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From: sigma@jec302.its.rpi.edu (Kevin J Martin)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc
Subject: Re: MOVE files, not copy.
Message-ID: <3J7-53$@rpi.edu>
Date: 5 Mar 91 04:53:13 GMT
References: <2851@krafla.rhi.hi.is> <5yN0X2w163w@cybrspc> <1991Mar4.044236.4842@cs.mcgill.ca> <1011@caslon.cs.arizona.edu> <7319.27d3715f@cc.curtin.edu.au>
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sschnellm@cc.curtin.edu.au writes:
>MS-DOS version 3.3 certainly has a MOVE.COM...

You must be thinking of MODE.COM or MORE.COM, neither of which is quite
what we're looking for.  What I think everyone wants in a move utility, and
it's basically what Unix gives you via 'mv' is these capabilities:

1) renames a file
2) intelligently moves a file if it's on the same partition - that is,
   if you move a eight-meg file from \TMP to \DATA\WP51, only the pointers
   get changed rather than having all the data recopied.  This saves time,
   avoids running out of disksapce intermediately, and also eliminates the
   side effect of disk fragmentation (ie, the next eight meg allocated
   might come from all over the disk)
3) copies a file if the destination is on a different partition or disk,
   only deleting the original if the copy is successful

These are all pretty straightforward, but I don't think I've seen any
rendition under MSDOS which handles all three cases correctly AND functions
with >32Mb partition structures.  I'm understandably nervous about
experimenting with a 1987 'mv' program on a 70Mb partition!

Ah well, guess we should have mentioned it back when Microsoft was
soliciting user's suggestions in c.s.i.p... sigh.

-- 
Kevin Martin
sigma@rpi.edu