🚀 go-pugleaf

> >      Where can I find documentation on the format of archive libraries?
> > (Other than the developer's kit, which I can't afford just yet :-)
> > Marty
> 
> Even the developers kit doesn't document the format of ar68 files.
	The documentation that comes with the upgraded develeopers kit
specifies all sorts of file formats, including ar68. The format is as
follows:
	The first word is the Magic # 0xff65
Then each constituent file is preceded by a file header
	char fname[14];
	long modti	last mod time
	char userid	
	char gid	group id
	int mode	mode word (see Fattrib)
	long filesize   size of file

	<filesize bytes>

	.. and so on


> 
> I would very much like to get this information myself.  Since ar68 doesn't
> work (half the time it gives: error reading file ... messages, always gives
> this for any file with file static objects) I am hoping to right my own.
> 
	A working version of ar68 is available on CompuServe
	developers  sig and comes with the upgrade too.

> Some other questions:
> 
> Is there any way to give the kit's linker a file list longer than 128 chars.
> I tried the [com[tail.lnk]] option but it seems to truncate that to 128 chars
> also.  ar68 heaved it's guts on almost every module for this project.
> Has anyone figured out what ar68 is doing wrong?
> 
> This was my solution:
> 
> link68 [u] h.68k=gs,a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,l,m,n,o,p,q,r,s,t,u,v,w,x,y,z,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,gl,lf
> 
> where a-z and 0-9 are files renamed to a.o b.o etc.
> and gs is gemstart.o renamed and gl is gemlib renamed and lf is libf renamed
> 
	The continuation character is '\' so lines can be as long as
you wish.  tail.lnk can contain lines continued with \ too.

The alternate linker lo68 is avail. on CompuServe too. At least it
understands paths.


> Does anyone know how to pass an environment to a program?  Without the
> aes/vdi kludge package if possible.
> 
	See Pexec() the third arguement is the environ ment. In the
called program the address of the environment can be accessed via the
base page (i don't  offhand remember the offset into the basepage).
The format of the envoronment is
	<string1>\0<string2>\0 ... <stringn>\0\0
where each string is of the form
	NAME=VALUE
The default environment set up by the OS is null.

Not that if you stuff your envrionment into the buffer set up by the
OS before invoking another program, its total lenght (including all
the \0's) cannot be >20, as that is the size of the buffer allocated
by the OS. But using Pexec() you can set up any length environment you wish.


> Note: I was promised an update for my developers kit around april.  I still have
> not seen hide nor hair of it? Listening Neil@ ?
	It has been avail. now for quite a while, by send $20 to Atari
C/O John Feagans.

> --j.a.tainter
Hope that helps
-- 
					Jwahar R. Bammi
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