On Thu, 27 Jun 2002 14:16:41 -0400, L.D. Best wrote: > Back in the days when I owned the fastest computer around [true 16bit > and at least 15MHz] I found myself facing the "the damn file can't be > deleted!!!" problem.
> And the normal "wildcard" solution didn't work. > So I pulled down my DOS manual [such things did once exist], and pulled > up some of what I'd learned somewhere at sometime, and I FINALLY managed > to delete the files. > And I didn't use a disk editor because I didn't have one. > I used the wonderful "?" and it worked! "HUH??" you might say, "what do > you mean you used '?'?" > File name BEO .123 > The blank after BEO is unknown character. > The command is therefore DEL BEO?.123 > If that doesn't work, add question marks one at a time, and keep trying > DEL BEO??.123 > DEL BEO???.123 > DEL BEO????.123 > DEL BEO?????.123 > Unlike the '*' wildcard, the '?' is a "one place at a time" wildcard. > If you have two files -- BEO1.123 and BEO15.123, BEO?.123 will refer > only to the first one. I honestly cannot remember if BEO??.123 would > refer to both files, but I think not. > It's been a looooooooooooooong time since I had to use that trick. I'd > honestly forgotten about it until I saw the subject line show up on the > list. <G> I imagine the the use of '?' could come in handy in some > complex batch files ... I hope I remember it should I need to write some > in the future. <G> Good tactics L.D., but they didn't work for me. One of the problems with this troublesome file was that when I did "dir" in the directory that it was in, it wouldn't even be listed! Even when I did "xdir +h" it would not be listed! I could see the file and its "apparent" name by using a DOS file viewer utility. Sam Heywood -- This mail was written by user of The Arachne Browser - http://arachne.cz/
