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amitools - various AmigaOS tools for other platforms


  • written by Christian Vogelgsang <chris@vogelgsang.org>
  • under the GNU Public License V2

Introduction


amitools is a collection of (currently python 2.x only) tools that I've
written to work with Amiga OS binaries and files on Mac OS X. But they
should work on all other platforms supporting Pythons, too.

I focus with my tools on classic Amiga setups, i.e. a 680x0 based system with
Amiga OS 1.x - 3.x running on it. However, this is an open project, so you can
provide other Amiga support, too.

The tools are mostly developer-oriented, so a background in Amiga programming
will be very helpful.

Prerequisites


  • Python 2.7.x
  • pip

Optional Packages


  • [lhafile - FS Edition][1]: required to use .lha file scanner

Install pip


First make sure to have the Python package installer pip:

macOS


On macOS you have multiple ways of installing pip:

System Python


sudo easy_install pip

MacPorts Package Manager


On macOS using [MacPorts][2] package manager (Tool is called pip-2.7 here):
sudo port install py27-pip

Homebrew Package Manager


With the [Homebrew][3] package manager (pip is included in the python package):
brew install python

Linux/Ubuntu


On Linux Ubuntu use the provided packages python-pip
sudo apt-get install python-pip

Windows with Visual Studio


  • Install the latest native Windows Python 2.7.x from [python.org][6]
  • There is a special Edition for Visual Studio available that allows
to compile Python 2.7 modules: Install [VCPython2.7][5]
  • Open the Command Shell of the Compiler and run
C:\Python27\Scripts
pip install amitools

Windows with MSYS2


  • (I use the mingw gcc compiler here to build the extension)
  • On Windows with [MSYS2][4] (use x86_64 version if possible):
  • Install with exe installer
  • Initial update is done with: (Open shell first)
pacman -Sy
pacman --needed -S bash pacman msys2-runtime
  • Now close shell and re-open a new dev shell (MinGW-w64 Win64 Shell)
pacman -Su
pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-python2-pip mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc git make

[1]: https://github.com/FrodeSolheim/lhafile
[2]: https://www.macports.org
[3]: https://brew.sh
[4]: https://github.com/msys2/msys2/wiki
[5]: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=44266
[6]: https://www.python.org


Installation


The Easy Way


pip install amitools

Note:
  • on Linux/macOS use sudo to install
  • requires a host C compiler to compile the extension.

Amitools Developers


  • Clone the Git repo: amitools@git' target='_blank'>https://github.com/cnvogelg/amitools)
  • Ensure to have Cython installed:
sudo pip install cython

  • You have multiple variants to install the tools with Python's setuptools:
  • Global Install is available for all users of your system and needs root privileges
sudo python setup.py install
  • User Install is available for your user only but does not require special privileges
python setup.py install --user
  • Developer Setup only links this code into your installation and allows
you to change/develop the code and test it immediately. (I prefer user install here)
python setup.py develop --user
  • Run In Place allows you to run the binaries directly from the bin directory
without any installation. You need make only to build the native library
of vamos:
python setup.py build_ext -i
or simply
make

Contents


Tools



vamos allows you to run command line (CLI) Amiga programs on your host
Mac or PC. vamos is an API level Amiga OS Emulator that replaces exec
and dos calls with its own implementation and maps all file access to
your local file system.


Create and modify ADF or HDF disk image files.


Scan directory trees for ADF or HDF disk image files and verify the contents.


Create or modify disk images with Rigid Disk Block (RDB)


A tool to inspect, dissect, and build Amiga Kickstart ROM images to be
used with emulators, run with soft kickers or burned into flash ROMs.

  • hunktool

The hunktool uses amitools' hunk library to load a hunk-based amiga
binary. Currently, its main purpose is to display the contents of the
files in various formats.

You can load hunk-based binaries, libraries, and object files. Even
overlayed binary files are supporte.

  • typetool

This little tool is a companion for vamos. It allows you to dump and get
further information on the API C structure of AmigaOS used in vamos.

  • fdtool

This tool reads the fd (function description) files Commodore supplied for
all of their libraries and dumps their contents in different formats
including a code structure used in vamos.

You can query functions and find their jump table offset.


Libraries


  • Hunk library amitools.binfmt.hunk

This library allows to read Amiga OS loadSeg()able binaries and represent
them in a python structure. You could query all items found there,
retrieve the code, data, and bss segments and even relocate them to target
addresses

  • ELF library amitools.binfmt.elf

This library allows to read a subset of the ELF format mainly used in
AROS m68k.

  • .fd File Parser amitools.fd

Parse function descriptions shipped by Commodore to describe the Amiga APIs

  • OFS and FFS File System Tools amitools.fs

Create or modify Amiga's OFS and FFS file system structures

  • File Scanners amitools.scan

I've written some scanners that walk through file trees and retrieve the
file data for further processing. I support file trees on the file system,
in lha archives or in adf/hdf disk images