Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!munnari.oz.au!csc!csc3.anu.oz!ccadfa!bxw
From: bxw@ccadfa.adfa.oz.au (Brad Willcott)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: File concatenation using Microsoft
Message-ID: <1633@ccadfa.adfa.oz.au>
Date: 13 Jun 90 07:50:16 GMT
References: <4891@druco.ATT.COM> <46500106@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>
Organization: Computer Centre, University College, UNSW, ADFA, Canberra, Australia
Lines: 25

mms00786@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu writes:


>If you don't mind machine dependent code, what do you think of the following:
>   Find the entry for file A in the dir area. The entry, I believe, consists
>   of the name + some junk + number of the first allocated cluster. Then, the
>   byte corresponding to that cluster in the dir area has the number of the
>   next cluster and so on, just like a linked list. So if you can traverse
>   the entire linked list for file A, then make its last cluster byte point
>   to the first cluster byte of file B, you will have concatenated the two.
[...]

Your suggestion Milan, seems like a good one, but it assumes that file "A's" 
data fills the last sector of the last cluster in its chain!  Depending on the
file type this is possible, however, one cannot easily find out.  Therefore,
the method that copies LARGE chunks of data at a time from the source file
would be the simplest, safest and quickest method of file concatination.

Nice idea, but MS-DOS wasn't designed for such simple solutions :-(.

-- 
Brad Willcott,                          ACSnet:     bxw@ccadfa.cc.adfa.oz
Computing Services,                     Internet:   bxw@ccadfa.cc.adfa.oz.au
Australian Defence Force Academy,       UUCP:!uunet!munnari.oz.au!ccadfa.oz!bxw
Northcott Dr. Campbell ACT Australia 2600  +61 6 268 8584  +61 6 268 8150 (Fax)