******************************************************************************
   (C) Copyright 2003-2004 Curtis Systems Software P.C. All rights reserved.
               (last update: 2004 January 24)
******************************************************************************

file: cssVsDir.txt (CSSDIR versus OS/2 dir command comparisons)

This is a comparison of some of the key features of CSSDIR to
the standard OS/2 and eComStation dir command. CSSDIR has over
75 user options some are not listed here, but some of the key
ones are. CSSDIR allows the settings one enters at a command
line from the standard shell of cmd.exe to be saved for reuse
in the CSSDIR.ini file. Thereafter you can use a friendly 
name you assigned to the exact options settings you previously
ran CSSDIR with easily. See CSSDIR.txt or CSSDIR.htm for more
information on using Symbolics in the 
'CSSDIR ini file and Customization section'.

CSSDIR is rich in filtering and flexibility. Filtering includes 
limiting files of a certain size, having a certain EaSize or even 
by dates. CSSDIR can sort 100's of thousands of files under 
a standard OS/2 Warp4 system, and even MILLIONS of files under 
eComStation. It allows vast amounts of control over how one sorts 
as well as which fields are displayed. It also allows multiple reports 
perhaps sorted in different orders ALL IN ONE invocation. Saving time
as well having consistent cross referenable data sets over live 
online systems!! You can NOT do that with dir without a tremendous 
amount of extra effort and programming skills!

One important distinct between the default output of Dir versus 
CSSDIR, is the hintString field which by default precedes the 
filespec field, (in dir that's the filename field).
This field gives a hint of a number of things. If you only request
1 dirspec, this field by default will contain a counter of the 
number assigned to the current directory (aka DCC). This becomes 
very useful when one uses the -s (include subdirectories) option.
Having the hintString displayed will make you more quickly aware as 
to a dir Change especially over long directory listings!

However on multiple requested dirspecs on one invocation, 
(for example cssdir f:\os2\*.exe f:\os2\*.cmd), the 
hintString also appends to the DCC, the assigned short hand code
(SHC). This code represents which dirspec/wildcard combination
this file was found by. You can turn the whole hintString field off
via -Lfh0, but once you get use to it, its very hard to live without!


(START ADVANCED TOPIC)
Other information is conveyed in the hintString, such as
when dirspec requests are being merged or not. 

[You can't merge in Dir!! 
So this concept of merging is probably foreign to you unless you have 
tried some of the examples (in examples.txt) or have viewed the cssdir docs.]

Merging is indicated via the separator between the DCC and SHC, 
a '+' means a merge a '-' means no merge. The surrounding characters around 
the hintString also convey information, normally they are '[' and ']'
however they can change if the user requests to ignore normal 
ordering within a directory, to '<' and '>'. (-Lxpo: decides to merge or not)

The DCC stands for Dump counters code, and when the user does
normal requests its code represents a dir change transition,
where counter totals could be dumped. However in more advanced
style requests, the DCC value represents a transition based
on a user's request or some merging of some sort and directory
transitioning and incrementing the DCC based on dir changes is THEN
usually meaningless.
(END ADVANCED TOPIC)


Comparisons follow:

 dir     CSSDIR      notes/comments
 ---     ------      --------------
 /a       -a         include files with certain attributes
                     also finds regular files in hidden directories          
                     dir does not unless you specifically request the
                     hidden directory by name.

 /b       -b,-Bf     bare file listing, CSSDIR has available 6 settings
 /f       -f,-Lff    full filespec    , CSSDIR has available 6 settings
 /l       evaluating lowercase, anybody really need this?
 /n       always     output format of FAT drives are same as HPFS
 /o       -o         order (sort) request, CSSDIR blows dir away here
                     especially when you combine a new option -Lxpo:
                     see below!! Can sort between 250-500,000 files under
                     Warp 4, and if you have WSEB api hook to more
                     VM memory as eComStation has right out of the box.
                     You can sort millions of files in a single
                     invocation, YOU CAN NOT do this with dir it
                     breaks around 8-10k files in a single directory!!
                     Plus the sort is ALWAYS relative within a directory
                     with dir, NOT with CSSDIR!

 /?       -h,-?      help

 help  
 dir      -hx,-?x    eXtended help, CSSDIR.exe does not require pmshell

 /p       evaluating pause on screenful, use cssdirm.cmd or | more.com 
 /s       -s,-sXX    inc subDirs, CSSDIR can also limit the maxDepth
                     handy when you just want to see a few levels down.
                     Also CSSDIR can limit each req of mult reqs of dirspecs
                     differently in regards to the following: to include 
                     subdirectories (or depths) or not, attributes of files 
                     to search for, filesizes, easizes, different wildcards,
                     and even dates.

                     example: CSSDIR f:\/s g:\

                     which lists all files (except hidden or system) on drive
                     f: and only files in root directory of drive G.
                     When you combine this feature with merging requests via
                     -Lxpo: you can do things that can be very useful that you
                     ain't ever going to do with dir withOUT a lot of post
                     parsing and processing (writing your own scripts)!!!

 /v       -Lfa       show attribute field, CSSDIR has 2 formats
 /w       evaluating display multiple filenames on one line 

 N/A      -Dir:@     can read a file for a lists of dirspecs
 N/A      -Srd:      select range of dates of files to inc
                     can use ALL, last n days, curNweek, curNmonth,
                     year and multiple ranges can be given
                     examples: -Srd:2003-10-01,2003-10-31 
                               -Srd:today
                               -Srd:curweek 
                               -Srd:curMonth
                               -Srd:-30
                               -Srd:2003;2004-01

 N/A      -Srs:      select range of sizes of files to inc
                     example: -Srs:100000,$  

 N/A      -Srz:      select range of EaSizes of the files to inc
                     example: -Srz:1,$  (matches all non 0 EaSizes)

 N/A      -Wc:       select multiple wildcards to apply over one or
                     more directories
                     example: -Wc:*.c;*.h;*.cpp f:\proj1 f:\proj2 

 N/A      -Ce        combine stderr to stdout: and also unix 'Tee'
 N/A      -Dumpo:    dumps all options settings
 N/A      -Ecrc:     computes a files CRC on its Ea portion
 N/A      -Fcrc:     computes a files CRC on its contents
 N/A      -Laifs:    can abort on invalid filespecs given
 N/A      -Lanf:     can abort if no qualified files (handy on mult reqs)
 N/A      -Lanu:     can abort on non unique files (mult reqs)
 N/A      -Mf:       can flag files 2 gig or larger (JFS)
 N/A      -Nr:       can flag or exclude files non accessible or locked
 N/A      -Of:       can redirect I/O internally, handy for scripts
 N/A      cssmon     can be monitored locally and remotely (good on Huge reqs)
 N/A      -Pt        can list length of time to process the requests
 N/A      -Py:       can set the priority of the request internally
 N/A      -Sch:      can search for text string(s) over filtered files
 N/A      -Src:      can limit file Size Range to compute CRCs
                     examples: -Src:1,/$2gig$/
                                
 N/A      -Xr1:      can eXclude files with Suffixes/prefixes 
 N/A      -Xr1:      can eXclude entire dir trees
                     examples: -Xr1:.zip;.rar;.exe;/dirPrefix/f:\os2\

 N/A      -Xr1:@     can read a file for a list of excludes 
 N/A      -Xr2:      same as -Xr1: but excludes apply to computing CRCs
 N/A      -List:     multiple reports sorted differently POWERFUL!!!
                     reports can list different fields
                     examples:  -List:/*;/oen;/o*dups-des

 N/A      -Lfb       display ea    CRC field
 N/A      -Lfc       display files CRC field
 all/none -Lfd       display date field, CSSDIR 3 settings 
 N/A      -Lfh       hintString, this is string coded that may
                     quickly give a user looking at CSSDIR output 
                     aware when a transition of a directory has 
                     occurred and/or the location of the file listing as
                     well as whether a merge was requested during a 
                     CSSDIR listing or not. After a user becomes 
                     familiar with this, we believe they will not want
                     to be without it!!

 N/A      -Lfl       display dir level depth number, full or relative
 limited  -Lfm       append trailing \ on directory names
 N/A      -Lfn       display filename separate from path; 6 settings
                     even aligning extensions!!

 N/A      -Lfr       display reference number (great for X-ref) between
                     multiple reports in one invocation.

 all/none -Lfs       display filesize field (2 settings)
 all/none -Lft       display time format 2 formats includes SECONDS!!!
 N/A      -Lfu       display how a files is Unique by fields different
 N/A      -Lfx       number each listed entry     
 all/none -Lfz       display easize

 N/A      -Lrab      display count of files with ArchiveBitSet    
 N/A      -Lrcb      display count of files with AllClearBits     
 all/none -Lrdi      display Drive info, freespace/usedspace
 N/A      -Lref      display count of non0 EasizeFiles 
 N/A      -Lrhb      display count of files with HiddenBitSet     
 N/A      -Lrll      label each field (heading and trailing labels)
 N/A      -Lrlt      display length of time to process each report
                     of multiple generated reports in one invocation

 all/none -Lrnd      display NumDirectories   
 all/none -Lrne      display NumEntries       
 all/none -Lrnf      display NumFiles         
 N/A      -Lrns      display numEntriesSrched 
 N/A      -Lrrb      display count of files with ReadonlyBitSet   
 limited  -Lrrs      Request summary of listed directories (like dir)
            +        Request summary over multiple requests
          -Lxrst:    Request summary over requests within a drive
                     Request summary relative directories!!!!
                     Also adds eaSize bytes in summary line
                     Can have heading and/or trailing labels or both.

 N/A      -Lrsb      display count of files with SystemBitSet     
 N/A      -Lrse      display SumEaSizes 
 all/none -Lrsf      display SumFileSizes     
 N/A      -Lrtbeg:   user assignable report titles 
 N/A      -Lrtend:   user assignable ending titles
 limited  -Lrts      display TotalSizes = filelengths + eaSizes
 N/A      -Lxpo:     controls whether to combine requests or not
                     referred to as  PrimaryOrder, blows dir away!
                     can merge requests by fullpath, relativepath, 
                     directory, drive and/or all requests. Also
                     can order multiple requests in a known order
                     via Drive or UNC and Alpha sorted and more!

 envVar   ..Defargs  environment variable for default startup settings
 cmdDir              cssdirDefargs and also more convenient
                     /$cssdirDefargs$/ in the ascii CSSDIR ini file.

 N/A     symbolic    assign your own string to a set of options
         recallable  to recall easily later!!! You can have 100's
         settings    in an ascii based CSSDIR ini file.
                     See the default included CSSDIR.ini file.

 N/A    monitorable  could be very useful with telnet sessions!!
        as detach 
        process            

 N/A    duplicates   via options -o*dups-asc and -o*dups-des 
        finder           

 N/A    unique file  option -Lxuf:
        filter         

 N/A    user defines  user defines which fields should be ignored
        unique        Including which attribute bits!!

 N/A    access to    detects ANY file changes between filesystem snapshots
        baseline     made by CSSDIR (aka currently as cssddiff)
        compares
        utility

        CSSDIR       CSSDIR is a native OS/2 APP, CSSDIR.exe can be
                     run from the command line, even after a simple
                     OS/2 or eComStation alt-f1, CSSDIR is not 
                     dependent on any known additional non standardly
                     available DLL's. CSSDIR has been extensively tested
                     on eCS 1.03. CSSDIR has also been tested on Warp 4
                     with fixpack 12. It is known that CSSDIR will not
                     run on any versions of Warp prior to Warp3.
                     Also We have not tested it on any Warp3 systems. 
                     However We do know that if a company wishes this to 
                     be available we could do it, private consulting is
                     available.

Please note some of the above features are available only with 
the PRO version, For a comparsion of features of the shareware versus PRO.
See CSSDIR.txt or CSSDIR.htm files.

   (C) Copyright 2003-04 Curtis Systems Software P.C. All rights reserved
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