ArcMirror  -  directory catalogue archiver

by George K. Saliaris

Please note that you will need RISC OS 3 and an archive filing system like
ArcFS or SparkFS in order to use ArcMirror.

ArcMirror is an application which provides a unique and simple way to
catalogue the contents of directories on any filing system (floppy discs,
hard discs, etc). It achieves this by producing a 'mirror' Spark archive
(filetype &DDC) of all the file tree structure with identical filesize data,
filetype, date/time stamps, access details without actually including any
file (except !Boot and !Sprites files for application directories).

Consequently a mirror archive allows the user to examine quickly the
contents of any disc or directory from the desktop, as if viewing the actual
Filer directories. Of course, you will need an archive filing system like
ArcFS or SparkFS in order to open a directory viewer of the mirror archive.

Installation and use
Run the program from the RISC User menu system, or by double-clicking on its icon in a directory viewer. An icon will be installed on the icon bar. To
create a mirror archive of a directory, drag any object contained in this
directory onto the ArcMirror icon, and a save box will appear. The name of
the archive in the save box will be the name of the directory. If the source
directory is a root ($) directory, the archive name will be the disc name (useful for scanning floppy discs). Drag the archive to a destination directory to start the scanning process.

You can abort the scanning procedure by pressing Escape.

By using the Include menu option you can specify whether the files named !Boot or
!Sprites inside application directories will be included in the mirror
archive.

Any archives encountered in the source directory during the scanning procedure
will be opened and their contents will be displayed as normal directories in
the mirror archive. For this reason ArcFS or SparkFS should be loaded before
ArcMirror if the source directory contains any archives. Please note that the
ImageFS option should be enabled in SparkFS. Also if there are any ZIP, LZH,
ARJ etc. archives in the source directory, the appropriate modules should be
loaded in SparkFS before scanning, otherwise "Bad Archive" errors will be
generated.


Notes
You will not of course be able to read the original data but you will have
all the directory structure, the filetypes, lengths, time/date stamps, file
attributes and the original icons of all application directories, so you can
easily identify an application or a file.

You can also perform searches on the mirror archives with the Filer's Find file
facility, count all the files of a directory or disc, or check a version of a
program by examining the date stamp.

ArcMirror can cope with filenames longer than 10 characters (e.g. MS-DOS
names), and more than 77 entries per directory. It has also been tested with
Image filing systems such as PC emulator hard discs (e.g. Drive_C). It has been
tested successfully with ArcFS 0.54 and SparkFS 1.24.

How to contact me
Feel free to contact me for the latest version, comments, bugs or whatever:

Mail: 	George Saliaris
     	Veriti 7
     	Chios  821 00
     	GREECE

     	Fax: +30-271-41355

Copyright  RISC User 1994