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Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!ames!amdahl!bnrmtv!perkins
From: perkins@bnrmtv.UUCP (Henry Perkins)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Strange DOS behavior
Message-ID: <1879@bnrmtv.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 10-May-87 00:10:42 EDT
Article-I.D.: bnrmtv.1879
Posted: Sun May 10 00:10:42 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 10-May-87 09:25:34 EDT
References: <1293@ur-tut.UUCP>
Organization: BNR Inc., Mountain View, California
Lines: 30
Keywords: DOS pipes temporary files
Summary: DOS uses pipes for temporary files

In article <1293@ur-tut.UUCP>, akk2@ur-tut.UUCP (Atul Kacker) writes:
> Inserted a floppy in drive A, which had a write protect tab
> on it. Changed the default drive to A> from C>. Then typed
> 
> A>  TYPE filename.ext | MORE
> 
> and I got an error message:   Write protect error writing drive A:
> I am only trying to read from the disk. Am I missing something here ?

MS-DOS doesn't have RAM pipes; it uses temporary files on the
default drive.

Incidentally, you could have probably done what you wanted to
accomplish with

   A>  MORE < filename.ext

which would have avoided the temporary pipe file.  The only
difference between TYPE and just sending a file to standard
output is in handling of a few special characters (like
expanding tabs to spaces).  If you're using an ANSI device
driver (like the standard ANSI.SYS, these issues are taken
care of.  Besides, avoiding TYPE makes the command faster.


-- 
{hplabs,amdahl,3comvax}!bnrmtv!perkins        --Henry Perkins

It is better never to have been born.  But who among us has such luck?
One in a million, perhaps.