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copies, allowing disk changes en route, and it accepts a string of commands. MCOPY, in common with most Z3 utilities, contains internal ‘HELP’.

VFILER provides an alternative file manipulation utility. The many varied functions provided are reminiscent of SWEEP, but the system uses a pointer which moves around the file lists displayed on the screen. Files are tagged and may be copied, deleted, sized and so on. As with the other Z3 utilities, DIR: and DU: forms are allowed. A ‘?’ switches to a HELP page, and another ‘?’ switches back. VFILER supports the use of its own command files. One problem that I have found with VFILER is that, unlike SWEEP or NSWP, the flies remain fully tagged after an operation, so if one has forgotten to tag one or two for the first operation, it is not possible to tag just those, copy or whatever and then retag all, so flexibility suffers a little bit.

Directory display and Maintenance –

Beyond the simple displays provided by the DIR command of the CCP, RCP or DIR.COM, two utilities are available for more sophisticated displays. XD and XDIR have a large repertoire of options available, but even in the simple form (i.e. no options), give a directory with very full information on files, sizes, attribute bits, space taken by the selected files, space remaining on disk, number of selected files, and number of files on disk. They also use the ENV data to page the screen output. The XDIR utility in particular is very powerful, allowing all users, disk output, acting as a file scanner and allowing the display of files to be negated. XD and XDIR support printer output, display format option and attribute display.

The ERA command of the CCP/​RCP provides essential erase facility, and may be assembled to allow verify or inspect operation. ERASE.COM backs up the CCP/​RCP ERA command, and greatly extends it. The user may opt to include ‘SYSTEM’ files, Read only Files, or to operate in an ‘Inspect’ mode, with user input for each file. Options may be mixed.

Unerase will recover erased files, although the usual precautions are necessary. It is always best to recover files Immediately, if they are accidentally erased. If several erased files of the same name exist in a directory, a by no means unusual occurrence, it is better to use DU3 of SPZ to edit the directory directly. Each occurrence of the file in turn can be recovered, to an ‘empty’ user area if possible, and then each one can be checked. It should be remembered that a large file may have several entries in the directory for its extends.

The file Cleandir can be used to clean up a directory from time to time. Users of the SAP?? series from the CPMUG will be familiar with this operation. It will sort the names into order (ascending or descending at the users option), and rewrite the directory, removing all traces of erased file names. There is no way to recover erased files after a Cleandir, but it is a good exercise, because removal of the names of genuinely erased files gives a better chance of restoring the correct file if an ERA error is made subsequently.

The REN command of the CCP/​RCP is backed up by RENAME.COM, which allows batch renaming of files, and supports control and inspect modes, and may be made to work with system files and read only files.

FINDF is another useful program. If one cannot remember where a file is on any drive on the system, FINDF will search for it and report all places where it is found. N.B. ALL drives are searched, so if a disk is not mounted the system will crash/​hang. If a VDISK is in use and VFLIP operative FINDF gets confused, and will not find files on the first half of the Winnie.

Named Directories –

The command PWD will list the current Named directories and their associated DU’s. This command may be made to display any associated Passwords, but ONLY if the Wheel Byte is set to allow this.