Copyright (C) 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993 Free Software Foundation
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a translation approved by Free Software Foundation.
You can retrieve a copy of this file by anonymous ftp from
`ftp.simtel.net' in directory `pub/simtelnet/gnu/gnuish', as
file `gnuish.tex' for the Texinfo source and file
`gnuish.inf' for an already formatted Info version.
Please help the community by kindly reporting all errors or omissions in
this document to the current maintainer.
GNUish MSDOS was first organized with small IBM PC's in mind, that is, 8088 and 80286 based systems. Currently, GNUish contains both OS/2 and DOS ports to small machines (most of the OS/2 ports also run under DOS). The work will be called "The GNUish Project" in this document.
For the most part, users of 32bit systems such as the 80386 should rather take a close look at one of the newer environments based on GNU software (see section Project Mailing Lists).
This document is the work of various people, collected by Darrel Hankerson (current maintainer) and Francois Pinard. The FSF disclaimer (see section Project Definition) has been edited; the original from Richard Stallman appears in the GNUish93 snapshot.
This document contains the following sections:
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is not directly interested in integrating or maintaining ports of GNU software to OS/2 and DOS, because of limited resources. These activities take time away from finishing a complete standalone GNU, which FSF and many in the GNU Project consider much more important.
However, the organized distribution of such ports started around 1989, under the name GNUish MSDOS. The overall idea is to provide a GNU-like environment for small systems running OS/2 and DOS, easy to get, and easy to install, as far as possible. It contains both ports of GNU software, as well as replacements for non-ported GNU software.
The GNUish Project wants to consider itself as part of the GNU Project, rather than a mere aggregation of binaries. The non-GNU replacements are expected to somewhat comply with the GNU spirit and standards. Ideally, all code should be under the GNU General Public License, should try conforming to the GNU coding standards, and also be fully ANSI. The programs should be such that users can be convinced of the virtues of free software!
The GNU General Public License requires that the complete source code be available where programs are distributed in object code or executable form. For convenience, ready-to-execute binaries are also provided for those who do not have the necessary compilers, or do not feel like using them.
When several ports of the same tool exist, one of them has been selected for inclusion in this documentation. This does not means that the selected port is the best possible, it means however that the port seems to be good.
Occasionally, multiple versions of the same program are retained in the collection. Some of this is due to the addition of 16bit OS/2 archives in 1996 (most of these also run under DOS). In addition, authors often implement differing solutions to various limitations of OS/2 and DOS, and it is beneficial to retain these versions.
The GNUish project originated from Thorsten Ohl. It was moderated by Thorsten from its beginning and for a long while. Thorsten originally thought then, giving the project a solid initial impulse, it would bring enough enthusiasm so other programmers will share the porting duties. It now seems that the enthusiasm was more on the users' side than the programmers' side. In these days, many parts of GNUish are almost completely dormant, and most products are quite old relative to the current GNU versions.
The mailing lists associated with GNUish are now completely gone. Fine programming went into GNUish, and the project exists now as a home for the original work (in the `gnuish93' directory) and new work which is GNUish-like. The main interest, as always, is in ports of GNU software to 286-class machines. However, some software has been recently added which users have found essential in the creation of ports. As always, additions to GNUish must meet the spirit of the project.
On the 80386/80486 side, work by DJ Delorie, Michael Johnson, and Eberhard Mattes in bringing GNU C to DOS and OS/2 gave a new momentum for other ports. Besides a variety of libraries, we should especially underline the Manabu Higashida and Hirano Satoshi port of GNU Emacs to MSDOS.
Users with a 386-or-better are advised to consider one of the other environments based on GNU software (see section Project Mailing Lists).
This section contains instructions for submitting files for inclusion
in the GNUish Project. Contributions are handled by the Project maintainer,
and not directly by Simtel.Net (the primary mirror).
Contributions must include complete sources required for building,
and must meet the spirit of the
GNU General Public License,
although strict compatibility is not required.
The GNUish Project was designed to bring Unix-like programs to small systems
runing DOS or OS/2. While some 32-bit programs are included and the
collection continues to be the primary upload point for GNU awk on DOS,
OS/2, and Win32, it is expected that there will be little new activity.
Example announcement
Some tools are possibly dangerous if you do not thoroughly understand
their usage (e.g., `rm -r *'). You ought to know what you are doing.
YOU USE THESE TOOLS AT YOUR OWN RISK. You were warned!
Many of these programs are free software; you can redistribute them
and/or modify them under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 1, or (at your
option) any later version.
These programs are distributed in the hope that they will be useful, BUT
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY WHATSOEVER, without even the implied warranties of
merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. See the GNU
General Public License (the file `COPYING') for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with GNUish programs; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA or e-mail to
`gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu'.
Information about the FSF and the GNU Project can be found via
http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu.
To receive a copy of the GNU's Bulletin, send your name and
address with your request to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
675 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge MA 02139-3309. Enclosing a
business-sized self-addressed stamped envelope ($0.52) and/or a donation of
a few dollars is appreciated, but not required. If you're from outside
the USA, sending a mailing label and enough International Reply Coupons
for a package of about 100 grams is appreciated but not required.
Traditionally, GNUish archives are made using Rahul Dhesi's
Some people wanted GNUish to use
Also, some sites converted all of GNUish to
The current maintainer has been urged by several of the major sites
to use zip for all files in the collection, and to keep archive names
in the "8+3" lower-case format (filenames within a zip archive are not
subject to such restrictions). Some files remain in other formats, but
eventually all will be converted.
Most packages consists of two archives, one for the complete source
and documentation, the other for the executable and data files;
however, it happens that the documentation is sometimes provided with
the executables. The filename for a package archive is often selected
according to the following pattern:
In this syntax, program is a short string to identify the product,
e.g. `futi' indicates GNU file utilities; while version is a
decimal integer naming the version, without any decimal point, v.g.
`14' for 1.4, `358' for 3.58; edition is `a' for
the first release in GNUish, then `b', `c', etc., for
subsequent editions. The value of sequence is the letter `s'
for the source and documentation, or `x' for executable and data
files. When extension is `zoo', this usually refers to Zoo
version 2.1. The `tgz' extension is shorthand for `tar.gz',
and both
The official GNU home is `prep.ai.mit.edu' (problems with
The expression from the usual places, later in this document, refers
to the first site of this list.
The organization and maintainance of the archive sites is the work of
Darrel Hankerson, Francois Pinard, Roberto Gomez, Petri Hartoma, David Camp,
Keith Petersen, Chris Myers, Dave Curry and Russ Nelson.
The following contents for GNUish is loosely organized along the
lines of related UNIX man pages.
GNU awk current GNU version is 3.0. OS/2, DOS, and Win32 support
is part of GNU awk, and is maintained by Scott Deifik, Darrel Hankerson,
and Kai Uwe Rommel, with contributions from Juan Grigera for the Win32
Visual C version. Fetch executables in
gawk306x.zip,
sources in
gawk306s.zip,
and documentation in
gawk306d.zip
and
gawk306h.zip
(Windows help format) from the usual places.
GNU awk 3.0.4 remains available in
gawk304x.zip,
gawk304s.zip,
and
gawk304d.zip.
The 3.0.4 files were updated in Jan 2000, although the names of
the zip files were unchanged. A platform-independent bug in format
specifiers was corrected, along with a bug in the way pipes were handled
with some command.com-style processors (DOS, Windows) in the 16bit
and Win32 versions. A makertf-translated Windows-style help file was
added in
gawk304h.zip.
GNU awk 3.0.3 remains available in
gawk303x.zip,
gawk303s.zip,
and
gawk303d.zip,
respectively.
The GNU Awk User's Guide
is available professionally-bound from the
Free Software Foundation
and also as
Effective AWK Programming
(2nd ed) from
Specialized Systems Consultants.
There is another awk, also distributed under the GNU General
Public License, written by Mike Brennan. The original distribution for
mawk is available from
ftp://ftp.whidbey.net/pub/brennan/.
Minor changes for the GNUish OS/2 and DOS versions were done by Darrel
Hankerson. Fetch executables in
mawk122x.zip
and sources in
mawk122s.zip
from the usual places.
The version of awk described in
The AWK Programming Language
by Al Aho, Brian Kernighan, and Peter Weinberger (Addison-Wesley, 1988,
ISBN 0-201-07981-X) is available (along with a Win32 binary) from
http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/bwk/.
Version 970821 has been ported to OS/2 and DOS by Darrel Hankerson.
Testing has been limited. Fetch
awk9708.zip.
Russell Schulz maintains the Frequently Asked Questions
for the comp.lang.awk newsgroup on
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/computer-lang/awk/faq/
and
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.lang.awk/faq.
Historical: mawk was reportedly faster than gawk-2.14. Fetch
executables and documentation in `mawk11ax.zoo' and sources in
`mawk11as.zoo' from the usual places.
GNU bc current GNU version is 1.04. Version 1.02 has been ported
to OS/2 and DOS by Kai Uwe Rommel. Fetch
gnubc.zip
from the usual
places.
GNU bison current GNU version is 1.25. Since bison is used to
produce C source which will further be compiled, it is assumed that a
bison user has a C compiler, thus she can compile bison itself
from sources. However, Scott Deifik's port of bison-1.25 to DOS and
OS/2 is part of GNUish. Fetch executables in
biso125x.zip
and sources in
biso125s.zip
from the usual places.
Kai Uwe Rommel's port of bison-1.10 to OS/2 and DOS has been retained.
Fetch
bison110.zip
from the usual places.
Historical: bison-1.19 compiles without changes on MSDOS. Fetch sources
in `bison-1.19.tar.Z' from `prep.ai.mit.edu', in
`pub/gnu'. The following patch is reported:
There is no port of GNU C available for 8088 and 80286 systems, and it
is very unlikely that there would ever be one. So, GNUish is
still relying on proprietary compilers for its existence. Currently,
ports have been done using Microsoft C compilers or Borland Turbo C/C++;
it seems so far that Microsoft C generates faster code, works better
with huge pointers, and offers a working
For users with a 386 or better, see section Project Mailing Lists
for information on the outstanding ports of GNU C to OS/2 and DOS.
For a number of reasons including performance and patent restrictions,
GNU gzip (see section gzip) was developed as a compress
replacement. gzip can `uncompress' files created by compress, but cannot
create such files. Although gzip is preferred, the compress port
from Kai Uwe Rommel is available as
compre42.zip
from the usual
places.
GNU cpio 2.4.2 has been ported to MSDOS by Stephen V. Nickolas.
Fetch executables and sources in
cpio242.zip.
Version 1.1 has been ported to MSDOS by Thorsten Ohl. Fetch executables in
cpio11ax.zoo
and sources and documentation (inside
`readme') in
cpio11as.zoo
from the usual places. You
also need Thorsten Ohl's gnulib (see section libc_3) to compile it.
GNU [ce]tags current GNU version comes from GNU Emacs distribution.
Russ Nelson made a version for Freemacs. Fetch the executables, sources
and documentation as
etags.zoo
from the usual places.
GNU diff current GNU version is 2.7 (now part of
diffutils). Version 2.3 has been ported to DOS by Helge Oldach.
Fetch executables in
diff23x.zip
and sources in
diff23s.zip
from the usual places.
Version 1.15 has been ported to MSDOS by Thorsten Ohl, using Microsoft C
v5.1 or v6.0. Fetch executables in
dif115ax.zoo
and
sources in
dif115as.zoo
from the usual places. There is
no documentation.
See section rcs for another port of
There is no port of GNU Emacs available for 8088 and 80286 systems, and it
is very unlikely that there would ever be one. Any Emacs for small
systems only implements a tiny subset of the true thing.
John Davis'
JED is an exceptional editor, and closest in spirit to the
real thing. The S-Lang companion package provides a C-like
extension language. OS/2 support was contributed by John Burnell and
Darrel Hankerson, with additional contributions from Dominik Wujastyk.
OS/2 and DOS support is part of the main distribution at
ftp://space.mit.edu/pub/davis.
Or, fetch sources in
jed9713s.zip
and
slan9924.zip
and executables in
jed9713x.zip
from the usual places. These files correspond
to versions 0.97-13 and 0.99-24 of JED and S-Lang, resp.
Russ Nelson's Freemacs is also close in spirit to the real thing, by
providing a full extension language. It is made of a MINT
interpreter written in 8088 assembler, and of several MINT code
application files to drive emacs modes. MINT has no relation to GNU Emacs
LISP and limits itself to 64k per file. Fetch the executables code as
emacs16a.zoo
(plus
emacs100.zoo
for a
Zenith Z-100) and the sources as
emac16as.zoo,
from the usual
places; also fetch some EGA utilities as
emacsega.zoo
and a
spelling checker as
emacspel.zoo.
You might want to fetch
emacspat.zoo
too for a few patches, applied by Freemacs
itself.
Jonathan Payne's Jove, on the other side, is not extendable, but can
handle surprisingly big files on MSDOS. It is well featured and
reasonably fast. It can be made almost comfortable to GNU Emacs users,
given a proper `jove.rc'.
For users with at least a 386, outstanding ports of GNU Emacs to OS/2
(using emx) and DOS (using djgpp) have been done. Craig Finseth
maintains a list of
Emacs Implementations and Literature.
The file utility attempts to determine the type of file based on
its contents (the OS/2 port uses some additional tests). Ian Darwin's
file version 3.9 has been ported to OS/2 and DOS by Darrel
Hankerson, with contributions from Greg Roelofs and Jouni Miettunen.
Fetch
file39a.zip
from the usual places.
A feature of shar (see section shar) requires file.
GNU fileutils current GNU version is 3.16. Version 3.12 has been
ported to DOS by Stephen McConnel. Fetch executables in
fut312bx.zip
and sources in
fut312bs.zip
from the usual places.
An earlier port to OS/2 and DOS by Kai Uwe Rommel has been retained as
gnufut21.zip.
Note that there was some reorganization of the
text and file utilities after these ports were done (see section text utilities).
Historical: GNU Text Utilities historically emerged from GNU File
Utilities, and version 1.4 had been ported to MSDOS by Thorsten Ohl
before this split had been done. The ported programs are:
GNU find current GNU version is 4.1 (now part of
Historical: Version 1.2 has been ported to MSDOS by Thorsten Ohl. Fetch
executables in `find12ax.zoo' and sources and some documentation
(inside `readme') in `find12as.zoo' from the usual places.
You also need Thorsten Ohl's gnulib (see section libc_3) to compile it.
Get executables in `ghostscript-2.6.1msdos.tar.gz' and sources in
`ghostscript-2.6.2.tar.gz' from `prep.ai.mit.edu' in
`pub/gnu'. You might need `ghostscript-fonts-2.6.2.tar.gz'
from the same place. L. Peter Deutsch is the primary developer of
Ghostscript.
gnuplot is an interactive program for plotting mathematical
expressions and data. The official distribution site is
`ftp.dartmouth.edu', and there a reference manual and demos at
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/gnuplot_info.html.
GNU grep current GNU version is 2.1. Version 2.0 has been ported to
DOS by Stephen McConnel. Fetch executables in
grep20ax.zip
and sources in
grep20as.zip
from the usual places.
Earlier ports to OS/2 and DOS by Kai Uwe Rommel have been retained as
fgrep11.zip
and
grep15.zip.
Historical: Version 1.1 of fgrep has been ported to MSDOS by Thorsten Ohl.
Fetch executables in `fgre11ax.zoo' and sources in
`fgre11as.zoo' from the usual places.
Version 1.5 of grep has been ported to MSDOS by Thorsten Ohl. Fetch
executables in `grep15ax.zoo' and sources in `grep15as.zoo'
from the usual places. There is no documentation.
GNU groff current GNU version is 1.11. Ports to OS/2 for 32bit
machines have been done by Kai Uwe Rommel. It is unlikely that there
will be a port for 286 machines.
Henry Spencer's awk script
GNU gzip current GNU version is 1.2.4. Fetch executables in
gzip124x.zip
and sources in
gzip124s.zip
from the usual
places.
Historical: Version 0.7 has been ported to MSDOS by Jean-loup Gailly,
the
GNU indent current GNU version is 1.9. Version 1.9.1 has
been ported to DOS by James R. Shiflett. Fetch executables in
inden19x.zip
and sources in
inden19s.zip
from the
usual places.
Version 1.2 has been ported to OS/2 and DOS by Kai Uwe Rommel. Fetch
gnuindnt.zip
from the usual places.
Version 1.1 has been ported to MSDOS by Thorsten Ohl. Fetch executables
in `inde11ax.zoo' and sources and Texinfo unformatted documentation
in `inde11as.zoo' from the usual places.
less current GNU version is 332. A build of 291 has been done by
Stephen McConnel. Fetch executables in
less291x.zip
and
sources in
less291s.zip
from the usual places.
Version 177 has been ported to OS/2 and DOS by Kai Uwe Rommel. Fetch
less177.zip
from the usual places.
Version 177 has been ported to MSDOS by Mark Lord, using Borland C.
Fetch executables in
les177ax.zoo
and sources in
les177as.zoo
from the usual places.
Fast lex current GNU version is 2.5. Version 2.5.1 has been ported to
DOS by Terry Kane. Fetch executables in
flex251x.zip
and sources in
flex251s.zip.
Version 2.3 has been ported to OS/2 and DOS by Kai Uwe Rommel. Fetch
flex23.zip
from the usual places.
Version 2.3.6 has been ported to DOS by Thorsten Ohl. Fetch
executables in `fle236ax.zoo' and sources and roff unformatted
documentation in `fle236as.zoo' from the usual places. You also
need Thorsten Ohl's gnulib (see section libc_3) to compile it.
The following is taken from the
Lout homepage:
Lout is a document formatting system designed and implemented by
Jeffrey Kingston
at the Basser Department of Computer Science, University of Sydney,
Australia.
The system reads a high-level description of a document similar in
style to LaTeX and produces a PostScript file which can be printed on
most laser printers and graphic display devices. Plain text and PDF
(starting from version 3.12) output are also available.
The lout homepage includes a pointer to
Murray Adelman's article on lout, appearing in the
Linux Gazette.
Currently, lout is the only package in GNUish which is 32bit-only. It
was added at the request of Matthew Cepl, who performed tests on these
versions. Compilation for DOS and Win32 was done by Darrel Hankerson,
with patches provided by Valeriy E. Ushakov. Fetch the binary
distribution
lout312x.zip
and sources in
lout312s.zip
from the usual places.
GNU m4 current GNU version is 1.4. Version 0.99 has been ported
to OS/2 and DOS by Kai Uwe Rommel. Fetch
gnum4.zip
from the
usual places.
Version 0.5 (also called 0.50) has been ported to MSDOS by Thorsten Ohl.
Fetch executables in `m4v05ax.zoo' and sources and Texinfo
unformatted or DVI ready documentation in `m4v05as.zoo' from the
usual places. You also need Thorsten Ohl's gnulib
(see section libc_3) to compile it.
Dennis Vadura's dmake is under the GPL, and has been widely used under
OS/2 and DOS in porting GNU software. Fetch executables in
dmake38x.zip
and sources in
dmake38s.zip.
Version 3.71 of GNU make has been ported to DOS by Morten Welinder.
Fetch
gmake371.zip
from the usual places.
Version 3.58 of GNU make has been ported to MSDOS by Thorsten Ohl, using
Microsoft C v6.0. Fetch executables in `mak358ax.zoo' and sources
and Texinfo + roff unformatted documentation in `mak358as.zoo' from
the usual places. You also need Thorsten Ohl's swapping library
(see section libc_3). If you intend to recompile
This is a replacement for Unix man, apropos, whatis, and manpath. John
Eaton's man version 1.1 was ported to OS/2 by Darrel Hankerson.
Fetch
man11a.zip
from the usual places.
Larry Wall's patch current GNU version is 2.1. Version 2.0
has been ported to OS/2 and DOS by Kai Uwe Rommel. Fetch
patch212.zip
from the usual places.
Larry Wall's Perl current GNU version is 5.004. Version 4.019
has been ported to OS/2 and DOS by Raymond Chen and Kai Uwe Rommel, and
is based on the DOS port by Diomidis Spinellis. Fetch
perl4019.zip
from the usual places.
Version 4.019 has been ported to DOS by Stuart Phillips, using Borland
C++ 3.0 and VROOM, it works faster with extended memory. For the
original distribution, fetch executables in `bcv14_perl4-019E.zip'
and sources in `bcv14_perl4-019.zip' plus `xspawn34.zip' from
`tandem.com' [130.252.12.8], in `pub/perl'. Or fetch
executables in `pl4019ax.zoo' and sources in `pl4019as.zoo'
from the usual places. There is no documentation.
Also, version 4.019 has been ported to MSDOS by Len Reed. Fetch
executables in `perl_exe.zoo' from `ftp.ee.umanitoba.ca'
in `pub/msdos/perl'.
GNU ptx current GNU version is 0.4. Version 0.1 has been ported to
MSDOS by Thorsten Ohl. Fetch executables in
ptx01ax.zoo
and sources and documentation in
ptx01as.zoo
from the
usual places.
GNU Revision Control System current GNU version is 5.7. Version 5.7
has been ported to OS/2 and DOS by Kai Uwe Rommel, available
from
http://www.leo.org/archiv/os2.
Or, fetch
rcs57pc1.zip
and
rcs57pc2.zip
from
the usual places.
This archive contains a port of
Historical: Version 5.5 has been ported to MSDOS by Stuart Phillips.
For the original distribution, fetch sources and executables in
`rcs55.zip' from `wuarchive.wust.edu', in
`mirrors/msdos/pgmutil'. Or fetch executables in `rcs55ax.zoo'
and sources and roff unformatted documentation in `rcs55as.zoo'
from the usual places.
GNU recode converts between character sets and usages. Version
3.4 has been ported to DOS by Francois Pinard. Fetch executables in
rec34ax.zip
and sources in
rec34as.zip
from the usual places.
The spreadsheet calculator sc version 6.21 has been ported to
OS/2 and DOS by Darrel Hankerson. Fetch
sc621.zip
from the usual
places.
GNU sed current GNU version is 2.05. Version 1.06 has been
ported to OS/2 and DOS by Kai Uwe Rommel. Fetch
sed106.zip
from
the usual places.
Version 1.06 has been ported to MSDOS by Thorsten Ohl. Fetch
executables in
sed106ax.zoo
and sources in
sed106as.zoo
from the usual places. You also need
Thorsten Ohl's gnulib (see section libc_3) to compile it. There is no
documentation.
GNU bash current GNU version is 2.01. There is no port of GNU
bash available to 8088 and 80286 systems, and it is unlikely
that there will ever be one.
Ian Stewartson ported the Charles Forsyth
Historical: Ian Stewartson ported the Charles Forsyth
GNU sharutils current version is 4.2. Version 3.49 of shar
was distributed through `alt.sources' on 90-09-24. Version 3.49 has
been ported to MSDOS by Thorsten Ohl. Fetch executables in
sha349ax.zoo
and sources and roff unformatted documentation
in
sha349as.zoo
from the usual places.
Version 3.49 of shar has been ported to OS/2 by Darrel Hankerson.
The sources from the MSDOS port were used as the starting point.
Fetch
shar349.zip
from the usual places.
GNU tar current GNU version is 1.12. Kai Uwe Rommel has
ported version 1.09 to OS/2 and DOS. Fetch
gnutar.zip.
GNU texinfo current GNU version is 3.9, comprising:
Historical: Prereleased versions of
GNU textutils current GNU version is 1.22. Version 1.11 has
been ported to DOS by Stephen McConnel. Fetch executables in
tut111ax.zip
and sources in
tut111as.zip
from the usual places.
An earlier port to OS/2 and DOS by Kai Uwe Rommel has been retained as
gnutut12.zip.
Note that there was some reorganization of the
text and file utilities after these ports were done (see section file utilities).
Historical: A prerelease of
Compilation for OS/2 and DOS was done by Darrel Hankerson. There are
many such ports, but some are incomplete and will not work properly with
shar (see section shar). Fetch
uuencode.zip
from the usual places.
Info-ZIP current zip and unzip versions are 2.2 and 5.32, resp.
Documentation, sources, and executables are available via
http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip.
GNUish contains unzip 5.32 and zip 2.2. Sources appear in
unzip532.zip
and
zip22x.zip,
resp. Executables appear
in the `dos_only' and `os2_only' subdirectories. For DOS, fetch
unz532x3.exe
(self-extracting) and
zip22x.zip
; for OS/2 fetch
unz532x1.exe
(self-extracting) and
zip22x1.zip.
Rahul Dhesi's barebone Zoo extractor version 2.0 has been distributed
through `comp.binaries.ibm.pc' (1 part: `v13i001'). Fetch
`booz.exe' and `booz20.zoo' from the usual places. Use
`booz.exe' under MSDOS to unpack the sources and documentation in
`booz20.zoo'.
Rahul Dhesi's full Zoo current version is 2.1 (also called 2.10).
Executables have been distributed in `comp.binaries.ibm.pc' (3
parts: v13i002-004), sources has been distributed through
`alt.sources' on 91-07-10 (14 parts). Fetch the executables in
zoo210e.exe
and sources in
zoo210s.zoo
from the usual
places. Execute the self extracting `zoo210e.exe' under MSDOS to
unpack the zoo executables and documentation. Unpack the sources with
the obtained `zoo.exe'.
GNU dbm current GNU version is 1.7. Version 1.5 has been ported
by Kai Uwe Rommel. Fetch
gnudbm.zip
from the usual places.
Version 1.4 has been ported to MSDOS by Thorsten Ohl. Fetch sources in
`gdbm14as.zoo' from the usual places. There is no executables
archive associated with GNU dbm. There is no documentation.
Many library routines frequently occurring in various GNU products have
been ported to MSDOS by Thorsten Ohl, to help other ports. Fetch
sources in
gnulibas.zoo
from the usual places. There is no
associated executables archive and there is no documentation.
A swapping library has been developped by Thorsten Ohl, using Microsoft
C v6.0, to be used by some of his other GNU ports. Fetch sources and
(TeX unformatted?) documentation in
swalibas.zoo
from the
usual places. There is no associated executables archive.
Note that this is not a complete
GNU chess current GNU version is 4.0.75. Version 4.0.60 was
compiled for DOS by Chua Kong Sian. Fetch executables in
ches460x.zip
and sources in
ches460s.zip.
Tim Mann maintains information on GNU chess and related material at
http://www.research.digital.com/SRC/personal/Tim_Mann/chess.html.
Historical: Reportedly, version 4.0.60 should compile without changes on
MSDOS.
The original mailing lists for discussing MSDOS ports of GNU software no
longer exist (they became quite inactive around 1992). The GNU project
is primarily interested in 32bit or better machines. Questions about
16bit ports typically should not go on one of the GNU
newsgroups, but may be appropriate on one of the OS/2 or DOS programming
groups.
GNUish exists now as primarily an archive for the original GNUish ports
(in the `gnuish93' directory), updated ports of GNU software, and
some selected tools which assist in the creation of ports or are not
available as GNU ports. Additions to the archive and corrections to
this document are welcomed.
Users of 386 or better machines might consider Linux, emx,
or djgpp; all are exceptional work based on GNU software.
Linux is a Unix-like environment based on the kernel by Linus Torvalds.
There are many "distributions" consisting of the kernel, development
tools, and applications. The
Debian Project
is a volunteer effort to create a high-quality distribution.
Linux can run many DOS programs, but users interested in OS/2 and DOS
may wish to examine the work of and Eberhard Mattes (emx) and DJ Delorie
(djgpp) and derivatives; these ports have their own set of mailing lists
and distribution points.
Users interested in the djgpp development environment can start with the
web page
http://www.delorie.com,
The collection is available via
http://www.simtel.net/simtel.net/
or
ftp://ftp.simtel.net/simtelnet/gnu.
The newsgoup `comp.os.msdos.djgpp' is a good source of information.
Mattes' emx development package is available on `ftp.leo.org'.
There is a mailing list for
Thorsten Ohl started his ports in November 1989, in Germany, while the
Berlin Wall was falling. He subscribed at some GNU mailing lists and,
for correspondants wanting his MSDOS ports, organized a distribution
list based on email and still located in Germany. In 1990, around
spring, the unusual quality of Thorsten ports was being recognized, and
a few FTP sites organized to hold them (
At this point, the mailing lists, after an initial burst of intense
activity and many debates, became very quiet, and nothing really new got
added to the GNUish MSDOS archives. DJ Delorie released his 80386 port
of GNU C/C++, and GNU Emacs itself was ported to 80386 under the name
Demacs.
In February 1992, the archives were reorganized to better comply with
the GPL, which requires the sources to be fully available at the
distribution points. Ports from Russell Nelson and Stuart Phillips were
integrated in the project.
In January 1996, several existing 16bit OS/2 ports were added (most
also run under DOS). Many of these were from Kai Uwe Rommel, who
remarked that "[the work was not officially part of GNUish], although I
had some mail exchange with Thorsten Ohl at this time. I was even asked
to put up something to describe `GNUish OS/2' but didn't have time
then."
A snapshot of the "original" GNUish MSDOS Project was placed in the
`gnuish93' subdirectory. GNU awk and Davis' JED editor were added,
along with a number of other utilities and updates.
Contributing to the Project
I have uploaded GNU awk 3.0.6 to the GNUish Project:
http://www.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/gnuish/
ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/gnuish/
gawk306x.zip GNU Awk 3.0.6: Text scanning and processing language
gawk306s.zip Sources for gawk306x.zip (GNU awk)
Excerpted from the manual:
The awk utility interprets a special-purpose programming language that
makes it possible to handle simple data-reformatting jobs easily with
just a few lines of code.
Executables provided:
gawk.exe 16-bit DOS
gawk-os2.exe 16-bit OS/2
gawk-djg.exe 32-bit DOS (compiled with DJGPP)
gawk-w32.exe 32-bit Win32 (compiled with MinGW)
These files have replaced gawk304x.zip and gawk304s.zip, respectively.
Uploaded by one of the coordinators for the DOS, OS/2, and Win32 ports
of GNU awk.
Darrel Hankerson hankedr@planet.earth
November 2000
Legal Conditions
Archiving Formats
zoo
archiver. This archive format is popular and portable, used in many
places, notably for the Usenet `comp.binaries.ibm.pc' exchange
group. The GNUish project selected it because it works on OS/2, DOS,
and UNIX, and all the sources are freely available. Moreover, it offers
a nice user interface and is dependable.
zip for its better compression,
but zip was proprietary software at that time. A new version of
zoo (version 2.1) offers a higher compression rate, comparable to
what zip can achieve. About at the same time, the
Info-ZIP
group produced a zip program available in source
form, and which works on OS/2, DOS, and UNIX. There are no more big
reasons for using one instead of another.
ARC or LHarc
format. Instead of feeding an archivers war, let us simply hope that
each archive site will follow the GNU spirit and at least offer the free
archiver they use, both in executable and complete source form.
program version edition sequence.extension
gzip (see section gzip) and tar (see section tar) will be
required to "un-tgz."
FTP Archive Sites
prep should be reported to `gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu'). There
is currently no room on `prep.ai.mit.edu' to put GNUish files
up for ftp. If `prep' get more disk space, they might become
available. The collection of programs known as the GNUish Project
is still available for ftp at the following addresses. Different
archiving sites might use different archivers. The actual extension of
any given archive should give you a clue about which archiver to use.
GNUish Project Contents
awk
bc
bison
*** files.c~ Thu Nov 19 15:12:52 1992
--- files.c Thu Nov 19 15:15:12 1992
***************
*** 389,394 ****
--- 389,395 ----
if (actfile) unlink(actfile);
if (tmpattrsfile) unlink(tmpattrsfile);
if (tmptabfile) unlink(tmptabfile);
+ if (tmpdefsfile) unlink(tmpdefsfile);
#endif /* MSDOS */
exit(k);
#endif /* not VMS */
cc
alloca(); but promoting
proprietary software is against the GNU goals, any step in the direction
of compiler independence would be beneficial for the community.
compress
cpio
ctags
diff
diff and diff3
by Kai Uwe Rommel.
emacs
file
file utilities
cat,
chmod, cmp, cp, cut, dd, dir,
head, ls, mkdir, mv, paste,
rmdir, tac, tail, touch, vdir and
rm. A long-standing bug in the port of cp was corrected
for the `gnuish93' snapshot in 1996. Fetch executables in
`futi14bx.zip' and sources in`futi14bs.zip' from the usual places.
There is a Perl script included which can be used to format the manual pages.
find
findutils),
comprising: find, locate and xargs. Kai Uwe Rommel
has ported version 3.2 to OS/2 and DOS. Fetch
find32.zip
from
the usual places.
ghostscript
gnuplot
grep
groff
awf provides a limited nroff-like
capability; fetch
awf.zip
from the usual places. Vic Abell
wrote cawf, a much faster and expanded version in C, and Darrel
Hankerson ported to OS/2. An OS/2 and DOS version is available in
cawf407.zip
from the usual places.
gzip
gzip author. Fetch executables and documentation in
`gzip07ax.zoo' and sources in `gzip07as.zoo' from the usual
places.
indent
less
lex
lout
m4
make
make, beware that one patch has been lost for the makefile in
`make358as.zoo', so the makefile might not work as is.
man
patch
perl
ptx
rcs
diff and diff3
(see section diff).
recode
sc
sed
sh
sh from MINIX to DOS
and OS/2. Fetch executables in
ms_sh23b.zip
and sources
in
ms_sh23s.zip
from the usual places. Stewartson's
companion utilities for DOS appear in the
ms_sh
directory,
and work well with sh.
sh from
MINIX to MSDOS, using Microsoft C v5.1. Fetch sources from
`comp.sources.misc' in Volume 10 issues 053-059, Volume 12 issues
019-026, Volume 13 issues 079-080, Volume 14 Issues 065-066, Volume 16
Issues 078-079. Or fetch executables and documentation in
`sh164ax.zoo' and sources in `sh164as.zoo' from the usual
places.
shar
tar
texinfo
info,
makeinfo, texi2dvi, texindex and extensive related
code written in GNU Emacs LISP. Kai Uwe Rommel ported version 2.05 to
OS/2 and DOS, using some of the earlier work of Thorsten Ohl. Fetch
gnuinfo.zip
from the usual places.
info and makeinfo have
been ported to MSDOS by Thorsten Ohl. Fetch executables in
`texi10ax.zoo' and sources in `texi10as.zoo' from the usual
places. There is no documentation.
text utilities
sort version 0.3 has been ported to
MSDOS by Thorsten Ohl. Fetch executables and documentation in
`sort03ax.zoo' and sources in `sort03as.zoo' from the usual
places.
uuencode and uudecode
zip and unzip
zoo
dbm_3
libc_3
libc(3), but rather a small
collection of GNU specific routines.
chess_6
Project Mailing Lists
emx programming information. The
listserver reports:
This mailing list is for users of Eberhard Mattes' emx development
environment. It is the proper forum for questions about emx and
also bug fixes, misc comments, and whatever pertains to emx.
The emx-list is managed internally by the Majordomo mailing-list
program. To be added or removed from the emx-list or to retrieve
past articles posted to the emx-list please send mail to
majordomo@IAEhv.nl. If you include the word "help" as the message
body, "listserv" will return a list of valid commands and options.
Historical Notes
vulcan, simtel,
wuarchive, ocf, funic); during the summer, the
mailing lists were created. Thorsten stopped actively porting GNU
products to MSDOS in September 1990, to finish his PhD and continue his
research in theoretical high energy physics. He has now joined the
endless list of people who support GNU by using GNU software on their
UNIX workstations and contribute bug reports and (occasionally) fixes.