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From: cramer@kontron.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Strange DOS behavior
Message-ID: <1574@kontron.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 11-May-87 12:16:48 EDT
Article-I.D.: kontron.1574
Posted: Mon May 11 12:16:48 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 13-May-87 04:39:59 EDT
References: <1293@ur-tut.UUCP>
Organization: Kontron Electronics, Mt. View, CA
Lines: 26

> I just tried the following on my PC running DOS 3.2.
> 
> 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:
> 
> A)bort, R)etry, I)gnore ?
> 
> What's going on ?
> 
> I am only trying to read from the disk. Am I missing something here ?
> 
> Atul Kacker

Unlike UNIX, PC-DOS doesn't have true interprocess pipes.  The | simulates
pipes by writing stdout to a temporary disk file on the current disk and
directory, and telling the next program in the line to read stdin from that
temporary file.

Clayton E. Cramer