Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!mks!tj
From: tj@mks.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: expansion of *FOO.* = *.*   ?!?
Message-ID: <258@mks.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 1-May-87 17:56:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: mks.258
Posted: Fri May  1 17:56:05 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 2-May-87 13:55:49 EDT
References: <5734@shemp.UCLA.EDU>
Organization: Mortice Kern Systems, Waterloo, Ont.
Lines: 26
Summary: too much for patch; replace command.com instead

In article <5734@shemp.UCLA.EDU>, flowers@CS.UCLA.EDU writes:
> 
> Why does the fact that DOS treats *FOO.* (as in "DIR *FOO.*") the same
> as "*.*" remain unfixed?
> 
> Does anyone know of a patch to fix this?

DOS inherited from CP/M a very simplitic interpretation of "*":
it is replaced by as many "?"s as will fit.
"?" is defined to match " " as well as any other character
(remember that FOO.BAR is actually stored in the directory entry as
"FOO     BAR").
This whole kludge would be a nightmare to patch into something reasonable.
You can however simply junk command.com, and replace it with a real shell.
The Korn shell in the MKS Toolkit springs readily to mind.
Full UNIX-style globbing (wild-card expansion to those of you who were
not around before version 7): not only *foo.* but also *foo*, */*foo, */*/*.bar
work correctly. In fact all the Toolkit commands do proper globbing even
when invoked from command.com, but with the shell you can have the work done
for you even in the case of non-Toolkit commands.
Yes, i am closely involved with MKS.
-- 
     ll  // // ,~/~~\'   T. J. Thompson {decvax,ihnp4,seismo}!watmath!mks!tj
    /ll/// //l' `\\\     Mortice Kern Systems Inc.
   / l //_// ll\___/     43 Bridgeport Rd. E., Waterloo, ON, Can. N2J 2J4
O_/                      (519)884-2251