NEVILLE%umass-cs.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA (Neville D. Newman) (01/20/86)
Please pardon my ignorance, but as a newcomer to the CP/M world i still have to ask some questions that most people would think ridiculous. Can someone explain to me just what features Datestamper has, what its limitations are, where it comes from, and how it goes about doing what it does? There aren't that many free bits in a directory entry, so i expect that the time resolution must be really coarse or else new pseudo-directory files are managed. Enlighten me, eh? -neville ARPA: neville%umass-cs@CSnet-relay
bridger@RAND-UNIX.ARPA (01/23/86)
DateStamper is a CP/M 2.2 system extension for time-and-date-stamping of files. It occupies under 1K of high memory, either above/in the bios or below the CCP and stamps the created, accessed and modified date-and-time of each file. Each directory entry has a corresponding 16-byte entry in the special datestamper file, which is the first directory entry and occupies the first unreserved groups on a disk. A disk is prepared, once, for datestamping with the PUTDS utility, which creates the file, moving existing entries/groups if necessary. Except for the use of the one directory entry and space for the file (1K per 64 directory entries) DateStamper and non-datestamper disks are totally compatible. All disk i/o is done at the bios level, with little overhead. DateStamper runs with most any type of real-time clock. Or with none, in which case it keeps the date plus "relative time" - one tick per file access. The clock interface is portable - applications programs can read the current time with an extended bdos-getversion call. The major utilities supplied with DateStamper are SDD - an extension of Super Directory to include created/accessed/modified dates/times, and DATSWEEP - a many-featured file-maintenance program that supports incremental file backup, etc. by date and time. Applications programs can obtain a file's datestamps through a specified interface. DateStamper runs with the standard Digital Research CP/m 2.2 bdos, with various Apple 2/2e z80 look-alikes, Magnolia-H/Z 89/90, ZRDOS, and some other variants. Not, however, with 3.0 or TurboDos. For more information contact: PluPerfect Systems (714) 659-4432 Box 1494 Idyllwild CA 92349 --bridger mitchell (I am a co-author).