Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!rochester!PT.CS.CMU.EDU!cadre!pitt!cisunx!ejkst
From: ejkst@cisunx.UUCP (Eric J. Kennedy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Disks, Killer Demos, Amoeba
Message-ID: <5985@cisunx.UUCP>
Date: 16 Dec 87 17:22:03 GMT
References: <3186@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>
Distribution: comp
Organization: Univ. of Pittsburgh, Comp & Info Sys
Lines: 40

In article <3186@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>, hsgj@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Dan Green) writes:
> 
> Disks:
> 	There are two disk and file related utilities I would like to
> see.  Since I am very ignorant about the details of disk operations,
> I am wondering if anyone has any ideas about, or has implemented,
> either of the following:
> 
> 	FAST_FORMAT - Often I will want to just erase everything on
 
Check out FFormat, a program by Andy Rachmat (sp?).  It formats a disk
in half the time it takes AmigaDOS format.  

> 	CLOSE - Say I am writing data to a file (with AmigaDOS Open()
> 	and Write()) and the task doing the writing gets a SOFTWARE
> 	FAILURE, TASK HELD requester.  Big trouble.  The file that I
> 	am writing may have all sorts of valid data, but because the
> 	errant task has an open write-lock on the file, I can't do
> 	anything with the file.  What I would like is a program that
> 	would force DOS to (hopefully purge any buffers and) close
> 	the file and free the lock.  In this way I could at least
> 	rescue some data from the file.  The other problem is that
> 	unclosed files like this force a disk into re-validating itself
> 	after you reboot.  On an HD this can take some time...

There is a program called GOMF (Get Outta My Face.  I'm not kidding.)
that is designed to watch for 'task held' requesters.  After you select
'cancel', instead of resetting, GOMF takes over and tries to clean up
the mess, close files, free locks, return memory and resources, etc.  It
then returns control to the system.  It might do what you want, but it's
not foolproof; I guess the Amiga's lack of resource tracking makes it a 
ticklish situation, but GOMF does a reasonable job, usually.  

You can probably find these on BBS's, etc. Try the Fish disks.



> -- Dan Green

Eric kennedy