Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!ukc!reading!cf-cm!cybaswan!iiitsh
From: iiitsh@cybaswan.UUCP (Steve Hosgood)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: /bin utils for the PC  (was: Re: mh_sh Shell)
Message-ID: <1736@cybaswan.UUCP>
Date: 5 Apr 90 08:24:10 GMT
References: <22390@netnews.upenn.edu> <832@kubix.kub.nl>
Reply-To: iiitsh@cybaswan.UUCP (Steve Hosgood)
Organization: Institute for Industrial Information Technology
Lines: 52

In article <832@kubix.kub.nl> kolb@kub.nl writes:
>The utilities in the PiCnix package emulate
>the functionality of UNIX* System V commands as completely as possible
>for  MS-DOS*  and PC-DOS* users.  The utilities included in the PiCnix
>package are:
>

[Lots deleted]

>
>Name:     ncd - change to directory
>Usage:    ncd [ - | new-directory | -? ]
>Version:  3.4 for PCs with DOS 2.1 and higher
>
>Name:     ndate - set and display current date and time
>Usage:    ndate [-?] [ mmddhhmm[yy] ] [+<format string>]
>Version:  3.4 for PCs with DOS 2.1 and higher
>
>Name:     necho - echo arguments
>Usage:    necho [-?] <argument list>
>Version:  3.4 for PCs with DOS 2.1 and higher
>
>Name:     nset - set and display the command processor's environment
>Usage:    nset [-?] [ <name>=[<parameter>] ]
>Version:  3.4 for PCs with DOS 2.1 and higher
>
>Name:     ntime - time a command
>Usage:    ntime [-?] <command string>
>Version:  3.4 for PCs with DOS 2.1 and higher
>

I see the names of these utilities have been changed to avoid clashing
with the built-ins in command.com. I did things differently - it's quite
easy to hack COMMAND.COM so that the names don't clash.

1) Run DEBUG on COMMAND.COM
2) Search for the string "DATE".
<this should land you in the middle of COMMAND.COM's command table>

3) Alter DATE to DSET, TIME to TSET, CD to CZ (you can still say CHDIR in
an emergency), MKDIR to MKDZZ (you can still say MD in an emergency) and
RMDIR to RMDZZ.

4) Write the altered file.

I use a home-made suite of 'cd', 'date', 'mkdir', 'rmdir' etc, but the same
principle would apply to the PiCnix stuff mentioned above. It saves learning
new keywords! Indeed, give me an unmodified DOS machine these days and I'm
well lost!

Have fun
Steve