DOKK / manpages / debian 12 / cbmconvert / cbmconvert.1.en
CBMCONVERT(1) General Commands Manual CBMCONVERT(1)

cbmconvert - create, extract and convert various Commodore binary archives

cbmconvert [options] file...

This manual page documents briefly the cbmconvert command.

There are many archiving programs for the Commodore 64, all of which are incompatible with archiving programs on other systems. The cbmconvert utility tries to address this problem. It extracts files from most known formats and writes them to several different formats, including some formats used by some Commodore 64 emulators:

Files with just the raw data. Written with the -I and -N options, read with the -n option.
Also known as "P00" files. Written with the -P option, read with the -p option.
Lynx was originally developed for the Commodore 64. It modifies the next-sector links in place and combines a number of files on a Commodore disk to a single file that can be transferred e.g. over a modem connection. Earlier versions of this format do not specify the length of the last contained file, not protecting it from padding that could be introduced e.g. by the X-modem transfer protocol. There are no checksums on the data either. Lynx archives are written with -L and read with -l.
Written with -C, read with -c. These files are raw dumps of the data format the Commodore KERNAL routines maintain. Block checksums and countdown leaders (0x89..0x81 for the first copy and 9..1 for the second) are omitted, and the blocks are not stored twice, but only once. The data consists of 192-byte tape header blocks, 192-byte data file blocks, and arbitrary-length program file blocks.
Written with -M, read with -m.
Written with -D, read with -d. Commodore 1571 and 1581 support have not been tested properly, and not all 1581 features have been implemented.
Read with -a. No write support.
Archives in this Lynx-like format are read with the -k option. There is no write support.
This tape format was introduced by C64S emulator. Many variations of this format exist. These files are read with the -t option.

cbmconvert reads all files in all input files listed on the command line and writes them in the specified format. As there is no interactive user interface, the only way to copy only some files from a set of archive files to an archive file or a disk image is to extract all the files to a single-file format such as the PC64 format, and to copy the desited individual files to the output archive with another invocation of cbmconvert.

cbmconvert follows the usual Unix command line syntax, with options starting with a dash (`-').

--
Stop processing options. This is useful if the first file name begins with a dash.
Output files in native (raw) format, with ISO 9660 compliant file names.
Output files in PC64 format.
Output files in native (raw) format.
Output files in Lynx format.
Output files in Commodore C2N tape format.
Write to a Commodore 1541 CBM DOS disk image. The o option specifies that file name collisions should be resolved by overwriting existing files. The default behaviour is keep the old files.
Write to a Commodore 1571 CBM DOS disk image.
Write to a Commodore 1581 CBM DOS disk image.
Write to a Commodore 1541 disk image in the Commodore 128 CP/M format.
Write to a Commodore 1571 disk image in the Commodore 128 CP/M format.
Write to a Commodore 1581 disk image in the Commodore 128 CP/M format.
Switch disk images when running out of space or a duplicate file name is detected.
Switch disk images when running out of space. This is the default behaviour.
Never switch disk images.
Input files in native (raw) format.
Input files in PC64 format.
Input files in ARC/SDA format.
Input files in Arkive format.
Input files in Lynx format.
Input files in T64 format.
Input files in Commodore C2N format.
Input files in CBM DOS disk image format.
Input files in Commodore 128 CP/M disk image format.
Verbose mode. Display all messages.
Display warning and error messages. This is the default option.
Display error messages only.

Many of the file formats lack safety measures, such as storing the exact lengths of the contained files, or storing even rudimentary checksums. Most formats have been reverse-engineered, and there may be other implementations that accept files in a stricter format than cbmconvert produces or produce files that cbmconvert does not recognize.

On disk images, it is common to decorate directory listings with unnecessary entries that contain Commodore-specific graphic characters. Since subdirectories were not supported by Commodore until the 1581 disk drive was introduced, the slash character (`/') is valid in Commodore file names but not on the Unix system. For these reasons, it is advisable to avoid the raw file format and the host file system whenever possible, and to convert directly from one Commodore-specific format to another.

The program lacks an interactive user interface. A shell-like command line interface could be useful, and a graphical file manager like interface could be even better. Are there any volunteers?

More disk image formats should be supported, and the 1571 and 1581 support should be tested extensively. Unsupported formats include the 8050, the 8250, the 2040 and the Commodore 64 CP/M format for the 1541.

The cbmconvert utility was designed and implemented by Marko Mäkelä.

Support for Commodore 1581 disk images was programmed by Pasi Ojala.

The ARC/SDA dissolving code was originally written by Chris Smeets.

c2n(1), disk2zip(1), zip2disk(1).

September 18, 2001