', the directory will be saved on the disk and EDIR
will return to the main menu waiting for more commands. You
may then type 'Q' (QUIT) to leave EDIR and return to DOS.
By now you should have a good working knowledge of EDIR and
you should be able to explore the remaining functions simply
by reading the next chapter - EDIR COMMAND REFERENCE. A
short online help screen is available when you are using
EDIR. To display this help screen, simply press 'H' (HELP).
- 9 -
EDIR COMMAND REFERENCE
Quick Summary:
KEY COMMAND DESCRIPTION
<PgUp>: Scroll page up
<PgDn>: Scroll page down
<Home>: Go to top of directory
<End>: Go to bottom of directory
<Up-Arrow>: Cursor up
<Down-Arrow>: Cursor down
M: Mark
U: Unmark
C: Cut
P: Paste
O: Organize (files/dirs/deleted entries)
S: Sort
T: Trim (compress) directory
D: Display paste or safe buffer
E: Edit entry pointed by cursor
/: Perform DOS type operations
H: Help
W: Write
Q: Quit
- 10 -
<PgUp>: Scroll page up
<PgDn>: Scroll page down
These keys are used to scroll through the directory one
page at a time. When the top (bottom) of the directory
is reached, you cannot scroll up (down) any more.
<Home>: Go to top of directory
<End>: Go to bottom of directory
These keys are used to reach the top or bottom of the
directory with just one keystroke.
<Up-Arrow>: Cursor up
<Down-Arrow>: Cursor down
These keys are used to move in the main buffer one
entry at a time. When the top (bottom) of the directory
is reached, you cannot move up (down) any more.
M: Mark
U: Unmark
MARK is used to group a certain section of the
directory. Once a section is marked, the CUT, SORT and
certain DOS commands operate only on the marked
section. UNMARK is used to ungroup the marked section.
To mark a certain section of the directory, go to the
first directory entry of the section and press the 'M'
key. The current entry will be highlighted. Now move
the cursor to the last entry in the section using
<Pg-Up>, <Pg-Down>, <Home>, <End>, <Up-Arrow> and
<Down-Arrow> keys. The whole section will be
highlighted as you move the cursor to the last entry.
Also, if you want, you can start your marking from the
last entry of the section and work your way backwards
towards the first entry.
Now that you have marked a particular section, what can
you do with it? Well, you could cut the whole section
using the CUT command and append it to the paste
buffer. This is much easier than cutting individual
entries one at a time.
Something else you can do with a marked section is to
sort it. When you use the SORT command after marking a
section, the command operates only on the marked
section and leaves the rest of the directory untouched.
Even after the sort is completed the section is kept
marked for you to observe the result and perform any
further operations on the section (for example, more
sorts, or CUT, or even expand or shrink the section
using the cursor control keys).
Entries in a marked section can also be copied or moved
to to a different directory as a group. They can also
- 11 -
be deleted as a group. See the section '/DOS' for
performing these operation on marked sections.
Whenever you want to unmark a marked section, just
press 'U' (Unmark).
C: Cut
P: Paste
The CUT command cuts the directory entry pointed by the
cursor and appends it to the paste buffer. If there is
a marked section within the directory, the whole
section is cut and appended to the paste buffer. The
contents of the paste buffer can be observed at any
time using the DISPLAY command. The PASTE command
inserts the contents of the paste buffer BEFORE the
current entry in the main buffer.
O: Organize
The ORGANIZE function rearranges the main buffer in the
following order: files, directories, deleted entries.
This command is useful to separate out files and
directories into separate groups. It also places the
deleted entries at the bottom, thus combining all the
small "holes" into a big one. This ensures that all the
new files created in the future will be appended at the
end of the directory instead of creeping up randomly
within the directory. If you do not like the
files/directories/deleted entries order for some
reason, you can easily reorder the entries by doing a
block CUT and PASTE.
Note that the organize command operates on the main
buffer only. So if you have any entries in the paste
buffer and want them to be part of the reorganization,
you must first paste them into the main buffer.
S: Sort
This command is used to sort the directory entries in
the main buffer. If there is no marked section, then
the complete main buffer is sorted, otherwise only the
marked section is sorted.
The sort command prompts for three pieces of
information: the primary key, the secondary key and the
sorting order. It then goes ahead and sorts the
directory entries in the specified order (ascending or
descending) based on the primary key. If the primary
keys for two entries are the same, then the secondary
key is used to make sorting decisions.
Note that the SORT command operates on the main buffer
only. So if you have any entries in the paste buffer
and want them to be part of the sort, you must first
paste them into the main buffer.
- 12 -
T: Trim (compress) directory
This function will compress a directory into fewer
clusters if possible, freeing up valuable disk space.
The idea behind the TRIM function is as follows:
To add new entries to a directory that is already full,
DOS assigns an unused cluster to that directory. Thus
DOS provides the basic mechanism to expand a directory.
However, DOS lacks the capability to compress a
directory which is essential to reclaim unused
clusters. As an example, consider a disk with 2
sectors/cluster (i.e. 1024 bytes/cluster). So each
cluster can accommodate 32 directory entries. Now
consider a directory that has one cluster and is full
with 32 entries. Suppose you create a new file in this
directory. To add this 33rd entry into the directory,
DOS assigns an unused cluster to the directory and
writes the new entry as the first entry in the new
cluster. Now if you delete ANY entry from the
directory, there are only 32 valid entries left.
Theoretically, these 32 entries should fit into one
cluster. But DOS does not pack these entries into one
cluster to free up the other cluster. TRIM function
does exactly that.
When you invoke the TRIM function, EDIR will ask you
for a confirmation. If you say yes, EDIR will pack the
directory into fewer clusters if possible and will
display the number of clusters that will be freed
during a write to the disk. This feature may be very
useful when you are trying to fit those last few bytes
on a disk.
Note that TRIM internally uses the ORGANIZE function
and so the directory will be rearranged in the
files/directories/deleted entries order every time you
use the TRIM function. Also note that the root
directory cannot be trimmed because it has a fixed size
as defined by DOS. If you try to trim the root
directory, EDIR will display an error message.
D: Display paste or safe buffer
Paste buffer is an area where EDIR keeps the entries
you have cut from the main buffer. Safe buffer contains
entries that must not be moved from their original
locations, e.g. the DOS system files in the root
directory and the . & .. entries in any subdirectory.
When you invoke the DISPLAY function, EDIR first asks
you which one of the two buffers you want to see.
Depending on your choice, it displays either the paste
or the safe buffer.
- 13 -
E: Edit individual directory entry
This function will let you edit the directory entry at
the current cursor location. When you type 'E' (Edit)
from the main menu, a 'Lotus' style menu appears giving
you the following options: Filename, Archive, System,
Hidden, Read, Date, Time, Erase, Divider, Quit. You can
choose the desired option, and change the corresponding
field in the directory entry. You will remain in the
EDIT menu until you choose Quit to return to the main
menu. The various options available in the EDIT menu
are explained below:
Filename:
This option allows you to change the filename (or
directory name) of the current entry. When you are
prompted for the new filename, type in the a valid
filename and hit <Enter>. Incidentally, this option
allows you to have multiple files with the same
filename. This feature could be used, for example, to
imbed logical dividers (such as --------.---) within
your directory. It should be noted that EDIR does not
allow you to change filenames of deleted entries.
Archive, System, Hidden, Read:
These four options allow you to change the file
attributes for the current directory entry. All these
options act as toggles and turn the corresponding
attributes on or off.
Date:
This option allows you to change the date stamp on
the current directory entry. EDIR prompts you to
enter a date in the MM:DD:YY format. If the date is
valid then the corresponding directory entry is
updated. The two character year field allows you to
enter a year between 1980 and 2079.
Time:
This option allows you to change the time stamp on
the current directory entry. EDIR prompts you to
enter the new time in 24 hour format (HH:MM:SS). Note
that DOS allows only even number of seconds to be
stored in directory entries. So if you entered
14:24:57, this would be stored as 14:24:56.
Erase:
This option works on deleted entries only. It allows
you to wipe out the deleted entry completely,
converting it to a never used entry. The never used
entry has zeros in all its fields. It is removed from
the main buffer and appended to other never used
entries at the bottom of the directory.
Divider:
This option works on non-deleted entries only. It is
a special case of the Filename option described above
and changes the filename of the current entry to a
- 14 -
(--------.---). This option is very useful to divide
long directories into logical sections. This feature
is intended to be used as follows: Say you need five
dividers located strategically in the current
directory. You must first create five empty files
using the '/DOS Creat' function. Now you can change
the filenames of these files to dividers using the
Divider function. Then you must cut and paste these
dividers at desired spots one by one.
Quit:
This option takes you back to the main menu.
/: Perform DOS type operations
This function gives you several DOS type capabilities,
except that it is more interactive and convenient as
compared to DOS.
NOTE: Some of the options under this function, by their
very definition, operate directly on the disk instead
of the main buffer. The revised copy of the directory
is then read from the disk. So any changes that you
have made in the main buffer are lost. These options
are called instantaneous options (as opposed to delayed
options that are written to disk only during a WRITE
function). Hence you must save your edited buffer on to
the disk before you use any instantaneous option
(unless your intention is to trash all the changes). A
reminder to this effect is given by placing an (I)
beside every instantaneous option on the /DOS menu. The
list of instantaneous options is as follows:
Delete, Move, Creat, Mkdir, Rmdir, Chdir
The various options available in the /DOS menu are
explained below:
Type:
This option allows you view the file pointed by the
cursor. You can view the whole file a screen at a
time or you can abort in the middle by pressing the
<F1> key.
Copy:
This option allows you to copy one or more files to
another directory or disk. If there is a marked
region in the main buffer, then all the files in the
marked region will be copied, otherwise only the
current entry will be copied. EDIR will prompt you
for the name of the target directory. The target
directory could be on a drive different from the
current drive and in that case you must include the
drive letter in the target pathname.
- 15 -
Delete (Instantaneous):
This option allows you to delete one or more files
from the current directory. If there is a marked
region in the main buffer, then all the files in the
marked region will be deleted, otherwise only the
current entry will be deleted.
Move (Instantaneous):
This option allows you to move one or more files to
another directory on the same disk. If there is a
marked region in the main buffer, then all the files
in the marked region will be moved, otherwise only
the current entry will be moved. EDIR will prompt you
for the name of the target directory.
Moving files from one directory to another is much
faster than first copying them to the target
directory and then deleting them from the current
directory. In the former case, the files are not
physically moved on the disk, only their directory
entries are. This makes the move faster than the
copy/delete combination.
Creat (Instantaneous):
This option allows you to create one or more empty
files of length zero. This feature may be used in
conjunction with 'Edit Divider' to create dummy
dividers in a directory. See the 'Divider' section
for more information on dividers.
When you choose this option, EDIR prompts you to
supply a two character prefix for the zero length
files. Then it asks you for the number of files you
want to create. It then goes ahead and creates the
required number of files.
The files created by this option have a three part
filename:
two character prefix supplied by you
+ one character in the range 0,A-Z
+ five characters derived from DOS process name
This scheme has been devised to easily create new
files with unique filenames. Because of the 0,A-Z
range the maximum number of files that can be created
with the same two character prefix is 27.
Mkdir (Instantaneous):
This option allows you to create a new directory on
any drive. EDIR will prompt you for the pathname of
the directory you want to create. If the directory
has to be created on a drive different from the
current drive, you must include the drive letter as
part of the pathname.
- 16 -
Rmdir (Instantaneous):
This option allows you to remove an existing
directory from any drive. EDIR will prompt you for
the pathname of the target directory. If the
directory is on a drive different from the current
drive, you must include the drive letter as part of
the pathname.
Chdir (Instantaneous):
This option allows you to change the current
directory or the current drive. EDIR will prompt you
for the pathname of the target directory. If the
directory is on a drive different from the current
drive, you must include the drive letter as part of
the pathname. If all you want to do is to change the
default drive, simply enter the letter of the target
drive followed by a colon, e.g. 'B:'. After you
specify the target pathname, edir will change the
default drive and directory to that pathname and read
that directory into the main buffer - ready for you
to edit.
Quit:
This option takes you back to the main menu.
H: Help
This command displays a help screen for EDIR commands.
W: Write directory to disk
This function writes the edited directory back to the
disk. If there are any entries in the paste buffer,
they will be automatically pasted into the main buffer
before the write. The WRITE command asks for your
confirmation before proceeding. After writing to disk,
EDIR reads a fresh copy of the current directory and
displays it on the screen, ready for further editing.
Q: Quit to DOS
This command gets you out of EDIR and back to DOS. It
asks for your confirmation before quitting. The edited
copy of the directory is NOT saved on the disk - to do
that you must first WRITE and then QUIT.
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MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS AND USAGE TIPS
1. EDIR presents you with a 'Lotus' style menu for several
functions. If for some reason, you would like to abort
the function, you can either choose the 'Quit' or 'Abort'
type options or you can simply press <Esc> to get out of
the current function.
2. Whenever EDIR asks you to type a string (filename,
pathname or number etc.), you have several editing
functions available to you before you hit <Enter> to
submit your input to EDIR. The left and right arrow keys
can be used to move through the string. The delete and
backspace keys have their usual meaning. The <Insert> key
will toggle the insert mode on and off. The <Esc> key
will completely erase what you have typed.
3. Whenever EDIR prompts you for a pathname, you can enter a
pathname as per DOS conventions. Relative and absolute
pathnames are allowed. If the pathname is intended for a
specific drive, then the drive letter must be included as
part of the pathname. If the pathname contains only the
drive letter followed by a colon, it is interpreted as
the current directory on the specified drive. Some
examples of valid pathnames are as follows:
. (current directory)
.. (parent directory)
D: (current directory on D: drive)
BUDGET\Y1987
\LOTUS\WKS
A:MISC\LETTERS
C:\DBASE\APP
4. EDIR is an "EGA-aware" program (EGA stands for the
Enhanced Graphics Adapter for the IBM PC). It will make
use of the current EGA mode to utilize the full screen of
your display. For example, if your EGA adapter is
currently in the 43 line mode, EDIR will expand its
display to 43 lines. This gives you the ability to look
at more entries per screen. We have provided two simple
utilities to change the number of lines on your EGA
screen. EL43.COM will change your screen to accommodate
43 lines, whereas EL25.COM will switch you back to 25
line mode. So, if you want to use EDIR in the 43 line
mode on your computer, you would type the following
commands:
A> EL43
A> EDIR
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5. If you want to do some common operation on a bunch of
scattered files in a directory, it is faster if you first
collect them in one place using the CUT and PASTE
functions. Then you can mark all these files using the
MARK function and operate on them as a group. A good
example for this would be if you want to copy a bunch of
files that are scattered all over the directory.
6. EDIR can be used in conjunction with a backup program
(like DOS Backup or Fastback) to optimize hard disk
performance. EDIR allows you can organize various
directories so that frequently used files and directories
can be placed near the top of a directory. This reduces
the search time for DOS to locate the frequently used
directory entries. Further efficiency can be obtained by
backing up the whole disk, reformatting it, and then
restoring the complete file system. This procedure will
repack non-contiguous files into contiguous sectors, thus
minimizing head movement when they are accessed. Note
that this scheme will work only with those backup
programs that backup and restore one file at a time. Some
backup programs make a sector-by-sector image of the disk
during backup and that does not help packing of the files
during a restore.
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EDIR 2.00 TO 3.00 CHANGES
1. EDIR no longer requires the use of ANSI.SYS driver. It
does its own screen handling and hence the installation
and operation of this version are much more simpler.
2. The syntax for invoking EDIR has been changed. You can no
longer specify a target directory on the command line.
Instead you can change to a different directory from
within EDIR. In version 3, EDIR starts by reading the
default directory on the default drive.
3. The user interface is upward compatible with ver. 2.00
with the addition of more commands, 'Lotus' style menus
and much better looking screens.
4. The ability to edit an individual directory entry has
been added. This allows changing of file names,
attributes, date and time stamps etc.
5. Deleted directory entries can be completely wiped out.
6. A whole set of DOS type functions has been added (copy,
delete, move etc.) for convenient handling of directories
from within EDIR.
7. Directory sorts now allow you to specify primary and
secondary keys as well as the sorting order.
8. EDIR can now utilize the EGA adapter more effectively. It
"senses" the number of lines on the display and adjusts
itself to occupy the full screen.
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