@database zDir.guide @author "Finn Nielsen " @(C) "Copyright ©1998 ZzNyYd! Design." @$VER: zDir V2.7 (13.2.98)) AmigaGuide Documentation @width 76 @rem You really should view this document using AmigaGuide... @node main "zDir V2.7 (13.2.98)) by Finn Nielsen - ©1998 ZzNyYd! Design." zDir V2.7 - 'Friday the 13th' edition The Ultimate Dir-command @{" Introduction " Link Introduction} Why use zDir instead of some other dir listing util? @{" Background " Link Background} Why did I make this? @{" Features " Link Features} A list of some of zDir's features. @{" Disclaimer " Link Disclaimer} If something goes wrong don't blame me. @{" Distribution " Link Distribution} zDir is FreeWare. @{" Files " Link Files} These files should be in the archive. @{" Requirements " Link Requirements} What does zDir require? @{" Usage/Options " Link Usage} Description of options and stuff. @{" Installation " Link Install} How to install the blasted thing. @{" History " Link History} What has happened in the past? @{" Author " Link Author} Where to send bugreports. @{" Problems " Link Problems} When it's not my fault. @{" Thanks " Link Thanks} Acknowledgements. @endnode @node Introduction "zDir - Introduction" zDir - Introduction When working a lot with a command line interface a good dir listing util is a must. However the output from the List command, supplied on the workbench disks, fills to much (I don't always need to know the state of the protections bits and creation date and time), the Dir command (also from the wb disks) doesn't give enough information and further more it simply looks ugly and it sucks, and so does most other dir listing utils I have tried. Some dir listing utils, such as xDir, xfdList and MList, comes in a software package and exists only to support that special software package, and, unfortunately, lack a lot of functionallity. So here is zDir, a Dir listing util that has all the functionallity that is required by a real Dir command, a nice look, a list option + it supports the software packages xpk, xfd, fileid and MultiUser. Please take a look at the @{" Features " Link Features} that zDir offers. @endnode @node Background "zDir - Background" zDir - Background A long time ago when my friends and I were still using Kickstart 1.3, I used C='s List command in my CLI and one of my friends used something called "Master Dir", and we were happy with that. The shell always had a special feature, that the CLI did not have: the ability to make commands resident. When working with disks on 1.3 however installing the shell required extra diskspace, so we just used the CLI. Then came Kickstart 2.0. In this the shell was part of the ROM and so required no extra diskspace, so now we could take advantage of the resident command. This was all fine for me because I used List, but my friend who really liked the look of "Master Dir" was disappointed of it's inability to be made resident because it wasn't pure. So he gave me a copy of "Master Dir" and asked me to make a pure dir command, with the same look. I did and I also made a few other improvements and the first version of zDir was born (back then called "Ultimate Dir" or just "Dir"). In the summer of 1995 my harddisk at that time (a 210 MB seagate) crashed and I lost (among other things: real men *don't* make backups :-) the source for the latest version of zDir (V1.42) and as a result I decided to drop the project. However urged by some of my friends (and also because I was not satisfied with V1.42 anymore) I decided some time ago to do a complete rewrite of zDir, implementing all the functionallity missing from the previous versions + support for the software packages xpk, xfd, fileid and MultiUser. This was initially meant to be programmed in assembler like the previous versions, but due to assembler being a pain I never really got around to doing any work on it. Then in the summer of 1996 I learned C and C++ and during the last 2 weeks of my summervacation I did most of zDir V2.0, but this time in C, so basically zDir has been nearly finished for a year now (only the recursive stuff were missing). During the following year I had to much else to do (studying Computer Science at the University) so only bugfixes and very small changes were made to zDir. But during my summervacation in 1997 I've finally gotten around to doing the last part of zDir, and this is the result. @endnode @node Features "zDir - Features" zDir - Features zDir can replace: ° C='s Dir. ° xDir (from the xpk-package). ° xfdList (from the xfd-package). ° WhatIs (from the FIDLIB-package). ° MList (from the MultiUser-package) Features: ° Says "*** @{"Ni" Link Ni}." when you break it. ° 100% pure, can be made resident. ° Uses efficient memory-pools. ° Very fast assembly written sorting algorithm. ° Shows the full path of the directory that is read. ° Has a much nicer look than other dir-listing utils. ° Can output disksizes in Kb or MB. ° Sets the pr_Result2 field on error so the 'Why' command can be used. Features accessible via @{"options" Link Usage 56}: ° List option (recognizes and ignores XFH-comments). ° Recursive option (can recursively read an entire directory tree). ° Sizecheck dirs option. ° Recognizes xpk-packed and PowerPacked data-files internally. ° supports MultiUserFileSystem. (group & other protection bits + owner/group field). ° Supports xfdmaster.library and FileID.library. ° Can recursively scan a directory tree for a specific filename or filecomment. What zDir doesn't have: ° An LFORMAT argument: zDir is a Dir-command not a List-command! When you need LFORMAT use List or something. @endnode @node Disclaimer "zDir - Disclaimer" zDir - Disclaimer zDir is provided "AS IS" and by using zDir, you accept the FULL responsibility for any damage or loss that might occur through its use or the inability to use it. The author of zDir can NOT be held responsible for any damage or loss of data that might happen through the use or misuse of this software. In particular the author can not be held responsible for any problems that arise due to a bug in any of the external libraries used. I myself and a friend of mine have been using zDir ever since the first version and I have corrected all problems and bugs that we have found in it, so I guess zDir is pretty stable by now. zDir works fine on my system and should work on all V37+ systems, but there is no garantee that it'll work on your particular system. @endnode @node Distribution "zDir - Distribution" zDir - Distribution zDir is FreeWare but also Copyright by the @{"author" Link Author}. That means you are allowed to redistribute this package as long as you follow these rules: 1. Any re-distribution has to include *all* files in this archive, without any modifications. The files are listed @{"here" Link Files}, if any of them are missing, you should consider getting your software from another source. 2. zDir may be freely distributed via BBSs, InterNet/UseNet, software libraries such as Fred Fish's and Aminet CD-ROM, and other similar electronic channels. This includes that the author(s) of any other freely distributable software package may include the zDir package with that software. 3. Disk magazines and services that charge extra for file transfers may NOT distribute zDir without written permission by the @{"author" Link Author}. @endnode @node Files "zDir - Files in this package" zDir - Files in this package This is the list of files, that I, the author of zDir, have put in this archive: zDir The executable itself zDir.guide This documentation zDir.readme Aminet identification file_id.diz BBS identification Authentication.asc Contains the md5 sums for the above files. Should any of these files be missing from the archive, or any of the md5 sums fail, you should seriously consider getting your software from another source. So you can check that the md5 sums are valid I've signed Authentication.asc with my PGP public key below: Type Bits/KeyID Date User ID pub 1024/AB1AB0AD 1995/11/28 Finn Nielsen -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.6.3i mQCNAjC7XogAAAEEALzi4tZpf2DrVicNYgI9hB3nPImYqRQWnaCM9Vin/qnPjM5O P3plHnZct2fQwv++7YRxkXGyF4zZlXjey5z8tu5Mid0GhtHqCybzaThHLZ9DI0jU 0FYxlEBixbr7zBTrSqMC09lBrqmCGaDXYfaJmHFkLvchL1BwpHM9SeGrGrCtAAUR tB1GaW5uIE5pZWxzZW4gPHp6bnl5ZEBkaWt1LmRrPokAlQIFEDC7XsVzPUnhqxqw rQEBmAQEALJNfdV3qZvXE4nsjT4ynf+GHIzFr2lWdsExZzu+9e74lKS0S+pWV0Q0 vnfNqGgQEGnUm5ZwBPFOhhiro5Y4tNSpdY6g0SLqq9R1v0maZLaDrwjY+huL3tVz ltQcU0O6v92g4ynGmWqTVRU4FcYBr2TxmaJiKCV8oaBR893dRjym =Ub/j -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- This key is also available at keyservers and via my homepage: http://www.diku.dk/students/zznyyd/ @endnode @node Requirements "zDir - Requirements" zDir - Requirements Normal usage and xDir-mode: ° An Amiga with kickstart V37 (2.04) or greater. The Xtra option (-X[n]): ° xfdmaster.library V38 or greater (not included) ° + optionally FileID.library V7 or greater (not included) The MultiUser option (-m): ° multiuser.library V39 or greater (not included) Note that while zDir refuses to run on pre-V37 systems, it will simply issue a warning (and ignore the offending option) if you have chosen an option that requires xfdmaster.library, FileID.library or multiuser.library without having it in your Libs: drawer. zDir will work fine without these libraries and will only try to load them when told to do so via the @{"options" Link Usage 56}. @endnode @node Usage "zDir - Usage and options" zDir - Usage and options @{B}Usage:@{UB} Usage is simple, just use zDir like most other Dir-commands. Type "zDir ?" to get a small overview of the options. To read several directories just put them after each other and zDir will read them one by one, if you don't specify any directories zDir will read the current directory. If you enter a name with spaces in it, you'll have to enclose that name in single or double quotes or zDir will think that it's more than a single name. Options can be anywhere on the command line and starts with a '-'. When an '-' is encountered zDir will start parsing options. zDir accepts options both the 'lha-style' like: zDir -loR mydir and the 'lzx-style' like: zDir -l -o -R mydir and mixed like zDir -lo -R mydir and even zDir -l mydir1 -o mydir2 -R Note that zDir parses all options before reading the directory(s) and that the option(s) specified last override the option(s) specified first (except for the -C and -F options). All directories specified in the same line will be read with the same options active. All options are case- sensitive, so while "zDir -m" is ok, "zDir -M" will fail. To read a directory where the name starts with a '-' or has spaces in it just enclose the name in single or double quotes or use the -- option. If you get the 'unknown option' error you probably just forgot to that, for example: zDir -mydir would fail because the exists no -y option, but all of these combinations zDir "-mydir" zDir '-mydir' zDir -- -mydir zDir -- "-mydir" zDir -- '-mydir' would work. @{B}Options:@{UB} Here is the list of all zDir's command line options. Note that the command line options are all case-sensitive and that all options are toggles with some sideeffects (except the -C and -F options). -- stop option parsing This option will stop all option parsing. This option *must* be followed by a space character. Following this option everything on the rest of the command line is assumed to be file- or directory-names. -l List-mode This switch turns on zDir's list-mode. In this mode zDir's output will be very similar to List only with a little nicer look and an extra field for extra information. The extra information can be one of the following: "(Lnk)" if the entry is not really a file or a directory but a hard- or soft-link to one, "(Dir)" if the entry is a directory, "(XFH)" if entry is a file that has an XFH-comment attached to it (XFH-comments will not be shown) and finally "(...)" if the entry is just an ordinary file. This cancels the -m, -n, -x, and -X[n] options. -L List dates (list-mode) Same as -l except the date field will always contain the date and never a substitute such as "Yesterday", "Monday", "Future" etc. and -m is not turned off. This cancels the -n, -x, and -X[n] options. This always turns on the -l option. -c ignore Comments (list-mode) Same as -l except zDir will ignore all comments and -m is not turned off. This cancels the -n, -x, and -X[n] options. This always turns on the -l option. -m MultiUser list (list-mode) This option turns on zDir's MultiUser-mode. When this is on zDir will also show the group and other protection bits + the owner/group field. Note that the MultiUser 'u'-protection-bit will be shown in place of the AmigaDOS 'h'-bit. This always turns on the -l option. If multiuser.library V39+ isn't available this option is ignored (except for turning on the -l option). This cancels the -n, -x and -X[n] options. -x xDir-mode This switch turns on zDir's xDir-mode. In this mode zDir will recognize xpk-packed and powerpacked datafiles and will show you both the filesize and the origional/uncrunched size of the file + it will calculate the ratio by which the file was crunched and inform you which packer was used. This cancels the -l, -c, -n, -m, -d and -X[n] options. -X[n] Xtra Same as -x except in this mode also xfdmaster.library V38+ (and optionally FileID.library V7+) will be used to recognize files. The output format is a little different because xfd can't inform you of the uncrunched filesize of all recognized filetypes (except if you really uncrunch the file), this is because of the stupid fileformats of some lame crunchers. The n is optional and can be either 1, 2 or (the logical OR of 1 and 2) 3, if n is 1 zDir will tell xfdmaster.library to enable it's external libraries to recognize files. If n is 2 then zDir will also use FileID.library (if it's available) to recognize files, and if n is 3 zDir will use both external slaves and FileID. This cancels the -l, -c, -n, -x, -d and -m options, however if xfdmaster.library V38+ isn't available zDir will fall back to using the -x option instead (in this case FileID won't be used either). -i no disk Info If this option is specified on the command line zDir will not print out it's usual disk information at the end of a directory listing. -p no path If this option is specified, zDir will not print out the path of the directory read, this cancels -R. -n only names If this option is on, zDir will only print the names of entries in a directory, not filesize or other information. This works in both dir-mode and list-mode. If you also disable escape-codes zDir will try to append directory names with a '/' if there's room for it. Note that this is cancelled by -l, but does not itself cancel -l. This cancels -m, -S, -x, -X and -c. -R Recursive scan This option tells zDir to read every directory encountered recursively. This cancels the -f, -d, -p and -S options. -f only Files This option tells zDir to only show files. This option cancels the -S, -R and -d options. -d only Dirs This option tells zDir to only show directories. This option cancels the -x, -X[n], -f, -S and -R options. -h Hide 'hidden' entries This option tells zDir not to show files or directories that has the 'h'-bit (FIBF_HIDDEN) set. This cancels -a. -a All This option simply cancels -h and disables HIDE. -S Sizecheck dirs This option tells zDir to recursively scan each directory encountered summing up all the filesizes. If you also disable escape-codes zDir will try to append directory names with a '/' if there's room for it. Also in this mode the fields Files and Dirs will display the total number of files and dirs encountered and Size includes dirsizes. In this mode patternmatching will be disabled. This option cancels the -f, -d, -n, -x, -X[n] and -R options. -o sOrting This switch toggles wether zDir should sort all the names or not. This is useful for turning on sorting in list/xdir-modes. By default sorting is off in list/xdir-modes. Sorting is always on in dir-mode. -E Escape-codes This switch toggles wether zDir will output any escape-codes to the console. By default zDir prints files in color 1 (black) and directories in color 3 (blue), but when redirecting output to a file it can be useful to turn escape-codes off. Also see the DIRPEN option. -F : Find With this option you can tell zDir to recursively scan a directory for a particular file or directory which matches the pattern. This cancels all other options including HIDE except for -m, -E, -c and -i. This option can only be canceled by -C. -C : find in Comment With this option you can tell zDir to recursively scan a directory for a particular file or directory who's comment matches the pattern. This cancels all other options including HIDE except for -m, -E and -i. This option can only be canceled by -F. @{B}Settings in the 'zDir' environment variable:@{UB} zDir also has a environment variable called (amazingly enough) 'zDir'. By setting this variable you can change some of zDir's default behaviour. Use the 'Set' or 'SetEnv' command to set these. Local variables (Set) override global variables (SetEnv), so you can have different settings in different shellwindows at the same time. Examples: Set zDir "columns=4 kb=50 mb=50" SetEnv zDir "kb 150" To save the settings use 'SetEnv' and then "Copy Env:zDir EnvArc:". If there are any faults in the zDir variable all settings in it will be completely ignored. Here follows the list of options that are recognized in the environment variable. Environment variable options are case-insensitive (unlike the command line options). COLUMNS= and WIDTH= COLUMNS determines how many columns zDir will print out a directory in when in Dir-mode. The valid range is 2 thru 20, the default is 3. WIDTH determines the width of the individual columns when in Dir-mode. The valid range is 11 thru 41, the default is 22. You can also specify the following "magic" numbers for COLUMNS: -1: zDir will automatically adjust the columnwidth and number of columns according to the width of the shellwindow and lenght of file- and dir-names. zDir will check the windowwidth automatically. WIDTH will be the default windowwidth when redirecting output to a file, Valid range is 77 thru 880, default is 77. When COLUMNS is -1 zDir will adjust the columns so that each column is only as wide as the longest entry in that column, this will not be done when COLUMNS is -2. -2: Same as -1, but file- and dir-columnwidth isn't adjusted independently. Any other negative number: Same as -2 but WIDTH is again the width of the columns and only number of columns is automatically adjusted. -COLUMNS is the default number of columns when redirecting output to a file. KB= and MB= This affects only the 'Dir size', 'Disk Size', 'Disk Used' and 'Disk Free' fields and determines how many Kb/MB is required before shifting to that notation. For example setting 'kb=50' would mean that there would have to be 50 Kb free on the disk before zDir would express the 'Disk Free' field in Kb's instead of in bytes. Setting these values to 0 or not setting them at all disables this feature. OPTS=- This allows you to specify some default options for zDir. are the same options that you can specify on the command line. When using this option zDir will interpret it almost as if the options were the first thing on the command line, the only difference is that the -- option will always give an error and that the options given here *must* be specified together (use '-Eo' instead of '-E -o'). So if the zDir variable is set to "OPTS=-Eo" the line 'zDir foo' will be interpreted the same as 'zDir -Eo foo' without the OPTS keyword. If the options are not prefixed with a '-' they are simply ignored. That is 'OPTS=Eo' will be ignored, but 'OPTS=-Eo' will work. This option is mostly useful if you want sorting automatically turned on in all list-modes and/or you prefer that zDir never prints any escape codes. You can also make zDir ignore comments in list-modes with 'OPTS=-cl'. WARNING: The same routine is used to parse these options as the command line options, this *will* allow you to set yourself up for getting into trouble. For example specifying -f, -d, -F or -C here is asking for trouble. In some cases defining an alias is better than using the OPTS keyword, examples of this are the -m, -x and -X options. COMPACT When this switch is specified zDir will output path and diskinfo in a more compact format. DIRPEN This is the pen used to print directories in when -E is not specified. Acceptable values are 0 thru 7, default is 3 (blue). Files are always printed with pen 1 (black). SEPLEN= The argument determines the separator between names in dir-mode, it can be 1 for a 1-space separator, 2 for a 2-space separator and 3 (the default) for a space, a bar ("|") and a space. ALTDIR This switch causes zDir's dir-mode to display the sorted entries in an alternative way. That is, to read the entries in alphabetical order you should read them one column at a time instead of one row at a time. When this is used zDir will try to fill the columns instead of filling the rows (but still in as few lines as possible). HIDE= This is any AmigaDOS pattern you want and specifies which files and directories to hide. Useful to hide icons (HIDE=#?.info) or hide names beginning with a dot (HIDE=.#?, like UNIX-ls) or maybe both (HIDE=(.#?|#?.info). Ofcourse you can also play a trick on your friends by setting it to #? :-). @endnode @node Install "zDir - Installation" zDir - Installation To install zDir you only have to do the following: 1. @{"(ACTION) Copy zDir to C:zDir" System "Copy zDir C:zDir"} to install zDir. 2. @{"(ACTION) Protect C:zDir +p" System "Protect C:zDir +p"} to set the pure bit. 3. If you use the Shell a lot it is a good idea to make zDir resident during startup (insert "Resident C:zDir Add" in your @{"S:User-Startup" System "Ed S:User-Startup"}). 4. Also you'll probably want to set some options in zDir's environment @{"variable" Link Usage 242}. It's that simple. I myself have renamed C='s Dir to WBDir and copied zDir to C:Dir (that's how much I trust it). @endnode @node History "zDir - History" @next Author zDir - History V2.7 (13.2.98) - 'Friday the 13th' edition: 12512 bytes Managed to screw up -S with some of the changes in V2.6, fixed. The ALTDIR option sometimes caused Enforcer hits, fixed. The switch NOBAR changed to the numeric argument SEPLEN. zDir will no longer enter directory links recursively. When COLUMNS is -1 zDir will now adjust the columns so that each column is only as wide as the longest entry in that column. New environment variable option, HIDE, will hide any pattern you want. New option, -h, hides files with 'h'-bit (FIBF_HIDDEN) set. New option, -a, cancels -h and HIDE. Option parsing routine allowed a space between -F and -C and their argument, fixed. V2.6 (30.12.97): 11532 bytes A small bug found in the output routine: by making the shellwindow to thin for a single column to be printed, zDir would go into a never-ending loop, that could only be broken by a CTRL-C, fixed. Minor optimizations. Four new options added by suggestion of Erik Spåre: NOBAR and ALTDIR in the environment variable (NOBAR has been suggested before and now again by Erik), and -p for 'no path' and -n for 'only names' on the command line. Changed -S, now a '/' will only be appended to directory names when -E is also in effect. Reduced the size of guide by removing all the crap about xpk, xfd, PowerPacker, MultiUser and FileID V2.5 (14.10.97): 10848 bytes Removed the 'Total' count from the normal (non-COMPACT) look (I guess people can add 'Files' and 'Dirs' themselfes) and replaced it with 'Size' (which used to be 'Dir size' from the -s option). As a consequence the -s option has also been removed. Shortened some strings. V2.4 (10.10.97): 11096 bytes, Not uploaded to aminet. zDir will now automatically check the width of the shellwindow when COLUMNS is a negative number, see the environment @{"variable" Link Usage 242} for info on this. Ups, forgot the bytesize in V2.3 history-entry, corrected now. Unfortunatly I oploaded this version to a BBS before I decided to do the changes to V2.5, so the version number had to be changed again for the full aminet release. V2.3 (3.10.97): 10832 bytes The environment variabel now has two more options: COMPACT and DIRPEN (suggestion of Phil Beazley). Reversed the history entries in the guide. Some minor optimizations done. V2.2a (30.9.97): 10560 bytes, Not publicly released. COLUMNS=-2 now also autoadjust columnwidth and number of columns pr. line, but files and dirs are adjusted together (suggestion of Phil Beazley). V2.2 (28.9.97): 10520 bytes You can now make zDir automatically adjust the columnwidth and number of columns according to the lenght of file- and dir-names and width of the shellwindow by specifying COLUMNS=-1 (thanks to Phil Beazley for that suggestion). Also did a few changes in the option parsing routine (combinations like -RS and -SR were broken). V2.1 (22.9.97): 10228 bytes xfdmaster.library V38 has a new RECOGLEN feature (thanks to Stuart 'Kyzer' Caie for making me aware of that). zDir has been updated to support that feature, therefore zDir no longer supports xfdmaster.library V37. To use the -X option you now need xfdmaster.library V38 or greater. Use xfd's xfdLibInfo to see which decrunchers currently support this feature. Some redundancy eliminated (the same code appeared several times and parts of a few strings could be reused). Also I'm now using strcpy() instead of stpcpy(). Thus V2.1 is actually *smaller* than V2.0. V2.0 (16.8.97): 10368 bytes This is a complete rewrite of my Dir-command, featuring loads of improvements over the old versions, some of which are: more options, better (ie. faster) sorting algorithm and support for xpk, xfd and MultiUser. Like all other sensible people I no longer program for pre-V37 Kickstarts, so Kickstart 2.04 or greater is @{"required" Link Requirements} (but 3.x is even better). Now called "zDir" (the 'z' comes from "@{"zznyyd" Link Author}", my login name at @{"DIKU" Link DIKU}, and "zznyyd" comes from "ZzNyYd! Design."). V1.0 - V1.42 (30.03.95): 4120 bytes Ancient history. V1.42 can be found in Aminet:util/cli/Req.lha, no previous versions have been publicly released (didn't have internet access then). V1.42 is the last version to support pre-V37 Kickstarts. All the V1.xx versions contain a small bug, causing them to refuse to run when Mungwall was running, this has been fixed in V2.0 @endnode @node Ni "Ni - a revolution in CLI/Shell commands." @next Ni @prev Ni Ni - a revolution in CLI/Shell commands ZzNyYd! Design now presents a revolution in CLI/Shell commands. A command that says "Ni." when you break it. Yes it's true: zDir says "***Ni." instead of "***Break", this is indeed a revolutionary breakthrough in CLI/Shell commands. So be warned, only break this command if you are not afraid of being said 'Ni' to (I guess then you're really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really brave (like Sir Robin, the brave knight :-)). "We are the knights who say 'Ni'." "It's a sad time when bullies can go around saying 'Ni' to old women." from "Monty Python and The Holy Grail" by Monty Python DISCLAIMER: I take absolutely no responsibility for any psychological effects, mental illnesses or traumatizations on people that zDir says 'Ni' to and will under no circumstances pay any following psychiatrist bill to get you back on your feet. In particular I take no responsibility for mentally unstable people who, upon being said 'Ni' to, shoots or kills other people or maybe just goes into a coma. Being said 'Ni' to is the risk you have to take when breaking zDir. If you can't handle such behaviour, do not try to break zDir. @endnode @node Author "zDir - About the author" @prev History zDir - About the author My name is Finn Nielsen, I'm a student at the University of Copenhagen where I'm studying Computer Science and Math. For bug reports, comments and suggestions regarding zDir you can contact me at anyone of these addresses: Internet: @{"zznyyd@diku.dk" System "Run YAM:YAM Mailto zznyyd@diku.dk"} WWW : http://www.diku.dk/students/zznyyd/ FidoNet : 2:236/29.4 AmigaNet: 39:141/29.4 Before you report a bug, please make sure that the bug you've found isn't one of the @{"Known problems" Link Problems}. If you write to my Inet address be aware that because of spam-emails, I have installed a quite efficient spam-filter, if you mail me outside a hollyday about zDir from a domain known for spamming, for something more than just saying "hi, i like zdir" or "hi, zdir is great" and I have not answered within 3 weeks, then chances are that your mail was filtered out. In this case please resend your mail with the magic cookie "(MmAlLq!)" in your subject line. If you're using YAM for email, the magic-cookie won't be needed. So far I classify the following domains as spamsites (there may be more before you read this): aol.com @endnode @node Problems "zDir - Known problems" zDir - Known problems Here I've listed some problems that can arise with zDir. All of them will usually be caused by something wrong with your system or because you didn't read the @{"Usage" Link Usage} chapter properly (I really hate it when people turns their brain off and report bugs that aren't there because they can't read a manuel). Here we go: ° zDir always just quits without doing anything and when you use the 'why' command is says 'invalid resident library' (Result2 returncode is 122). Your Kickstart is pre-V37. UPGRADE NOW... ----------------------------------------------- ° zDir always fails with 'Error 118: wrong number of arguments', 'Need arg for -F option', 'Unknown option -' or some other message or maybe just behaves weird. Check out the zDir variable, maybe you've specified the OPTS keyword with some bad options (or maybe a friend is playing games with you). If the OPTS keyword isn't specified be sure to say so in your letter or I'll asume that this is the problem. ----------------------------------------------- ° When setting COLUMNS larger than 3 zDir writes out more than fits on one line. To solve this problem you have to set WIDTH youself, when COLUMNS is positive zDir doesn't check the width of you window but relies on you to make some sensible settings. This allows people who use a thinner font than topaz or use a high screen resolution to fill out the empty part of their windows when using zDir, I use a thin font myself and the settings COLUMNS=4 and WIDTH=22 works perfectly for me. You can also specify a negative value for COLUMNS, see the environment @{"variable" Link Usage 242} for information on that. ----------------------------------------------- ° zDir crashes when using the -m option: Do you have a copy of multiuser.library in your LIBS: drawer but haven't got the MultiUserFileSystem installed ? multiuser.library was never meant to deal with the situation where the MultiUserFileSystem isn't installed and as such it may or may not crash on such systems, meaning that on such systems any program utilizing multiuser.library may crash opon opening or using the library. Solution: If you haven't got the MultiUserFileSystem installed then you should remove multiuser.library from your LIBS: drawer. ----------------------------------------------- ° When using the -X option zDir doesn't recognize a crunched file that should be recognized by a xfd sublibrary. Have you been using the -X option without specifying a number or with -X2 ? zDir only tells xfd to use it's sublibraries with -X1 or -X3. @endnode @node Thanks "zDir - Acknowledgements" @next Thanks zDir - Acknowledgements I send my regards to the following people: Tue B. Petersen For making me do the first versions of zDir and moral support. Anders Wegge Jakobsen For showing me how to get the shellwindow width. Erik Spåre For emailing me with some very useful ideas and suggestions for improving zDir and also giving suggestions of how to do some of the things he suggested. Phil Beazley For emailing me with some very useful ideas and suggestions for improving zDir. Monty Python For saying stuff like "@{"Ni" Link Ni}" in films. And for emailing me about zDir with constructive criticism, useful suggestions and/or bug reports: Stuart 'Kyzer' Caie. @endnode @node DIKU "DIKU - http://www.diku.dk/" @next DIKU @prev DIKU DIKU is an abbreviation of "Datalogisk Institut, Københavns Universitet", in english "Department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen". You can visit DIKU on the WEB at "http://www.diku.dk/". @endnode