Alex Taylor: OS/2 Utilities

This page contains some OS/2 and eComStation utilities which I find useful. In general, these items were not written by me; however, in most cases I have repackaged, recompiled, or modified them in some way.

My separate Programming Projects section (see the sidebar link) contains software which I've actually written. In particular, you may want to check out my page of REXX programs for OS/2.

Info-Zip UNZIP for OS/2

These are my own builds of Info-Zip's UNZIP utility for extracting ZIP archives. I originally started doing these builds after Info-Zip stopped supporting the "shrink" compression algorithm in its official builds. (The "shrink" algorithm, also called LZW compression, is no longer widely used on other platforms, but unfortunately there are many OS/2 ZIP files, including some currently distributed by IBM, which use it.)

Starting with UNZIP 5.52, Info-Zip has reenabled this support in their own official builds. However, I am continuing to provide my own builds because Info-Zip doesn't always release their OS/2 builds in a timely manner.

Please note that these are "unofficial" builds, as I am not affiliated with the Info-Zip group in any way. However, I have not modified the program code at all; my only changes are to the make options, documentation, and the linefeed formatting in a couple of REXX scripts.

These unofficial builds use the naming scheme UZS* for their filenames, to distinguish them from Info-Zip's official builds, which use UNZ*. (This originally stood for 'UnZip with Shrink' although, as noted, that distinction is now moot.)

Files

uzs552x2.exe	UNZIP v5.52 executable for OS/2 (compiled with IBM VisualAge C++ v3)
uzs552d2.zip	UNZIP v5.52 DLL for OS/2 (compiled with IBM C/C++ v3.65)

FTP Large File Support

This is an unofficial IBM update to the OS/2 FTP client and server (for TCP/IP 4.3 and higher) which adds support for transferring large files (>2GB). Dated 2002-09-25; obtained from IBM TestCase.

(Note: Even though TCP/IP FixPak UN_2334 is more recent than this update, neither it nor any other official release includes this large file support.)

Files

ftp_lfa.zip

OLD FDISK

This is IBM's FDISK.COM from OS/2 version 2.11. I've made it available here because it can be useful if later versions of FDISK (Warp 3 or Warp 4) refuse to touch your disk drive because they think the partition table is corrupt. This version of FDISK, on the other hand, isn't as picky, and will often work where later versions fail.

Files

oldfdisk.com

The GIMP for OS/2

I've written a WarpIN install routine for setting up the GIMP version 2.2.8 (the latest OS/2 version) to run without needing the XFree86/2 server installed.

You do need an X server somewhere, such as HOBLink or WeirdX; this allows you run the GIMP in "windowed" mode like a native PM application. See the README.TXT for details.

Files

XFree86-4_5_0-runtime.wpi Runtime DLLs from XFree86/2 4.5.0 (required, unless XFree86/2 is already installed).

GIMP-2_2_8-install.wpi The GIMP program files (required)

GIMP-2_2_8-required-libs.wpi External libraries (required)

GIMP-2_0_7-help.wpi HTML help files (optional)

(View the file directory)

OpenSSH for OS/2

I've bundled the OpenSSH 5.3p1 OS/2 binaries as installable WarpIN packages. Download the WPI files that you need (only the first is required to use the ssh client; the others are used by the server, sshd). Place them in the same directory and open openssh-5_3p1.wpi with WarpIN.

These OpenSSH binaries were ported to OS/2 by nickk.

Files

openssh-5_3p1.wpi	OpenSSH for OS/2
ssesinst.wpi	Security/2 (required to run the OpenSSH server).
tnpipe.wpi	TNPIPE login shell wrapper for sshd
vioroute.wpi	VioRoute login shell wrapper for sshd

(View the file directory for older versions)

PM Camera /2

PM Camera /2 is an IBM EWS screen capture utility. It's handy because it can capture silently to sequentially-numbered files (unlike most OS/2 capture utilities, which force you to save after each capture). Obtained from IBM's now-defunct EWS freeware site.

This distribution includes both versions 2.10 and 2.08; see README.TXT for a brief description of the differences.

I've also made available some replacement dialog resources to make the program (v2.08 only) look prettier (requires Warp 4, or Warp 3 with a recent FixPak). You'll have to perform the resource patching yourself (assuming you know how); I didn't do it for you, because the PMCamera/2 license expressly forbids redistributing modified binaries.

Files

pmcam2.zip	PMCamera/2 v2.10 & 2.08
pmcamres.zip	Replacement dialog resources

VNC Viewer for OS/2

This is a cosmetic update to the OS/2 PM VNC Viewer program, with improved dialog layout and a cleaner-looking icon. Derived from Akira Hatakeyama's original release.

Files

vnc-view.zip	Executable
vnc-diff.zip	Source code changes

WhichDLL

WhichDLL is a 'which'-like command for DLLs: it reports the fully-qualified path of the specified DLL, if found. When multiple instances of the named DLL exist, the copy which actually is (or would be) loaded is reported. Very useful for diagnosing DLL conflicts. Written by Alessandro Cantatore; source code is included.

Files

whichdll_02.zip

Window Themes Toolkit for eComStation

The Window Themes toolkit (for eComStation 1.1/1.2) is a set of tools and documentation design to help you create your own window control themes.

Files

wt_kit.zip