todd@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Todd Ogasawara) (01/17/90)
Does anyone know how to determine whether the current DOS running is MS-DOS
(from Microsoft and used on clones) or IBM-DOS (aka PC-DOS from IBM and
used on true blue boxes) from within a Microsoft C program?
I know how to determine the version number but do not know how to determine
origin... Thanks...todd
--
Todd Ogasawara, U. of Hawaii
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INTERNET: todd@uhccux.UHCC.HAWAII.EDUfredex@cg-atla.UUCP (Fred Smith) (01/17/90)
In article <6178@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> todd@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Todd Ogasawara) writes: >Does anyone know how to determine whether the current DOS running is MS-DOS >(from Microsoft and used on clones) or IBM-DOS (aka PC-DOS from IBM and >used on true blue boxes) from within a Microsoft C program? I knowthis is kinda crude, but you could try: system ("ver"); Fred
msschaa@cs.vu.nl (Schaap MS) (01/19/90)
In article <6178@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> todd@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Todd Ogasawara) writes: >Does anyone know how to determine whether the current DOS running is MS-DOS >(from Microsoft and used on clones) or IBM-DOS (aka PC-DOS from IBM and >used on true blue boxes) from within a Microsoft C program? > >I know how to determine the version number but do not know how to determine >origin... Thanks...todd > Check the root directory of the boot disk for IBMBIO.COM and IBMDOS.COM for PC-DOS, or MSDOS.SYS and ???.SYS for MS-DOS. Michael
hania@utrcu1.UUCP (Simon Hania) (01/19/90)
In article <5134@solo6.cs.vu.nl> msschaa@cs.vu.nl (Schaap MS) writes: > >Check the root directory of the boot disk for >IBMBIO.COM and IBMDOS.COM for PC-DOS, >or MSDOS.SYS and ???.SYS for MS-DOS. > >Michael Sorry, that won't work. Olivetti MS-DOS (>=3.20), for instance, calls its system files IBMBIO.COM and IBMDOS.COM too! Simon
kaleb@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (Kaleb Keithley) (01/23/90)
In article <5134@solo6.cs.vu.nl> msschaa@cs.vu.nl (Schaap MS) writes: >In article <6178@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> todd@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Todd Ogasawara) writes: >>Does anyone know how to determine whether the current DOS running is MS-DOS >>(from Microsoft and used on clones) or IBM-DOS (aka PC-DOS from IBM and >>used on true blue boxes) from within a Microsoft C program? >Check the root directory of the boot disk for >IBMBIO.COM and IBMDOS.COM for PC-DOS, >or MSDOS.SYS and ???.SYS for MS-DOS. IO.SYS Chewey, get us outta here! kaleb@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (818)354-8771 Kaleb Keithley
kaleb@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (Kaleb Keithley) (01/23/90)
In article <261@utrcu1.UUCP> hania@Utwente.nl (Simon Hania) writes: >Sorry, that won't work. Olivetti MS-DOS (>=3.20), for instance, calls >its system files IBMBIO.COM and IBMDOS.COM too! > Which means that Olivetti licensed it's DOS from IBM rather than Microsoft, therefore, it's really PC-DOS instead of MS-DOS. Chewey, get us outta here! kaleb@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (818)354-8771 Kaleb Keithley
dmurdoch@watstat.waterloo.edu (Duncan Murdoch) (01/23/90)
In article <2638@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov> kaleb@mars.UUCP (Kaleb Keithley) writes: >Which means that Olivetti licensed it's DOS from IBM rather than Microsoft, >therefore, it's really PC-DOS instead of MS-DOS. This raises the question: is there any systematic difference between MS-DOS and PC-DOS, other than who collected the royalties and what "ver" prints? In other words, a question to the original poster: why would anyone want to distinguish between them? Duncan Murdoch
todd@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Todd Ogasawara) (01/23/90)
In article <1354@maytag.waterloo.edu> dmurdoch@watstat.waterloo.edu (Duncan Murdoch) writes: ]In article <2638@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov> kaleb@mars.UUCP (Kaleb Keithley) writes: ]>Which means that Olivetti licensed it's DOS from IBM rather than Microsoft, ]>therefore, it's really PC-DOS instead of MS-DOS. ]This raises the question: is there any systematic difference between ]MS-DOS and PC-DOS, other than who collected the royalties and what "ver" ]prints? ]In other words, a question to the original poster: why would ]anyone want to distinguish between them? Be glad to answer that question... I'm about to put some diskless workstations (hard diskless might be more accurate, some might have floppies) on a Novell network. I wanted to be able to have simple way to determine what DOS is being used on any particular workstation so that I could point to the appropriate COMMAND.COM on the server. I.e., I want to let anyone login in from anywhere on the LAN. This is important when people fire up large programs that reloads COMMAND.COM on exit. Since a person who normally works on a hard disk might sometimes move to a diskless machine and login, I wanted everyone to have a COMSPEC pointing to the server so workstation crashes would be reduced. We have noted, for instance, that MS-DOS 3.3 and IBM-DOS 3.3 are in fact different...todd -- Todd Ogasawara, U. of Hawaii UUCP: {uunet,ucbvax,dcdwest}!ucsd!nosc!uhccux!todd ARPA: uhccux!todd@nosc.MIL BITNET: todd@uhccux INTERNET: todd@uhccux.UHCC.HAWAII.EDU
fredex@cg-atla.UUCP (Fred Smith) (01/24/90)
In article <1354@maytag.waterloo.edu> dmurdoch@watstat.waterloo.edu (Duncan Murdoch) writes: >In article <2638@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov> kaleb@mars.UUCP (Kaleb Keithley) writes: >>Which means that Olivetti licensed it's DOS from IBM rather than Microsoft, >>therefore, it's really PC-DOS instead of MS-DOS. > >This raises the question: is there any systematic difference between >MS-DOS and PC-DOS, other than who collected the royalties and what "ver" >prints? > >In other words, a question to the original poster: why would >anyone want to distinguish between them? > >Duncan Murdoch For example: the versionof MS-DOS 3.30 which comes with the Nec Powermate 386/20 supports three (3) different types of hard disk formats. One of them is a standard MS-DOS layout with 32mb max per disk partition, one is a "standard" NEC layout with 32mb max per partition, and one is a "new standard" NEC layout with unlimited partition sizes. If you were doing things that needed to access the hard disk directly (bypassing DOS) you would need to know whose DOS you were using! Fred
akcs.amparsonjr@vpnet.UUCP (Anthony M. Parson, Jr.) (02/01/90)
Just type
VER
by itself at any DOS prompt.cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Stephen M. Dunn) (02/04/90)
In article <1937@bucket.UUCP> leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson) writes: $kaleb@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (Kaleb Keithley) writes: $>Which means that Olivetti licensed it's DOS from IBM rather than Microsoft, $>therefore, it's really PC-DOS instead of MS-DOS. $And I suppose Compaq and Tandy licensed theirs from IBM too? Nope. They $do this so that you can upgrade from their DOS to PC-DOS (or vice-versa) $without having to know arcane tricks like renaming hidden files. But why would they want you to be able to upgrade to someone else's DOS? If you want to upgrade to anything other than another version of their own DOS, it would seem to me that you'd want Microsoft's version rather than IBM's. -- Stephen M. Dunn cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca <std_disclaimer.h> = "\nI'm only an undergraduate!!!\n"; **************************************************************************** "I want to look at life - In the available light" - Neil Peart
leefi@microsoft.UUCP (lee fisher) (02/20/90)
I don't have any DOS technical references handy, but I believe that the
system service which returns the DOS version has a register or two that
points to the OEM number (I believe it was a byte, thus 0-255). I don't
believe that all OEMs change this number, but it might help you identify
between some different OEM flavors of DOS. If I recall from the IBM PC-DOS
techincal reference, their version set that byte to 00h. Again, this is
hazy info, but I believe that Packaged Product MS-DOS set this byte to FFh,
and other OEMs could opt to set it to some other value in between. Like I
said, this is with no references handy and with fuzzy knowledge. But since
people are just talking about spawning the VER command, I thought that this
might be of interest to the person that originally asked this question...
--
lee fisher, leefi@microsoft.uucp, leefi@microsoft.wa.com
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