PMSFX 2

John Elliott

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Jan 11, 1997, 3:00:00 AM1/11/97

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I was just disassembling PMSFX2.COM the other day, and I found the
following interesting facility that I haven't seen documented anywhere:

When the self-extracting archive PMSFX2 has become is unpacking itself,
any file called "!" will be displayed on the screen, followed by the question
"Extract Y/N?"; if the user presses N, nothing else will be unpacked.

PMSFX is a wonderful piece of software.

------------- http://www.seasip.demon.co.uk/index.html --------------------
John Elliott |BLOODNOK: "But why have you got such a long face?"
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Ismael Cordeiro

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Jan 17, 1997, 3:00:00 AM1/17/97

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John Elliott (ell...@teaching.physics.ox.ac.uk) wrote:

> I was just disassembling PMSFX2.COM the other day, and I found the
> following interesting facility that I haven't seen documented anywhere:
>
> When the self-extracting archive PMSFX2 has become is unpacking itself,
> any file called "!" will be displayed on the screen, followed by the
> question "Extract Y/N?"; if the user presses N, nothing else will be
> unpacked.

Interesting. How do you create a file named "!" in CP/M? "!" is a command
separator and consequently can't be used in filenames.

John Elliott

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Jan 17, 1997, 3:00:00 AM1/17/97

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In article <5bnu95$5...@ocean.CAM.ORG>, Ismael Cordeiro (ism...@CAM.ORG) wrote:
: John Elliott (ell...@teaching.physics.ox.ac.uk) wrote:

: > I was just disassembling PMSFX2.COM the other day, and I found the
: > following interesting facility that I haven't seen documented anywhere:
: >
: > When the self-extracting archive PMSFX2 has become is unpacking itself,
: > any file called "!" will be displayed on the screen, followed by the
: > question "Extract Y/N?"; if the user presses N, nothing else will be
: > unpacked.

: Interesting. How do you create a file named "!" in CP/M? "!" is a command
: separator and consequently can't be used in filenames.

Doubled ! marks in a CP/M 3 command become !s in the program input:

PMARC FILE.COM=PMSFX2.COM !! members ...

- however, this doesn't work in CP/M 3 Submit, which converts all ! marks
to carriage returns.

Alternatively, use ZCCP under which the command separator is ";" (and
what that does to the CP/M password system, I dread to think).

Will Rose

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Jan 18, 1997, 3:00:00 AM1/18/97

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Ismael Cordeiro (ism...@CAM.ORG) wrote:
: John Elliott (ell...@teaching.physics.ox.ac.uk) wrote:

: > I was just disassembling PMSFX2.COM the other day, and I found the
: > following interesting facility that I haven't seen documented anywhere:
: >
: > When the self-extracting archive PMSFX2 has become is unpacking itself,
: > any file called "!" will be displayed on the screen, followed by the
: > question "Extract Y/N?"; if the user presses N, nothing else will be
: > unpacked.

: Interesting. How do you create a file named "!" in CP/M? "!" is a command
: separator and consequently can't be used in filenames.

I've not seen ! used as a command separator - as far as I can tell, it's
a legal file name in CP/M, MSDOS FAT, OS/2 FAT, and OS/2 HPFS (and Unix).

Will
c...@crash.cts.com

John Elliott

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Jan 18, 1997, 3:00:00 AM1/18/97

to

As a postscript to this, I've written a version of PMSFX that
produces .COM files unpackable under DOS and CP/M (the first three bytes
are both legal Z80 code, legal 8086 code and legal PMA header).

You can find it at http://www.seasip.demon.co.uk/Cpm/software/pmsfx21x.com
as a self-extracting archive.

John D. Baker

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Jan 19, 1997, 3:00:00 AM1/19/97

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Ismael Cordeiro (ism...@CAM.ORG) wrote:
> John Elliott (ell...@teaching.physics.ox.ac.uk) wrote:
> > any file called "!" will be displayed on the screen, followed by the
>

> Interesting. How do you create a file named "!" in CP/M? "!" is a command
> separator and consequently can't be used in filenames.

While this is true under CP/M Plus (v3.x), CP/M 2.2 (and MSX-DOS it would
appear) allow "!" in filenames with no problem.

Witness the DateStamper/ZDDOS stamp file "!!!TIME&.DAT". Or BackGrounder-II
files that start with "!!"..

--
John D. Baker ->A TransWarp'802'd Apple //e CardZ180 Z-System nut //
Internet: jdb...@blkbox.com, jdb...@taronga.com
BBS: JOHN BAKER on PIC of the Mid-Town [(281) 326-5890] 1:106/31,
Z-Node #45 [(713) 937-8886], The Vector Board [(716) 544-1863]

http://www.blkbox.com/~jdb8042/

Ismael Cordeiro

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Jan 19, 1997, 3:00:00 AM1/19/97

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John Elliott (ell...@teaching.physics.ox.ac.uk) wrote:

> : > When the self-extracting archive PMSFX2 has become is unpacking

> : > itself, any file called "!" will be displayed on the screen, followed
> : > by the question "Extract Y/N?"; if the user presses N, nothing else
> : > will be unpacked.
>
> : Interesting. How do you create a file named "!" in CP/M? "!" is a

> : command separator and consequently can't be used in filenames.
>

> Doubled ! marks in a CP/M 3 command become !s in the program input:

It works! Thanks. I created a PMA COM file with the first file, a text one,
named "!" and it worked as you said. Great discovery!

> - however, this doesn't work in CP/M 3 Submit, which converts all ! marks
> to carriage returns.

Well, nothing is perfect, not even CP/M... ;-)

Richard Plinston

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Jan 20, 1997, 3:00:00 AM1/20/97

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In message <<5bq6fd$c...@bogus.cts.com>> c...@cts.com writes:
>
> : Interesting. How do you create a file named "!" in CP/M? "!" is a command
> : separator and consequently can't be used in filenames.
>

> I've not seen ! used as a command separator - as far as I can tell, it's
> a legal file name in CP/M, MSDOS FAT, OS/2 FAT, and OS/2 HPFS (and Unix).

It is a legal character for a file name in CP/M and CP/M-86 but
not in Concurrent-CP/M-86, MP/M or CP/M-Plus, or any later OS
where '!' was either reserved or was used as a command separator.

Ismael Cordeiro

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Jan 22, 1997, 3:00:00 AM1/22/97

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Will Rose (c...@cts.com) wrote:

> Ismael Cordeiro (ism...@CAM.ORG) wrote:
>
> : Interesting. How do you create a file named "!" in CP/M? "!" is a
> : command separator and consequently can't be used in filenames.
>
> I've not seen ! used as a command separator - as far as I can tell, it's a
> legal file name in CP/M, MSDOS FAT, OS/2 FAT, and OS/2 HPFS (and Unix).

I don't know about the other operating systems you mentioned, nor about
earlier versions of CP/M, but CP/M 3 uses "!" for chaining commands. If you
enter "DIR!TYPE FILE.TXT" you'll see the directory of the current drive and
after, the file named "FILE.TXT" will be sent to the screen. If you try to
create a text file with "ZDE FILE!DOC.TXT", ZDE will run but the filename
will be "FILE" and when you quit ZDE, CP/M will display "DOC.TXT?".

Johnathan Taylor

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Jan 23, 1997, 3:00:00 AM1/23/97

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In article <5br0vo$3...@news.ox.ac.uk>,

ell...@teaching.physics.ox.ac.uk (John Elliott) wrote:
> As a postscript to this, I've written a version of PMSFX that
>produces .COM files unpackable under DOS and CP/M (the first three bytes
>are both legal Z80 code, legal 8086 code and legal PMA header).
>
> You can find it at http://www.seasip.demon.co.uk/Cpm/software/pmsfx21x.com
>as a self-extracting archive.

Excelent work John! The next mission should you choose to accept it will be
to incorperate your 8086 port of the -pm2- decryption into a 8086 PMA
extraction utility to allow uploading PMARC compressed mail packets.
Then after that converting the 86 asm into ANSI C so that it can be compiled
on unix boxes to allow easy use of CRR QWK with UQWK for usenet/email:-)

Regards
Johnathan.
--

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