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                               === SVARCOM ===

SvarCOM is the SvarDOS command line interpreter, known usually under the name

"COMMAND.COM". It is designed and maintained by Mateusz Viste, and distributed

under the terms of the MIT license.

The goal is to make SvarCOM the default SvarDOS shell, replacing FreeCOM.

Why replacing FreeCOM, you ask? See FREECOM.TXT for details.

SvarCOM is a work-in-progress effort. As such, it still lacks a few things:

 - a few internal commands missing: CALL, CTTY, GOTO, LH

 - DIR misses two switches: /S, /O

SvarCOM is minimalist and I'd like to keep it that way. It aims to be

functionaly equivalent to COMMAND.COM from MS-DOS 5.x/6.x. No LFN support.

As of version 2022.0, SvarCOM's resident footprint is under 2 KiB.

Translation strings are stored in the file SVARCOM.LNG, which should be

placed in a directory pointed at by %NLSPATH% for SvarCOM to be able to output

messages in non-english languages. SvarCOM's language is controlled by the

%LANG% environment variable. NOTE: at this time translations aren't available

yet, with the proof-of-concept exceptions of the 'PAUSE' and 'SHIFT' commands.

Latest version available here: http://svardos.osdn.io/svarcom

=== INTERNAL COMMANDS ========================================================

SvarCOM implements the following internal commands. For help on each command,

run it with a "/?" argument.

BREAK       - sets or clears extended CTRL+C checking

CD/CHDIR    - displays the name of or changes the current directory

CHCP        - displays or sets the active code page number

CLS         - clears the screen

COPY        - copies one or more files to another location

DATE        - displays or sets the system date

DEL/ERASE   - deletes one or more files

DIR         - displays a list of files and subdirectories in a directory

ECHO        - displays messages, or turns command-echoing on or off

EXIT        - quits the command.com program (command interpreter)

IF          - performs conditional processing in batch programs

LN          - adds, deletes and displays global executable links

MD/MKDIR    - creates a directory

PATH        - displays or sets a search path for executable files

PAUSE       - suspends processing of a batch program

PROMPT      - changes the DOS command prompt

RD/RMDIR    - removes (deletes) a directory

REM         - records comments (remarks) in a batch file or CONFIG.SYS

REN/RENAME  - renames a file or files

SET         - displays, sets or removes DOS environment variables

SHIFT       - changes the position of arguments in a batch file

TIME        - displays or sets the system time

TYPE        - displays the contents of a text file

VER         - displays the DOS version

VERIFY      - tells DOS whether to verify that files are written correctly

VOL         - displays the disk volume label and serial number

=== INSTALLATION =============================================================

Installing SvarCOM requires to either copy it to the root of your boot drive

replacing your current COMMAND.COM, or adding a SHELL directive to your

CONFIG.SYS file to instruct DOS that it should load SvarCOM as its shell, eg.:

  SHELL=C:\SVARCOM\COMMAND.COM /P

Some DOSes support a SHELLHIGH directive that loads the shell in high memory.

It is pointless to use it to load SvarCOM. SvarCOM will load its resident part

as high as possible on its own, enforcing this through SHELLHIGH could even

be harmful since SvarCOM wouldn't be able to relocate to the highest address

as it would be allocated by SHELLHIGH already.

SvarCOM supports multiple languages. To enable SvarCOM using them it is

necessary to define an NLSPATH environment variable that would point to a

directory and copy the SVARCOM.LNG file there. Once done, SvarCOM will try

loading whatever language is being set up in the LANG environment variable.

=== LICENSE ==================================================================

SvarCOM is published under the terms of the MIT license.

Copyright (C) 2021-2022 Mateusz Viste

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy

of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal

in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights

to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell

copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is

furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all

copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR

IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,

FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE

AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER

LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,

OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE

SOFTWARE.

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