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https://github.com/larsonmars/sysvars
sysvars is a small CLI tool for the Amiga that creates several environment
variables holding valuable system information. These variables can be used,
for example, in the startup-sequence to enable/disable certain patches,
assigns, and so on.
To install it, copy sysvars into your c directory and add it to your
startup-sequence or User-Startup, depending on how early you need the
variables.
You can extract the content of the sysvars directory inside this archive to a
bootable floppy disk or use the CreateTestDisk script, which formats a disk,
installs a bootblock and copies the files.
Currently, the following variables are set...
always:
- $CPU: Installed CPU, for example 68030 (68080 is supported)
- $Chipset: Installed graphics chipset, one of OCS, ECS, AGA, SAGA
- $VFreq: The vertical frequency of the native display, can be either
50 (PAL 50Hz) or 60 (NTSC 60Hz)
- $TotalChipRam: Total amount of Chip RAM installed in KB
- $TotalFastRam: Total amount of real Fast RAM installed in KB
- $TotalRam: Total amount RAM installed in KB
- $KickVer: Kickstart version
- $KickRev: Kickstart revision (See OS 1.2 LIMITATIONS)
if CPU is at least 68020:
- $FPU: Installed FPU, on of 68881, 68882, internal, or empty for LC/EC 040
and 060 CPUs, where no FPU is available (see LIMITATIONS)
if Slow RAM (a.k.a Ranger Memory, Trapdoor RAM) is detected
- $TotalSlowRam: Total amount of Slow RAM installed in KB
If Slow RAM is the first to be allocated as non-Chip RAM
- $SlowRamFirst (set to "1")
if bsdsocket.library is available
- $BSDSockLib: bsdsocket.library ID string
- $BSDSockLibVer: bsdsocket.library version
- $BSDSockLibRev: bsdsocket.library revision
if UAE is detected (see NOTES and LIMMITATIONS):
- $UAEMajor: UAE major version
- $UAEMinor: UAE minor version
- $UAERev: UAE revision
if CPU is 68080:
- $VampireType: The type of vampire installed, for example "V2_600", or
"V4_Standalone"
- $VampireCoreRev: The core revision of the currently flashed firmware .jic
file; "N/A", if not available (e.g., some beta cores)
- $VampireClockMult: The vampire clock multiplier
_____________________________________________________________________________
REQUIREMENTS
- The tool works best with Amiga OS 2.0 or later. Here, it calls SetVar,
which allows for local scope variables. Local scope is no limitiation,
because the workbench is also loaded in the scope of the startup-sequence.
Another advantage is that it does not require ENV:. This means it can run
very early, even before SetPatch.
- For the purists, sysvars runs happily also on OS 1.3 and even down to
OS 1.2. However, there are some limitations to consider (see below).
_____________________________________________________________________________
LIMITATIONS/DISCLAIMER
As sysvars is optimized for speed, being compact and system friendly, it is
not an elaborate H/W detection tool, such as WhichAmiga. This means that
there might be system combinations, where sysvars gets it wrong. Some known
limititaions are listed below. Anyway, you can always file a bug report, if
you think that sysvars can be optimized.
Kickstart 1.3 and below:
- Sysvars currently detects CPUs above 68020 as 68020 and any FPUs as 68881
- Environment variables can only have global scope (ENV: must be mounted)
- Environment variables can only be used with the IF command (things like
'ECHO $CPU' do not work. You must use 'IF $CPU GE 68010').
Kickstart 1.2:
- The native IF command does not support environment variables, but you can
use the IF command from Workbench 1.3
- Even with the Workbench 1.3 IF command, only EQ seems to work
- $KickRev is set, but to an empty value
Slow RAM detection:
RAM speed is not actually measured. Instead, it is assumed that any non-
Chip RAM residing at $C0xxxx is actually Slow RAM. This is common for the
Amiga 500s with a trapdoor expansion. Thus, if you have an expansion that
actually maps real Fast RAM into the $C0 region, sysvars still consideres
it to be Slow RAM.
UAE detection:
UAE is detected via the uae.resource, which is only there if
- a virtual hard drive or another UAE expansion is enabled
- Kickstart is at least version 34 (OS 1.3)
Thus, detection will fail on any floppy-only-unexpanded Amiga configura-
tions and on anything with a ROM older than 1.3
_____________________________________________________________________________
WHY SUCH A TOOL?
As many Amiga users, I have multiple Amigas, booting from flash memory.
However, I do not want to maintain multiple operating system configurations.
In the past, I have used several tools to branch during startup, which
yielded a complex startup-sequence/user-startup and an extended boot time.
I wanted a small fast utility that gives me neat environment variables, so I
can write something like this in the startup-sequence:
IF $CPU GE 68020
MCP
ENDIF
or
IF $FPU EQ internal
FastIEEE
ENDIF
Also, I always wanted to learn M68k assembler. After 30 years using an Amiga
this was about time!
_____________________________________________________________________________
THE OTHER UTILITIES
The following utilities are mainly intended to test sysvars, but could also
be useful in other contexts.
ksge36
Quickly check if Kick ROM is at least version 36, that is OS 2.0 or
greater. If it detects a version below 36, it returns WARN (error code 5).
It can be used (like it is in the sysvar test) to write startup-sequences
that work for both OS 1.3 and OS2.0+, branching where needed.
probevar (New in 0.14)
A tool for all Amiga operating systems to quickly check for the existence
of a local (OS 2.0 and up) or global (OS 1.3 and below) environment
variable. It is similar to the Get command of OS 2.0 in that it returns
SUCCESS (error code 0) if a variable is available and WARN (error code 5)
if not. The difference is that
1. probevar does not write out the actual value, so you do not have to do a
>NIL: to suppress it
2. probevar can be used in OS 1.3 and below (only there it queries global
variables)
Why is this tool needed now?
In the past, sysvars would set environment variables, such as $UAEMajor to
an empty string if it did not detect UAE. So one could always use
'IF "$UAEMajor" EQ ""'. However, with the growing number of supported use
cases and variables, the variable space became increasingly polluted.
Therefore, I decided to only ever set variables, when the environment
warrants for it (see the "Availability" column table at the top). Thus, if
UAE is not detected, $UAEMajor will now not be available at all. So, the
line IF '"$UAEMajor" EQ ""' would bring up an unwanted requester asking for
ENV:, because the OS tries to search for a global variable.
_____________________________________________________________________________
FUTURE PLANS
The tool is already quite useable, but there are still some things missing,
which I want to fix in future versions (no particular order):
- Add $RTG variable to enable/disable stuff like FBlit or swap screen mode
configurations
- For Os 1.3: add detection for CPUs > 68020 and at least the 68882
- Make use of boards.library and identify.library if available for even more
expansions.
- Make a WinUAE/FS-UAE-based test suite for automated tests (CI/CD-like)
_____________________________________________________________________________
LICENSE
The code is licensed under the MIT License
_____________________________________________________________________________
RELEASE HISTORY
Version 0.15
- Added $TotalRam variable as a convenience
- Fixed Vampire detection
- Fixed FastMemFirst integration in test
- Code Cleanup
Version 0.14
- Added memory-related variables that allow to distinguish Slow Ram from real
Fast Ram
- Changed some variables to now being not set at all, instead of setting them
to an empty value, in order to not unnecessarily pollute environment
variable space
- Fixed critical bug for Kickstart 1.3 and 1.2
- added probevar utility to test for the existance of environment variables
- Added compile support for PhxAsm and asmotor
Version 0.13
- Added Vampire infos $VampireType, $VampireCoreRev and VampireClockMult
- Minor code cleanup
Version 0.12
- Added 68080 and SAGA (Vampire) support following
http://adevnoo.wikidot.com/detect-080-code
- minor code cleanup
Version 0.11
- Added the tiny tool KSGE36 to the distribution
- Stands for KickStart greater or equal 36
- Tests if the current OS is at least version 36 (i.e., OS 2.0)
- Used in the test script to decide if an ENV: assign is necessary (which
is for OS below 2.0) and commands have to be made resident (see below)
- It is more or less equivalent to calling Version 36 from Workbench, with
the difference that it can be freely distributed (unlike the Version
command) and also works below OS 1.3
- Improved the speed of the test script in OS1.2 and OS1.3 by putting the
ECHO, IF, ELSE, and ENDIF commands into RAM (via resident if in shell)
- The test (in test/sysvars-test) can be run from workbench or deployed on a
bootable floppy for real Amigas. The script CreateTestDisk can be called
with a device name (e.g., df1:) to create such a disk
- Fix for AROS (here, SetVar cannot access the bsdsocket.library id string)
- Code builds with most ASM-One flavors again.
- Added version information so you can call Version sysvars[6]
- Code/comment cleanup
Version 0.10
- Added $KickVer and $KickEnv that provide kickstart version and revision
- $UAE is now split in $UAEMajor, $UAEMinor and $UAERev for more convenient
scripting
- Added detection of bsdsocket.library ($BSDSockLib contains the id string,
$BSDSockLibVer the version, and $BSDSockRev the revision)
- Refactoring and code improvements (still learning though)
- Easy way to disable certain variables/features at the beginning of the
file using constants (Adapt to your need and make the tool as tiny as
possible)
- Unified SetVar approach using macros
- Easier integration of new features via consistent scheme
- Better comments
- added test script for startup-sequence
Version 0.9:
- Added limited OS 1.3 Support (CPU/FPU detection up to 68020/68881) via a
custom SetVar implementation (setenv-like functionality)
- small code improvements
Version 0.8:
- Initial Release on GitHub and Aminet
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