2 May 1999                                               README (page 1 of 2)
  

fb is known to run under the following operating systems:

   IRIX, Linux, SunOS, and Windows 95, 98, & NT

For UNIX (Linux) users only: fb can read directories if they are readable
under the file system.  And fb can read devices such as drives, CD-ROMs,
etc.; because, as you know, under UNIX (Linux) a device is just another file.

The only code for fb is fb.c.  For IRIX, Linux, and SunOS the code is ready
to compile.

After the NO WARRANTY statement at the top of the code are some commented-out
preprocessor directives:

  o If you wish to compile for MS-DOS, uncomment-out the appropriate #define
    directive.

  o If you are using a Borland compiler for MS-DOS, uncomment-out the
    indicated #define for Borland.  This will result in Borland's chsize(...)
    being used rather than ftruncate(...).  This occurs in only two places in
    the code.

  o If your compiler does not support the long long data type, there is an
    additional #define directive you will need to uncomment-out.

  o If you will be using fb under Linux running on a PC, you may, if you wish,
    uncomment-out the appropriate #define directive for this case.  This only
    affects what characters are considered non-printable and should allow you
    to see as many characters as possible.  This occurs in only one place in
    the code.

If you wish to modify which characters are treated as non-printable (and
displayed as a period), simply modify the appropriate part of the code (it
is clearly indicated).

Under MSDOS files are open by default as text and not as binary files.  Also
standard input (stdin) is opened as text.  To change this so that files are
opened as binary, the DOS_BINARY flag must be set to the appropriate flag to
pass in the call to open(...).  This is currently set to O_BINARY.  (Where
this is set is clearly indicated.)  This may not be the flag for your
system.  You might find the correct flag to use by looking in the header
file fcntl.h in your system's include or include/sys directory.  Also, to
change the mode of stdin from text to binary a call to setmode(...) is made.
But this function may either not be available for your system or might have
a different name.  You might be able to find the appropriate function by
looking in the io.h header file.

You should have, in addition to this README file, the following:

  COPYING      <-- the GNU General Public License
  fb.doc       <-- fb manual (plain ASCII version of man page)
  fb.1         <-- fb man page
  fb.c         <-- fb source code

The inspiration for the translate method in fb 1.4 was John Walker's xd
utility (http://www.fourmilab.ch).

2 May 1999                                                README (page 2 of 2)


Note for Linux/UNIX users:

   fb -snl File
     is similar to
   od -Ad -v -tx1 File

   fb o File1 File2
     is similar to
   cmp -l File1 File2
     Be aware, however, that, unlike fb and od, cmp starts counting bytes from
     1 rather than 0.

   fb . File1 File2
     is similar to
   cmp -s File1 File2
     except that the exit status of fb is richer; distinguishing between bytes
     differing, sizes differing, or both.

   fb a . File1 File2
     has the same effect as
   cat File1 >> File2

   fb c Num1.Num2 File1 File2
     is the same as
   dd if=File1 of=File2 bs=1 skip=Num1 count=Num3
     where Num3 = Num2 - Num1



Report any bugs to John Howard Swaby
                   polymath@uwyo.edu


fb web page: http://home.mho.net/jswaby/fb.html


This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.