PANTHER(1) PAnTHer File Divertor PANTHER(1) NAME PAnTHer MONEYWARE This program is moneyware. This means that is you enjoy this program and make use of it, you should donate some money to the programmer. There are ways of enforcing this, like removing different options. However, there is always someone who spreads his own registered versions, and even so, the registering cost goes up, or there will be less money to the programmer because of the distribution costs. I have therefore decided NOT to enforce it. It might mean that I won't actually receive anything for this program, but remember that the best way to enourage someone to continue the development and continue create useful software is to somehow say "hey, I like what you're doing, keep up the good work!" and even "you know what? This is worth something." and then actually do something about it. So. If you enjoy this program and make use of it, make a donation, ok? Please use make use of these addresses: Internet email: ga@158.38.66.10 (Should be valid at least till the end of June 1995) (I do not enter the computer name here because it is due to change pretty soon...) Snailmail: Gard Eggesb Abrahamsen PO Box 5061, Larsgrden 6021 lesund, Norway (Also valid at least till the end of June 1995) Snailmail: Gard Eggesb Abrahamsen PO Box 71 6092 Eggesbnes, Norway (Should be valid a few more decades as long as my parents are alive) Postal giro: 0825 0488697 DESCRIPTION PAnTHer is a resident (TSR) program which hooks up to the GEMDOS and GEMAES trap vector and alters the filespec parameter of most calls that deal with file operations. The purpose of this is to allow the user to have a 'cleaner' setup on his harddisk, putting all information and configuration files in a single folder, data files in another, etc. REQUIREMENTS PAnTHer should work on all TOS compatible machines. ;-) DISCLAIMER There really shouldn't be any bugs, and the program hasn't failed us at Scriba Soft yet, and we've kind of been beta- testing PAnTHer for seven months now, but as usual, let it be known that all usage of this software is totally your own responsability. Thereof, risks of damage or loss of data are completely your own and can not be blamed on Scriba Soft. But is sure helps to have the latest version... 8^)= INSTALLATION Put PAnTHer.prg in the auto folder, as early as possible, allowing auto-folder programs to make use of PAnTHer. Preferably, you should put it right before GBell, which again should be placed before MiNT. ;-) Next, you need to create a PAnTHer.inf file. This one should be on the root directory of your boot device. Actually, it should be on the root directory of drive C on this version of PAnTHer. Usually, C IS the boot drive. If not, then tough luck. I'll have to include some code in a late version for that case. A demo version of the PAnTHer.inf file with comments has been included in the package. It might, however, need some adjustments to fit the system set up on _your_ harddisk. CONFIGURATION PAnTHer is configured via the PAnTHer.inf file, which should be placed at the root directory of your boot device. This configuration file MUST be there, or PAnTHer will _not_ be installed. You shouldn't worry too much about how messed up your root directory is, however. Using PAnTHer, you can have a completely new setup on your harddisk. The only two files on the root directory of _my_ harddisk are SHDRIVER.SYS and PAnTHer.inf. The PAnTHer.inf tells PAnTHer how to react on the different files. Basically, it's a table of two columns, having a single space or a TAB (ASCII 9) as a field delimiter. PAnTHer does, of course, support both MS-DOS and UNIX ASCII. The first field of the table tells PAnTHer which file pattern the line is defining. This pattern is always compared to the _end_ of the filespec given through the GEMDOS/GEM functions, so .inf means all files that end with .inf, and wordplus.rsc means all filespecs that end with wordplus.rsc. Notice that PAnTHer searches through the info file from the top and stops at the first match, so the most unique specs should be at the top. I.e. PAnTHer.inf should be before the .inf line. The matching is also always case insensitive due to the MS-DOS files system used on most STs nowadays. The second field of the table tells PAnTHer what to do with the given filespec. If the parameter ends with a \, it means that you want the path name replaced. If the parameter does _not_ end with a \, the entire filespec will be replaced, allowing you to automatically rename a specific file, or even create some sort of symbolic link, as will be explained below. In the principle, all empty lines will be ignored. If a line, however, begins with a space or a TAB, i.e. the first field is a 'blank', telling PAnTHer that this line is about ALL OTHER FILESPECS! Since this always gives a match, anything below this line will be ignored. If the second field is blank, the filespec will be replaced with a NULL termination, so take care about what you do! All lines beginning with a '#' are comments and will be ignored, except the lines beginning with '#!'. These are command lines. The commands themselves are four characters long, and the remaining part of the line is usually open for comments. Available commands are: #!SAVE The following files should be diverted at f_create #!LOAD The following files should _not_ be diverted # at f_create #!SOFT Divert file only if current spec gives file not # found (loading only) #!HARD Divert file even if current spec is valid. #!LOUD Write all exec/open/find/rsrc_load requests at line # 25 of the screen. Nice for DBugging. ;-) #!XPOS followed by a number tells PAnTHer which X position # the text should be outputted at. #!YPOS followed by a number tells PAnTHer which Y position # the text should be outputted at. #!STOP parsing of the PAnTHer.inf file. The rest of the # file will be ignored. PANTHER BABY The easies thing to do with PAnTHer is to divert files of a specified type to a specified directory. This means, like, having all resource files in one specific directory, allowing you to start most GEM programs from any directory without worrying about wether the resource file is found or not. Notice that when using the #!SOFT option will make PAnTHer _first_ check if the given filespec can be used. Then it is not before a file is not found that it will use the path given in the PAnTHer.inf. # PAnTHer.inf to be on root, NEWDESK is a temporary file # and the rest are found in the library of info files. PAnTHer.inf c:\ newdesk.inf c:\tmp\ .inf c:\lib\inf\ PAnTHer patches f_open, f_create, f_rename, p_exec and rsrc_load, which pretty much covers most of the disk access. This means that you can divert accessories to a different directory as well. # Our own accessory directory .acc c:\sys\acc\ PAPA PANTHER PAnTHer can also be used for more advanced divertion. You _could_ for example make sure that noone copied your precious source files off your disk... #!SAVE my source files _HERE_ and _ONLY_ _HERE_ .s c:\usr\source\ .gfa c:\usr\gfa\ You can also use it for some kind of symbolic link. An example of this is when you have an application that can be used both as accessory and a normal program, like AntiDote. In the accessory folder, you have AntiDote.ACC which should be a file which is 0 bytes long. AntiDote.APP, the actual program, you put in your binaries directory. Now, add the following lines to your PAnTHer.inf file: # Saving bytes with symbolic links... ;-) antidote.acc c:\bin\antidote.app # Only one large file needed .acc c:\sys\acc\ # Accessories diverted ALTERING THE CONFIGURATION AFTER BOOT PAnTHer actually allocates $400 bytes more than it really needs. This allows PAnTHer to automatically reload the PAnTHer.inf file as soon as you create a new one, as long as it isn't more than $400 bytes larger than the one it read at boot time. THE GOODIE BAG PAnTHer has a Goodie Bag, as described in the Scriba Soft cookie bag expansion plan. The Cookie Jar entry is "PATH" and the Goodie Bag contains the following variables and constants: MAGI *) 24892 NAME *) Application name T#01 *) GEMDOS bending routine T#02 *) GEMAES/VDI bending routine T#13 *) BIOS bending routine PROG *) Beginning of program block PSIZ *) Length of resident program block XTRA How much extra memory has been allocated on top of the actualt PAnTHer.inf file size. _VER *) PAnTHer version number+ INFO Pointer to PAnTHer.inf file block ISIZ Size of loaded PAnTHer.inf file LOCK *) Execution semaphor BUFF Internal working buffer ITBL Pointer to case insensitivity table SHOW Flag: "TRUE" if PAnTHer is in #!SHOUT mode, 0 if not. SPOS Most significant byte: x position of output Next significant byte: y position of output FORC "TRUE" if last filespec was forced (#!HARD) These variable are also found at the beginning of the program file. Actually, it is found at text+10, or absolute file position 32. Altering the values held by XTRA and SPOS will in fact alter the properties of the program. Eg. you can configure PAnTHer's output position directly without putting it in the PAnTHer.inf file, and you can alter how much extra memory PAnTHer is to allocate for future loading of the PAnTHer.inf file. The variables INFO and ISIZ can also be altered after PAnTHer has been loaded, if you wish to change to a bigger buffer. Just remember to allocate it before you alter these variables. Once PAnTHer has been told to use your new space instead, you can free the space the old PAnTHer file takes up. It is also possible to use these variables to include your own local PAnTHer file when running a specific program. BUGS At the moment "Boot drive" means drive C. You can still include PAnTHer on any drive, as long as PAnTHer.inf is on the root directory of drive C. LOOK OUT FOR LHArc Driver - Bind a virtual drive to your favourite LHArc file to get rid of them RSC and INF files that you only read anyway! NewT - The future operating system for the MC680x0?