Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!elroy!hacgate!ashtate!dbase!awd
From: awd@dbase.UUCP (Alastair Dallas)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: dBASE IV (Was: - change the SUBJECT!)
Summary: dBASE IV temporary files
Message-ID: <64@dbase.UUCP>
Date: 26 Apr 89 21:14:00 GMT
References: <2178@muvms1.bitnet>
Organization: Ashton Tate Devlopment Center Glendale, Calif.
Lines: 26


Ken Sellards says that dBASE IV doesn't erase its temporary files and I
thought he was wrong until I found that I can duplicate the problem.  
We'll have it fixed in the next release.  The problem is that uniquely-
named files with the extension "$VM" are left around (one per session)
when you leave dBASE.  The files are typically 0 bytes.

One way to mitigate this problem is to use an undocumented feature, but
even that doesn't help much.  The feature is:

	- Create a DOS environment variable called 'TMP' and point 
	  it at a RAMdisk or a special subdirectory, such as:

		SET TMP=E:\	 (E: is a RAMdisk, VDISK, etc.)
		   or
		SET TMP=\TMP\
		MD \TMP

	- dBASE IV will now write its temporary files to the specified
	  directory, which can be cleaned up periodically (ERASE \TMP),
	  or to the RAMdisk, where rebooting will erase them automagically.

I hope this posting has a higher information content than Ashton-Tate-
bashing or In-defense-of-dBASE mail.

/alastair/