mtype(1)

💖 mtype — bestie's guide to peeking inside an MS-DOS file 💖

okay so this is the mtype page from section 1 of the General Commands Manual, and yes it's mtools, and yes it's giving very much "let me show you what's in this DOS file, no cap." 💅

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⚠️ Note of warning ⚠️

ngl this manpage was automatically generated from mtools's texinfo documentation, so it may not be entirely accurate or complete. 😭 Like, the vibes are immaculate but the precision is questionable. See the end of this man page for the details, bestie. 🫶

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✨ Description ✨

The mtype command is used to display the contents of an MS-DOS file. Its syntax is:

mtype [-ts] msdosfile [ msdosfiles... ]

Mtype displays the specified MS-DOS file on the screen. That's it. That's the whole job. 👑

On top of the standard options, Mtype also allows the following command line options:

• t — Text file viewing. Mtype translates incoming carriage return/line feeds to line feeds. Typing stops at the Control-Z character. 🛑 So it's the "pretend this DOS file is a normal text file" mode, fr fr.
• s — Mtype strips the high bit from the data. ✂️ Just... takes it right off.

The mcd command may be used to establish the device and the current working directory (relative to MS-DOS). If you don't do that, the default is A:/. So yeah, if you haven't set anything up, it's gonna go looking on the A: drive. 🎀

Mtype returns 0 on success, 1 on utter failure, or 2 on partial failure. Like, three whole tiers of "how did it go." 💀

Unlike the MS-DOS version of TYPE, mtype allows multiple arguments. So you can throw a whole pile of files at it at once and it will not complain. Main character energy honestly. 🌈

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🌸 See Also 🌸

• Mtools' texinfo doc 📖

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🦋 Viewing the texi doc 🦋

This manpage has been automatically generated from mtools's texinfo documentation. However, this process is only approximative, and some items — such as crossreferences, footnotes and indices — are lost in this translation process. Indeed, these items have no appropriate representation in the manpage format. 😭 Moreover, not all information has been translated into the manpage version. Thus I strongly advise you to use the original texinfo doc. See the end of this manpage for instructions how to view the texinfo doc. 🫶

• To generate a printable copy from the texinfo doc, run the following commands:

./configure; make dvi; dvips mtools.dvi

• To generate a html copy, run:

./configure; make html

A premade html can be found at http://www.gnu.org/software/mtools/manual/mtools.html

• To generate an info copy (browsable using emacs' info mode), run:

./configure; make info

The texinfo doc looks most pretty when printed or as html. Indeed, in the info version certain examples are difficult to read due to the quoting conventions used in info. 💅

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so that's the whole page bestie, every flag, every exit code, every build command, nothing skipped, periodt. 💖

and the cute lil sign-off at the bottom? that's mtools-4.0.49, dated 14Jun25. iconic. 🌟