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commandline tools (o)

The OS/2 commandline is useful, but not very comfortable. Some simple functions are not part of the OS/2 installation. You need some Freeware programs to extend the default functionality. All these programs are also running if you have got an OS/2 session without the WPS .

Besides my own Freeware CD Shortcut, there are some other tiny, but useful programs. I have copied all these programs to a 60 kB Archive CMDTOOLS.ZIP . (Place these files into a directory listed in the "PATH=" statement of your CONFIG.SYS file.)

DELPATH deletes complete directories with all subdirectories. This program is much faster than the WPS. (If you have used the directories with the WPS, it's better to use the delete functionality of the WPS, otherwise the object ID's stays in the OS2.INI file.)

GO shows all running tasks and lets you kill them. It's useful if you haven't installed Watchcat .

SENDMSG is part of the Simple Zipshell, but can be used separately.


SENDMSG 1.0 - commandline tool to send window messages to PM programs Martin Vieregg 12/1996 Usage: SENDMSG progname WINDOWMESSAGE MP1 MP2 progname can be a program with EXE extension or a folder name (not case sensitive). If several progs are found, the message is sent to all. examples: SENDMSG templates WM_CLOSE SENDMSG PMPROG.EXE WM_COMMAND 117 0x00000001

You can send messages from the commandline to PM programs - that's useful if you want manipulate PM programs from a batch (CMD) file. E.g. you can close a folder with the WM_CLOSE parameter. You need to know PM programming to know about all possible Messages.

OF Open folder is part of CD Shortcut, but can be used separately. OF opens the WPS folder of the current directory in the OS/2 text window. You can create this REXX CMD file by using the clipboard: (don't forget the first line)


/* of.cmd */ Call RxFuncAdd 'SysLoadFuncs','RexxUtil','SysLoadFuncs' Call SysLoadFuncs CurrentDir = directory() Call SysOpenObject CurrentDir, ICON, TRUE

In Windows, you'll get the same effect with "START .".


TED is a simple ASCII editor with an EXE file of only 7 kB. You can copy this editor to your OS/2 boot disk to edit the CONFIG.SYS .

I have copied all these programs of other authors to a 60 kB Archive CMDTOOLS.ZIP .

The programs FTREE, SEARCH are not part of the archive anymore, also WHICH and TREESIZE which have malfunctions on hard disks with more than 2 GB size. The functionality of all these programs is now part of DO.EXE .