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From: nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU
Followup-To: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Apple DOS & Commands Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Archive-name: apple2/doscmd
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Last-modified: February 8 1998
Version: 1.03
URL: http://www.visi.com/~nathan/a2/faq/dos.html
Apple II DOS & Commands FAQ
This document attempts to give a detailed and correct set of Apple II
DOS command line commands, covering those found in official releases
of DOS 3.3 and ProDOS. It may also get into usage notes, non-command
line OSs (GS/OS), etc, eventually.
Copyright (c) 1997 by Nathan Mates (email: nathan@visi.com), all
rights reserved. This document can be freely copied so long as 1) it
is not sold, 2) any sections reposted elsewhere from it are credited
back to this FAQ with the FAQ's copyright info and official WWW
location (http://www.visi.com/~nathan/a2/faq/dos.html) left in place.
This FAQ may not be sold, bundled on disks or CD-ROMs, reprinted in
magazines, books, periodicals, or the like without prior consent from
the author and copyright holder, Nathan Mates. Exceptions are
explicitly granted for Joe Kohn's Shareware Solutions II newsletter,
and Jim Maricondo's Golden Orchard CD-ROM collection. Email me for
permission otherwise.
Further, please do NOT make a copy of this FAQ and post it on the web;
I'm continually updating and fixing sections of it. A html link is
fine.
Disclaimer: I've tried to make this FAQ as accurate as possible, but
there's the chance that it's not perfect. I apologize in advance for
any slipups. Until I am confident that all information is 100%
accurate, you are advised that you are following all info at your own
risk. I will fix any problems found with this FAQ, but will not be
held liable for the results of problems.
Last-modified: February 8, 1998
Version: 1.03
Table of Contents
Section 1: General Intro to this FAQ and the command line environment
Section 2: History and features of DOS 3.x and ProDOS
2.1 History of DOS 3.x and ProDOS
2.2 Features of DOS 3.x
2.3 Features of ProDOS
Section 3: Commands quick reference
A listing of all commands, one per line, to facilitate finding
the appropriate commands.
Section 4: In depth explanation of commands, optional params
4.1 DOS 3.x file names and types
4.2 ProDOS file names and types
4.3 Extended command line parameters for DOS 3.x commands
4.4 Extended command line parameters for ProDOS commands
4.5 Detailed explanation of commands: -, APPEND, BLOAD, BSAVE,
BRUN, BYE, CAT, CATALOG, CHAIN, CLOSE, CREATE, DELETE, EXEC,
FLUSH, FP, FRE, IN#, INIT, INT, LOAD, LOCK, MAXFILES, MON, MTR,
NOMON, OPEN, POSITION, PR#, PREFIX, READ, RENAME, RESTORE, RUN,
SAVE, STORE, UNLOCK, VERIFY, WRITE
Section 5: Miscellaneous questions and answers
5.1: Which OS am I in?
5.2: How do I format a disk?
5.3: How do I copy/move files/disks?
5.4: Can I put DOS 3.x on my hard disk?
5.5: Can I speed up DOS 3.3 or ProDOS?
5.6: What about file/disk undeletion?
5.7: How do I view a text file?
5.8: What does "UNABLE TO LOAD PRODOS" mean when I boot a disk?
5.9: How do I switch drives/disks?
5.10: I don't have an OS for my Apple II. Where do I get it
from?
_________________________________________________________________
Section 1: General Intro to this FAQ and the command line environment
This FAQ attempts to be a reference for the commands supported by DOS
3.x (x=2, 2.1, or 3) and ProDOS at the command line level, as well as
general usability issues. It does not cover where to acquire a copy
and/or upgrade to any version of any OS; you should visit the
comp.sys.apple2 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) at
http://www.visi.com/~nathan/a2/faq/csa2.html section 7.2 and other
referenced sections.
Note that ProDOS does not have any command line support in the base
OS; all command line functionality is part of the Applesoft BASIC
environment provided by launching the 'BASIC.SYSTEM' 'System' file.
Without BASIC.SYSTEM, ProDOS only has a Machine Language Interface
(MLI) for interfacing with apps; during the rest of this FAQ, I have
been lazy in referring to things as 'ProDOS' commands when they are
ProDOS's BASIC.SYSTEM commands.
Applesoft BASIC commands are not included in this FAQ; they have a FAQ
of their own at http://www.visi.com/~nathan/a2/faq/asoft.html.
This FAQ has a set of conventions as to items presented. Items
presented in square brackets '[' ']' are optional. 'filename' is a
legal filename for the OS being used, and for ProDOS, 'dirname' is a
legal directory/path name, 'volname' is a ProDOS volume name. I list
all commands in uppercase; DOS 3.x is case sensitive and commands must
be uppercased. ProDOS is case insensitive, but for consistency,
commands are still uppercased.
_________________________________________________________________
Section 2: History and features of DOS 3.x and ProDOS
2.1 History of DOS 3.x and ProDOS
Apple's DOS (Disk Operating System) was written to support their Disk
][ drive when it debuted in early 1978. Version numbers for software
were not as strict as they are now; the code started at v0.1, and
incremented that by 0.1 per revision. When delivered to Apple, it was
at version 3.0, and after Apple was done with their last
modifications, v3.1 was the first version shipped. As the disk drive
was single sided, all support for Apple 5.25" disks has been
singlesided only.
With various bugfixes, DOS was at version 3.2.1 by 1979. These early
releases supported only 13 sectors/track * 35 tracks for a total of
113.75K per disk side. With technological improvements to the disk
interface card, 16 sectors could be fit in, for a total of 140K/side.
DOS 3.3 was the revision capable of handling these 140K disks, and was
released in 1980.
ProDOS was comissioned to be the 'Professional Disk Operating System',
abbreviated 'ProDOS', and was first part of the Apple III's
'Sophisticated Operating System' (SOS, for an unfortunate acronym
related to the general state of the Apple III). ProDOS was designed to
be a replacement for DOS 3.3, and added many features not part of
original DOS 3.3 such as support for disks other than the 5.25" drive,
as well as directories and timestamping of files. A number of people
have continued to use DOS 3.3 for various reasons, though ProDOS and
various GS versions of it (ProDOS 16 and GS/OS) have become much more
popular among Apple IIGS owners, as well as HD users.
2.2 Features of DOS 3.x
DOS 3.x as released from Apple supports only the 113.75 and 140K 5.25"
disk formats. It supports up to 105 files per side, no directory
support, with very loose rules on filenames. It was initially bundled
with Apple's disk ][ drives, so it won a lot of support for being free
and usable. Since 1980, DOS 3.3's 140K per 5.25" side has become the
reigning standard for the DOS 3.x versions. DOS 3.x 'System Master'
disks could boot and run on any machine with at least 16K of memory
(though 24-32K was rather recommended)
It did have a number of unsuccessful patches to fix a problem with the
APPEND command not properly finding the end of a file before beginning
to write; I know of no 100% fixes for that bug.
Due to some double-buffering while reading and decoding files off
disks, DOS 3.x was not as fast as it could be. A few companies sold
modified versions of DOS 3.3 to avoid the extra copy and thus
dramatically speed up disk access; Beagle Bros's ProntoDOS and many
others were widespread. DOS 3.3 could also be modified to do other
things, such as use a few more tracks on disk for extra space,
relocate itself into the top 16K of memory on a 64K machine, but
again, these were all third party patches, nothing official from
Apple. Some of these patches and features came at the expense of the
INIT command.
2.3 Features of ProDOS
ProDOS allowed directories to be created and files stored in them,
time/date stamping of files, and support for disks other than the
original Disk ][ drive-- up to 32MB per disk volume (partition). It
did go with far more restrictive filenames (possibly as an attempt to
move 'towards' MS-DOS), and case insensitive filenames at the cost of
everything appearing in uppercase.
Apart from the very earliest versions, ProDOS has required a 64K Apple
II. When the Apple IIGS came out, the need for a 16-bit OS was
apparent, so with a quick wrapper around ProDOS, 'ProDOS 16' was
created, turning the existing ProDOS to 'ProDOS 8'. Versions 2.x of
ProDOS 8 require an enhanced //e, //c, IIc+ or GS.
ProDOS incorporates most to all of the disk read speedups provided by
DOS 3.3 third party enhancements, so it does not need to be patched to
sped up.
ProDOS also has the ability to not reside on a disk when first
formatted (at obvious disk space savings), but be copied on later and
the disk will be bootable if copied correctly to the root directory as
well as an application to run at boot. Similar functionality could be
gained in DOS 3.x by using certain utility programs, but is not
standard.
ProDOS's 'BASIC.SYSTEM' commandline functionality gained a few
features over DOS 3.3, such as support for typing commands in
lowercase. A few lesser-used commands were removed, most notably the
ability to switch to 'Integer Basic', as well as disk formatting.
_________________________________________________________________
Section 3: Commands quick reference
A listing of all commands, one per line, to facilitate finding the
appropriate commands. Only the required part of each command is shown
here; optional parts are detailed in the sections on DOS 3.x optional
params and ProDOS optional params.
Commands common to both DOS 3.x and ProDOS:
CATALOG Shows a directory listing. [ProDOS: see also cat]
LOAD filename Loads a Applesoft BASIC program.
SAVE filename Saves a Applesoft BASIC program.
RUN filename Loads and runs a Applesoft BASIC program.
BLOAD filename Loads a binary file.
BSAVE filename,Aaddr,Llen Saves a binary file.
BRUN filename Loads and executes a binary file
OPEN filename Opens a text file. For BASIC programs only.
CLOSE [filename] Closes specified (or all) open text files.
READ filename Reads from a text file. For BASIC programs only.
WRITE filename Writes to a text file. For BASIC programs only.
APPEND filename Appends to a text file. For BASIC programs only.
POSITION filename Sets position in text file. For BASIC programs only
.
EXEC filename 'Executes' a text file, as if every line was typed.
DELETE filename Attempts to remove a file from disk
LOCK filenname Quick file protect from change or deletion
UNLOCK filenname Undoes a LOCK
RENAME file1,file2 Renames 'file1' to 'file2'
IN#slotnum Redirects input from the specified slot
PR#slotnum Redirects output to the specified slot
VERIFY filename Checks existence, DOS 3.3 checks if is readable
DOS 3.x only commands:
INIT filename Formats disk, current BASIC program saved as boot app.
MON [,C][,I][,O] Traces DOS 3.3 commands
NOMON [,C][,I][,O] Cancels tracing of DOS 3.3 commands
MAXFILES n Reserves buffers for disk i/o
FP Switches to Applesoft BASIC, erases program in memory
INT Switches to Integer BASIC, erases program in memory
ProDOS's BASIC.SYSTEM only commands:
CAT 40-column directory listing.
PREFIX [dirname] Displays current directory or changes current dir.
CREATE filename Creates a file with optional type
- filename Executes Applesoft, binary, text, system file
BYE Exits to ProDOS application switcher
FLUSH Writes all buffers to disk
CHAIN filename Runs another Applesoft program, variables intact
FRE Faster Applesoft string garbage collection
STORE filename Writes Applesoft variables to a file
RESTORE filename Reads Applesoft variables from a file
MTR Jumps to monitor (same as 'CALL -151')
_________________________________________________________________
Section 4: In depth explanation of commands, optional params
4.1: DOS 3.x file names and types
DOS 3.x filenames can from 1-30 characters in length, and must start
with an uppercase letter. They cannot contain commas, colons, but can
contain control characters. (Return (control-M) is a pain to type, and
thus usually out). DOS 3.x has essentially 8 filetypes, noted by the
character in the directory listing: Applesoft Basic (A), Integer Basic
(I), Text file (T), Binary (B), 'S' (source? -- rarely used) type
files, and 'R' (relocatable-- also rarely used) files, plus a second
'A' and 'B'.
A sample directory listing from a CATALOG is shown below:
DISK VOLUME 254