Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!gatech!udel!new
From: new@udel.EDU (Darren New)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: DOS directory access
Keywords: function dos c directory
Message-ID: <18530@louie.udel.EDU>
Date: 26 Jun 89 21:37:49 GMT
References: <33856@tention.uucp> <238@helens.Stanford.EDU>
Sender: usenet@udel.EDU
Reply-To: new@udel.EDU (Darren New)
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Delaware
Lines: 15

In article <238@helens.Stanford.EDU> mike@relgyro.STANFORD.EDU (Mike Macgirvin) writes:
>  To speed up your program, I recommend allocating space for the entire
>directory, gobbling it up with one read(), and then you have duplicated
>what DOS does. Your program can then scan through this memory as it wishes.

Actually, last I looked (PC-DOS 3.1) it was still impossible to read a
directory as a standard file. You could use Examine and ExamineNext.
As long as there are no intervening DOS calls, it should be fairly fast.
If you are (say) deleting files, you may wish to ChangeDir to the
directory and use the FCB-oriented directory calls rather than the
Unix-like calls, because such calls parse the wildcards all at once.
This is why delete is so fast in COMMAND.COM. However, it can cause
bugs sometimes (like while networking, if I remember). Anyway, if
you use Examine and ExamineNext without intervening calls, all the
directories should be buffered for you.  Good luck... -- Darren