---
title: DOSINST
url: 'https://wiki.teletypegames.org/dos/dosinst'
markdown: 'https://wiki.teletypegames.org/dos/dosinst.md'
lang: en
date: '2026-10-11'
description: "DOSINST is a DOS program (C++, Open Watcom, 8086 code) that installs, updates and removes programs from an FTP server. Every folder on the server is one program with an INFO.INI; DOSINST lists them with the server's and the installed version, and copies the folder you pick to the local disk. Our s…"
taxonomy:
  tag:
    - howto
---

# DOSINST

> DOSINST is a DOS program (C++, Open Watcom, 8086 code) that installs, updates and removes programs from an FTP server. Every folder on the server is one program with an `INFO.INI`; DOSINST lists them with the server's and the installed version, and copies the folder you pick to the local disk. Our store is `ftp://ftp.teletypegames.org`; [GMENU](https://wiki.teletypegames.org/dos/gmenu) is published there on every release.
> 
> The same source also builds `DOSINSTW.EXE` for Windows 95 and later (Winsock, in a console window), with the same screen and commands — for Windows machines, where a DOS program does not reach the network.

- **Repository:** [git.teletypegames.org/dos/dosinst](https://git.teletypegames.org/dos/dosinst)
- **Store:** `ftp://ftp.teletypegames.org/APPS` (anonymous, read-only, on the [FTP server](https://wiki.teletypegames.org/infrastructure/ftp-server))
- **Download v0.6.0:** DOS: [DOSINST-v0.6.0.zip](https://git.teletypegames.org/dos/dosinst/releases/download/v0.6.0/DOSINST-v0.6.0.zip) · Windows 95 and later: [DOSINSTW-v0.6.0.zip](https://git.teletypegames.org/dos/dosinst/releases/download/v0.6.0/DOSINSTW-v0.6.0.zip) · the executables alone: [DOSINST.EXE](https://git.teletypegames.org/dos/dosinst/releases/download/v0.6.0/DOSINST.EXE), [DOSINSTW.EXE](https://git.teletypegames.org/dos/dosinst/releases/download/v0.6.0/DOSINSTW.EXE)
- **Releases:** [git.teletypegames.org/dos/dosinst/releases](https://git.teletypegames.org/dos/dosinst/releases) — once installed, DOSINST updates itself from the store

![DOSINST program list](https://wiki.teletypegames.org/wiki-assets/dosinst/dosinst-list.png)

---

# What it does

- **Lists** the program folders of the server with name, version, the installed version and a status: `new`, `installed`, `UPDATE` (the versions differ) or `local only` (installed, but no longer on the server).
- **Installs** a program (Enter): downloads its folder with the subfolders to a temporary folder, checks every file (CRC32 and size), and only then moves them to `C:\APPS\FOLDER`, `INFO.INI` last. A broken or interrupted download leaves the installed program as it was.
- **Updates** it (Enter again): replaces its files and deletes the ones the new version no longer has (`INSTALL.LST` lists what DOSINST installed). Files that exist only locally — saves, settings, GMENU's favorites — stay.
- **Updates itself**: DOSINST is in the store too (`DOSINST` for DOS, `DOSINSTW` for Windows). Its update goes into the folder of its own executable, and `DOSINST.CFG` is kept.
- **Removes** it (Del, asks first): deletes `C:\APPS\FOLDER`.
- Also from the command line, for batch files:

```
DOSINST                  menu
DOSINST LIST             list the programs
DOSINST INSTALL GMENU    install or update a program
DOSINST REMOVE GMENU     remove an installed program
```

# The store

```
/
  GMENU/
    INFO.INI
    FILES.LST           <- CRC32 and size of every file
    GMENUPRG.COM
    ...
  HELLO/
    INFO.INI
    HELLO.BAT
    DATA/README.TXT     <- subfolders are copied too
```

```ini
[program]
name=Hello World
description=The description, in one line.
version=1.0
platform=DOS
```

- Folders without an `INFO.INI` are skipped.
- `platform` is optional, `DOS` or `WIN32`. The DOS build does not list `WIN32` programs; DOSINSTW lists both, since Windows runs DOS programs too. DOSINST's own store folders are `DOSINST` (DOS) and `DOSINSTW` (Win32): each build updates itself from its own and does not list the other.
- File and folder names must be DOS 8.3 names; DOSINST stops with an error on any other name.
- The installed version is read from the copied `INFO.INI`, so there is no separate database on the DOS machine.
- `FILES.LST` (`crc32 size path` per line) is optional; `server/mkfiles.sh FOLDER` writes it. Without it DOSINST checks only the size, which it asks the server for.

**Publishing**: since WarpEngine 1.7 the store is the DOS shelf of the [WarpEngine](https://wiki.teletypegames.org/engines/warp-engine) of teletypegames.org (`layout: "folders"`), and the engine rebuilds it from the catalog on every publish. The Woodpecker pipelines of DOSINST, GMENU, BMAGIC and TTGWIKI only publish their release to the catalog on a `vX.Y.Z` tag, which the pipeline makes itself when `version` in `metadata.json` is raised (WarpEngine 1.9); the engine unpacks each folder from the release zip without its `settings` files and writes its `INFO.INI` and `FILES.LST`. A program hidden or deleted in the catalog leaves the store. Only folders the shelf's `INDEX.TXT` listed are ever removed, so a folder can still be published by hand (a test program, say): copy it to `/srv/stacks/teletype-games/data/softwares/shelves/APPS/` on the server and run `server/mkfiles.sh` on it; no restart is needed.

# Setup

DOSINST needs a packet driver and mTCP (its `DHCP.EXE` fills in the network settings). The settings are in `DOSINST.CFG` next to `DOSINST.EXE`:

```ini
SERVER=ftp.teletypegames.org
PORT=21
PATH=/APPS
DEST=C:\APPS
```

**DOSBox Staging** — the NE2000 emulation plus the Crynwr `NE2000.COM` packet driver (mTCP and the driver in `C:\MTCP`):

```
[ethernet]
ne2000 = on

[autoexec]
C:\MTCP\NE2000.COM 0x60 3 0x300 > NUL
SET MTCPCFG=C:\MTCP\MTCP.CFG
C:\MTCP\DHCP.EXE
PATH Z:\;C:\WINDOWS;C:\APPS\GMENU;C:\DOSINST
```

In DOSBox every `PATH` line replaces the previous one, so all folders go into a single line, starting with `Z:\` (DOSBox's own commands, like `MOUNT`). For a silent start, set `startup_verbosity = quiet` in `[dosbox]`, put `@echo off` first in `[autoexec]` and send the output of the programs to `NUL` (`C:\MTCP\DHCP.EXE > NUL`).

**A real machine** needs the packet driver of its own network card instead of `NE2000.COM`. DOSINST.EXE does not work in a DOS window of Windows 95/98, because Windows owns the network card there: use `DOSINSTW.EXE` there, which needs nothing but Windows' own TCP/IP. Windows does not let a running program be overwritten, so DOSINSTW's own update is finished right after it exits.

# The server

The store is the `APPS` folder of the Teletype Games [FTP server](https://wiki.teletypegames.org/infrastructure/ftp-server) (`infra/ftp-server`): anonymous and read-only, passive mode only, ports 21 and 30000–30019. DOSINST connects to the data port on the server's own address, so it also works behind NAT. The root has `APPS`, `C64`, `PLUS4`, `WARP` and `WIKI`: a DOSINST older than 0.6.0 has `PATH=/` in its `DOSINST.CFG` (an update never changes it) and finds no program there, so set `PATH=/APPS` in it by hand.

# Building and tests

The build needs [Open Watcom v2](https://github.com/open-watcom/open-watcom-v2) (the snapshot release has macOS and Linux binaries):

```sh
SOURCE/build.sh
```

The source is in layers, each using only the ones below it through their interfaces (the rules are on the [DOSLIB](https://wiki.teletypegames.org/dos/doslib) page): `model` (programs, FILES.LST, INSTALL.LST, the configuration), `repository` (the store over FTP, the installed programs, the staging folder of an install), `service` (the program list, install, remove), `controller` and `view` (menu and command line), `app` (puts them together); the DOS and the Windows build only differ in `main_dos.cpp` / `main_win32.cpp` and `platform/`. `SOURCE/lib` is DOSLIB.

The unit tests run on the host without DOSBox, on a fake store and an in-memory disk (a bad checksum, an update that deletes the stale files, a self update, the menu with scripted keys); they check the layers first:

```sh
SOURCE/test/unit/run.sh
```

`SOURCE/test/run.sh` starts the FTP server on the host and runs DOSINST in a headless DOSBox Staging: it lists, installs, updates and removes programs from the command line and from the menu, and compares the copied files byte by byte. The menu is driven by a test build that reads its keys from `TESTKEYS` and saves the screen.

# License

DOSINST uses the [mTCP](http://www.brutman.com/mTCP/) TCP/IP library by Michael B. Brutman, which is GPLv3, so DOSINST is GPLv3 too.

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---

## Navigation

- Parent: [DOS](https://wiki.teletypegames.org/dos.md)
- Previous: [BMAGIC](https://wiki.teletypegames.org/dos/bmagic.md)
- Next: [DOSLIB](https://wiki.teletypegames.org/dos/doslib.md)