Hi all,
I in Dallas in a Motel room trying to use
COPY FLP0:*.*=*.*
under ashell.
I'm trying to update some users and their CD
has been disabled so all they have is floppy
drives. How do I define the floppy drive on
my PC so I can do the above command?

Then when I try and load the files to the users
is the DEVICE the same? I am guessing/trying
various combinations and haven't succeeded yet.
thanks
Gary

OK, I've been banging on it for an hour and
got the copy going. Got 5 diskettes ready for
tomorrow to load on the users. Yes, their
work on saturday. Still don't quite understand
the concept.
Gary

The floppy disk is really just like any other driver letter, in this case probably A:. As with other drives, you have two layout options with corresponding DEVICE statement formats.

Option 1 is to have a base or root directory, under which you have the ###### directories which correspond to PPNs. For example, your floppies (i.e. A: drive) might be set up like this:

A:\100200
A:\100201
A:\100202

To access files in the above directories, you would set up a DEVICE statement like this:

DEVICE=FLP0 A:\

(Note there is no colon after the FLP0 in the above line.)

In that case, the directories would appear to A-Shell as FLP0:[100,200] thru FLP0:[100,202]

The other alternative, if you just want to put all your files in the root directory of the floppy disk, would be to treat that as a fixed PPN, let's say [1,1] which you could do by using the following DEVICE statement:

DEVICE=FLP0:[1,1] A:\

In that case, to copy all the files from the root directory of the floppy to your current A-Shell directory, you could use the command:

.COPY = FLP0:[1,1]

The choice of ppn to use here is strictly arbitrary and just depends on what you use in the DEVICE statement. Note that the technique could also apply to any individual subdirectory on the floppy device.

And to reiterate, there is nothing special about the fact that it is a floppy. Everything described above would work with any drive letter, whether that drive letter references a hard drive, network share, or removable media device. The only thing which might be special about some specific devices is that they may be read-only in which case you could only copy from them.

Note that the A-Shell COPY command will clear the readonly bit from the files when it writes them to the destination directory, but if you use some other technique to transfer files from, say, a CD, then you might have to manually remove the READONLY bit from the destination files. One way to do that would be with the DOS/Console command ATTRIB. (ATTRIB *.* will display the attributes of all files in the current directory, and ATTRIB -R *.* will remove the Readonly bit from each of them.)

Also note that the documentation for the DEVICE statement can be found online at:
http://www.microsabio.com/downloads/doc/ashsetup/device.htm

J,
Thanks for the response. I did read the manual,
but it didn't explain the concept in detail enough for me. It probably is ok for normal users it seems that my needs are more intensive.

I was trying to creat the files on the floppy
without creating a sub directory. Just in A:\,
you discussion above about [1,1] I think will
help. Friday night about 11 PM, I ended up
creating sub directories on the floppys and
got the files copied.

I have seen:
DEVICE=FLP0: A:\
and
DEVICE=FLP0 A:\
no comma. Is the comma required? My CD is
defined:
DEVICE=CDR0 D:\VM\MIAME\DSK0\
does that mean I really could just say:
DEVICE=CDR0 D:\DSK0\
Why have the \VM\MIAME... the sample in the
ini shows it.
gracias
Gary

There should not be a colon after the device name in the first form of the DEVICE statement, i.e.

DEVICE=FLP0 A:\

(I've just now corrected that mistake in my previous posting above.)

And there are no commas in the DEVICE statement, except in the [p,pn] field of the ppn-specific form.

As for the decision of whether to have the \VM\MIAME base directories, it is entirely optional and up to you, for all devices. (The \VM was meant to refer to "virtual machine" and allow for developers to maintain lots of different "virtual machines", but somehow it became a sort of default that has been handed down through the ages...)

Hi Gary,

Am I simplifying the things or, you just want to get some folder/files copied into a floppy disk?

If so, why don't you use the Windows Explorer ?

Unless I miss some detail in your post that makes this method impossible to use or, you really want to know how to use the DEVICE method.

regards

Jorge,

Que paso? y bom dia...

The reason for NOT using Click & Copy from with
windows is that Win. Expl.
leaves the READONLY attribute
on a file that I copy from a CD. By using
AShell copy disk:here=CD:from_there
format then the read only attribute does not
stay on the files. When it comes to floppy files
I don't know (but can guess) that the read
attribute doesn't matter (floppy to harddrive).
I was trying to set up a "standard" CMD file
in AShell that copies the update software to
the hard drive.

thanks for your interest

Gary

Hi Gary,

Everything is fine.

I still prefer to paste the folders to the hard disk, select all, go to properties and change the read-only attribute to all folders/files in one step.
Another suggestion is to zip all the folders before copy to the CD.

But, don't think me wrong, I was just confused why you took so many hours to copy your files.

Regards.

It took me a long time because I was trying
to copy all the programs to the floppy without
a sub folder so that all programs exist under
A:\*.RUN
After reading Jack's note above I now know how
to do it. What I ended up doing was creating
a subfolder with the programs like:
A:\101100\*.RUN

I am going to cut the msg above and print it
and put it into my AShell binder of help that
I have/keep with me.
thanks
Gary

Jack, (copied this from the 4th response above).

1) I said "comma" but ment colon, amazing you
read my mind very good.
| I have seen:
| DEVICE=FLP0: A:\
| and
| DEVICE=FLP0 A:\
| no comma. Is the comma required?
I ment "colon", you answered it above.

2) I still don't have a full grip on the
CD Device statement. Why have the "\VM\MIAME\..
in the device statement?
You don't use it with the floppy?
Is it necessary?
What happens if I don't use it?

| My CD is defined:
| DEVICE=CDR0 D:\VM\MIAME\DSK0\
| does that mean I really could just say:
| DEVICE=CDR0 D:\DSK0\
| Why have the \VM\MIAME... the sample in the
| ini shows it.
|

Gary

There is absolutely nothing special about the CDR0 DEVICE statement, nor is there any special need or reason for the base directory \VM\MIAME. It was just a convention that has been carried along. Obviously, when A-Shell files are sharing a drive with lots of other files, it helps to have them all organized under a single folder, whereas in the case of a floppy or CD, it probably doesn't matter as much. But it's all just a matter of how you want to organize your folders. A-Shell doesn't care if you put your ppn folders in the root folder of the device, or start 7 levels down, just as long as the DEVICE statement points to the right starting directory.

(P.S. to Jorge: you'll have to excuse Gary - he's from Texas.)

I may live in Texas now (come to think of it yep,
I sure do). But I grew up in So. Calif. and
still have a lot of salt water between the
ears from wipeouts on surfboards.
Gary in Texas (:>)___,,

the above image is of me with ten over the end,
hanging ten toes over then end of the board.