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diff --git a/ksiders/makeatr.1 b/ksiders/makeatr.1 new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fc2ab5a --- /dev/null +++ b/ksiders/makeatr.1 @@ -0,0 +1,92 @@ +.TH MAKEATR,UNMAKATR "1" "April 2007" "makeatr, unmakatr" "Ken Siders' Atari 8-bit Tools" +.SH NAME +\fBmakeatr\fR \- convert an Atari executable to a "K-file" bootable disk +.br +\fBunmakatr\fR \- extract original executable from a disk made with \fBmakeatr\fR + +.SH SYNOPSIS +\fBmakeatr\fR \fIimagefile.atr\fR \fIatari-exe\fR +.br +\fBunmakeatr\fR \fIimagefile.atr\fR \fIatari-exe\fR + +.SH DESCRIPTION +For various reasons, it's sometimes useful to make a bootable disk image +of an Atari executable. \fBmakeatr\fR does exactly that. +.PP +If you have a bootable image made with \fBmakeatr\fR, but you've lost the +original executable, you can extract it from the image with \fBunmakatr\fR. +.PP +.SH NOTES +\fBmakeatr\fR 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). +.PP +\fBunmakatr\fR only works for images created by \fBmakeatr\fR. It is not +a general-purpose bootdisk-to-executable utility. +.PP +Disks made with \fBmakeatr\fR are recognizable when booted on the Atari, +because they display GR.0 screen with a lowercase \fIk\fR +(screen is otherwise blank). +.PP +Disk images made with \fBmakeatr\fR 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. +.PP +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). + +.SH DIAGNOSTICS +\fBmakeatr\fR's error messages are not well documented. They consist only +of an internal error number code, listed here: +.PP +.B 1 +\- Unable to open ATR image for writing +.br +.B 2 +\- Unable to write image ATR header +.br +.B 6 +\- Unable to write boot sectors to ATR image +.br +.B 7 +\- Error while padding ATR image to an even sector size +.br +.B 11 +\- Unable to stat the input file (not found, permission denied, etc) +.br +.B 12 +\- Input file is 0 bytes in length +.br +.B 13 +\- Can't open input file +.br +.B 19 +\- Error writing to ATR image, \fBor\fR trailing junk in the input image +.br +.B 20 +\- Input file is not an Atari executable (missing 0xFF 0xFF signature) +.br +.PP +\fBunmakatr\fR reports "Error #0" for any and all errors it may encounter. +.PP +Both \fBmakeatr\fR and \fBunmakatr\fR return a 0 exit status to the caller +for success, or non-zero status for failure (and print one of the above +error messages, as well). Error messages are printed to standard \fBoutput\fR, +not standard error output. + +.SH AUTHOR +Ken Siders <\fBatari8bit@columbus.rr.com\fR> +.PP +Man page by B. Watson <\fBurchlay@urchlay.com\fR> + +.SH SEE ALSO +\&\fIatrdir\fR\|(1), \&\fIatrextr\fR\|(1), \&\fIsortatr\fR\|(1). +.PP +Ken Siders Atari 8-bit page: +.br +http://atari.ksiders.tzo.com/a8emulators.html |