Documentation to Split 0.0

Deutsche Version

	Overview
		1 Description of the program
			1.1 Assumptions, Installation, Deinstallation
			1.2 Command line parameters
			1.2.1 Options
			1.3 Error handling
		2 Frequently asked questions
		3 About Split
			3.1 Licence
			3.2 History

	Overview
		1 Description of the program
		1.1 Assumptions, Installation, Deinstallation
		1.2 Command line parameters
		1.3 Error handling

There are similar programs out there with a graphical user interface - but I didn't find any that can be used in batch processing. That's the reason why I created Split. Because the program doesn't make so many screen outputs I didn't localisate it and used English as output language.

	Overview
		1 Description of the program
		1.1 Assumptions, Installation, Deinstallation

• Assumptions:
  This program needs a 32-bit-Windows as operating system (Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000).
• Installation:
  Just put the program SPLIT.EXE into a directory you wish. :-)
• De-Installation:
  To deinstall simply delete SPLIT.EXE as well as all files of this documentation. Split doesn't create INI-files nor entries in the Windows registry.

	Overview
		1 Description of the program
			1.2 Command line parameters
			1.2.1 Options

Some conventions about notation:

• necessary parameters are surrounded by <> and optional ones by []
• the symbol | is used for an OR-combination
• words in Italic font are understood to be symbolic terms

Hints:

• Parameters containing white characters
  If a parameter contains white characters, you have to put quotations marks (") around it (e.g. Split -o "C:\My files" bigfile.dat).

• filename
  This is the name oft the file to be splitted. filename may contain drive and/or directory specifications, but must not contain wild cards (?, *).

• Start without any options
  If you start Split without any options (but with the mandantory filename as parameter), filename is splitinto pieces of 1.474.560 bytes (capacity of a 3½"-HD disk). The fragments are stored in the current directory. The names of the fragments are derivied from the original filname by putting the text .frag and a serial number between the name and the last extension of the original filename.

  Example: split c:\data\bigfile.zip would create the files bigfile.frag0.zip, bigfile.frag1.zip, ... in the current directory.

  Attention: Already existing files with the same name of a fragment are overwritten silently, if option -i (interactive) is not set.

• Order of options
  The order of options doesn't matter; they are processed from the left to the right by the program. All options are optional. ;-)

• Case of optionen
  The otions are case sensitive.

• Option parameters as number
  With some options you have to provide a number. In all cases this must be a decimal, not negative integer without thounsand seperators.

• Check for useful settings
  The program does not check your settings to be useful. If you put default size to zero for example, you probably have a never ending loop at creating the fragments... But who makes such things. ;-)

	Overview
		1 Description of the program
			1.2 Command line parameters
			1.2.1 Options

The options of Split:

Option	Description
-a	autosize: Just before starting to write the next fragment the remaining size on the medium is determinated and the fracmant size is adjusted according to it. Hints: Only sensful with removable media. You should set the switch interactive (-i) in order to get time to change the medium. You cannot use the options -s (default size) and -# (fragment size) in this case.
-h	help: Shows an (englisch) small help. The program is terminated with errorlevel 0.
-i	interactive: If there already exists a file with the name of a to fragment be created, the user is asked if he wants to overwrite or skip this fragment or if he wants to abort: filename already exists. (o)verwrite, (a)bort, (s)kip? Otherwise before a fragment is created, he is asked if he wants to continue, skip this fragment or abort:(c)ontinue with, (s)kip fragment filename or (a)bort?
-k	keep date: The fragments keep the date and time of the original file.
-m <mask>	mask: With this option you can manipulate the name of the fragments. mask must not contain any drive or directory neither any special characters (\/:*"<>|). An exception is the question mark: The first question mark in mask is replaced by the serial decimal fragment number. If there are more question marks in sequence, leading zeros are added to the fragment number until the number of digits of the fragment number is equal to the number of question marks. If the serial fragment number has more digits than sequenced question marks in mask, the number of question marks is ignored. Example: split -m frag??.dat c:\data\bigfile.zip would create the files frag00.dat, frag01.dat, ..., frag852.dat, ... in the current directory. Hints: If there is no question mark in mask or mask is not set, the fragment names are generated as described at Aufruf ohne Optionen. If there is more than one group of question marks in mask, an error will occour.
-n <number>	start number: The first fragment number is zero. If you want to start with another number, use this option. Hint: Using this option has effects to option -# (fragment size).
-o <path>	output directory: Usually the fragments are created in the current directory. With this option you can have the fragments created in another directory. The directory must exist already.
-s <size>	default size: If there is no size given for a particular fragment (see option -# (fragment size)), this default size is used. The default value for default size is 1,474,560 bytes: this is the capacity of a usual disk. Hint: You cannot use the option -a (autosize) in this case.
-v	verbose: the program tells what it is doing now.
-V	version: Print version number and some hints to the screen. The program is terminated with errorlevel 0.
-# <size>	fragment size: You can set the size for every fragment piece by using the decimal fragment number as option and its size as parameter of this option. Example: split -0 123456 -3 720000 c:\data\bigfile.zip would set the size for the fragment with the number 0 to 123,456 and for the fragment with the number 3 to 720,000. Hints: If you change the start value for the number with the option -n (start number), you have to take that into account here. You cannot use the option -a (autosize) in this case.

	Overview
		1 Description of the program
		1.3 Error handling

Possible ERRORLEVEL at program termination

Errorlevel	Reason
0	No error has occured; processing was successful (printing help or version returns always errorcode 0).
1-252	These are errorcodes of thr operating system, if such an error has occured (for example an object to be written to is read only).
253	The user has aborted the processing.
254	An error has occured while accessing to an object given in the command line (file or directory). Either the object does not exist or the acess rights are insufficient.
255	While parsing the command line an error has occured (e.g. illegal option).

	Overview
	2 Frequently asked questions

Reconstruct the fragments

For example with the COPY-command:
copy /B frag0.ext DestFile
for %i in (1 2 3 4 5 6 [...]) do copy /B DestFile+frag%i.ext DestFile
(In batch files you must use %%i instead of %i.)

Beispiel: Let tne names of the fragments be FRAG1.DAT, FRAG2.DAT, FRAG3.DAT and FRAG4.DAT; let the name of the desttionation original file be BIG.ZIP. Then you can use copy FRAG1.DAT BIG.ZIP for %i in (2 3 4) do copy /B BIG.ZIP+FRAG%i.DAT BIG.ZIP to recreate the origuinal file from the fragments.

Tip: If cou create a batch file and don't know the number of fragments exactly at this time, you can use for %%i in (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 [etc]) do if exist FRAG%%i.DAT copy /B BIG.ZIP+FRAG%%i.DAT BIG.ZIP

	Overview
		3 About Split
		3.1 Licence
		3.2 History

Author of program

Matthias Stolte Datentechnik (MSDatec)

Communication channels:

• S-Mail: 33613 Bielefeld, Albert-Schweitzer-Straße 4, Germany
• Telephon: +49-521-88 00 56 oder +49-177-88 00 56-0
• Telefax: +49-521-88 00 59
• Eurofiletransfer: +49-521-88 00 59
• BBS (analogue and ISDN): +49-521-8 94 98 40
• Web: http://www.msdatec.de/
• E-Mail:

Newest version

Limitations

	Overview
		3 About Split
		3.1 Licence

This program is free software - treat it as you like.

	Overview
		3 About Split
		3.2 History

Version 0.0:

Release: 11.08.2001, Time stamp 00:00
Size of SPLIT.EXE: 28.160 Bytes
MD5-Sum of SPLIT.EXE: 15742c672af955fd6bc234560bf828d4

Last update: 05 Oct 2001