Author Topic: FMT  (Read 7064 times)

Ben

  • Guest
FMT
« on: February 23, 2018, 04:03:15 pm »
I have a problem that has been nagging me for years. It's a nuisance, not a major problem but I'm wondering if anyone here has a solution.

When using the ALT-F! CMD my favourite file manager is FMT. However, whenever I try to load FMT from the boot drive it just hangs with a flashing "_". I can CAD and reboot.

I have the FM/2 directory in my path statements. I have tried *.cmd files with contents like;

'F:
cd \FM2
FMT.exe'


or simply

'F:\FM2\FMT.exe'

but it always hangs the system when in the root directory on the boot drive.

What DOES work is simply changing to F: and then running any of the above *.cmds.

Does anyone have any idea why these problems persist or possibly come up with a CMD that would solve this issue?

Thanks.

ivan

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1558
  • Karma: +17/-0
    • View Profile
Re: FMT
« Reply #1 on: February 23, 2018, 06:41:00 pm »
Which version of FM/2 are you using?  Here I have v3.22.0 and I don't see a FMT.EXE in the FM/2 directory or ant of the subdirectories.

Ben

  • Guest
Re: FMT
« Reply #2 on: February 23, 2018, 09:56:55 pm »
Hi, Ivan.

I am using version 3.24 however, FMT has always come with FM/2. It's the text version of FM/2 and for me, it's the best file manager for the Alt-F1 CMD session that there is.

I have tried Midnight Commander and that's an option, though I haven't used it in a while and it may no longer work.

Doug Bissett

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1593
  • Karma: +4/-2
    • View Profile
Re: FMT
« Reply #3 on: February 23, 2018, 10:22:23 pm »
FMT.EXE exists in the RPM package Coreutils. If it ever was part of FM/2, it isn't now. Chances are, that you just don't have something that it needs, in the LIBPATH.

Rich Walsh

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 331
  • Karma: +23/-0
  • ONU! (OS/2 is NOT Unix!)
    • View Profile
Re: FMT
« Reply #4 on: February 23, 2018, 10:55:27 pm »
The 'fmt.exe' found in \usr\bin is NOT a file manager, it's a file reformatter:

[0 | C:\usr\bin]fmt --help
Usage: fmt [-WIDTH] [OPTION]... [FILE]...
Reformat each paragraph in the FILE(s), writing to standard output.
The option -WIDTH is an abbreviated form of --width=DIGITS.

With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.
[etc]

ivan

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1558
  • Karma: +17/-0
    • View Profile
Re: FMT
« Reply #5 on: February 24, 2018, 12:52:29 pm »
Hi Ben,

I think you said that you are using eCS and from what Rich has posted it appears that eCS has a program called FMT that is in a directory listed early in the PATH statement and so takes precedent.

Have you tried renaming the FMT you want to use or the one in \usr\bin to something else and does that change what you see happening?

David Graser

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 870
  • Karma: +84/-0
    • View Profile
Re: FMT
« Reply #6 on: February 24, 2018, 07:02:21 pm »
In all the many years that I have used FM/2, I never knew this program existed.  Ben, I thought it came with the utilities package, but was not included.  Then I searched Hobbes and sure enough, it is there.

http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/util/browser/fmt1_00.zip

Plan to check out.

David

David Graser

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 870
  • Karma: +84/-0
    • View Profile
Re: FMT
« Reply #7 on: February 24, 2018, 08:22:07 pm »
I have a problem that has been nagging me for years. It's a nuisance, not a major problem but I'm wondering if anyone here has a solution.

When using the ALT-F! CMD my favourite file manager is FMT. However, whenever I try to load FMT from the boot drive it just hangs with a flashing "_". I can CAD and reboot.

I have the FM/2 directory in my path statements. I have tried *.cmd files with contents like;

'F:
cd \FM2
FMT.exe'


or simply

'F:\FM2\FMT.exe'

but it always hangs the system when in the root directory on the boot drive.

What DOES work is simply changing to F: and then running any of the above *.cmds.

Does anyone have any idea why these problems persist or possibly come up with a CMD that would solve this issue?

Thanks.


I just created and tested with a cmd file in the root directory on bootup.  It worked fine.  Is F the drive that contains the fmt.exe?  The reason I ask is that its config file refers to F drive .  This drive letter is changeable.  I changed mine to D: drive, which is my ArcaOS drive  and my cmd file uses D drive.  One other difference in my cmd file is that I used the @echo off statement at the beginning of the cmd file.

Ben

  • Guest
Re: FMT
« Reply #8 on: February 25, 2018, 12:44:29 pm »

Some interesting information there, but I am still at a loss to explain how either of my *.CMD(s) will work fine when I switch to "F:" before execution, but will hang when executed on the boot drive.

I mean, the full path to FMT is included in the CMD so how can a different program at a different location, (albeit with the same name), cause trouble? And how can merely switching to "F:" first fix it? All path statements still apply regardless of which partition you are on.

Granted, it is a minor annoyance, but this nuisance has been around for years if not decades; I'd like to drive a stake through it's damn heart! Hehehe. 8)

I just created and tested with a cmd file in the root directory on bootup.  It worked fine.  Is F the drive that contains the fmt.exe?  The reason I ask is that its config file refers to F drive .  This drive letter is changeable.  I changed mine to D: drive, which is my ArcaOS drive  and my cmd file uses D drive.  One other difference in my cmd file is that I used the @echo off statement at the beginning of the cmd file.


David, are you referring to the FMT.cfg file? I see no such line in there that contains a reference to "F".
Now, I'm wondering if mine has become corrupted over time. I will see if I can find an original copy.

Wait a minute... are you referring to the "Target" line?  That is a reference to which target directory FMT will copy files into. This can, (and will), be changed within the program simply by pushing "Alt-F2" while in the directory that you wish to make a target.


« Last Edit: February 25, 2018, 12:55:19 pm by Ben »

Ben

  • Guest
Re: FMT
« Reply #9 on: February 25, 2018, 05:15:51 pm »
Dave, I just downloaded and compared the http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/util/browser/fmt1_00.zip file you mentioned above.

That is a later version than the one I have.

I updated and problem solved!

Thank-you.