Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!ukc!reading!cf-cm!cybaswan!iiitsh
From: iiitsh@cybaswan.UUCP (Steve Hosgood)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Symbolic links in DOS (a la Unix) ?
Summary: Here's one way of doing it..
Keywords: Putting the FAT in the fire
Message-ID: <603@cybaswan.UUCP>
Date: 11 Aug 89 08:42:11 GMT
References: <5569@arcturus> <1604@bucket.UUCP> <1406@mks.UUCP>
Reply-To: iiitsh@cybaswan.UUCP (Steve Hosgood)
Organization: Institute for Industrial Information Technology
Lines: 37

In article <1406@mks.UUCP> andy@mks.waterloo.edu (Andy Toy) writes:
>In article <1604@bucket.UUCP> leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson) writes:
>|CHKDSK will report any such "links" as "cross-linked files". And if you
>|have used the /f parameter, it will cheerfully nuke the files.
>
>Someone could always write a few utilities to support linked
>files.  We would need a chkdsk-like programme (might as well
>call it fsck) that would do the same thing as chkdsk and handle
>linked files.
>
>Of course we need a ln command to create the links.  Also mv and rm
>would have to check for links before deallocating the blocks.
>
>Sounds like it could be an interesting project.
>

I seriously thought of doing it too. So far, time has been too short :-(

A simple re-write of rm, mv, ln etc wouldn't work as utilities could still
create, delete and truncate files under DOS in the old manner.

The most likely way of making it work is to intercept INT21 functions 13H,
16H, 3CH, 41H and maybe some others. This would "ensure" that existing
utilities worked with the new regime without trouble.

Chkdsk would have to be re-written, as would anything else that bypasses
DOS and writes to the disk directly.

-----------------------------------------------+------------------------------
Steve Hosgood BSc,                             | Phone (+44) 792 295213
Image Processing and Systems Engineer,         | Fax   (+44) 792 295532
Institute for Industrial Information Techology,| Telex 48149
Innovation Centre, University of Wales,        | JANET: iiitsh@uk.ac.swan.pyr
Swansea SA2 8PP                                | UUCP: ..!ukc!cybaswan!iiitsh
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           Please note the change in my username as of 1 Aug '89