Subject: Using DOS Disks With RCS Workstations

Software Category: utility
Supported by: ACS

Description:

A collection of programs, called Mtools, enables you to use 3.5-inch, DOS- formatted disks in RCS Sun SPARC station and IBM RS6000 floppy drives. This means you can copy files between your RCS UNIX account and a DOS disk.

For example, you can insert a DOS disk into a workstation floppy drive, open a UNIX window and issue a command to copy an ASCII or text-only file from your RCS UNIX account to the floppy. You can then use the floppy on a personal computer and do your work there. Please note, at this time you cannot use an application like Word Perfect, for example, to save a text file directly to a floppy disk.

Getting Started:

To copy a UNIX file from your userid to a DOS disk, issue the command

mcopy name1 a:name2

where name1 is the name of the UNIX file and a:name2 is the name assigned to the file when it is copied to disk.

Formatting a Disk
If you format a disk on a personal computer for use with a workstation, you must format the 3.5-inch disk as a low-density disk (720K) even if you are using a high density (1.44MB) disk. The DOS 5.0 command for this is

format a:/f:720

For other versions of DOS, use

format a:/n:9

To format a high density DOS disk in a Sun workstation, enter the command

fdformat -d -e -f -v

To format a low density DOS disk in a Sun workstation enter the command

fdformat -d -e -f -l -v

To formation a DOS disk in an IBM RS/6000 workstation, enter the commands

fdformat -d -h
mformat a:

Basic Mtools Commands

 Mtool Name     DOS Equivalent      Description

 mattrib        attrib              change DOS file attribute flags  
 mcd            cd                  change DOS directory             
 mcopy          copy                copy DOS files to/from UNIX     
 mdel           del/erase           delete a DOS file             
 mdir           dir                 display a DOS directory      
 mformat        format              add DOS filesystem to a low-level format 
 mlabel         label               make a DOS volume label               
 mmd            md/mkdir            make a DOS subdirectory               
 mrd            rd/rmdir            remove a DOS subdirectory           
 mread          copy                low level read (copy) a DOS file to UNIX 
 mren           ren/rename          rename an existing DOS file             
 mtype          type                display contents of a DOS file        
 mwrite         copy                low level write (copy) UNNIX file to DOS 

Documentation:

There are on line manual pages on Mtools. To read them, issue the command man mtools at a UNIX prompt

There is also an on line manual page on fdformat. To read it, issue the command man fdformat at a UNIX prompt.

Tips and Hints:

If you want to format a disk for use in UNIX workstations only, omit the -d option from the fdformat command.

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