                 
                   Robert's Unixish Utilities for DOS

                           (c) Copyright 1994
                      Robert Rothenburg Walking-Owl
                           All Rights Reserved

                              Release No. 6
                 
               (formerly "RhizomeWare Unixish Utilties")


 o License and Legal Notice:

   This software may be used and/or copied by individuals and institutions
   so long as this program is neither modified nor sold for profit.  It is
   provided "as is" with no warrantees or guarantees of any kind.

   The author shall not be held responsible for any inconvenience or damage
   caused by the use or misuse of the utilities mentioned herein.  In other
   words, use them at your own risk.

   The author reserves the right to make any last minute changes to this
   document and the utilities discussed in it, hence the information here
   may not be entirely accurate.

 o System Requirements:

   A minimum version of DOS 3.3 is required.  Minimum memory requirements
   have not been put to the test, but the utilities can probably run with
   no problems on only 128k.

   These are some very powerful utilities, but in the hands of ignorant
   or mischievious people they can also be dangerous: a solid, working
   knowledge of DOS is helpful.  I wouldn't recommend installing these
   programs on a machine that will be shared by people who are not very
   "computer literate".
   
   It is very easy out of sloppiness or habit to irreperably damage your
   system, since these utilities will let you override features like read-
   only attributes.
 
 o Contacting the Author:

   If you have any comments, questions or suggestions (as well as bug
   reports: NO software is bug free), send mail electronically to me
   at <rrothenb@ic.sunysb.edu>.  This is the most reliable way to
   reach me, though it may take a while to respond.
 
 o General Information about Options:

   Following is a brief description of "general" options which are valid
   for most of the utilities (thus providing a bit of consistency).

   Check the specific descriptions of the utilities for more detailed
   information on the options (some of which may differ).

   The options are not case sensitive.

   + Usage Screen (Help):
     
      Most of these programs will give a help-screen listing the options
      when run without anything on the command line, or if the -? option 
      is given.

      The -H option will also give help, but this may be changed in later
      versions.

   + Enabling and Disabling Options:
   
      By default giving an option enables it.  However one may want to
      disable defualt options.  By putting a '-' after an option, one
      can disable it (for example: LS -W-).

      Using a '+' will enable a disabled option (although this is the
      default).
   
   + Assumptions (Assume Yes or Assume No):
   
      In some instances these utilities will ask the user a question
      (such as if an existing file should be overwritten, etc.).  By
      using the -Y or -Z options (assume yes or no on all queries),
      the user will not be queried: this is useful for batch mode or
      background execution of files.
   
   + Pausing between Screens:
       
      Where appropriate, the -P option will pause the screen.  
     
   + Attribute Filters:
       
      Specifying the -A option tells these utilities to include hidden and 
      system files.

      The -B option tells the utilities to include only files with the
      archive (aka "backup") bit set.

      The -R option tells some of the utilities to recurse through sub-
      directories (and hence directories will be included if appropriate).
       
   + Date, Time and Size Filters:
       
      Files can be filtered by their dates and-or sizes.
       
      The -D from,to option filters files between the "from" and "to"
      dates and times: note that the format should be identical to that
      given by the DIR or DATE and TIME commands in DOS (as well as the
      usage screen for TOUCH or the display given by LS).

      One can filter by date, as well as by date and time.  Following
      are some valid examples (assuming your system is set for American
      style dates):
       
       -D 12-1-1991                     files dated 12-1-91 only
       -D 12-?-1991                     files dated 12-1 through 12-31-91
       -D 12-1-91,12-4-91               files dated 12-1 through 12-4-91
       -D 12-5-91,                      files dated after 12-5-91
       -D ,12-5-91                      files dated before 12-5-91
       -D ?-?-1992                      files dated in 1992
       -D +                             files with today's date
       -D +4,                           files up to 4 days old
       -D ,+4                           files older than 4 days
       
      The -S option works similarly for file sizes:

       -S 16384,32768                   files between 16k and 32k-bytes
       -S 16k,32k                       same as above
       -S ,16k                          files less than 16k-bytes
       -S 16k,                          files over 16k-bytes
       -S ,1m                           files under 1 mega-byte
       
      Octal, hexidecimal and binary values are acceptable:
       
       -S ,255                          files under 255 bytes
       -S ,0377                         same as above (octal)
       -S ,0xff                         same as above (hexidecimal)
       -S ,0b11111111                   same as above (binary)

      Note that values beginning with a '0' are assumed to be octal.

      Multiple date and size filters are allowed.
   
   + Interactive Mode:
       
      The -I option tells these utilities to prompt the user before doing
      any operation on files (such as copying, moving, removing, etc.).
       
      The -Y and -Z options should override the -I option.
       
      Some utilities also have the -G option to prompt before deletion of
      files.
   
   + Lowercase Filenames:
       
      The -L option tells these utilities to output filenames in lowercase.
       
   + Quiet Mode:

      For batch- and background operation the -Q option disables all output.

      The -E option tells the utilities to echo error messages anyway, even
      if in quiet mode.

      Some utilities have a -T option to show totals for the number of bytes
      (re-)moved or found.
   
   + Recursive Functions:
       
      The -R option tells most of the utilities to recurse through sub- 
      directories when copying, moving, removing or listing files.
       
   + Root Path:

      If one needs to enter multiple filespecs for a directory, one can
      make the command easier by specifying a "root path" that the files
      are in.

      For example, instead of using LS SUBDIR\*.TXT SUBDIR\*.DOC one can
      use LS -:SUBDIR *.TXT *.DOC instead.

   + Wiping Files:

      The -W option for utilities which can remove files tells them to
      "wipe" the file with pseudo-random noise (so as to defeat disk-
      compressors).

      Be wary with this option: it is easy to do irreparable damage if 
      it is used carelessly.
      
      This option is meant to defeat simple undeletion utilities. It can-
      not guarantee complete security from professionals with high-tech 
      data-recovery equipment: if this is a concern, then you should use
      specialized data-wiping software.

 o Picklists:

     If you prefer that a selected list of files be processed (or if they
     require processing in a special order) you may save time by creating
     a picklist file to be used by these utilities.

     Put the filenames in a text file (with one filename per line) and
     use @FILENAME to refer to the picklist file. For example,

       LS @FILES.LST
 
 o Environment Variables:

     DOS will only expant environment variables in batch files, and not
     on the command line: however most of these utilities will expand them 
     as if they were entered in a batch file: any argument that begins
     with a dollar-sign or percent symbol ('$' or '%') will be treated as
     an environment variable (which can contain filenames or options).

     Some examples:     LS $COMSPEC
                        LS %PGPPATH
                        RM %TEMP%\*

 o File Specifications (FileSpecs):
     
     Filespecs used by these utilities are similar to Unix filespecs,
     which allow multiple '*' wildcards intermixed with text.
     
     Sets, setranges and not-specs are also usable.
     

