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fdbox

A new command interpreter for FreeDOS. Code will contain usable utilities borrowed from Unix and maintain (basic) compatibility with MSDOS 6.22 command.com, while (sometimes) improving.

Build status License

Languages

Repository size

Activity

DOSBox

The program compiles also as a native Linux executable

Linux

.. and Windows as well

Windows

.. and Apple silicon as well

OSX

Yes this code compiles on DOS 8086 16bit, Windows 8086 32bit and Linux amd64 and OSX64/ARM!. I see no reasons why should it fail to compile on other platforms/OS.

Status

  • Only DOS commands are supported. Unix commands might follow.
  • Code compiles using clang/GCC (Windows+Linux+OSX), TCC (DOS), OpenWatcom2/snapshot (DOS).
  • Github actions compiles all the code for Linux, Windows, MSDOS and OSX, the workflow also runs the test on all platforms. (tests do not run on MSDOS yet).
  • Currently, code uses LibC's functions - so it is limited to standard C code support for localization.
  • All commands support multiple arguments (like Unix shells), unlike DOS which you cannot do del /r file1.txt *.bat /f, and arguments can come even after file names (not only at the beginning of the command).
  • Some commands share the same code (copy+move, date+time)
  • Interactive shell is being worked on. I want to have 4DOS command
    completion, or bash/zsh.
  • Contains a bash shell script to generate the development environment for DOS+DosBOX.

See also:

TODO

  • Command (main interactive shell) does not support batch files. See https://github.com/elcuco/fdbox/tree/batch-files-support branch.
  • Command does not support redirection
  • Command does not support "|"
  • TurboC does need a proper makefile.
  • Make OW build a Windows binary (as well)
  • OW build is done by using gnu-make and not ow-make
  • Setup CI/CD to compile a DJGPP cross compilation
  • Setup CI/CD to run dosemu in console mode, and compile using TC
  • Setup CI/CD to run dosemu in console mode, and run tests
  • History is not saved/read.
  • I had this configure system which would create the sources for commands and auto generate the applets.c file. Not against the idea.
  • There are commands that are available on Unix and DOS, but differ in syntax unsure how to handle.
  • MSDOS: Using XMS swapping would be good, using SPWNO would be epic (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/%7Eralf/files.html)
  • Platform specific APIs (& on Windows/Linux to run a program in background for example).
  • On Linux we can print escape sequences to make files on dir be clickable.
  • see also implementation tables bellow

Implementation status of commands

command status remark
beep done needs to be tested on DOS/Windows, on unix it just beeps
call not yet
cd done
cls done
copy WIP All copies are binaries. By design.
Recursive copy not implemented yet
Copy globs, and several files - not implemented yet
Append files (copy file1+file2 file3) not implemented yet
command WIP See bellow
date/time WIP Missing AM/PM support
Not supported on windows (only DOS/Linux)
del done Prompt might need more testing
dir WIP /o? order is funky.
/p - pausing is not implemented
Missing disk usage
echo done
if done
for not yet
md/mkdir done
move/rename/ren done All these command are aliases, hardcoded
prompt done internal library issues
rem done
set done
type done Bonus: support also line numbers printing
type done As a bonus, can also print line numbers
ver done

Major project worked on is interactive shell. The main task right now is the internal readline code (history, editor etc).

Command line editor status:

Key status remark
Left/right/home/end done
Up/Down: history WIP fails randomly
Backspace done
Del not yet
control+a : HOME done
control+b : word left not yet
control+c : cancel WIP de facto - clear line, fails on Posix
control+d : EOF done
control+e : END done
control+f : word right not yet
control+l : cls done
TAB not yet
insert/override done Cursor shape not supported on OXS
esc ???? Fix breaks on Linux/OSX ?
insert done Toggle insert/override mode
control+arrows not yet move to next/prev word

Compiler support

  1. Linux: Clang/GCC - this is the main development environment. Supported.
  2. Windows10: MinGW/TCM (9,10) - this is the main development environment. Supported.
  3. DOS: TC 2.02 - this is the main development environment. Supported.

    BUG:

    glob() functionality tends to allocate too much >memory, and the code is faulty, not reporting this to the app. Results in garbage in the screen when dir on a directory with lots of files (~80 on my tests, but it depends on memory available).

  4. DOS/OpenWatcom (WIP): we have a CI building it. The generated binary crashes on startup.
  5. OSX: Works (similar code path as Linux)
  6. DOS: DJGPP - I am having problems in runtime. Seems like tolower() is breaking my code. Might be a compiler bug. Interactive shell segfaults.
  7. DOS: PacificC - It's not a high priority, but we have a working branch called pacific-c-support which contains the work needed to make this project compile with that compiler.

Why?

Because.

I started this project at 2001, and only recently re-started it from scratch. The idea came after I saw Minibox, and though (as every programmer does...) "this is wrong, this is not the way to do this, I will do it better". I am unsure if I am doing it better, but this is the best way to thank Ercan Ersoy - you give me a push to restart this project: thank you.

My old project: http://dgi_il.tripod.com/fds/index.html

Minibox: https://github.com/ercanersoy/Minibox

Ideas and inspiration do come from busybox (the applet concept for example). However - this project does not share any code, and cannot be considered a derived work (please don't copy code from Busybox here, as I might re-license code, and want new implementations for those old ideas).

DosBox setup

I created a Linux shell script which will populate a "C:" drive for development. Just execute it, and it will download all the compilers, and create an AUTOEXEC.BAT. Do this inside the etc directory.

Then in DosBox config, edited the start-up files (usually at the end) to this:

mount c /home/diego/fdbox/etc/dosbox
mount d /home/diego/fdbox/
C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT
d:

Then, each time I start dosbox, I have in the path all the compilers I need, and I am redirected to the full code of the program in drive D:. The project contains a TurboC project file - so typing tc will bring up the IDE with the project ready to hack.

Similar setup can be done from the GUI of DOSBOX-X, it just needs more clicks.

Linux's requirements (on Ubuntu I found that I need p7zip-full instead of 7z:

apt install 7z wget dosbox

OSX requirements:

brew install p7zip wget dosbox

Windows:

  • Download 7zip, the script will only look in default location
  • You can run this script from Github's bash (use official git for windows install)

TODO: If you save a file under DOS, DosBox will rename it to capital letters. I am unsure how to automatically do this.

License

GPL V3. See file license.txt