lif80utils 0.0.5

LIF utilities for the Series 80

---

gitea: none include_toc: true

lif80utils

The LIF80UTILS are command line utilities to handle LIF (Hewlett Packard Logical Interchange Format) files used by HP Series 80 computers.

For HP calculators HP-41, HP-71 and HP-75 see the LIFUTILS project.

Prerequisites

This software was developed and tested exclusively under Linux. Since Python is cross-platform compatibile it could theoretically run on Windows. At least the non GPIB parts.

To access a physical drive connected to a GPIB card the latest Linux GPIB Package 4.3.7 with this patch applied is needed.

Physical drive access has been successfully tested using two 3.5-inch floppy drives (HP 9121D and HP 9123D). However, for reasons yet to be determined, it is currently incompatible with the 5.25-inch HP 82901M drive.

Installation

For the latest version please download the source code or clone the repository. Generate the distribution archives using build. These archives (.whl,.tar.gz or .zip) can be installed by pip.

cd lif80utils                                                         # Where the 'pyproject.toml' is located.
python3 -m build                                                      # Generate the distribution archives.
pip install --force-reinstall dist/lif80utils-0.0.1-py3-none-any.whl  # Install the package.
pip uninstall lif80utils                                              # Remove the package.

Or install the published package from PyPI.

pip install -i https://pypi.org/simple/ lif80utils

There are also some blackbox tests coming with the package. You can run them with

python3 -m unittest discover tests/ -v

Command reference

[!CAUTION]
Risk of Data Loss: Never ever use these tools on a disk containing valuable data without verified physically write protection. If you must perform a write operation, do it on a copy.

File Specifiers

The form of the file specifier is similar to the original.

"file name[:lifpath]"

Only that the volume is not restricted to a :msus (.volume label is not supported since dots are valid characters in linux filenames and there distinction would be ambiguous).

Where :lifpath is one of the following.

:/dev/floppy    Linux device (Not working for now)
:directory/     Linux directory
:path_to_image  LIF image file
:Dnnn           GPIB device

In order of priority.

All :lifpath character strings begin with a colon.

The :lifpath part of the file specifier can be also set with the --mass-storage MASS_STORAGE option or by setting a MASS_STORAGE environment variable.

lif80cat :LIF.IMG
lif80cat --mass-storage :LIF.IMG
lif80cat -m :LIF.IMG
MASS_STORAGE=:LIF.IMG lif80cat

As :lifpath defaults to ":.", omitting it will resolve to a local file in the current directory. Therefore, the following file specifiers are equivalent:

QUAKE.E010
./QUAKE.E010
QUAKE.E010:.

For LIF files hosted on a Linux filesystem, the file type must be included as a filename extension.

QUAKE.E010

A :msus string has the following form:

": device type  interface select code  device address  drive number"

The device type is limited to :D because only discs are supported and there is no external tape anyway.

The interface select code refers to the minor device number, a 'minor' of 0 corresponds to /dev/gpib0, of the GPIB controller and not to it's PAD. See gpib.conf -- GPIB library configuration file.

The device address, an integer from 0 through 7, matches the number set on the device address switch on the mass storage unit.

The drive number, an integer from 0 through 3, specifies the drive on the master or add-on unit you wish to access.

Program	Description
lif80cat	Lists the file directory of a storage media.
lif80copy	Copy a named file, or all files from a directory, to destination.
lif80dump	Hex or binary dump of a storage media.
lif80info	Prints information about a LIF volume.
lif80init	Initialize a storage media.
lif80label	Assign a volume label to a LIF volume.
lif80pack	Fills in NULL file gaps created when files are purged without a 0 purge code.
lif80purge	Remove the named file from the directory.
lif80rename	Rename a file.
lif80decode	Convert a LIF file into a plain text file.
lif80encode	Convert a plain text file into a LIF file.
lif80renum	Automatic line numbering of .BAS and .ASM files.