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I've released a small command-line utility that can read files from a memory card or HDF image, and the opposite: get files from your hard disk and write them into a +3DOS partition inside the memory card or HDF file.
For writting new files to the +3DOS partition, the user can choose whether the destination file will have a standard +3DOS header, or a plain binary file. The later is necessary for copying .Z80 and .SNA files, so you can use the SPECTRUM command and run the snapshot directly on a real Spectrum +3E.
Besides, the utility is able to read a whole TAP archive, and write each file to a +3DOS partition. It does not modify BASIC loaders in any way, so the user is responsible for customizing the BASIC loader to properly load the rest of the program from the current partition.
Facilities for building front-ends have been included, so a programmer can write a nice GUI for handling +3E formatted memory cards without having to deal with low-level issues. In the same way, there are facilities to ease scripting with this utility so complex tasks can be performed with a little shell programming wizzardy.
GPL licensed. Source code (C language) included. Compiled and tested on Windows XP and Windows 7. Should compile on Linux and Mac OS X (yet to be tested with these two OS).
This is alpha software, so expect it to have errors, and some (or all) features might not work as described on your particular setup. The utility has only a few days of life (at the time of this posting), and while I'm currently using it to perform numerous file operations, exhaustive tests must be performed to ensure reliability. If in doubt, use a newly created HDF image file for testing, or a dump of your memory card to a HDF file, or a memory card with no valuable files on it.
Features:
- Can operate with disk image files (HDF / RAW) and physicial drives (tested on Windows).
- It's not necessary to poke around the system to obtain the special file for a given card just inserted: a "scan" command will reveal all PLUSIDEDOS compilant drives along with their special file name (implemented on Windows by now).
- Can list partitions and show details on a given partition (+3DOS partitions)
- Can list a directory for a given partition using the partition name or the partition number.
- Can get files from a partition and save to a specified location in your PC.
- Can put files from a specified location in your PC to a specified partition and file name on your memory card / disk image.
- Files can have a optional +3DOS header added upon writting to the memory card /image disk.
- Can scan a TAP archive and dump all blocks, whether they have a header or not, to a given partition.
- NEW! Can read a standard DSK file and transfer all its files to a given partition.
- Can delete files given a partition and a file name to delete.
- Can output information suitable for post-processing by a front-end utility, or a shell script. It's front-end friendly, as all error messages are directed to the stndard error, and meagninful exit codes are sent to the parent process upon exit.
Limitations:
- Does not support "halved size sector" cards (those used with a cheap interface that wastes half the capacity of the card in order to simplify electronics) nor does support HDF256 image disks.
- Reading and writting to physical devices is limited to devices that can operate at a 512 byte boundary.
- Reliable operation not tested (and therefore not guaranteed) for partitions beyond the 2GB boundary.
Download link to the last version.
Feel free to upload it to WOS or the web page for the +3E project.
Thanks!