W8SDZ@Simtel20.ARPA (09/09/84)
From: Keith Petersen <W8SDZ@Simtel20.ARPA> BDPATCH.ASM is a program which contains a patch for CP/M 2.2 that adds a new file attribute: the PUBlic attribute. When a file's public attribute is set, it is available to all users. The public attribute is f1' (the high bit of the first character of the filename). It's available from SIMTEL20 as: Filename Type Bytes CRC MICRO:<CPM.CCP> BDPATCH.ASM.1 ASCII 2682 78B7H --Keith
W8SDZ@Simtel20.ARPA (09/09/84)
From: Keith Petersen <W8SDZ@Simtel20.ARPA> The file I announced, BDPATCH.ASM, appeared on RCPM (Royal Oak, MI). Since there is no record kept of who uploads and no .DOC file was included, I can't tell where it came from. If you don't mind, I'll forward your message to my RCPM as BDPATCH.BUG in order for people to be warned about the potential danger in using this patch. --Keith
bridger@Rand-Unix.ARPA (09/15/84)
From: Bridger Mitchell <bridger@Rand-Unix.ARPA> This code looks quite similar to a test version of PUBPATCH I released late last spring. Who's the contributor, and what's the background? An article documenting the patch we developed at Plu*Perfect Systems is scheduled for a fall Dr. Dobbs issue. It includes code for a PUBLIC utility to set/reset the public bit & list public files. A disk is available with an augmented SD to list public files in a separate 'public' directory. Without some further bdos patches the patch you released will probably suffer from the weak points that we had to overcome in our initial version of the public-attribute-bit approach: era *.* will wipe out public files from any user number, and dir will show public files in every user number. The Dr. Dobbs version handles this well-- public files have a type of SYStem status and are accessible only by unambiguous filename or search-for-next function. Our approach is copyrighted, but we will be releasing it for non-commercial, single-user use to the CP/M community. SIMTEL20 availability would also be fine; the documentation is the article, and I would have to check with the editor about release before publication. --bridger mitchell