# Using rcdrecord under NT/2000

### by Ferenc Tóth

## Preface

If you are in a similar situation like me and have to use Windows NT/2000 but still prefer command like over GUI and would like to use rcdrecord from your Windows machine then you have come to the right place. I summarize what you need to compile rcdrecord under Windows and a few tips how to make your life easier.

## What you need?

- Cygwin. Go to http://sources.redhat.com/cygwin/ and download a copy of the cygwin environment. You definitely need the cygwin DLL, gcc, make, you probably need bash, fileutils, etc.. I'm not sure exactly what you need, so grab everything it will not hurt, anyway :).
- rcdrecord source
- Some Unix/Windows experience, but since you're trying to compile a command line cd writer program for your Windows, you probably have it :)

## Compiling

Please read the README file that comes with the sources. This is definitely not a replacement for the README file!

- run bash configure --server=your-cd-server-host ...
- run make

You'll end up with rcdrecord. And basically that is it. NTFS doesn't support symbolic links, so you'll not have files2cd or image2cd.

## Usage

I guess it's fairly common to copy CDs, so I've put together a tiny script for this task.

`mount -f -b -s //./%1 /dev/cdrom
dd if=/dev/cdrom bs=65536 | (sleep 5 && rcdrecord -)`

First of all, you need a normal shell (that is not the brain-dead NT shell) to run the script. The default NT shell uses very small buffer for piping and therefore the script will not work (anyone knows how to enlarge that buffer)? So use bash or something similar. You need to specify the CD-ROM drive letter (eg: E:) for the script. It first mounts the CD then reads it with dd and finally pipes it into rcdrecord. The sleep is there to make sure dd has enough time to start reading the CD. I'm not sure if it's really needed, but it doesn't hurt. Alternatively, you can use a small buffering program between dd and rcdrecord (anyone knows where to find one in source?).

Please refer to the rcdrecord documentation for further options, parameters.