psc@lznv.ATT.COM (Paul S. R. Chisholm) (11/20/87)
In article <15000048@silver>, creps@silver.bacs.indiana.edu writes
about why he has lots of little .BAT files in a RAM disk, and how he
populates it by pkxarc'ing them from an archive.
I do something similar with my C compiler. Most of the time, I boot
off of the C: drive (hard disk), without a RAM disk. When I want to
hack, I put in my "C boot floppy" and boot off of it. The CONFIG.SYS
builds a RAM disk, specifies that C:COMMAND.COM is the command
interpreter (so I can take the floppy out when I'm done), and does
everything else my C:\CONFIG.SYS does. The AUTOEXEC.BAT on the floppy
take populates the RAM disk from an archive on the floppy, then goes to
the C: drive and runs AUTOEXEC (the usual one on the hard disk).
Result: When I'm working with the compiler, I keep all my header files
in the RAM disk. No file fragmentation, and very fast compiles. When
I'm doing other stuff, I have the full 640K available.
The only limitation is that the boot floppy doesn't run A:AUTOEXEC on
start-up. I assume it's confused by not using A:COMMAND.COM. I
renamed A:AUTOEXEC.BAT to A:GO.BAT, so I just boot off of the floppy
and type "GO".
-Paul S. R. Chisholm, {ihnp4,cbosgd,allegra,rutgers}!mtune!lznv!psc
AT&T Mail !psrchisholm, Internet psc@lznv.att.com
I'm not speaking for my employer, I'm just speaking my mind.steed@techunix.BITNET.UUCP (12/07/87)
In article <1199@lznv.ATT.COM> psc@lznv writes: >I do something similar with my C compiler. Most of the time, I boot >off of the C: drive (hard disk), without a RAM disk. When I want to >hack, I put in my "C boot floppy" and boot off of it. The CONFIG.SYS >builds a RAM disk, specifies that C:COMMAND.COM is the command >interpreter (so I can take the floppy out when I'm done), and does >everything else my C:\CONFIG.SYS does. The AUTOEXEC.BAT on the floppy >take populates the RAM disk from an archive on the floppy, then goes to >the C: drive and runs AUTOEXEC (the usual one on the hard disk). I like this idea... >The only limitation is that the boot floppy doesn't run A:AUTOEXEC on >start-up. I assume it's confused by not using A:COMMAND.COM. I >renamed A:AUTOEXEC.BAT to A:GO.BAT, so I just boot off of the floppy >and type "GO". The problem is much more simple: When you specify the SHELL command in CONFIG.SYS you have to tell command.com to execute AUTOEXEC.BAT. This is done by using the /p switch. The corrected CONFIG.SYS line should look like: SHELL=c:\command.com /p Since you boot from A: drive C:\COMMAND.COM executes A:AUTOEXEC.BAT. Ze'ev. -------- Ze'ev Shtadler. Computer Science Faculty, Technion, Israel Institute of Thechnology, Haifa Israel Phone (work): (+972) 4-293849 BITNET: steed@techunix Domain: steed@techunix.technion.ac.il UUCP: ...!psuvax1!techunix.bitnet!steed ARPANET: steed%techunix.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu CSNET: steed%techunix.bitnet@csnet-relay.csnet
jojo@astroatc.UUCP (Jon Wesener) (12/08/87)
In article <2263@techunix.BITNET> steed%techunix.bitnet@jade.berkeley.edu (Ze'ev (Steed) Shtadler) writes: >In article <1199@lznv.ATT.COM> psc@lznv writes: >>I do something similar with my C compiler. Most of the time, I boot >>off of the C: drive (hard disk), without a RAM disk. When I want to >>hack, I put in my "C boot floppy" and boot off of it. The CONFIG.SYS >>builds a RAM disk, specifies that C:COMMAND.COM is the command Why don't you get one of the ramdrive programs that don't take up any memory (except for a small amount for the driver) until you request it too. The one I use lets you specify the drive and amount of memory you want whenever you want with a special program called setram. You can also use it to deallocate the space from the drive as well. then all you need is a batchfile in your bin directory called something like autohack which will allocate memory for the ramdisk, set up new paths and copy files into the ramdisk and beep when it's done, (so you can grab a beer from the fridge while it's chugging along). You can have a similar batch file tear down you hack environment. This way you DON't need to reboot your system or even DEAL will floppies at all. (and it's faster) --j -- jon wesener ... {seismo | harvard | ihnp4} ! {uwvax | cs.wisc.edu} ! astroatc!jojo hating tomorrow's advertising, today.
psc@lznv.ATT.COM (Paul S. R. Chisholm) (12/10/87)
In article <634@astroatc.UUCP>, jojo@astroatc.UUCP (Jon Wesener) writes: > In article <1199@lznv.ATT.COM> psc@lznv writes: > >I do something similar with my C compiler. Most of the time, I boot > >off of the C: drive (hard disk), without a RAM disk. When I want to > >hack, I put in my "C boot floppy" and boot off of it. The CONFIG.SYS > >builds a RAM disk, specifies that C:COMMAND.COM is the command > > Why don't you get one of the ramdrive programs that don't > take up any memory (except for a small amount for the driver) until > you request it to. The one I use lets you specify the drive and > amount of memory you want whenever you want with a special program > called setram. You can also use it to deallocate the space from the > drive as well. Okay, sounds interesting. Where can I get one of these? (SETRAM, you said?) There's an advantage to "dealing with floppies": I don't need to keep *anything* on my hard disk to build the header files. I could keep just the header file archive on the hard disk . . . or I guess I could still keep it on floppy, and have the batch file build from floppy. *sigh* The *real* solution is to get an EMS board, so I can have a *big* RAM disk without losing any conventional RAM. And a bigger hard disk. And a math coprocessor, so ORBITER and Generic CADD run faster. And a laser printer. . . . > jon wesener {seismo|harvard|ihnp4}!{uwvax|cs.wisc.edu}!astroatc!jojo -Paul S. R. Chisholm, {ihnp4,cbosgd,allegra,rutgers}!mtune!lznv!psc AT&T Mail !psrchisholm, Internet psc@lznv.att.com I'm not speaking for my employer, I'm just speaking my mind.
creps@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (Steve Creps) (12/11/87)
One alternative to using floppy disks for different configurations is to use batch files instead. You could have one copy of config.sys for each different configuration you'll need. You could have them called, for example, config.cc (for compiling, maybe use a bigger ramdrive), config.gam (setting up when you'll need to play games (need to?)), and so on. Then you could have a file boot.bat which accepts a parameter (e.g. "cc" or "gam" etc.) and copies the corresponding config file to config.sys, then reboots. e.g. boot.bat: copy config.%1 config.sys copy ___.%1 ___.ext (any other files specific to the config, maybe autoexec) reboot (I've seen a few versions of this around) Now to set up for compiling, just say "boot cc". I don't actually do this myself, since I seldom need to change my configuration, but it's an idea. - - - - - - - - - Steve Creps on the VAX 8650 running Ultrix 2.0-1 at Indiana University. creps@silver.bacs.indiana.edu "F-14 Tomcat! There IS no substitute."
hirayama@suvax1.UUCP (Pat Hirayama) (12/20/87)
in article <1211@lznv.ATT.COM>, psc@lznv.ATT.COM (Paul S. R. Chisholm) says: > In article <634@astroatc.UUCP>, jojo@astroatc.UUCP (Jon Wesener) writes: >> In article <1199@lznv.ATT.COM> psc@lznv writes: >> >hack, I put in my "C boot floppy" and boot off of it. The CONFIG.SYS >> >builds a RAM disk, specifies that C:COMMAND.COM is the command >> Why don't you get one of the ramdrive programs that don't >> take up any memory (except for a small amount for the driver) until >> you request it to. The one I use lets you specify the drive and >> amount of memory you want whenever you want with a special program >> called setram. You can also use it to deallocate the space from the >> drive as well. > > Okay, sounds interesting. Where can I get one of these? (SETRAM, you > said?) There is also a PD program out there which is called RAMDISK. I'm not sure about which company created it (The documentation is real brief). It should be available on most PD BBS, with some description like "change RAMDISK w/o reboot". It works like this: have "device=ramdrv.sys" , then just type RAMDISK n (n=# byte for ramdisk). I'm not sure exactly how much additional memory this takes. If you are interested and cannot find it anywhere, you could e-mail me. Or try US Mail and I'm sure that we could make arrangements. Perhaps, I'll post it (as soon as I can figure out how to). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - Pat Hirayama - Seattle University email : hirayama@suvax1!dataio!... USMail: 28625-47th Pl S Auburn, WA 98001-1140 *Apologies for the blank lines. My posting program refuses to allow postings where the followup contains fewer lines than the original posting, so I was just being sure*) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
claus@CS.UCLA.EDU (12/21/87)
In article <833@suvax1.UUCP> hirayama@suvax1.UUCP (Pat Hirayama) writes: >There is also a PD program out there which is called RAMDISK. I'm not sure >about which company created it (The documentation is real brief). It should >be available on most PD BBS, with some description like "change RAMDISK w/o >reboot". > > > - Pat Hirayama > - Seattle University There is such a program that lets you configure and reconfigure a ramdisk. You can even change the size of a ramdisk without erasing any files on it. The program is in ADJRAM.ARC and is available by anonymous FTP from SIMTEL20.ARPA in PD1:<MSDOS.DSKUTL>.ADJRAM.ARC Claus Giloi