gauss@homxc.ATT.COM (E.GAUSS) (03/05/89)
While this may be documented somewhere, I have not seen it. If your
finger strays to the next key and you type
del */wrk
instead of
del *.wrk
MS-DOS apparently deletes all files except those with an extension of .wrk!
It happened to me when I was doing housecleaning on my hard disk. I am rather
glad I am so paranoid about backup.
Ed Gaussbill@hpcvlx.HP.COM (Bill Frolik) (03/08/89)
What version of DOS are you using? I just tried what you described on a directory containing four files: X.WRK Y.WRK A.FOO B.FOO C D On two different machines, I got the following results: Command Under PC-DOS 3.20 Under MS-DOS 2.11 ----------- ------------------- ------------------- del */wrk "Invalid parameter" C and D are deleted, files with extensions remain untouched. del *\wrk "Invalid directory" "Invalid directory" del * C and D are deleted, C and D are deleted, files with extensions files with extensions remain untouched. remain untouched. These look more or less like what I'd expect. ________________________________________ Bill Frolik Hewlett-Packard Co. hp-pcd!bill Corvallis, Oregon
Erik@cup.portal.com (Erik - Dufek) (03/08/89)
In article <5826@homxc.ATT.COM> gauss@homxc.ATT.COM (E.GAUSS) writes: >finger strays to the next key and you type > del */wrk >instead of > del *.wrk >MS-DOS apparently deletes all files except those with an extension of .wrk! I tried this and it wouldn't work for me. I thought it would be handy instead of using a program called DELBUT. What conditions do you have? What version of DOS, what machine, do you have a TSR aliasing program? Has anyone else been able to duplicate this? Erik Dufek <erik@cup.portal.com>
rbono@necis.UUCP (Rich Bono) (03/08/89)
In article <5826@homxc.ATT.COM>, gauss@homxc.ATT.COM (E.GAUSS) writes: > > While this may be documented somewhere, I have not seen it. If your > finger strays to the next key and you type > > del */wrk > > instead of > > del *.wrk > > MS-DOS apparently deletes all files except those with an extension of .wrk! I tried this in MS-DOS 3.30 and MS-DOS 4.01 and this action responds with an error message in both cases... NO FILES WERE DELETED in either case. Do you have some sort of TSR loaded? Or some other "DOS enhancer"? Or what version of DOS are you using? -- /**************************************************************************\ * Rich Bono (NM1D) If I could only 'C' forever!! rbono@necis.nec.com * * (508) 635-6303 NEC Information Systems NM1D @ WB1DSW-1 * \**************************************************************************/
sid@brambo.UUCP (Sid Van den Heede) (03/28/89)
In article <976@necis.UUCP> rbono@necis.UUCP (Rich Bono) writes: >In article <5826@homxc.ATT.COM>, gauss@homxc.ATT.COM (E.GAUSS) writes: >> >> While this may be documented somewhere, I have not seen it. If your >> finger strays to the next key and you type >> >> del */wrk >> >> instead of >> >> del *.wrk >> >> MS-DOS apparently deletes all files except those with an extension of .wrk! > > I tried this in MS-DOS 3.30 and MS-DOS 4.01 and this action >responds with an error message in both cases... NO FILES WERE DELETED >in either case. > > Do you have some sort of TSR loaded? Or some other "DOS enhancer"? > >Or what version of DOS are you using? No magic here! (or is that :-)?) First, the "/wrk" is a command line option (ie, switch) that the command can choose to use or ignore or whatever. So, you simply told del to delete all files that match the wildcard "*", that is, all files with *no* extension. Your command would also not delete files with an extension of .wak, or .nfg, or ... You might as well have typed "del *". Forget TSRs and DOS enhancers...The only thing that is relevant here is the revision of DOS. I tried this on three versions, and got three different results (:-) again?). The del command with DOS 2.11 didn't care about the switch(es) "/wrk"... It just deleted everything that matched the wildcard. The del with DOS 3.30 complained with "Invalid parameter"...Glad I didn't give it a complex command line...Which parameter? Well, it seems Microsoft improved things with 4.0. That version said "Invalid switch - /wrk" (thank you!). Sorry for the long response...First, I have a version of software that won't let me post if the included text is more than new stuff :-). Second, I thought a lecture on switches might be appropriate, since at least a couple of people have forgotten this fundamental MS-DOS feature.