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From: kaleb@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (Kaleb Keithley)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: dir | more
Message-ID: <3108@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov>
Date: 16 Mar 90 00:20:45 GMT
References: <2165@orbit.cts.com>
Sender: news@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov
Reply-To: kaleb@mars.UUCP (Kaleb Keithley)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.
Lines: 28

In article <2165@orbit.cts.com> cheangkk@pnet51.orb.mn.org (Pitt Cheang) writes:
>When I tyied to dir the root directory of my hard disk , floppy disk with the
>more , I always got two strange file name with 0 byte, the file name contains
>mostly number with 8 characters long, no extention name.
> 
>When I check this command " dir | more " or " dir/w | more " on my firends
>computer, it appear the same thing. I am using PC-DOS 3.3 , my friend is using
>MS-DOS 3.3. Moreover, those strange file name are always change, every time
>you try you got a different name.
>
>So what is this file name do ?
>

Pipes in MS-DOS are really just temporary files, with some software wrappers
to make them work like *nix (or is it *ix.)  There is a DOS function that
creates a unique file name (probably mostly numbers) which the "wrapper"
uses.  After the second program in the pipe is done, COMMAND no doubt truncates
the file to zero length, and then deletes it. 

The reason you see these files in "DIR | MORE" is because COMMAND creates the
temporary file before the DIR, and the file is visible for the duration
of the pipe.  What you really want to do is "DIR /P" which pauses just like 
MORE does when you pipe a file through it.

kaleb@mars.jpl.nasa.gov            Jet Propeller Labs
Kaleb Keithley

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