fastopen(CMD) 19 June 1992 fastopen(CMD) Name fastopen - decrease the amount of time needed to open frequently used files Syntax fastopen drive:[[=]n] [drive:[[=]n] [...]] [/x] In your CONFIG.SYS file, use the following syntax: install=[[dos-drive:]dos-path]fastopen.exe drive:[[=]n] [drive:[[=]n] [...]] [/x] Description fastopen tracks the location of files on a hard disk and stores the in- formation in memory for fast access. Parameters drive: Specifies a hard disk drive for which you want fastopen to track the opening of files. n Specifies the number of files fastopen can work with at the same time. Valid values for n are in the range 10 through 999. The default value is 48. [dos-drive:]dos-path Specifies the location of FASTOPEN.EXE. Switch /x Creates the name cache in expanded memory instead of in conven- tional memory. The ``name cache'' is an area of memory in which MS-DOS stores (caches) the locations and names of the files that you open. This cache conforms to version 4.0 of the Lotus/Intel/Microsoft Expanded Memory Specification (LIM EMS). Notes How fastopen tracks information Every time you open a file, fastopen records its name and location in the name cache. If you later reopen a file recorded by fastopen, the access time is greatly reduced. Limits on using fastopen fastopen works only on hard disks and does not work over a network. You can use fastopen with as many as 24 hard-disk partitions at one time. For each partition, fastopen can track the number of files specified by the n parameter. You cannot run more than one copy of fastopen at the same time. If you want to change the fastopen settings, you must restart MS-DOS. You should not use the fastopen command from MS-DOS Shell, because doing so can lock up your machine. Memory requirements for fastopen fastopen requires approximately 48 bytes of memory for each file that it tracks. Adding the fastopen command to the CONFIG.SYS file You can add a fastopen command to your CONFIG.SYS file by using the install command. Use this technique when you do not want to start fasto- pen from the MS-DOS command line or from your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Cannot run disk-compaction program To avoid losing data, do not run a disk-compaction program while FASTOPEN.EXE is loaded. Example If you want MS-DOS to track the location of as many as 100 files on drive C, add the following line to your CONFIG.SYS file: install=c:\dos\fastopen.exe c:=100