Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!leah!rpi!rpi.edu!deven From: deven@rpi.edu (Deven Corzine) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: ":" in file names Message-ID: Date: 21 May 89 01:11:51 GMT References: <110@snll-arpagw.UUCP> <1989May11.221814.10870@ziebmef.uucp> <115@snll-arpagw.UUCP> Sender: usenet@rpi.edu Organization: RPI Public Access Workstation Lab, Troy NY Lines: 32 In-reply-to: paolucci@snll-arpagw.UUCP's message of 18 May 89 00:46:23 GMT In article <115@snll-arpagw.UUCP> paolucci@snll-arpagw.UUCP (Sam Paolucci) writes: Why should you have to specify the full pathname if the file name with the colon is within double quotes. It seems to me that anything within double quotes should not be interpreted. Unfortunately, that's not what happens. But what if you were trying to create a file named "random file" on df0:, and your cwd is ram:? If it gave : characters no special treatment, then trying to create the file using "df0:random file" would end up actually creating "ram:df0:random file" -- the file name preceded by the intended device, on an unintended device. I don't consider that to be an acceptable situation. The behavior is still correct. Perhaps inconvenient, but correct. Perhaps you should be able to escape the : -- using "df0\:file" or "df0*:file" to create a file of the name "df0:file" in the current directory on the current device. But as far as simply ignoring anything quoted, no it should not. Furthermore, the OS has no idea what may have been quoted; only the application parsing the input line knows. Note that the application COULD build a full pathname for the current working directory before using the quoted filename, if you really want the behavior you described...) Deven -- shadow@[128.113.10.2] Deven T. Corzine (518) 272-5847 shadow@[128.113.10.201] 2346 15th St. Pi-Rho America deven@rpitsmts.bitnet Troy, NY 12180-2306 <> "Simple things should be simple and complex things should be possible." - A.K.