NOVELL TECHNICAL INFORMATION DOCUMENT

TITLE:  OS/2 2.O AND DR DOS COMPATABILITY
DOCUMENT ID:  TID800004
DOCUMENT REVISION:  A
DATE:  15AUG94
ALERT STATUS:  Yellow
README FOR:  NA

NOVELL PRODUCT and VERSION:
DR DOS 6.0

ABSTRACT:
NA

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NOVELL MAKES EVERY EFFORT WITHIN ITS MEANS TO VERIFY THIS INFORMATION. 
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ISSUE

GENERAL NOTES

DR DOS 6.0 and OS/2 are compatible and will work well together. It is the
full features of DR DOS 6.0 that will be covered in this document and not
the general compatibility. OS/2 is a separate operating system and uses a
separate shell to operate DOS applications. Many of the features in DR DOS
can be operated in both operating systems, where some will only work while
booted under DR DOS. Other features cannot be utilized because of
conflicts with OS/2, and any use of these features should be done with
extreme caution.

Definitions:
DOS Shell - the DOS shell provided with OS/2.  This DOS Shell is not DR
DOS specific, although it will use the EXTERNAL commands in the DOS PATH.

Virtual Disk - This is the Virtual Disk Image feature of OS/2.

DR DOS FEATURES

DELWATCH  Will not operate in a DOS shell under OS/2 or in Virtual Disk.

DELPURGE  Will not operate in a DOS shell under OS/2, but will
          function in Virtual Disk.

DISKMAP   Operates successfully in the DOS shell, but does not
          function in Virtual Disk.

DISKOPT   Will not run in the DOS shell.  When run in the DR DOS
          environment DISKOPT will optimize the DR DOS files but
          has no effect on OS/2 files.

PASSWORD  Shows incorrect version of operating system in an OS/2
          environment.  DR DOS files and directories currently
          having passwords are not secured.

SCRIPT    Shows an incorrect version of the operating system in
          the DOS shell.

SECURITY  If Security is enabled, OS/2 WILL NOT boot under any
          circumstances. Security should not be used.

SuperSTOR Extended partitions of the hard disk can be compressed
          with SSTOR.EXE while booted under DR DOS 6.0.  These
          partitions cannot be read by OS/2 and the driver cannot
          be loaded in the OS/2 CONFIG.SYS file.  Applications on
          the compressed drive will not be accessible while
          operating in the DOS shell - they are accessible in the
          Virtual Disk.

SuperPCK  SuperPCK can be used under either operating system but
          will not provide any benefit while booted under OS/2.
          OS/2 has its own cache, making SuperPCK unecessary.
          This feature should not be used in the Virtual Disk.

TASKMAX   Will not operate in a DOS shell under OS/2.  OS/2 is a
          multi-tasking environment so TASKMAX is unecessary in
          the Virtual Disk.

VIEWMAX   OS/2 has a graphical interface so VIEWMAX is not
          necessary, but it will run in the DOS shell.  2(two)
          arrows will be displayed, one for OS/2 and one for
          VIEWMAX.  Wait until the viewmax arrow (there is a
          slight delay in movement between the two arrows) is
          placed over the desired action before clicking the
          mouse button.

UNDELETE  Will not operate in a DOS shell under OS/2, but does
          function in Virtual Disk.

INTERNAL COMMANDS

These commands are taken over by the OS/2 environment so they are no
longer internal to DR DOS.  Refer to your OS/2 documentation for more
information on the internal commands for OS/2.

VER       Shows OS/2 in the OS/2 DOS shell but will show DR DOS
          6.0 in Virtual Disk.

EXTERNAL COMMANDS

The following DR DOS external commands work with certain exceptions:

FORMAT    With the exception of /S all switches function
          correctly.  The /S switch will cause the system files
          to be copied, but the disk will not be bootable.

TREE      Works fine in either environment but provides
          statistics in a different format than the OS/2 version.

EDITOR    Works fine in DOS shell but has different features than
          EDLIN.

MEM       Works fine in DOS shell but provides statistics in a
          different format than the OS/2 Version.

SYS       Copies the system files for DR DOS but the disk is not
          bootable.  Does work in Virtual Disk, but takes the
          files from the disk image not the hard disk.

The following external commands are included with OS/2 and should be used
when in the OS/2 environment:

*CHKDSK.COM, FORMAT.COM, MODE.COM, XCOPY.EXE, DISKCOPY.COM, DISKCOMP.COM,
REPLACE.EXE, COMP.COM, MORE.COM, PRINT.COM, FIND.EXE, KEYB.COM,
BACKUP.EXE, FDISK.COM, RECOVER.COM, LABEL.COM, TREE.COM, SORT.EXE,
UNDELETE.COM, ATTRIB.EXE, RESTORE.EXE, EDLIN.COM, MEM.EXE

*Use of OS/2 CHKDSK /F on any drive formatted with DR DOS 6 or COMPAQ DOS
3.31 will result in corruption of the file allocation table.  Consult IBM
for more details.

Other external commands either do not work in the OS/2 environment or they
function normally, but have not been tested at this time.  Refer to the
OS/2 documentation for features that can be utilized in OS/2 and avoid
these conflicts.

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