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  <title>Using Diskmanipulator</title>

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  <h1>Using Diskmanipulator</h1>

  <p>The <code>diskmanipulator</code> command is probably the most exuberant console command available

  in openMSX. It implements the basic stuff needed to handle files

  and subdirectories on MSX media. It also helps one creating new disk

  image files, both simple 360 kB and 720 kB disks as well as

  hard disk images containing partitions of 32 MB each for Sunrise IDE,

  or up to 4 GB for Nextor.

  Creating disk images and manipulating the files on them can be

  done without the need of a running emulated MSX (<code>set power

  off</code>).</p>

  <p>First we will see the generic syntax of the command, then

  the individual commands are explained in more depth. At the end

  of this document you will find some <a class="internal" href="#examples">examples of typical use</a>.</p>

  <div class="note">

    Note: hard disk like media (IDE and SCSI hard disks, SD cards) are only

    understood when they have a Sunrise IDE, Beer IDE 1.9RC1 or Nextor

    partition table, or no partition table at all (in which case the whole

    image is treated as a single volume). Only FAT12 and FAT16 partitions can

    be manipulated; FAT32 partitions are not supported. Images formatted by a

    SCSI BIOS that uses yet another partition table layout will report

    <code>No (or invalid) partition table.</code>

  </div>

  <div class="note">

    Note: manipulating a hard disk, SD card or CompactFlash image while the

    emulated MSX has it mounted can corrupt the image, because the MSX side

    does not notice the change and keeps using its cached FAT information. Use

    <code>set power off</code> first, or do the manipulation in a separate

    openMSX instance.

  </div>

  <h2>General Syntax</h2>

  <p>The general command syntax is always of the form:</p>

  <p><code>diskmanipulator &lt;command&gt; &lt;disk name&gt;

  &lt;command arguments&gt;</code></p>

  <p><code>&lt;command&gt;</code> specifies the action to be performed. The next section lists the commands available and explains them.</p>

  <p><code>&lt;disk name&gt;</code> specifies the disk to operate on. Typical values are: <code><a class="external" href="commands.html#disk">diska</a></code>, <code>diskb</code>, <code><a class="external" href="commands.html#hd">hda</a></code> or the special <code><a class="external" href="commands.html#disk">virtual_drive</a></code> device. <code>disk&lt;x&gt;</code> and <code>hd&lt;x&gt;</code> are the drives available to the running emulated MSX machine; <code>hd&lt;x&gt;</code> covers all hard disk like media, so IDE and SCSI hard disks as well as the SD cards of e.g. the MegaFlashROM SCC+ SD. This allows interaction with the currently used disk images.<br />

  In case the disk contains a Sunrise IDE, Beer IDE 1.9RC1 or Nextor compatible partition table you can add a partition number (starting at 1) to the disk name to specify on which partition the command will act. For example <code>hda2</code> is the second partition on the master IDE disk, <code>hdb3</code> is the third partition on the slave IDE disk.</p>

  <p><code>&lt;command arguments&gt;</code> depend upon the command involved, see the detailed descriptions of the commands below.</p>

  <p>The diskmanipulator and all its commands (including most parameters) can be tab completed in the console.</p>

  <h2>Commands</h2>

  <p>These are the commands understood by the diskmanipulator:</p>

  <ol class="inlinetoc">

    <li><a class="internal" href="#chdir">chdir</a></li>

    <li><a class="internal" href="#create">create</a></li>

    <li><a class="internal" href="#dir">dir</a></li>

    <li><a class="internal" href="#export">export</a></li>

    <li><a class="internal" href="#format">format</a></li>

    <li><a class="internal" href="#import">import</a></li>

    <li><a class="internal" href="#mkdir">mkdir</a></li>

    <li><a class="internal" href="#partition">partition</a></li>

    <li><a class="internal" href="#savedsk">savedsk</a></li>

  </ol>

  <h3><a id="chdir">chdir</a></h3>

  <div class="subsectiontitle">

    syntax:

  </div>

  <p><code>diskmanipulator chdir &lt;disk name&gt; &lt;MSX

  directory&gt;</code></p>

  <div class="subsectiontitle">

    explanation:

  </div>

  <p>This command selects the directory on the MSX disk image

  that will be used for the <code><a class="internal" href="#export">export</a></code> and <code><a class="internal" href="#import">import</a></code> commands.</p>

  <div class="note">

    Note: The directory structure on the MSX disk image cannot be tab

    completed.

  </div>

  <h3><a id="create">create</a></h3>

  <div class="subsectiontitle">

    syntax:

  </div>

  <p><code>diskmanipulator create &lt;dskfilename&gt;

  &lt;size|option&gt; [&lt;size|option&gt; ...]</code></p>

  <div class="subsectiontitle">

    explanation:

  </div>

  <p>You can create new disk images using this command.</p>

  <p>This new disk will be formatted using an MSX-DOS2 boot sector by default,

  an MSX-DOS boot sector if you specify the option <code>-dos1</code>,

  or a Nextor boot sector if you specify the option <code>-nextor</code>.</p>

  <p>If a size of 360 kB or 720 kB is given, a normal floppy disk image is

  created, single or double sided respectively. Any larger value will result

  in a Sunrise IDE hard disk image, or a Nextor one if the <code>-nextor</code>

  option is specified.</p>

  <p>You can specify multiple sizes in which case a Beer IDE 1.9, Sunrise IDE

  or Nextor compatible partitioned image will be created, see

  <code><a class="internal" href="#partition">partition</a></code> for more

  information. Each partition will be formatted as required.</p>

  <p>You can specify the disk/partition sizes by using the

  following postfixes:</p>

  <ul>

    <li>S or s -&gt; size in sectors</li>

    <li>B or b -&gt; size in bytes</li>

    <li>K or k -&gt; size in kilobytes (default)</li>

    <li>M or m -&gt; size in megabytes</li>

  </ul>

  <h3><a id="dir">dir</a></h3>

  <div class="subsectiontitle">

    syntax:

  </div>

  <p><code>diskmanipulator dir &lt;disk name&gt;</code></p>

  <div class="subsectiontitle">

    explanation:

  </div>

  <p>This will show the directory content of the current working

  directory. The output is formatted similarly to the MSX Disk BASIC 2.x command <code>files,l</code>.</p>

  <h3><a id="export">export</a></h3>

  <div class="subsectiontitle">

    syntax:

  </div>

  <p><code>diskmanipulator export &lt;disk name&gt; &lt;host

  directory&gt; [&lt;file|subdir&gt;...]</code></p>

  <div class="subsectiontitle">

    explanation:

  </div>

  <p>This will export the <code>&lt;file&gt;</code> or <code>&lt;subdir&gt;</code> from the disk

  inserted in <code>&lt;disk name&gt;</code> to the <code>&lt;host directory&gt;</code> on

  your host OS from the subdirectory selected by the <code><a class="internal" href="#chdir">chdir</a></code>

  command. If no <code>&lt;file&gt;</code> or <code>&lt;subdir&gt;</code> is specified, the whole

  contents of the subdirectory are exported.</p>

  <h3><a id="format">format</a></h3>

  <div class="subsectiontitle">

    syntax:

  </div>

  <p><code>diskmanipulator format &lt;disk name&gt; [&lt;size|option&gt;]</code></p>

  <div class="subsectiontitle">

    explanation:

  </div>

  <p>The currently selected partition from <code>&lt;disk name&gt;</code> will

  be cleanly formatted with a MSX-DOS2 boot sector, unless the option

  <code>-dos1</code> is specified. If the <code>-nextor</code> option is

  specified it will use the Nextor boot sector, and use FAT16 if the size is

  larger than 32 MB.

  FAT and directory sectors will be correctly initialised.

  Any data on the disk image / partition is lost!</p>

  <h3><a id="import">import</a></h3>

  <div class="subsectiontitle">

    syntax:

  </div>

  <p><code>diskmanipulator import &lt;disk name&gt; &lt;host

  directory|host file&gt; ...</code></p>

  <div class="subsectiontitle">

    explanation:

  </div>

  <p>This will import the single <code>&lt;host file&gt;</code> into the disk

  inserted in <code>&lt;disk name&gt;</code>. In case of a <code>&lt;host

  directory&gt;</code> it will import the files and subdirectories in

  <code>&lt;host directory&gt;</code> into the inserted disk. Multiple files and

  directories can be specified at the same time. The place were the

  files will be added in the MSX directory structure is selected

  by the <code><a class="internal" href="#chdir">chdir</a></code> command.</p>

  <p>If you want to use wildcards when importing files, you will have to use

  the Tcl <a class="external" href="http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.5/TclCmd/glob.htm">

  <code>glob</code></a> command. This command will perform the wildcard

  expansion and return a Tcl list. Enclose the <code>glob</code> command in

  between '[' and ']':</p>

  <p><code>diskmanipulator import hda1 [glob *.txt] [glob

  *.asc]</code></p>

  <p>This command will copy all files matching <code>*.txt</code> and <code>*.asc</code> in

  the current directory on the host OS to the first partition of

  the master IDE drive on the emulated MSX.</p>

  <p>The <code>glob</code> command can also take extra options. For instance, if

  you only want to expand regular files and not the names of

  directories you can do this:</p>

  <p><code>diskmanipulator import hda1 [glob -type f

  info*]</code></p>

  <p>Consult your local Tcl guru or documentation for more info

  about the <code>glob</code> command and Tcl lists.</p>

  <h3><a id="mkdir">mkdir</a></h3>

  <div class="subsectiontitle">

    syntax:

  </div>

  <p><code>diskmanipulator mkdir &lt;disk name&gt; &lt;MSX

  directory&gt;</code></p>

  <div class="subsectiontitle">

    explanation:

  </div>

  <p>This command will create the specified directory on the MSX disk image.

  All the needed parent directories will be created if they do not

  yet exist.</p>

  <h3><a id="savedsk">savedsk</a></h3>

  <div class="subsectiontitle">

    syntax:

  </div>

  <p><code>diskmanipulator partition &lt;disk name&gt;

    [&lt;size|option&gt; ...]</code></p>

    <div class="subsectiontitle">

      explanation:

    </div>

    <p>You can (re)partition existing disk images using this command.</p>

    <p>As many partitions as specified will be created, using one of the

    following partition table formats according to the option given:</p>

    <ul>

      <li><code>-dos1</code>: Standard MBR, Beer IDE 1.9 and Nextor compatible.

          Max 4 partitions.</li>

      <li><code>-dos2</code> (default): Sunrise IDE MBR, Sunrise IDE compatible.

          Max 31 partitions.</li>

      <li><code>-nextor</code>: Standard MBR / EBR, Nextor compatible.

          Max 256 partitions.</li>

    </ul>

    <p>After partitioning each partition will also be formatted appropriately,

    see <a href="#format">format</a> for more details on that.</p>

    <p>You can specify the disk/partition sizes by using the following

    postfixes:</p>

    <ul>

      <li>S or s -&gt; size in sectors</li>

      <li>B or b -&gt; size in bytes</li>

      <li>K or k -&gt; size in kilobytes (default)</li>

      <li>M or m -&gt; size in megabytes</li>

    </ul>

  <p><code>diskmanipulator savedsk &lt;disk name&gt;

  &lt;dskfilename&gt;</code></p>

  <div class="subsectiontitle">

    explanation:

  </div>

  <p>This simply reads all the sectors of the <code>&lt;disk name&gt;</code> and

  saves them again in the file specified by <code>&lt;dskfilename&gt;</code>.

  This command is mostly equivalent to copying a disk image file on your host OS, but it has the additional possibilities:</p>

  <ul>

    <li>saving a ramdsk (see <code><a class="external" href="commands.html#disk">diska</a> ramdsk</code>) into a real disk image file</li>

    <li>saving your current DirAsDisk image into a real disk image file</li>

    <li>saving your disk image which has undergone IPS patches as a patched disk image</li>

    <li>copying the currently active image file in case your host OS would give sharing violations while the file is being used by openMSX (Windows)</li>

    <li>saving a disk image if you removed the directory entry by accident, but openMSX still has an open file handle for the file (UNIX-like systems)</li>

  </ul>

  <h2><a id="examples">Examples</a></h2>

  <p>In these examples we will run the diskmanipulator while the

  emulated MSX is powered off.

  It is possible to run these commands while the machine is

  turned on of course, but be warned that this might have some

  strange, unexpected behaviour depending on the emulated MSX model

  and the running software on this MSX.</p>

  <p>For instance, the turboR models contain a physical switch

  inside their diskdrives to detect disk changes. If no disk change

  is detected their internal MSX-DOS2 kernel will cache certain

  sectors, so that files imported using the <code>diskmanipulator import</code>

  command will not show up if you perform a <code>files</code> or

  <code>dir</code>. Even worse, if you would write from the

  emulated MSX to the disk you will overwrite the result of the import.

  The same would happen if you were running a disk cache

  program in your emulated MSX machine.</p>

  <h3>creating a new disk with content</h3>

  <p>

    Here we create a regular 720 kB (double sided, double density)

    disk. Then we place the files and subdirectories from the directory

    <code>/tmp/todisk/</code> on this new disk:

  </p>

  <div class="commandline">

    set <a class="external" href="commands.html#power">power</a> off

    <br />

    diskmanipulator <a class="internal" href="#create">create</a> /tmp/new-disk.dsk 720

    <br />

    <a class="external" href="commands.html#disk">virtual_drive</a> /tmp/new-disk.dsk

    <br />

    diskmanipulator <a class="internal" href="#import">import</a> virtual_drive /tmp/todisk/

  </div>

  <h3>creating a new harddisk image with content</h3>

  <p>

    Here we create a new HD image with 3 partitions the first

    partition is 32 MB, then 16 MB and finally a small

    one of 720 kB.

    Then we place the files and subdirs of the directory

    <code>/tmp/topart1/</code> on the first partition and <code>/tmp/topart3/</code> on the third partition:

  </p>

  <div class="commandline">

    set <a class="external" href="commands.html#power">power</a> off

    <br />

    <a class="external" href="commands.html#ext">ext</a> ide

    <br />

    diskmanipulator <a class="internal" href="#create">create</a> /tmp/new-hd.dsk 32M 16M 720

    <br />

    <a class="external" href="commands.html#hd">hda</a> /tmp/new-hd.dsk

    <br />

    diskmanipulator <a class="internal" href="#import">import</a> hda1 /tmp/topart1

    <br />

    diskmanipulator <a class="internal" href="#import">import</a> hda3 /tmp/topart3

  </div>

  <h3>importing data in a new subdirectory</h3>

  <p>

    On the diskimage <code>/tmp/disk.dsk</code> we will create a new

    subdirectory called <code>newsub</code> and then we fill this subdirectory with the

    <code>.txt</code> files from <code>/home/david/sources</code>:

  </p>

  <div class="commandline">

    set <a class="external" href="commands.html#power">power</a> off

    <br />

    <a class="external" href="commands.html#disk">diska</a> /tmp/disk.dsk

    <br />

    diskmanipulator <a class="internal" href="#mkdir">mkdir</a> diska newsub

    <br />

    diskmanipulator <a class="internal" href="#chdir">chdir</a> diska newsub

    <br />

    diskmanipulator <a class="internal" href="#import">import</a> diska [glob -type f /home/david/sources/*.txt]

  </div>

  <h3>extracting files from an MSX harddisk image to the host OS</h3>

  <p>

    We will extract files from the currently used harddisk image on

    partition1 in the MSX subdir <code>\demos\calculus</code> to <code>/tmp/</code>:

  </p>

  <div class="commandline">

    set <a class="external" href="commands.html#power">power</a> off

    <br />

    <a class="external" href="commands.html#ext">ext</a> ide

    <br />

    diskmanipulator <a class="internal" href="#chdir">chdir</a> hda1 /demos/calculus

    <br />

    diskmanipulator <a class="internal" href="#export">export</a> hda1 /tmp

  </div>

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