Owner`s manual

CHAPTER 3
EDITING YOUR SYSTEM
INITIALIZATION FILE
Your computer was delivered to you with a system initialization command file configured for the
particular hardware that made up your initial computer.
However, you will probably want to set your computer up in your own way by adding jobs,
changing memory allocations, and so on.
In addition, if you want to add a new piece of hardware, you will need to modify your system
initialization command file to define the new device to the monitor. Or, you may decide you
want to load certain programs (such as BASIC) into system memory so all users can use that
copy instead of everyone loading it into his or her own memory partition. Or, you may want to
tell the monitor to run particular programs whenever the computer boots.
It is very important you take special care when modifying the system initialization
command file. If you change a system initialization command file that works, and
somehow your new system initialization command file doesn’t work, you won’t be
able to get the computer up and running off that disk. Therefore, never modify
the system initialization command file directly—copy it and modify the copy!
Since the size of the system job that runs the system initialization command file is fixed, it is a
good idea to segment your system initialization file into three or more files. That is, have your
main system initialization file call other .CMD or .DO files to process parts of the system
initialization set-up. This makes it easier to organize the set-up and makes sure a large .INI file
will not overload the system. Breaking the files into only two will not help, as the calling file and
the called file temporarily share the memory space, and hence might be too large. As an
example, you might have an AMOSL.INI file that ends with:
JOBSET
Which calls the JOBSET.CMD file. JOBSET.CMD might then call TRMSET.CMD, etc.
Alpha Micro provides a program called MONTST that allows you to test your new system
initialization command file to make sure it works properly, without the danger of being unable to
boot. The only way to boot from a system initialization command file that is NOT named with
the default name of your system initialization command file is by using MONTST.
System Operator’s Guide to the System Initialization Command File, Rev. 03