This week`s tip is for people that wish to read or write
	3-1/2" MSDOS formatted diskettes on one of the Suns (the only
	publicly accessible Sun that has a disk drive is gomek).

	First of all: how to get the diskette out, once inserted:

			% eject

	The ``%'' is used to imply that you are typing at a shell prompt.
	To format a diskette with a DOS filesystem use

			% fdformat -d

	Most will probably want to format for low-density diskettes
	(720K capacity) instead of the default 1.44 Megabyte -- use the
	``ell'' option for low density:

			% fdformat -dl

	To actually get to the files we have a collection of utilities
	called the ``mtools'' package (``man mtools'' for a complete
	introduction).  To list the directory:

			% mdir a:/

	displays files in the top level directory in the disk drive
	(always A:).  Either a ``/'' or ``\'' can be used for the
	filepath.  To copy files, use the ``mcopy'' command, for
	instance

			% mcopy -t "a:/*.*" /tmp

	copies all the files from the root directory on the diskette
	to the Unix directory /tmp.  Note the use of quotes: this
	inhibits the shell from expanding the ``*.*'' into a list of
	files present in your current working directory.  The ``a:''
	determines the direction of the copy -- here, from the floppy
	to a unix directory.  If you want to convert text files from
	MSDOS format (where carriage return/linefeed indicates the end
	of line) to Unix format (where a linefeed indicates end of
	line) use the ``-t'' as shown in the example.  You can also
	use the utilities ``unix2dos'' and ``dos2unix'' to convert
	text files from one format to the other.

	Some of the other available commands include the following:
	
		     mcd   - change MSDOS directory
		     mdel  - delete an MSDOS file
		     mmd   - make an MSDOS subdirectory
		     mrd   - remove an MSDOS subdirectory
		     mren  - rename an existing MSDOS file
		     mtype - display contents of an MSDOS file

	See the man pages on any of the above for additional help.

	A further note: MSDOS has several methods of storing
	collections of files into single archives, such as ``zoo'',
	``zip'', and ``arc'' formats.  We have utilities on the system
	for manipulating these MSDOS formats: see the man pages for the
	following:

	     zip   - package and compress (archive) files
	     unzip - list/test/extract from a ZIP archive file
	     zoo   - manipulate archives of files in compressed form
	     arc   - pc archive utility

	You probably shouldn't use these methods for storing your
	files: rather, use the standard Unix ``tar'', ``uuencode'',
	and ``compress'' utilities, subjects for a future totw.


							Randy Fischer
Subject:	DOS diskettes