=======
makeatr
=======

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convert an Atari executable to a "K-file" bootable disk
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.. include:: manhdr.rst

SYNOPSIS
========
makeatr *imagefile.atr* *atari-executable*

DESCRIPTION
===========

For various reasons, it's sometimes useful to make a bootable disk
image of an Atari executable. **makeatr** does exactly that.

If you have a bootable image made with **makeatr**, but you've lost
the original executable, you can extract it from the image with
**unmakatr**\(1).

NOTES
=====

**makeatr** is only useful for single-file games or other programs
that don't need DOS disk access to run: the bootable image
won't contain any DOS at all, or even a DOS file  structure
(you can't read the directory).

Disks made with **makeatr** are recognizable when booted on the Atari,
because they display a GRAPHICS 0 screen with a lowercase k (screen
is otherwise blank).

Disk images made with **makeatr** are only created with enough sectors
to hold the executable. AtariSIO can handle these images fine, as can
most other ATR utilities, but the smaller-than-regulation size may
cause problems with some utilities.

There is only one Atari executable format, regardless of filename
extension. All .XEX, .COM, .BIN, .EXE, etc. files for the Atari are
the same file type, regardless of the name, and regardless of what
you may have read on some forum site. Atari DOS doesn't care about
the filename; it only exists for human consumption (and for filetype
association with emulators, these days).

DIAGNOSTICS
===========

**makeatr**'s error messages are not well documented. They consist only
of an internal error number code, listed here:

  1
    Unable to open ATR image for writing
  2
    Unable to write image ATR header
  6
    Unable to write boot sectors to ATR image
  7
    Error while padding ATR image to an even sector size
  11
    Unable to stat the input file (not found, permission denied, etc)
  12
    Input file is 0 bytes in length
  13
    Can't open input file
  19
    Error writing to ATR image, or trailing junk in the input image
  20
    Input file is not an Atari executable (missing 0xFF 0xFF signature)

Error messages are printed to standard output, not standard error output.

EXIT STATUS
===========

Exit status is 0 for success, or non-zero status for failure.

.. include:: manftr.rst
