nather@utastro.UUCP (Ed Nather) (06/11/84)
[]
It is possible to make PC-DOS look like Unix (superficially, anyway) by
putting a command in the config.sys file that says
switchar=\
which "pre-empts" the use of the "\" character for DOS switch parameters,
and allows the use of the "fall-back" character "/". Thus one can use
forward slash characters in pathnames, and not have to remember which computer
you are working on while thinking deeply about something else.
This works fine except for an ugly side-effect: the "backup" program makes
the change gracefully, identifying each dumped file with a pathname made up
of directory names separated by "/" characters. The "restore" program,
however, insists on having the "\" character between names. If you dump all
of your hard-disk files to floppies, you won't be able to restore them without
charging the header on EACH AND EVERY FILE from /xxx/yyy/zzz to \xxx\yyy\zzz.
If, in the meantime, you have re-formatted your hard disk to minimize the
number of fragmented files ...
[Guess how I found this out ???]
--
Ed Nather
{allegra,ihnp4}!{ut-sally,noao}!utastro!nather
Astronomy Dept., U. of Texas, Austinscent@sask.UUCP (Scent Project) (06/17/84)
There was an interesting article about the switchar problem in *.* section of the July issue of PC World. In effect it says that the TREE.COM program performs an undocumented DOS function call (37) to determine the switchar character. Some assembler code is given to implement the determination of the switchar. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who figures out how to make the \ separator work in all cases. Berni Schiefer ...ihnp4!sask!scent