Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!cernvax!chx400!ugun2b!ugsc2a!fisher
From: fisher@sc2a.unige.ch
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: Problem with del...
Message-ID: <1990Dec15.233759.344@sc2a.unige.ch>
Date: 15 Dec 90 21:37:59 GMT
References: <4043@uniol.UUCP>
Organization: University of Geneva, Switzerland
Lines: 26

In article <4043@uniol.UUCP>, Kai.Buerhoop@arbi.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de (Kai Buerhoop) writes:
> I got a problem with the 'del'-command.
> I've got a certain file, which I can normally list with 'dir',
> but which, if I want to rename it, copy it or delete it cannot be
> modified.
> DOS says: "Cannot find file"
> 
> Anyone an idea?

Could be that what you see is not what you've got.  I bet that dir finds the
file because of the implicit '*.*' pattern (have you tried 'dir strange.fil'?)
This means that you could delete it with 'del *.*', also...

Frankly, my only idea is that the filename (or the extention) contains blank
characters, i.e. char 255, or worse, a mixture of regular blanks (char 32)
and 255-blanks.

You could check it with something like 'dir>test' and 'debug test', wich shows
the real file names.  It's probably easier make a copy first.  Let's say your
file appears as 'HMM      X  ' in the directory listing, which you took as
meaning 'hmm.x', try 'copy hmm?????.x?? ok.now'.  (BTW: the file must not be
empty for that!)

Hope this helps

Markus Fischer, Dpt of Anthropology, Geneva CH