Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!masnet!canremote!magner.consultants
From: magner.consultants@canremote.uucp (MAGNER CONSULTANTS)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: PCTools $$$ files
Message-ID: <90011904272186@masnet.uucp>
Date: 4 Jan 90 16:52:00 GMT
Organization: Canada Remote Systems Limited, Mississauga, ON, Canada
Lines: 39

DP>Been using PCTOOLS for 6 weeks or so, but only recently noticed in my
DP>root directories .$$$ files of filename MODEPCTW, SYSTEPCT, DOSDOPCT and 

Donald:

I haven't seen all the files you describe, but the one you thought
looked like your disk's tree structure was probably just that.

PCTools 5.5 has what we regard as a VERY dangerous default: when first
run, it creates a tree file like the one you describe and then uses
that file (NOT the disk directories) from that point forward to
provide you with file and directory information.  They do this to
improve performance on large disks.

The idea is fine as long as you NEVER delete or move files around
outside of PCTools, since the disk would then no longer look like the
tree file PCTools would use the next time you loaded it.  It handles
that VERY poorly, showing wildly erroneous information like empty
directories which are actually full of files, or files in one
directory when they're actually in another directory, or directories
and files which have been deleted.

You can manually tell PCTools to re-make its tree file (I forget the
key sequence) regularly to reduce this danger, but on all our clients'
machines we disable the feature entirely.  You do this by adding the
parameter /TR0 (that's "tee" "arr" "zero") to the command line in a
batch file used to call PCShell, as in "PCSHELL /TR0".  Then it ALWAYS
reads the disk while you use it.

Sorry I can't help you with the purpose of the other files, but maybe
deleting them and then experimenting with the editor will show what
they're for.  We don't use PCTools' editor, and haven't seen those
files.  Could they be blocks of text you erased/copied/moved while
working on files?
ZDDDDDDDDDDDDD?
3 Mark Magner 3
@DDDDDDDDDDDDDY
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 * QDeLuxe 1.10 #3429