Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!n8emr!bluemoon!bytehead
From: bytehead@bluemoon.uucp (Bryan Price)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: How does del *.* work?
Keywords: del *.*
Message-ID: <2yoqV2w163w@bluemoon.uucp>
Date: 14 Jan 91 01:07:24 GMT
References: <1991Jan8.123410.1564@en.ecn.purdue.edu>
Sender: bbs@bluemoon.UUCP
Organization: Blue Moon BBS ((614) 868-9980/2/4)
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lroberts@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Larry S Roberts) writes:

> I have written a program that uses the findfirst, findnext, and remove librar
> functions to delete files from a directory, however, I have noticed that the
> dos command "del *.*" works almost instantly when compared to my program.  My
> program has to access every file and it seems like the dos command only makes
> one disk access.  Also the remove function will not take wild cards, so this 
> not an option.
> 
> How does del *.* work, and how can I incorporate this in my software?  Thanks

DEL *.* doing it instantly??  You running on a 50MHZ '486 with a SCSI 
drive?  I don't think so! :-)

My MS-DOS version of rm is just as fast, and has more options.  The 
possible difference that I see is that you may be getting a filename from 
findfirst/findnext, then deleting it, then getting the next filename from 
findnext.  I run through findfirst/findnext first, putting all the 
filenames into an array, then delete them.

> ---
> Larry S. Roberts
> 
> 8450robertsl@indinpls.navy.mil              lroberts@en.ecn.purdue.edu

---
Bryan Price

bytehead@bluemoon