Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!voder!pyramid!prls!philabs!linus!nixbur!nixpbe!ugun13!josef
From: josef@ugun13.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.os.cpm
Subject: Re: Search for First in CP/M BDOS
Message-ID: <9800004@ugun13>
Date: 7 Jul 89 20:25:15 GMT
References: <18336839@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Lines: 40
Nf-ID: #R:ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU:-1833683900:ugun13:9800004:000:1441
Nf-From: ugun13.UUCP!josef    Jul  7 16:21:00 1989



 > Does the "Search for First" function (#17) in the BDOS call
 > accept wildcards as FCB entries?  Should the caller convert
 > *'s to ???'s, or does the BDOS take care of that?

 > IF BDOS accepts '*' , does it accept it even if it is NOT the last character?

From "CP/M Operating System Manual" (Digital Research):

"An ASCII question mark (63 decimal, 3F hexadecimal) in any position
 from f1 [First character of file name] through ex [Extent byte] matches
 the corresponding field of any directory entry on the default or
 auto-selected disk drive
"
So, I think a '*' is not allowed and the caller should have expanded it
to '?'s.

Usually, the '*' is considered the last character of the respective part
(filename and/or extension), so
	a*.ext	is converted to	a???????.ext
		as are
	a*ything.ext
	a*******.ext

	a*.b*	is converted to a???????.b??

		Josef Moellers

	paper mail:			e-mail:
c/o Nixdorf Computer AG		USA:  uunet!linus!nixbur!mollers.pad
Abt. DX-SC 1			!USA: mcvax!unido!nixpbe!mollers.pad
Heinz-Nixdorf-Ring			Phone:
D-4790 Paderborn		(+49) 5251 104691
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life.	|
|  Can You give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out	|
|  death in judgement"							|
|			Gandalf to Frodo in "The Fellowship of the Ring"|
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+