XDIR (Extended Directory Display) is an enhanced version of
the Digital Research 'built-in' CP/M command 'DIR' which allows
the userto search a range of drives and/or user areas for a
specified file, and creat a sorted directory display. This
capability is patterned after FILEFIND, but is significantly more
useful in that XDIR will report the sizes of files matched. A
new BDOS intercept routine has been added, which although more
involved than the FILEFIND method, is more generally
applicable and should run "as-is" on most CP/M systems. Thus,
by using XDIR, the use of a separate FILEFIND program should be
unnecessary.
XDIR - Basic User Operation
You merely type "XDIR", followed by an optional
ambiguous or unambiguous filename (as you would with the
CCP directory command). Omitting the filename (i.e., "XDIR
[CR]"), will be interpreted as "XDIR *.*". Similarly, "XDIR
A:" would imply "XDIR A:*.*" and "XDIR B:" would imply "XDIR
B:*.*". In addition to the filename option, up to 8 command
line options may be specified. If options are to be
specified, then the filename must be EXPLICITLY specified by
at least a drive code. Option fields are preceded by a single
dollar sign as with most Digital Research programs such as
MAC, and may be essentially free-form in format. Example: XDIR
A: $s a D rn u0 fp. Note that the reference to the A drives
in "A:" is mandatory. Invoking XDIR with a command of the
form "XDIR $s a D rn u0 fp" would result in XDIR thinking that
$S was the file to be searched for. Note also that spaces and
case within the option field are insignificant (i.e., "$
SADrNu0F p" is equivalent to "$ S A D R N U0 F P"). The only
exception concerns the "USER" option which will be explained
later. Users should also be aware of two restrictions on the
command line format. XDIR scans the entire command line for a
dollar sign preceded by at least 1 blank to delimit the
beginning of the option field. For this reason, invoking
XDIR with a command line such as "XDIR $ $AR" is illegal since
XDIR will consider the first dollar sign to be the option field
delimiter. If you need to specify a a filename whose first
character is a dollar sign, precede it with a drive code as in
"XDIR A:$ $AR". In this instance, XDIR will consider the
first dollar sign insignificant as it is not preceded by a
blank.
The second restriction is that command line options may be
specified once and only once per invocation. That is, "XDIR
A: $XDIRS" would be illegal since the "S" option is specified
twice. This shortcoming is due to the fact that options can
be made into defaults at assembly time.
The eight options recognized are:
"S" - system option : system files will be included in the
output rather than being suppressed.
"F" - file option : the directory output will be echoed
to a disk file named "XDIR.DIR" on the DEFAULT
drive. If XDIR.DIR already exists, then the directory
output will be APPENDED to the end of the file.
Otherwise, XDIR.DIR will be created as a new file. The
append feature allows you to build up one massive file
on the default drive containing the directories of all
of your disks, without having to concantenate a
swarm of individual directory files.
"U" - user option : allows the specification of the user
number for the directory of the form "Uxx" where the
user # is greater than 0, but not greater than a
specified value not to exceed 15. The user option
specification will be illegal if the user # is out of
range, or omitted. Note that since the user option
requires a parameter (i.e., the user number), the
user number must immediately follow the "U" option on
the command field. That is, "U1" is legal, but "U 1"
is not. In this respect, the U option differs from the
other options in that embedded spaces ARE
significant.
"A" - all users : causes XDIR to display directories of all
user areas starting at the user area specified
in the U option or, if U option is omitted, the
default user area and continuing up to the maximum
number of user directories (15).
"R" - reset option : allows for automatic resetting of the disk
prior to performing directory search so that the
allocation vector will be updated. Same as doing a
CTRL-C when changing disks, but handy if you didn't
(such as when running a SUBMIT file). Useful for
XDIRing a stack of disks with the "F" option, but slows
down XDIR considerably in normal use.
"N" - no page option : unconditionally disables the page
pause option. Useful when running XDIR in the "F"
and/or "A" modes when you don't want the page prompt
slowing you down. Note that XDIR will not put the
page-pause prompt into the output file.
"P" - printer option : forces all console output to be echoed
to the CP/M list device, with the most significant
bit set to 0.
"D" - all disk option : allows XDIR to search all disk drives
on-line starting with the disk drive specified or
implied with the command line filename. For
example, "XDIR B: $D" will result in XDIR searching all
drives beginning with drive B. "XDIR *.* $D" will
result in XDIR searching all drives beginning with the
drive that is logged in.
If an unrecognized option (or illegal user option
specification) is detected, then the command line will be played
back to the console up to the point where the error was
detected.
