Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!uunet!mcsun!ukc!edcastle!hwcs!neil
From: neil@cs.hw.ac.uk (Neil Forsyth)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st.tech
Subject: Renaming Folders the bad way
Keywords: Potential Problems explained
Message-ID: <2260@odin.cs.hw.ac.uk>
Date: 8 Feb 91 09:44:03 GMT
Sender: news@cs.hw.ac.uk
Lines: 38


In article <2827@atari.UUCP> apratt@atari.UUCP (Allan Pratt) writes:
>neil@cs.hw.ac.uk (Neil Forsyth) writes:
>>As it is I can hide a folder by flipping the bit manually
>>using a disk editor. (It's OK Allan I reboot afterwards!)
>
>It's not OK.  GEMDOS's behavior in the presence of unexpected flag
>combinations is undefined.  For example, some places in the code could
>check for (attr & SUBDIR) but some check for (attr == SUBDIR). So you might
>find that you can use the thing as a folder, but  you can also Fdelete it,
>or if you Fcreate a file with the same name it'll get clobbered!  This
>would be disaster for the files contained in the folder.

Thanks for explaining that Allan. I confess I hadn't thought of that after
I was able to use the folder as normal. Are there any checks in TOS that
might cause such problems? If not, will it remain so? Seems like a good
idea to me. System files could go in a system folder etc.

>You're playing with fire.

You're right of course. I don't do it very often and I promise that if I
get burnt because of it I won't go badmouthing you or Atari. I'll just
learn my lesson. OK?

>
>============================================
>Opinions expressed above do not necessarily	-- Allan Pratt, Atari Corp.
>reflect those of Atari Corp. or anyone else.	  ...ames!atari!apratt


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! Neil Forsyth                      JANET:  neil@uk.ac.hw.cs                 !
! Dept. of Computer Science         ARPA:   neil@cs.hw.ac.uk                 !
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! Edinburgh, Scotland, UK           "That was never 5 minutes!"              !
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