new DOSMerge

[Tom Neff]

In article <1989Jul5.174059.27378 at eci386.uucp> clewis at eci386.UUCP (Chris Lewis) writes:
>You can run any DOS program from a UNIX makefile, but you cannot run the
>make in the background or redirect output of the make (VP/IX needs a console).
>I do this all the time.

I redirect VP/ix output all the time.  Here's an excerpt from a Korn
shell script I use in building one of my products:

	===================================================================
	addcr <<- EOF > $Rootbat		# DOS batch needs full CRLF
		set FILL1=
		set :F0:=$Rootdir
		unixpath
		asm86 $Rootasm oj($Rootobj) print($Rootals)
			if errorlevel 2 quit
		link86 & < $Linkcmd
			if errorlevel 2 quit
		loc86 & < $Loccmd
			if errorlevel 2 quit
	EOF

	dos -c "$Rootbat" | nocrf | tee $Rooterr
	===================================================================

In the above example, "nocrf" is a ^M-stripper filter I wrote which
forces fflush(stdout) on ^J's, thus allowing me to see the compiler
status messages immediately without cat(1) buffering.  "Dumb" inelegant
program, anyway here's the source.

	===================================================================
	#include <stdio.h>

	main()
	{
		register c;
		while ((c = getchar()) != -1)
		{
			if (c != '\r')
				putchar(c);
			if (c == '\n' || c == '\r')
				fflush(stdout);
		}
		fflush(stdout);
		exit(0);
	}
	===================================================================

(I originally wrote 'nocr' without the extra fflush() calls because the
"rmcr" program that came with VP/ix was UNFORGIVEABLY BUGGY!!!  It
munches source files occasionally and if you're doing BULK file
conversion in place during a platform move, as I recently did, it's
MEGADEATH to come back 3 weeks later and find zorched source.  Grrrrr.)

So, anyway, yes you can certainly redirect VP/ix output.  If you do, and
you cancel the running pipe with <Del>, you may get kicked off and have
to re-login, sometimes.  Who knows why.

Although VP/ix won't run in the background, it's very happy to run on a
virtual terminal (vtlmgr).  So you can still do many things at once
while a DOS application runs, just by flipping to the next VT.

>You may have to write a small shell wrapper because make doesn't know
>about DOSPATH explicitly, and DOSPATH will need to point at the executable
>for the DOS things you want to run (and the DOS things you want to run
>shouldn't be in a "DOS disk as UNIX file" like "C:").

You only need DOSPATH if you want to be able to fire off EXE/COM/BAT
files from the shell prompt as if they were UNIX commands.  If you are
willing to type 'dos command' rather than 'command', you can run
anything DOS can get at, even stuff in pseudodisks like "C:" or in real
DOS partitions on your hard disk (if you have VP/ix set up to access
it), whether or not it lies in DOSPATH.  In a production environment you
should be operating out of shell scripts anyway, so sticking the 'dos'
in (as I do in the example above) is easy and wise.  At the interactive
shell prompt, you can use aliases or (as Chris points out) shell
wrappers to do it.

	dir () {
	dos -c "dir $*" | nocr
	}
-- 
"My God, Thiokol, when do you     \\	Tom Neff
want me to launch -- next April?"  \\	uunet!bfmny0!tneff