On Sat, May 1, 2021 at 10:59 AM Eric Auer <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Hi! Recently I have noticed that our ibiblio contains "DM21" > > https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/util/disk/dm/ > > which has only bare binaries inside. So I wondered what it is. > Now Robert, who says I should not thank him, has found the URL > > http://web.archive.org/web/20070208031008/http://www.diskman.co.uk/about.aspx > > which gives a comprehensive answer to the question :-) > > DM means DISKMAN and is a (also scriptable) tool which can > backup/restore LFN, quickformat FAT12/16/32, manage, read, > write and mount disks, partitions and images of those, DOS > and BIOS style, including a raw disk editor and some extras > like CMOS backup/restore and a little bit of NTFS. Newest > version would be 4.x, while we have 2.0 and 2.1 archived. >[..] > What are your thoughts on this? It SOUNDS useful to ME, > so if somebody has time, they could recursively fetch a > bunch of documentation from the website and throw it into > an updated ZIP for ibiblio. The author hints that source > code could be made available on request.
I'm not sure why that was on Ibiblio. We can only include open source software on the Ibiblio site. I downloaded Diskman and ran it on FreeDOS. One version barfed on FreeDOS and wouldn't run (possibly because it's under QEMU?) The version that ran printed a message that the software cannot be distributed without written permission. That means we cannot put it on Ibiblio. I downloaded 4.2.a3 from the author's website http://www.diskman.co.uk/ and while there's no Readme file, running the program prints this notice: >Licensed to : ALPHA RELEASE. DO NOT DISTRIBUTE > >This software may not be copied, distributed, modified, or incorporated within >any product or service without the written permission of the copyright holder >This software may be used freely for non-commercial purposes. Please visit >www.diskman.co.uk for commercial terms. Most commercial licenses restrict >the use of this program to a single machine/user. Unless the license states >otherwise only one copy of this software may be used at any instance without >the purchase of additional licenses. This software is supplied `as is' and >the author accepts no liability for damage this program causes through either >unexpected operation or intended misuse. This program may only be used if you >consent to the above conditions. > >Visit www.diskman.co.uk for more information So that notice is very clear, we cannot distribute Diskman. I have pulled Diskman from Ibiblio. > > While there is no address mentioned on diskman.co.uk on > archive.org, the binary contains the addresses debug@... > and jim@... with ... being the mentioned domain, which > makes it tricky to contact the author on his gone domain: > "James Clark, an electronics engineer, working for a > leading UK computer manufacturer" > Running Diskman on FreeDOS also prints the website URL: http://www.diskman.co.uk/ That's a live website, so you don't need to point to the Archive.org copy of the website. There's a "Contact me" form at the bottom of his website, and I have just submitted a request there to ask if he would be willing to release Diskman under an open source software license. I pointed James to the OpenSource Initiative's website and their list of open source licenses. Jim _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
