Date: Thu, 21 May 1998 10:33:25 +0200
From: Kees J Bot 
Subject: mkfile.com, a utility for making dosminix "disks"

I've created a simple DOS utility that can be used to create, grow, or
shrink a file that is to be used as a Minix "disk".  Its use is quite
simple:

        mkfile 50m disk5

will create a file named 'disk5' of 50 megabytes.  If disk5 happens to
exist then it is grown or shrunk to that size.  The data already in
disk5 will not be touched, apart from the part that is cut off if
shortened.  The command can be found as either

        http://www.cs.vu.nl/pub/kjb/dostest/MKFILE.COM
        ftp://ftp.cs.vu.nl/pub/kjb/dostest/MKFILE.COM

Here is an example use that might be fun to try:

Suppose you want to enlarge the /usr partition of the TEST "disk" that
came with the "dosminix" test zip file.  This could be done as follows:

  copy test bigtest             -- Copy the current disk to 'bigtest'
  mkfile 20m bigtest            -- Enlarge by 10M to 20M total.
  boot test                     -- Boot the old "disk"
  [ESC]                         -- Get the attention of the monitor
  dosd5=bigtest                 -- /dev/dosd5 becomes 'bigtest'
  boot
  ...
  login: root
  part

  -- Choose dosd5, move to the Size field of dosd7, hit 'm' to fill
  -- out to the end of the "disk".  Write and quit.

  mkfs /dev/dosd7               -- Recreate the file system, but larger
  mount /dev/dosd7 /mnt
  cpdir -v /usr /mnt            -- Copy /usr to the new disk's /usr to be
  shutdown                      -- Back to the monitor
  exit                          -- Back to DOS
  boot bigtest

Now you run Minix from a copy of TEST, but with a larger /usr.  Don't
worry if it claims to have crashed, there wasn't a "shutdown" entry in
/usr/adm/wtmp at the time it was copied.

(If anyone worries about viruses in the .COM files I make, don't.  They
were created under Minix-vmd, and checked to not have changed after
being put in the ftp/web tree.  If they even saw DOS or Windows on their
way to the ftp/web tree.)
--
Kees J. Bot, Systems Programmer, Dept. Math&CS, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Minix:       http://www.cs.vu.nl/pub/minix/   ftp://ftp.cs.vu.nl/pub/minix/
Minix-vmd:   http://www.Minix-vmd.org/        ftp://www.Minix-vmd.org/

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