ScuzzBlog: Diaries June 2024 Entry 23rd June 2024: Post 1: Amiga Workbench - Env-Archive or just Env or ENVARC. Amiga Workbench - Env-Archive or just Env or ENVARC. OK today on 'Fun with Flags' we discuss 'Env-Archive'. Hang on Mr scuzz, what's Env-Archive? I'm glad you asked. Give me a moment whilst I have my tea and I'll be right back. The flag of Env-Archive flies over the lost Amiga users that thought when booting up, either all of the Workbench was loaded into memory, or none of it. I am actually quite amazed that anyone with a modest 512K of memory actually thought the entire contents of the Workbench disk was loaded into memory. Seriously, I've even read on forums very knowledgable individuals stating in response to how much memory do I need, that you need sufficient to at least load the entire contents of Workbench into memory. Anyway the study of flags as any Sheldon Cooper fan knows is called Vexillology, and has no place here, so just ignore that. Back to the discussion, what is Env-Archive and what is ENV and why is it important to know the difference. Can we be clear to start with that when you fire up your hard drive or boot from your floppy disk that not all the contents of the disk is loaded into memory. For the most part it is only saved 'global' preferences that are loaded in. The 'startup-sequence' calls on the computer to create a drawer in RAM named ENV together with ENV/Sys and to copy the contents of the disk Workbench Prefs Env-Archive ] ENVARC file to that location. Note that the system assigns sys and ENVARC to the required place and on new systems this represents ENVARC:Sys/. Clear as mud. Note there are many prefs editors in software and Workbench and these will save to the ENV drawer as a temporary global preference or more permanently to the disk Prefs Env-Archive drawer so that each time the machine boots it loads in the saved preferences. The drawer that is key here is the Sys drawer in Env-Archive. The drawer is replicated in ENV in RAM and holds all your settings such as screen resolution, workbench settings such as which font to use. Simply put the Env-Archive on disk is a permanent version of the prefs and will stay that way until revised and saved, and the ENV in RAM is your temporary version that will vanish when you switch off the computer. So remember to save temporary settings if you intend keeping them. The computer also assigns files and drawers on the computer so that programs can navigate to specific locations. This information is normally written to the 'User-Startup' in the 'S' drawer. There are also things called notifications which are scripts written and executed ensuring that certain preferences and perimeters when changed modify all settings irrespective of which software is using them. So here is the deal, just use DOpus to check your RAM drawer and find the ENV drawer and then say Sys. Now on the right side do the same for the Sys drawer in Env-Archive in Prefs. Now do a get sizes and note how close the two sums are. In truth that is what gets loaded into RAM when you boot up your system. So if you want to make that process smaller remove any extraneous files like prefs for Vexillology. You are also free to add any you like. Note if you try to edit the ENV version it will refuse and smack you in the face, or not, simply cus the file is in use. It's actually a good idea to keep a copy of your Env-Archive just in case you muck things up and want to revert to your old settings. Anyway, don't quote me on any of that. You should always consult your official Workbench manual. I mean what do I know. I do know that if you fly Sheldon Cooper's apartment flag upside-down then things go bad. Very bad. Amiga Workbench - Env-Archive or just Env or ENVARC.

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Last updated 23rd June 2024

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