Virtual Long Filename Support Driver (VLFN)

Virtual Long Filename Support Driver (VLFN) ------------------------------------------- Version 0.91 (Beta 2) What is VLFN? ------------- By installing this package, you'll be able to use long filenamed files in your OS/2's DOS box, the same way as you see them in WinXX. What does it mean 'Version 0.91'? --------------------------------- This program is still in Beta stage, which means that there are no guaran- tees that it will work correctly and will not crash you computer. For known issues please check 'Known problems' section! How to install? --------------- - Unzip the program somewhere, let's say to C:\VLFN. - Add the following lines to your config.sys: DEVICE=C:\VLFN\VLFNMEM.SYS DEVICE=C:\VLFN\VLFN.SYS - Reboot - Start VLFND.EXE At this stage, VLFN is ready to serve your DOS sessions. If you want a DOS session to have Long Filename (LFN) support, start LFN.COM there, that's all. Warning! -------- Some parts of this program run in RING 0, as device driver. If something bad happens there, it can cause TRAP or system halt. Keep in mind that it is still a Beta version, so *don't run it on machines on which life depends*! How does it work? ----------------- As I know, there is no way to access long filenamed files from DOS sessions through normal file handling functions. Only OS/2 executables can see and use them. So, the program redirects all file operations from a DOS session to an OS/2 executable (VLFND.EXE), which makes everything instead of the DOS session, and converts long filenames to short ones and vice versa. To remember long filenames on FAT drives, and short filenames on HPFS/JFS/etc drives, it uses Extended Attributes to store these special filenames with the files. It uses .LONGNAME attribute on FAT drives, and .SHORTNAME on the others. All this work is done by the VLFN Daemon, VLFND.EXE. VLFN.SYS is a virtual device driver, which offers services for DOS sessions. In our case, these services are the LFN-enabled file operations. If a DOS session want something from VLFN.SYS, it sends a request to VLFN.SYS, which redirects it to the daemon. VLFNMEM.SYS is a (character) device driver. It's only job is to reserve 128K memory as a communication buffer between VLFN.SYS and VLFND.EXE, and give the address of this buffer to everybody who asks for it. By running LFN.COM in a DOS session, this TSR (resident program) will patch the in-memory DOSKRNL image, so some requests will go to VLFN.SYS instead of the OS/2 kernel directly. In other words, by running LFN.COM, you 'turn on' LFN support in a DOS session. VLFND.EXE Parameters: --------------------- You can fine-tune the VLFN Daemon using the following parameters: /PRIORITY <c> <d> Sets the priority of Daemon. <c> can be 1..4 (Priority Class: Idle, Regular, TimeCritical or FServer) <d> can be -31..31 (Priority Delta) Default (and recommended) value is 3 and 0. /LOGTOSCREEN Write log information to screen /LOGTOFILE Write log information into file VLFN_LOG.TXT /LOGLEVEL <l> Sets how detailed the log information should be. You can create the value <l> by combining the following values: 1 Startup/Shutdown information 2 VLFN Daemon main messages 4 Long filename related messages 8 Extended Attributes related messages 16 EA Cache related messages For example: /LOGLEVEL 6 will turn on logging for Main messages and Long filename related messages too. /NOEABUGFIX OS/2 has a bug with reading extended attributes of CHKDSK.LOG files. VLFN does not try to read/write EAs for these files by default. If you know that your system does not have this bug, you can use this switch. /NOEACACHE VLFN Daemon saves EA information in its own EA Cache to speed up LFN ope- rations. You can turn this off by using this switch. Not recommended. /EACACHESIZE <s> You can specify the amount of memory to be used for EA cacheing. The defa- ult is 131072 (128 Kbytes), but you can modify it here. Use bigger cache if you have a lot of files on your path. To-do (plans): -------------- - Bugfixes. Still needs some. - CD-Rom and Network support. - Implement WinXX DOS-based LFN functions, and report WinXX to DOS applica- tions. It will be easy after every other thing works. How to contact the author? -------------------------- If you have any comments/questions, feel free to send a mail to Doodle <kocsisp@dragon.klte.hu> ! Please read the 'Known problems' section before reporting bugs! Known problems -------------- - Pipe redirection not perfect. (eg. 'type file.txt |more' fails) - CD-Roms, Network drives and other remote drives are not supported yet. Only FAT, HPFS and JFS drives are tested, and known to work. - Bigger programs (aka. not Notepad) crash in WinOS/2 - Only Full-screen WinOS/2 works The author would like to say big thanks to the following people: ---------------------------------------------------------------- Henk Kelder for giving me the source code of his great program EABrowse Dave Evans for helping me with ICAT Timur Tabi for helping me with my jump-table problems Joe Nord for explaining how to convert VDM's addresses to FLAT ones correctly John Martin (JMA) for his unmeasurable help --- END ---