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From: browns@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com (Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: DOS directory attribute question
Message-ID: <1379.27134608@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com>
Date: 10 Oct 90 21:02:16 GMT
References: <6984.2711ef88@vax1.tcd.ie>
Lines: 22

In article <6984.2711ef88@vax1.tcd.ie>, dbearly@vax1.tcd.ie writes:
> Recent experiments in C programming showed that it is possible to set
> the various attribute bits of a DOS directory. I was wondering if 
> someone could tell me the (possible) effects and uses of setting these
> attributes are ?
> 
> 	In particular I would like to know about the read-only and
> 	archive attributes.

The "archive" bit means that the file was changed in some way since
the last backup.  One of the XCOPY options reads and sets this bit,
as do FASTBACK and a number of other file backup utilities.

The "read-only" bit means that the file is, er, read only.  DEL/ERASE
will not delete a file that is read only.

The 2 paragraphs above are not 100% reliable, as some programs bypass
the DOS calls that would set or interrogate these bits.

The above opinions are not attributable to any other person or company.
                                     email: browns@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A.   +1 216 371 0043