			DSplit v1.2
			~~~~~~~~~~~


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#                                                               #
#               Disclaimer and Copyright Notice                 #
#               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~                 #
#                                                               #
#       DSplit v1.2 is hereby released into the public domain.  #
#       It may be distributed freely and without restriction    #
#       other than that stated here.                            #
#                                                               #
#       DSplit v1.2 is (c)1995 Dan Gibson.                      #
#                                                               #
#       DSplit v1.2 must be distributed in full, unchanged      #
#       and in the form it is distributed here. All files       #
#       included with this copy of DSplit v1.2 must be          #
#       included with any further distribution.                 #
#                                                               #
#       DSplit v1.2 may not be distributed for commercial       #
#       gain by any party without prior written permission      #
#       from the author. You are free to use DSplit v1.2        #
#       for any use, personal or commercial, and free           #
#       distribution with any commercial package is allowed     #
#       under these terms, so long as no value is added to      #
#       the commercial product by DSplit's inclusion.           #
#                                                               #
#       Disclaimer:                                             #
#               DSplit v1.2 is supplied without warranty or     #
#               guarantee. To the best of the authors           #
#               knowledge, DSplit works as described, however   #
#               no responsibility can be taken by the author    #
#               for loss of data or any other such damage       #
#               resulting from the use of DSplit v1.2.          #
#                                                               #
#################################################################

Introduction.
-------------

	DSplit is a file segmentation utility. In short it will
split a given file into smaller parts depending on the arguments
supplied in the command line. DSplit supports splitting by number
of parts, and splitting by maximimum file length in Kb.

	The purpose of DSplit is to allow large files to be either
stored on, or transported via media with a smaller capacity than
required by the file size.


Why DSplit?
-----------

	DSplit was written out of need. I had a file of over 1Mb in
size and needed to transport it on 720Kb disks. There was a splitter
programme available for MS-DOS machines, but I didn't have it to hand
and so set to writing my own version. DSplit is the result.

	DSplit is a little different however. The secondary purpose of
writing DSplit was to have a similar utility available on any platform.
For this reason, I tried to make my source code completely ANSI C 
conformant. Even some ANSI standard functions were re-written to give the
source more compatability. Another consideration was to make the programme
as economical on processor use as possible. The reason for this was that
not knowing what machine DSplit would ultimately be used on, overheads
should be kept to a minumum. For this reason, DSplit reads and writes files
in 1Kb blocks.


Use
---

	DSplit is very simple to use. The user supplies a file name and any
of the optional arguments to instruct DSplit on how to split the file.

	The available arguments are:

	/p n    This specifies that the file should be split into n parts.
	/l k    This specifies that file parts should be a max size of k Kb.

		only /p OR /l may be used, NOT both.

	/i      Interactive mode. DSplit asks you to confirm certain decisions.
	/o      Force overwriting of existing part files.
	/?      Display DSplit's help pages.

	Example:        split /p 3 myfile.txt /i

		will split the file 'myfile.txt. into three parts, asking
		for confirmation on the way.

			split /l 720 /o bigfile.exe

		will split the file 'bigfile.exe' into parts whose size
		is no mre than 720Kb and will overwite any previous split
		files of the same file.


Windows
-------

	DSplit v1.2 is a DOS programme. However, a .pif file is included
which allows it to run under Windows. An icon is also included. Depending on
how you installed DSplit v1.2, the .pif file will either be in the same
directory as the DSplit programme, or it will be in your Windows directory.
The dsplit.pif file should be placed in your windows directory if you intend
to use DSplit v1.2 from Windows. It will still run as a DOS application,
however, you will be able to launch the programme from an icon, then you
will be asked for the command line arguments. These arguments are identical
to those used in DOS. The DSplit window does not close automatically, so
when the operation is complete ( 'Inactive DSplit' will appear in the title
bar of the DSplit window ) you will have to manually close the window by
double clicking on the close button ( top left ).


Versions/OS
-----------

v1.1    This version did not get a release because the day I was going
	to upload it, I had a bit of foresight...
	
v1.2    This is the first release version of DSplit.
	I decided to add an info file (.p00) which contains info on the
	last split to be done on a file. The reason for this was to make
	DJoin an easier pogram to use. At the time of v1.2 of DSplit being
	completed, DJoin is only on paper, but this info file should make
	a lot of difference to its use. It is also handy to have this info
	file for manual rebuilding/recombining of the part files because
	it tells you how many of the files to combine and what the original
	file extension was. (Something which was discarded in v1.1!)

	DSplit is currently available on the following platforms:

		MS-DOS
		SCO-Unix
		Amiga (soon)

	Try your bbs, or contact the author for these versions.

	If you wish to develop DSplit for another platform, please
contact the author for source code, and conditions. Thank you.


The Author
----------

	DSplit is written by    Dan Gibson,
				10 Regent St.,
				Carlisle. CA2 4HD.
				UK.

	in ANSI compliant C. Or at least I hope it's ANSI compliant!


Future versions
---------------

	Non planned. but you know how it is. Perhaps a full Windows
version one day, or Win95. But there again, I don't like Windows (Gasp?!)
so why bother? Any suggestions - contact the author. No time wasters...
