Ms Dos Version 4 00 example essay topic

Making Utilities for MS-DOS Michael Sokolov English 4 Mr. SiedleckiFebruary 1, 1996 Making Utilities for MS-DOS These days, when computers play an important role in virtually all aspects of our life, the issue of concern to many programmers is Microsoft's hiding of technical documentation. Microsoft is by far the most important system software developer. There can be no argument about that. Microsoft's MS-DOS operating system has become a de facto standard (IBM's PC-DOS is actually a licensed version of MS-DOS). And this should be so, because these systems are very well written. The people who designed them are perhaps the best software engineers in the world.

But making a computer platform that is a de facto standard should imply a good deal of responsibility before the developers who make applications for that platform. In particular, proper documentation is essential for such a platform. Not providing enough documentation for a system that everyone uses can have disastrous results. Think of it, an operating system is useless by itself, its sole purpose is to provide services to applications. And who would be able to develop applications for an operating system if the documentation for that system is confidential and available only to the company that developed it?

Obviously, only the company that has developed that operating system will be able to develop software for it. And this is a violation of the Antitrust Law. And now I start having a suspicion that this is happening with Microsoft's operating systems. It should be no secret to anyone that MS-DOS contains a lot of undocumented system calls, data structures and other features. Numerous books have been written on this subject (see bibliography).

Many of them are vital to system programming. There is no way to write a piece of system software, such asa multitask er, a local area network, or another operating system extension, without knowing this undocumented functionality in MS-DOS. And, sure enough, Microsoft is using this functionality extensively when developing operating system extensions. For example, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Network, and Microsoft CD-ROM Extensions (MSCDEX) rely heavily on the undocumented internals of MS-DOS.

The reader can ask, 'Why do they leave functionality undocumented?' To answer that question, we should look at what this 'functionality' actually is. In MS-DOS, the undocumented 'functionality' is actually the internal structures that MS-DOS uses to implement its documented INT 21 h API. Any operating system must have some internal structures in which it keeps information about disk drives, open files, network connections, alien file systems, running tasks, etc. And MS-DOS (later I'll call it simply DOS) has internal structures too. These structures form the core of undocumented 'functionality' in MS-DOS. This operating system also has some undocumented INT 21 h API functions, but they serve merely to access the internal structures.

These internal structures are extremely version-dependent. Each new major MS-DOSversion up to 4.00 introduced a significant change to these structures. Applications using them will always be un portable and suffer compatibility problems. Every computer science textbook would teach you not to mingle with operating system internals. That's exactly why these internal structures are undocumented. This bring another question, 'Why does Microsoft rely on these structures in it sown applications?' To answer this question, we should take a look at an important class of software products called utilities.

Utilities are programs that don't serve end users directly, but extend an operating system to help applications serve end users. To put it another way, utilities are helper programs. Perhaps the best way to learn when you have to mingle with DOSinternals is to spend some time developing an utility for MS-DOS. A good example is Steel Box, an utility for on-the-fly data encryption.

This development project have made me think about the use of DOS internals in the first place and it has inspired me to write this paper. Utilities like Steel Box, Stacker, Double Space, new versions of Smart Drive, etc. need to do the following trick: register with DOS as device drivers, get request packets from it, handle them in a certain way, and sometimes forward them to the driver for another DOS logical drive. The first three steps are rather straightforward and do not involve any 'illicit' mingling with MS-DOS internals. The problems begin in the last step.

MS-DOS doesn't provide any documented " legal' way to find and to call the driver for a logical drive. However, MS-DOS does have internal structures, called Disk Parameter Blocks (DPBs) which contain all information about all logical drives, including the pointers to the irrespective drivers. If you think of it, it becomes obvious that MS-DOS must have some internal structures like DPBs. Otherwise how would it be able to service the INT 21 h API requests? How would it be able to locate the driver for a logical drive it needs to access?

Many people have found out about DPBs in some way (possibly through disassembly of DOS code). In the online community there is a very popular place for information obtained through reverse engineering, called The MS-DOS Interrupt List, maintained by Ralf Brown. This list is for everyone's input, and the people who reverse engineer Microsoft's operating systems often send their discoveries to Ralf Brown, who includes them into his list. The DPB format and the INT 21 h call used to get pointers to DPBs are also in Interrupt List. As a result, many programmers, including me, have used this information in their utilities without much thinking. However, this is not a good thing to do.

DPBs exist since the first release ofMS-DOS as IBM PC-DOS version 1.00, but the DPB format has changed three times throughout the history. The first change occurred in MS-DOS version 2.00, when the hard disk support, the install able device drivers and the UNIX-like nested directories were introduced. The second change occurred in MS-DOS version 3.00, when the array of Current Directory Structures (CDS's), a new internal structure, was introduced to support local area networks and JOIN / SUBST commands. The third change occurred in MS-DOS version 4.00, when 32-bit sector addressing was introduced and an oversight with storing the number of sectors in a File Allocation Table (FAT) was fixed. The reader can see that each new major MS-DOSversion up to 4.00 introduced a change in the DPB format. And this is typical with all MS-DOS undocumented internal structures.

Although one can probably ignore DOS versions earlier than 3.10, he still would have to deal with two different DPB formats. And prior to DOS version 5.00, where DPBs were finally documented, no one could be sure that a new DOS version wouldn't change the DPB format once again. In the first version of Steel Box, my utility that needs to know about DPBs in order to do its work, I simply compared the DOS version number obtained via INT 21 h / AH = 30 h with 4.00. If the DOS version was earlier than 4.00, I assumed that it has the same DPB format as IBM PC-DOSversions 3.10-3.30. If the DOS version was 4.00 or later, I assumed that it has the same DPB format as IBM PC-DOS version 4. xx. However, there are problems with such assumptions.

First, there are some versions of MS-DOS other than IBM PC-DOS, and some of them have their internal structures different from those of standards-DOS and PC-DOS. For example, European MS-DOS 4.00 returns the same version number as IBM PC-DOS version 4.00, but its internal structures much more closely resemble that of PC-DOS version 3. xx. Second, prior to Microsoft's documenting of DPBs in MS-DOS version 5.00, there was no guarantee that the DPB format wouldn't change with a new DOS version. When I was developing a new version of Steel Box, I started to think about how to use DPBs properly and in a version-independent manner. I justified the use of DOS internals in the first place because I know that a lot of Microsoft's own utilities use them extensively. The examples are MS-DOS external commands like SHARE, JOIN, and SUBST, Microsoft Network, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft CD-ROM Extensions (MSCDEX), etc.

Before we go any further, it should be noted that we mustn't be dumping unfairly on Microsoft. Originally I thought that DOSinternals are absolutely safe to use and that Microsoft doesn't document them intentionally in order to get an unfair advantage over its competitors. My reasoning for this was that Microsoft's own utilities have never stopped working with a new DOS version. To find the magic of 'correct' use of DOS internals, I started disassembling Microsoft's utilities. First I looked at three DOS external commands, SHARE, JOIN, and SUBST.

All three programs check for exact DOS version number match. This means that they can work only with one specific version of MS-DOS. This makes sense, given that these utilities are bundled with MS-DOS and can be considered to be parts of MS-DOS. One of the utilities, SHARE, unlike other DOS external commands, accesses the DOS kernel variables by absolute offsets inDOSGROUP, the DOS kernel data segment, in addition to getting pointers to certain DOS internal structures and accessing their fields. SHARE not only checks the MS-DOS version number, but also checks the flag at offset 4 inDOSGROUP. In DOS Internals, Geoff Chappell says that this flag indicates the format (or style) of DOSGROUP layout (501).

If you look at the MS-DOS source code (I'll explain how to do it in a few paragraphs), you " ll see that programs like SHARE access the kernel variables in the following way: The kernel modules defining these variables in DOSGROUP are linked in withSHARE's own modules. Since the assembler always works the same way, the DOS kernel variables get the same offsets in the SHARE's copy of DOSGROUP as in the DOS kernel's copy. When SHARE needs to access a DOS kernel variable, it loads the real DOSGROUP segment into a segment register, tells the assembler that the segment register points to SHARE's own copy of DOSGROUP, and accesses the variable through that segment register. Although the segment register points to one copy of DOSGROUP and assembler thinks that it points to another one, everything works correctly because they have the same format. The reader can drawn the following conclusion from this aside: MS-DOS designers have made them-DOS internal structures accessible to other programs only for DOS " own use (since linking DOS modules in with a program is acceptable only for the parts ofMS-DOS itself). Having seen that DOS external commands are not a good example for a program that wants to be compatible with all DOS versions, I turned to Microsoft Network.

On eof its utilities, REDIR, is very similar to SHARE in its operation. Like SHARE, it accesses the DOS kernel variables by absolute offsets. I thought that unlike SHARE, REDIR is not tied to a specific DOS version. Unfortunately, I wasn " table to disassemble it, because as a high school student, I don't have a copy of Microsoft Network. However, Geoff Chappell says that it has separate versions for different versions of DOS, just like SHARE. Therefore, I turned to another utility again.

My next stop was MSCDEX, the utility for accessing the High Sierra and ISO-9660 file systems used by CD-ROMs. Unlike SHARE and REDIR, MSCDEX is not tied to one specific DOS version. I'm using MSCDEX version 2.21 with MS-DOS version 5.00, but the same version of MSCDEX can be used with PC-DOS version 3.30. However, it accesses the DOS kernel variables by absolute offsets in DOSGROUP, just like SHARE and REDIR. Of course, my question was 'How does it do that in a version-independent manner?' When I disassembled it, I saw that it takes the flag at offset 4 in DOSGROUP and uses it to determine the absolute offsets of all the variables it needs.

If this flag equals 0, MSCDEX assumes that all offsets it's interested in are the same as in DOS versions 3.10-3.30. If this flag equals 1, MSCDEX assumes that all offsets it's interested in are the same as in DOSversions 4.00-5.00. For all other values of this flag MSCDEX refuses to load. Sharp-eyed readers might notice that this check already makes MSCDEX potentially incompatible with future DOS versions. The comments in the source code for MS-DOS version 3.30 (DOS MULT. INC file) refer to MSCDEX, therefore, it had existed at the time of MS-DOS version 3.30.

It is very doubtful that anyone, including the author of MSCDEX, could know what offsets would the kernel variables in DOSversion 4.00 have at that time. If this is true, an MSCDEX version that predates MS-DOS version 4.00 won't run under DOS versions 4.00 and later. MSCDEX uses the flag at offset 4 in DOSGROUP to determine not only the absolute offsets of the kernel variables, but also the 'style' of all other DOS internals that had changed with DOS version 4.00. My first thought was that I can use this flag in my utilities when I need to cope with different 'styles' of DOSinternals. However, my next discovery really surprised me and gave me a real understanding of what I'm doing when I mingle with DOS internals. MSCDEX version 2.21 refuses to run under DOS versions 6.00 and later.

So much for the idea that " Microsoft's own utilities have never stopped working with a new DOS version. ' In fact, Geoff Chappell refers to this in DOS Internals (501). The last utility I looked at was Microsoft Smart Drive version 4.00, which is bundled with Microsoft Windows version 3.10. This utility also uses the Dosinternals structures, including the version-dependent ones. However, unlike MSCDEX, Smart Drive doesn't have a 'top' DOS version number.

It compares the DOSversion number with 4.00 and assumes that DOS similar to versions 3.10-3.30 if it's lower than 4.00 and to versions 4.00-5.00 if it's 4.00 or higher. Smart Drive assumes that all future DOS versions will be compatible with MS-DOSversion 5.00 at the level of the internal structures. The lack of clear pattern in the usage of the undocumented DOS internal structures by Microsoft's own utilities made me think seriously about the possibility of safe use of the DOS internals in the first place. Originally Thought that Microsoft has some internal confidential document that explains how to use the DOS internals safely, and that anyone having that magic document can use the undocumented DOS internals as safely as normal documented INT 21 h API. However, the evidence I have obtained through reverse engineering of Microsoft's utilities puts the existence of that magic document under question. In Undocumented DOS Andrew Schulman notes that it is possible that on some occasions Microsoft's programmers have found out about the MS-DOS internals not from the source code or some other internal confidential documents, but from general PC folklore, just like third-party software developers.

For example, theMWAVABSI. DLL file from the Microsoft Anti-Virus provides a function called AIO GetListofLists. This function calls INT 21 h / AH = 52 h to get the pointer to one extremely important DOS internal structure. In the MS-DOS source code this structure is called SysInitVars. However, in Ralf Brown's Interrupt List and in general PC folklore is called the List of Lists. This is an indication that Microsoft's programmers sometimes act just like third-party software developers (Schulman et al., Undocumented DOS, 44).

On several occasions I have made references to the MS-DOS source code. However, most programmers know that the MS-DOS source code is unavailable to non-Microsoft employees. Therefore, before we go any further, I need to explain how could I look at the MS-DOS source code. Microsoft gives it to certain companies, mostly Original Equipment Manufactures (OEMs). Some people can claim that the yare OEMs and get the Microsoft's documents available only to OEMs (however, this costs a lot of money). And then some people who don't care too much about laws start distributing the confidential information they have.

This is especially easy in Russia, where copyright laws are not enforced. So one way or another, knowledge of some parts of MS-DOS source code spreads among the people. The MS-DOS OEM Adaptation Kit (OAK) contains commented source code for some MS-DOS modules and include files and. OBJ files made from some other modules. Let's summarize what we " ve seen so far. MS-DOS, like any other operating system, has internal structures.

Every computer science textbook would teach you not to rely on an operating system's internals. In MS-DOS, the internal structures are undocumented. Microsoft's own utilities do rely on them. By reverse engineering these utilities, looking at the MS-DOS source code, and thinking the problem through one can come to the conclusion that there is absolutely no safe way of using the MS-DOS internal structures.

The only proper way of using them is not using them at all. Not later than I have come to this conclusion, my Steel Box development project returned me back to the reality. No matter how bad it is to use of the MS-DOSinternals, utility developers like me have to do it because they have no other choice. Now I'm almost sure that this is precisely why Microsoft uses the MS-DOSinternals itself. Before we go any further, I need to clarify one important detail. Once a programmer asked Microsoft to document the INT 2 Fh / AH = 11 h interface, generally known as the network redirect or interface.

Microsoft responded: The INT 2 fh interface to the network is an undocumented interface. Only INT 2 fh, function 1100 h (get installed state) of the network services is documented. Some third parties have reverse engineered and documented the interface (i.e. ,' Undocumented DOS' by Shulman [sic], Addison-Wesley), but Microsoft provides absolutely no support for programming on that API, and we do not guarantee that the API will exist in future versions of MS-DOS. This sounds like Microsoft saying, 'Here's where you get the info, but you better not use it. ' (Schulman et al., Undocumented DOS, 495).

Some people might think that Microsoft has internal confidential documents describing the MS-DOSinternals much better than Andrew Schulman's Undocumented DOS, but there are indications that the MS-DOS source code is the only 'document' Microsoft has (I'll address this issue in a few paragraphs). Perhaps the Microsoft's programmers themselves use the same documentation as third parties. So far we have seen that MS-DOS is not a perfect operating system, and it gives utility developers no other choice but to use its undocumented version-dependent internals. The reader might ask, 'what can we do about it?' First of all, some of the former undocumented DOS functionality was documented in DOS version 5.00. The reason for that probably was that some INT 21 h functions that were used by DOS external commands like PRINT don't actually deal with any DOS internals a tall, and Microsoft had simply underestimated the usefulness of these functions originally. Microsoft has even documented the DPBs.

However, Microsoft's documentation says that the DPBs are available only in DOS versions 5.00 and later, but the reader should remember that the DPB format has changed several times throughout the history. So in this case Microsoft even restricted themselves in the ability of making changes in MS-DOS by documenting the DPBs. However, there are still a lot of undocumented internals in MS-DOS. It should be noted that documenting them is out of question. This would make it impossible to make significant changes in MS-DOS, thereby stalling its enhancement. In Undocumented DOS Andrew Schulman suggests that Microsoft could make an add-in toMS-DOS that would provide 'clean' documented services that would eliminate the need for the use of DOS internals.

Once Microsoft actually did this, when it introduced the IFSFUNC utility in MS-DOS version 4.00. This utility converted the 'dirty' and extremely version-dependent redirect or interface into a device-driver-like interface. However, this utility was removed from MS-DOS versions 5.00 and later (I'll explain why in a few paragraphs). Fortunately, the ill-fated IFSFUNC utility was not the only effort to enhances-DOS. In Microsoft Windows versions 3.00 through 3.11, there is a component called Win 386. It has got its name from Windows/386, its ancestor.

In early beta releases of Microsoft's Chicago operating system this component was called DOS 386. When Chicago was renamed into Windows 95, this component was given uninteresting name VIM 32. Finally, the beta release of Microsoft C / C++ Compiler version 7.00 included this component from Microsoft Windows under the nameMSDPMI. I think that the best name for this component is DOS 386, so I'll call it this way. Probably the reader would ask, 'What this component is?' DOS 386 is a multitasking protected-mode operating system. A close inspection of DOS 386 reveals that it has almost nothing to do with Windows, and has a lot to do with DOS (that's why I prefer the name DOS 386 over Win 386).

Two of DOS 386', DOS MGR and IFSMGR, are perhaps the heaviest users of DOSinternals. These modules know a lot about the internals of MS-DOS, and they provide their own interfaces which in fact can help an utility avoid using DOSinternals. For example, let's return to our Steel Box utility. This utility needs to access a file from inside an INT 21 h call.

Most DOS programmers know that DOS INT 21 h API is non-re entrant. It means that no INT 21 h calls can be made while an INT 21 h call is already being serviced. Therefore, an utility like Steel Box would have to play tricks with DOS internals with all the consequences. On the other hand, DOS 386's IFSMGR sub component provides an interface that replaces INT 21 h. Unfortunately, IFSMGR is documented only in the Windows 95 Device Development Kit (DDK), and I don't have a copy of it yet. However, it is quite possible that the IFSMGR's interface is re entrant.

If it is, all problems with Steel Box would be immediately solved, and it won't contain a single undocumented DOS call. Keep in mind, however, that DOS 386 is relatively new, and perhaps its current version doesn't provide all the desired functionality. But certainly DOS 386 is definitely a good foundation for a new operating system. Although I definitely don't want to over blame Microsoft, I have to say some unpleasant truth about this company. In their run for profit, people at Microsoft violates some principles of free enterprise. In other words, they try to make a monopoly.

One of the unfair things Microsoft does is called discriminatory documentation. Although the source code for MS-DOS, Microsoft Network, and other Microsoft products is supposedly unavailable to anyone, Microsoft has made the source code of some utilities available to selected vendors (Schulman et al., Undocumented DOS, 495). Another example is the deliberate incompatibility of some Microsoft products with Digital Research's DR-DOS. Some programs, including Microsoft Windows version 3.10 beta and Microsoft C Compiler version 6.00, contain special code with sole purpose of making them incompatible with DR-DOS and other DOSworkalikes. Although I'm definitely not a supporter of DOS, I think that Microsoft should use fair methods of competition. Finally, there is a big problem with Microsoft's packaging of MS-DOS and DOS 386.

The most important problem with DOS 386 is that it's currently available to users only as Win 386 in Microsoft Windows. Furthermore, the usual Windows technical documentation (except the DDK) doesn't even mention the existence of Win 386, because it's actually not a part of Windows. As a result, an amazing number of programmers don't even know about DOS 386 (or Win 386), and many of those how do greatly underestimate its tremendous importance. Now Windows 95 comes into play. In this package, MS-DOS, DOS 386, and Windows are thrown into one melting-pot. First of all, the integration of MS-DOS and DOS 386 is a very good step.

Given the volatility of DOS internals, the DOSMGRsubcomponent of DOS 386 (which, remember, is perhaps the heaviest user of DOSinternals) certainly should be tied to one specific DOS version. However, the tie between DOS / DOS 386 and Windows is largely artificial. Try a simple experiment. Rename KRNL 386. EXE file in your WINDOWS SYSTEM directory into something else, and put something else (COMMAND.

COM fits nicely) into that directory under the name KRNL 386. EXE. And then try to run Windows. But instead of running Windows, this would load and activate Win 386 without loading Windows. And there is no magic in this simple experiment. KRNL 386.

EXE is the first module of Windows, and Win 386 runs it when it completes its initialization. By putting something else in place of KRNL 386. EXE, one can break the artificial tie between Windows and DOS 386. At some point of time Microsoft probably thought of making a version of DOS 386 which would not be tied to Windows. There was an utility called MSDP MI in the beta release of Microsoft C / C++ Compiler version 7.00, which was that very DOS 386 without Windows. But now Microsoft is abandoning MS-DOS and everything else that is not Windows.

Microsoft tries to persuade users that Windows 95 doesn't contain a DOS component, but this is not true. It is simply tied into Windows. Now let's summarize the above. Microsoft is ignoring the minority users whod on't like Windows and who want to use MS-DOS and DOS 386 without Windows, because Microsoft cares only about its profit. One person cannot stop them doing that. Therefore, we, the programmers, should unite.

If I call Microsoft alone, no one would listen to me. But if thousands of us do it together, we might achieve something. If you have any questions or suggestions about creating an association of programmers against Microsoft, please send E-mail to Michael Sokolov at liographyBrown, Ralf. The MS-DOS Interrupt List. Not published on paper, available online for free. Chappell, Geoff.

DOS Internals. New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1994. Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft Windows Device Development Kit. Computers oftware. Redmond: Microsoft, 1990.

Pietrek, Matt. Windows Internals: The Implementation of the Windows Operating Environment. New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1993. Schulman, Andrew., Ralf Brown, David Maxey, Raymond J. Michels, Jim Kyle. Undocumented DOS: A Programmer's Guide to Reserved MS-DOS Functions and Data Structures. Schulman, Andrew., David Maxey, Matt Pietrek.

Undocumented Windows: AProgrammer's Guide to Reserved Microsoft Windows API Functions. New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1992.