/------------------------------------------------------------------\

   /    XBRA Inspector                                      Atari ST    \

  |======================================================================|

   \    Version 1.1                                         Freeware    /

    \------------------------------------------------------------------/









0. CONTENTS



    1. Introduction

    2. Use

    3. INF files

    4. Technical info

    5. Legal bit





1. INTRODUCTION



The XBRA protocol is a standard way for OS patches to tell who they are, 
and who is the next one in a chain of patches.



This program has been designed to scan the main system vectors. It will 
find any XBRA patch installed on a vector and will scan until it finds the 
end of the XBRA chain (i.e. the OS, or a non-standard patch).

If you use some programs which are patching the OS and are not using the 
XBRA protocol, they can 'hide' some well behaved programs.





2. USE



The program is very simple to use, double click on the XBI.TOS icon and 
look at the report.



Command line options (rename XBI.TOS to XBI.TTP):

-n no "more" prompt

-p print report 

-x extended listing (BIOS redirection, Mfp, etc)



When it starts, the program searches for a XBI.INF file (in the current 
directory) which is supposed to have the "known" XBRA vector. The format 
of this file is described in the next paragraph.

It will work well without a XBI.INF file.



3. INFORMATION FILE



The first line of the XBI.INF *must* be 'XBI10'.

Any line beginning by ';' will be treated as a comment.



The four first char of each line are the program's XBRA identifier, the 
end of the line, after a space (separator) will be displayed on the 
report.



Example:



--start

XBI10

; This an info file

; a nice comment

MPfs Martin Patzel's File Selector

NLdr Neodesk 3 Loader (Dan Wilga)

; You can put comments everywhere

FLXD Flexdisc v1.4 (A. Esser)

acc2 Dead keys v2.0 (F. Arnaud)

--end





4. TECHNICAL INFO



If you are a programmer and you want to write some OS patches, you may use 
the XBRA protocol, just include something like this (Assembly):



        .even

XBRAmagic:

        dc.b    "XBRA"  ; Magic number

XBRAid:

        dc.b    "xxxx"  ; Your ID, Ascii letters, see XBI.INF for samples

                        ; and known IDs.

XBRAoldvec:

        dc.l    0       ; The next vector in chain, it is the address of

                        ; the system vector before you installed yours,

                        ; modified by the installation code.

XBRAstuff:

                        ; Your routine here.

        ....



        move.l  XBRAoldvec,a0

        jmp (a0)        ; Link to next vector in chain







5. LEGAL BIT



Copyright (c) 1990 Franck Arnaud.

All Rights Reserved.



This program is freeware.

It may be copied but not sold.

It is not public domain.



Atari, ST, TOS are trademarks of Atari Corp.