Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!ucla-cs!ames!cit-vax!tybalt.caltech.edu!li
From: li@tybalt.caltech.edu (James C. Li)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Another "feature" of the Command Interpreter
Message-ID: <2083@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Date: Wed, 18-Mar-87 23:25:34 EST
Article-I.D.: cit-vax.2083
Posted: Wed Mar 18 23:25:34 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 20-Mar-87 04:29:28 EST
Sender: news@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu
Reply-To: li@tybalt.caltech.edu.UUCP (James C. Li)
Organization: Calfornia Institute of Technology
Lines: 26

References:


I came across an interesting "feature" when using the copy command a few days
ago.  I typed the following:

	"copy file.exe /bin"

No error message, just a "1 file copied" message.  I don't have any fix for
the "\" vs. "/" problem(by the way, if anyone knows of a way to patch this,
or has some programs that fix this, please let me know).  Anyway, I looked
for the file, and couldn't find it.  It wasn't in \bin, or \ or even in the
current directory(fortunately, it didn't touch the source;  I thought it may
have done a copy to itself, and maybe destroyed the file, but that wasn't the
case).  OK, so where did the file go?  There wasn't a file called "/bin" or
even just "bin".  But then I realized that "/b" was the switch to copy a binary
file, and due to the peculiar way the cli is parsing the line, it just pulled
out the "/b", and accepted the "in" left over as the target file(I found where
the copied file had gone!).  This peculiar way the "/x" switches are pulled out
of the command line may cause other similar confusion.  I thought I'd mention
this just in case someone hasn't already come across this.





li@tybalt.caltech.edu (James Li)           __   __
(also li@citromeo.caltech.bitnet)            | |
"Official KANK symbol"         ------>       | |