CBMCONVERT(1)                                       CBMCONVERT(1)



NAME
       cbmconvert - create, extract and convert various Commodore
       binary archives

SYNOPSIS
       cbmconvert [options] file...

DESCRIPTION
       This manual page documents briefly the cbmconvert command.

       There  are  many  archiving programs for the Commodore 64,
       all of which are incompatible with archiving  programs  on
       other  systems.   The  cbmconvert utility tries to address
       this problem.  It extracts files from most  known  formats
       and  writes  them  to several different formats, including
       some formats used by some Commodore 64 emulators:

       Native (raw) files
              Files with just the raw data.  Written with the  -I
              and -N options, read with the -n option.

       PC64 files
              Also  known  as  "P00"  files.  Written with the -P
              option, read with the -p option.

       Lynx archives
              Lynx was originally developed for the Commodore 64.
              It modifies the next-sector links in place and com
              bines a number of files on a Commodore  disk  to  a
              single  file  that  can  be transferred e.g. over a
              modem connection.  Earlier versions of this  format
              do  not  specify  the  length of the last contained
              file, not protecting it from padding that could  be
              introduced  e.g.  by the X-modem transfer protocol.
              There are no checksums on the  data  either.   Lynx
              archives are written with -L and read with -l.

       Commodore C2N tape archives
              Written with -C, read with -c.  These files are raw
              dumps of the data format the Commodore KERNAL  rou
              tines  maintain.   Block  checksums  and  countdown
              leaders (0x89..0x81 for the first copy and 9..1 for
              the  second)  are  omitted,  and the blocks are not
              stored twice, but only once.  The data consists  of
              192-byte  tape  header  blocks,  192-byte data file
              blocks, and arbitrary-length program file blocks.

       Commodore 128 CP/M disk images
              Written with -M, read with -m.

       CBM DOS disk images
              Written with -D, read with -d.  Commodore 1571  and
              1581 support have not been tested properly, and not
              all 1581 features have been implemented.

       ARC/SDA (Self-Dissolving Archive)
              Read with -a.  No write support.

       Arkive Archives in this Lynx-like format are read with the
              -k option.  There is no write support.

       T64    This  tape  format was introduced by C64S emulator.
              Many variations of this format exist.  These  files
              are read with the -t option.

       cbmconvert  reads  all  files in all input files listed on
       the command line and writes them in the specified  format.
       As there is no interactive user interface, the only way to
       copy only some files from a set of  archive  files  to  an
       archive  file  or a disk image is to extract all the files
       to a single-file format such as the PC64  format,  and  to
       copy  the  desited  individual files to the output archive
       with another invocation of cbmconvert.

OPTIONS
       cbmconvert follows the usual  Unix  command  line  syntax,
       with options starting with a dash (`-').

       --     Stop  processing  options.   This  is useful if the
              first file name begins with a dash.

       -I     Output files in native (raw) format, with ISO  9660
              compliant file names.

       -P     Output files in PC64 format.

       -N     Output files in native (raw) format.

       -L archive.lnx
              Output files in Lynx format.

       -C archive.c2n
              Output files in Commodore C2N tape format.

       -D4[o] image.d64
              Write  to a Commodore 1541 CBM DOS disk image.  The
              o option specifies that file name collisions should
              be  resolved  by  overwriting  existing files.  The
              default behaviour is keep the old files.

       -D7[o] image.d71
              Write to a Commodore 1571 CBM DOS disk image.

       -D8[o] image.d81
              Write to a Commodore 1581 CBM DOS disk image.

       -M4[o] image.d64
              Write to a Commodore 1541 disk image  in  the  Com
              modore 128 CP/M format.

       -M7[o] image.d71
              Write  to  a  Commodore 1571 disk image in the Com
              modore 128 CP/M format.

       -M8[o] image.d81
              Write to a Commodore 1581 disk image  in  the  Com
              modore 128 CP/M format.

       -i2    Switch  disk  images when running out of space or a
              duplicate file name is detected.

       -i1    Switch disk images when running out of space.  This
              is the default behaviour.

       -i0    Never switch disk images.

       -n     Input files in native (raw) format.

       -p     Input files in PC64 format.

       -a     Input files in ARC/SDA format.

       -k     Input files in Arkive format.

       -l     Input files in Lynx format.

       -t     Input files in T64 format.

       -c     Input files in Commodore C2N format.

       -d     Input files in CBM DOS disk image format.

       -m     Input  files  in Commodore 128 CP/M disk image for
              mat.

       -v2    Verbose mode.  Display all messages.

       -v1    Display warning and error messages.   This  is  the
              default option.

       -v0    Display error messages only.

BUGS
       Many  of  the  file  formats lack safety measures, such as
       storing the exact lengths of the contained files, or stor
       ing  even  rudimentary  checksums.  Most formats have been
       reverse-engineered, and there may be other implementations
       that  accept  files  in  a stricter format than cbmconvert
       produces or produce files that cbmconvert does not  recog
       nize.

       On  disk  images, it is common to decorate directory list
       ings with  unnecessary  entries  that  contain  Commodore-
       specific  graphic  characters.   Since subdirectories were
       not supported by Commodore until the 1581 disk  drive  was
       introduced,  the  slash  character  (`/') is valid in Com
       modore file names but not on the Unix system.   For  these
       reasons,  it is advisable to avoid the raw file format and
       the host file system whenever  possible,  and  to  convert
       directly from one Commodore-specific format to another.

       The program lacks an interactive user interface.  A shell-
       like command line interface could be useful, and a graphi
       cal file manager like interface could be even better.  Are
       there any volunteers?

       More disk image formats should be supported, and the  1571
       and  1581  support  should  be tested extensively.  Unsup
       ported formats include the 8050, the 8250,  the  2040  and
       the Commodore 64 CP/M format for the 1541.

AUTHOR
       The  cbmconvert  utility  was  designed and implemented by
       Marko Mkel <marko.makela@nic.funet.fi>.

       Support for Commodore 1581 disk images was  programmed  by
       Pasi Ojala <albert@cs.tut.fi>.

       The  ARC/SDA  dissolving  code  was  originally written by
       Chris Smeets.

SEE ALSO
       c2n(1), disk2zip(1), zip2disk(1).



                        September 18, 2001          CBMCONVERT(1)
