Customising the Filesystem

Customising the Filesystem

The virtual filesystem lives in prompt/javascript/fs.js as a JS array called fs. Every directory and every file is an object in that tree. No server, no database — edit the file, hard-refresh, you're done.

Where to look

var fs = [{
  name: 'C',
  directories: [ ... ],
  files: [ ... ]
}];

A node is one of:

Shape	Means
{ name, directories, files }	a directory
{ name, link }	a "file" that opens a URL when executed
{ name, data }	a "file" whose data is run as a batch script when executed

hidden: true on a node hides it from dir (still navigable via cd).

---

Add a link file

{ name: 'GITHUB.COM', link: 'https://github.com/yourname' }

Drop it into any directory's files array. The user can cd into the directory and type github.com to open it.

---

Add a batch file

{ name: 'HELLO.BAT',
  data: 'echo off\nsetcol 2e\necho Hello, world!\nsetcol 07\necho.' }

Lines are separated by \n. Supported batch commands: anything in Commands plus any filename present in the current directory.

---

Add a directory

{ name: 'MUSIC',
  directories: [],
  files: [
    { name: 'BANDCAMP.COM', link: 'https://yourname.bandcamp.com' }
  ]
}

---

Add a system menu (numbered list)

The standard pattern for a system with several titles: a directory whose menu.bat prints a box-drawn menu, plus numbered launcher .bat files that each run a named link .bat.

{ name: 'GAMES', directories: [], files: [
    { name: 'menu.bat', data: 'echo off\ncls\necho ╔═══...╗\n...echo.\n' },
    { name: '0.bat',    data: 'echo off\ncd ..\ncd ..\nmenu\n' },
    { name: '1.bat',    data: 'sonic1\n' },
    { name: '2.bat',    data: 'sonic2\n' },
    { name: 'sonic1.bat', link: '../emulators/genesis/play.html?game=sonic1' },
    { name: 'sonic2.bat', link: '../emulators/genesis/play.html?game=sonic2' },
] }

The menu.bat data string would render rows like ║ 1. Sonic the Hedgehog SONIC1 ║ — title first, code last is the project convention (see Menu box format below).

The user types a number → it runs the matching N.bat → which runs <key> → which resolves to <key>.bat (the link: entry) → which opens the emulator URL.

For a real example see the GENESIS or NES blocks in fs.js.

---

Menu box format

Standard menus use double-rule CP437 borders with a 45-char inner width.

 ╔═════════════════════════════════════════════╗
 ║              CENTERED HEADER                ║ ◄── header (45 chars between ║)
 ╠─────────────────────────────────────────────╣
 ║                                             ║ ◄── blank spacer row
 ║   1.  Title (year)              CMDNAME     ║ ◄── entry: title first, code last
 ║   2.  Another Title (year)      CMD2        ║
 ║                                             ║
 ║   3.  Separate Section          CMD3        ║ ◄── blank line = visual break
 ║                                             ║
 ║   0.  Back                                  ║ ◄── always last
 ║                                             ║
 ╠─────────────────────────────────────────────╣
 ║        Type a number and press ENTER        ║
 ╚═════════════════════════════════════════════╝

Entry row layout (45 chars between borders): title comes first, code last.

 ║   N.  Title (year)              CMDNAME     ║
 ├──┤├──┤├──────────────────────┤├──────────┤├─┤
  3   2        variable             8–10      1
  spc ". "     title+year           code      trailing

• Code column ends with ≥1 trailing space (never touches the border).
• Double-digit numbers shift left one space: NN. vs N. — same 7-char prefix width.
• Blank line before the last entry in a group = architecture break (e.g. 6502 family → 68000 Amiga).

Notes:

• Apostrophes in titles must be escaped: K.C.\'s Krazy Chase! inside a '...' JS string.
• The on-screen rendering uses CP437 box-drawing glyphs (É, ═, ║, etc.) via the font sprite system — the Unicode equivalents shown above are for documentation readability only.

---

Boot

autoexec.bat runs automatically on load. Its default data is just menu\n — which runs the root menu.bat. The root menu.bat in turn does cd emulators\nmenu\n, dropping the user straight into the EMULATOR LAUNCHER (there used to be a redundant single-option intermediate menu — gone since the project now has one launcher entry point).

To boot to a different starting place, override menu.bat (or autoexec.bat):

{ name: 'autoexec.bat', data: 'cd emulators\\dos\ncls\ndir/w/o\n' }

To set colours at boot, prepend setcol:

{ name: 'autoexec.bat', data: 'echo off\nsetcol 02\nc:\ncls\nmenu\n' }

Common combos:

Code	bg / fg
07	black / light grey (default)
0f	black / white
17	dark blue / light grey
02	black / dark green
0a	black / green
0e	black / yellow

See Font System for the 16-colour palette.

---

Tips

• Use absolute paths (cd\\games\\action) inside .bat files; relative cd only works if the target is a direct child.
• Files can only be executed from the directory they live in — there is no PATH.
• For menu generation it's much easier to write a small Python helper that emits the echo lines than to hand-craft the box-drawing characters.