Share opinions re best MS-DOS Utilities

[wizardlife]

Wizardlife,
For us dummies, what does CHUNKS.EXE do?
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It just breaks up any file into 1.44 MB chunks, and the first one becomes a self-extracting EXE that grabs the others automatically. But superior to ZIPs for transfers, because each chunk has a different filename, so if one doesn't make it, you can always recopy...

Oh course, now I just use cdrws... but it was fast and easy back in the day.

[Ninkazu]

winrar can split files into 1.44mb sizes, along with its superior compression abilities ^_^

[[Unknown]]

Some of the best MS-DOS standalone utilites that I have ever used, and still use are:

PKZIP: I actually bought the last official 6.04g version back in 1993.
It is today's standard for "zip" files, as is the standard CRC which it appends to the zip file.

Wrong. The latest DOS version is 2.50 - see http://www.pkware.com/. (it's kinda hidden on the site, though.)

-[Unknown]

[Moneo]

Thanks for the info. These utilities that split files into 1.44 chunks seem like they were originally intended for 3.5" diskettes.
Why don't you like the way that PKZIP does this with its -& span disk option?
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[Moneo]

You're right, sorry, I said version 6.04g when it should be 2.04g.

Yes, from the PKWARE website, I see that they now have a verdion 2.50. Between 1993 and recently, the 2.04g was the only version around, and was the one that became the standard. WinZip used this standard. During those years, PKWARE had a lot of financial problems, but now it looks like they're back on their feet.

It would be interesting to get the new 2.50 version and compare the zip file produced to that of the original, although I doubt if they would have tampered with the standard that they created.
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[[Unknown]]

You're right, sorry, I said version 6.04g when it should be 2.04g.

Yes, from the PKWARE website, I see that they now have a verdion 2.50. Between 1993 and recently, the 2.04g was the only version around, and was the one that became the standard. WinZip used this standard. During those years, PKWARE had a lot of financial problems, but now it looks like they're back on their feet.

It would be interesting to get the new 2.50 version and compare the zip file produced to that of the original, although I doubt if they would have tampered with the standard that they created.
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It has a new command line switch: -exx. Compresses better.

Of course, WinZip 9 also has better compression.

-[Unknown]

[wizardlife]

Why don't you like the way that PKZIP does this with its -& span disk option?

Becuase this way you can chunk it ahead of time, and then copy the files all with one disk, if necessary. Or if one doesn't make it, you can always recopy. I find when full, 1 in every 6 floppies will have an error.

And even when copying small files, if it's critical, I copy it in three or four times, just to be sure.

[LooseCaboose]

This is exactly why I use Unix, it comes with command line tools for doing just about everything, its design philosophy is too provide lots of tools for doing small jobs which can then be chained together to do very complex things.

LIST: Can't live without this fabulous file list-to-screen program. Allows things like position at EOF, finding a string, displaying in hex, etc. You can also "shell" out to LIST from your program for a nice scrollable display of some text file

List a file:

Code:

$ cat file

With backwards and forwards scrolling and search features:

Code:

$ less file

In hex:

Code:

$ od -h file | less

OPT-TECH SORT: Incredibly reliable and extremely fast file sort with a mulitude of options, yet very simple to use

To sort:

Code:

$ sort file > sortedFile

In hex:

Code:

$ od -h file | sort > sortedFile

EDIT. Need I say more?

Emacs. Can do source code syntax highlighting, split windows (e.g. one for code, other for shell), multiple files open at once in tabbed panes, etc etc. If you dont like Emacs you can use vi or Jed or even cat:

Code:

$ cat > file
This is the contents of my file.
^D
$ cat file
This is the contents of my file.

PKZIP: It is today's standard for "zip" files, as is the standard CRC which it appends to the zip file.

Zip and unzip provide pkzip compatible compression, but tar and gzip compress to almost half the size, tar.gz is the standard compression method in the Unix world.

It just breaks up any file into 1.44 MB chunks, and the first one becomes a self-extracting EXE that grabs the others automatically.

To split a file (text or binary) up into 100byte chunks with the prefix name part-:

Code:

$ split -b100 file part-

And put it back together again:

Code:

$ cat part-* > newFile

Notice how the list program can also be used to list one chunk after another and then redirect it to a complete file. You could make it self-extracting just by prepending a small shell script to the start of the first chunk.

My other favorites include:
grep: Search through files for regular expressions. Handy for finding things in source code.
find: Search for files names using regular expressions.
ps: Process listing (not so useful in DOS ;-)), but I wish Windows had a half-way decent command for doing this.
which: Tells you which copy a given file will be executed if you execute it, useful if you have multiple versions of tools.

The Unix shell also provides things like for and while loops at the command line, regular expressions everywhere, job control (processes can be suspended, sent to the background etc), user switching (can log in as my-self and have a single terminal window running as root for doing admin) and middle mouse button cut&paste.

[Moneo]

Code:

And even when copying small files, if it's critical, I copy it in three or four times, just to be sure.

Instead of multiple copy operations, why don't use a file compare utility to make sure? I have one if you're interested.
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[Moneo]

Thanks for the tutorial on UNIX commands and utilities. You did a nice job. We all agree that UNIX is great for these things.

However, the subject of this topic was MS-DOS utilities.

Perhaps you might want to open up a topic on UNIX.
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