Re: Version 2.1.70 ms-dos fs strange.

[Richard B. Johnson]

On 7 Dec 1997, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
[SNIPPED]
> > 
> > You can't start a ms-dos file name with 0xe5 (means erased file), and
> > you can't have more than "filename.typ" characters. That's all. The
> 
> Actually, you can.  A leading 0xe5 character is stored as 0x05 on
> disk.  This is yet another historical accident of the MS-DOS
> filesystem...
> 
> 	-hpa

Who changes it??? If I attempt to create such a file with "raw" ms-dos,
i.e., Int 21H, function 3CH, it returns with carry set and doesn't
create the file. I suspect it's another command.com filter. In a
previous life I mucked with a lot of strange file-names in an attempt
to keep database users from deleting important stuff. I made invisible
directories, files with all blanks and/or 0xff, etc. These things I
could do at the INT 21H interface, but not from 'C' and, certainly, not
from COMMAND.COM.

Of course when Peter Norton marketed his Disk Editor, user's could
then muck things up. Were safe for awhile!

Cheers,
Dick Johnson

Richard B. Johnson
Project Engineer
Analogic Corporation
Penguin : Linux version 2.1.70 on an i586 machine (66.15 BogoMips).
Warning : It's hard to remain at the trailing edge of technology.