Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mailrus!ames!ucsd!sdcsvax!ucsdhub!jack!crash!gof
From: gof@crash.cts.com (Jerry Fountain)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Novell ignores directory structure!
Message-ID: <2849@crash.cts.com>
Date: 20 Apr 88 03:53:54 GMT
References: <286@intek01.UUCP>
Reply-To: gof@crash.CTS.COM (Jerry Fountain)
Organization: Crash TS, El Cajon, CA
Lines: 30
Summary: search drives are the problem/cause

In article <286@intek01.UUCP> mark@intek01.UUCP (Mark McWiggins) writes:
>We've been experiencing a weird Novell Netware bug.  It sometimes just
>ignores the directory structure completely.  For example, when I remake
>a certain program in one of my directories, the program somehow winds
>up in another directory *on another disk*!
>
>This only seems to happen when there are two files with the same name
>in different directories.  Is anyone else experiencing this?  Do you
>have a fix?
>
>Thanks in advance for any insight.
>

The cause of your problem is easy to see by checking your drive mappings.
Novell's SEARCH drives are *not* like a normal DOS path, they also allow
a program to grab a data file via a search drive (or almost any open/write
operation).  The way LINK often works is to delete the old EXE, then open
is (via create for example).  The problem is that Novell sees the open file
on a search drive, assumes that is the file that LINK wants and then 'opens'
the existing file just as it should.

The only solution is to EXPLICITLY declare the path (as most unixeese might
do) via a '.\filename' type declaration.  I have also observed other programs
exhibit the same behavior (LIB for example).


-- 
-----Jerry Fountain-----
UUCP: {hplabs!hp-sdd,sdcsvax,nosc}!crash!pnet01!gof   ARPA: crash!gof@nosc.mil
MAIL: 523 Glen Oaks Dr., Alpine, Calif. 92001         INET: gof@pnet01.CTS.COM