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Article View: comp.windows.ms.programmer
Article #2427

Re: What to do about stdin, stdout, and stderr under Windows 3.0?

#2427
From: Jose Pina Coelho
Date: Wed, 08 May 1991 14:17
37 lines
2133 bytes
In article <1991May7.213347.709@sq.sq.com> dak@sq.sq.com (David A
Keldsen) writes: 
   mlord@bwdls58.bnr.ca (Mark Lord) writes:
   >There is a device called NUL for use in the PC world.  NUL == /dev/null
One should say MSDOS's NUL: <={Sort-of}=> *IX's /dev/null

   Nice idea, but apparently "NUL" is magical to command.com.
Nope, it's in the ibmbio.sys/ibmdos.sys files in pcdos
(io.sys/msdos.sys in msdos).

   fopen() in the MSC libraries certainly doesn't do anything useful
   with "NUL" or "NUL:"

Sounds like MicroSoft C trying to dodge MicroSoft DOS (cute, he ?)
Probably it checks for dev names.

   (1)  /dev/null doesn't work, but /dev/nul *does*.  
	(Ick!  It works empirically, but I don't know if I trust MS not to
	change it, as it sounds like a bug.)
That is due to quite a bug (sorry, feature (i think it's documented,
but i'm not sure), if a filename is 3 characters long, dos
will (try to?) interpret it as dev (ignoreing the missing ':'), so
\dev\nul has a filename with 3 chars (nul) and you can use it.
Ever tried to mess arround (rmdir) with a directory called AUX, or
CON, or ... or even NUL

   (3)  Try NUL
	(Doesn't work.)
Try NUL:, dos is *plain* *weird*.

--
Jose Pedro T. Pina Coelho   | BITNET/Internet: jpc@fct.unl.pt
Rua Jau N 1, 2 Dto          | UUCP: ...!mcsun!unl!jpc
1300 Lisboa, PORTUGAL       | Home phone: (+351) (1) 640767

- If all men were brothers, would you let one marry your sister ?
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References: <1991Apr30.162028.7771@sq.sq.com> <6690@bwdls58.bnr.ca> <1991May7.213347.709@sq.sq.com>

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From: jpc@fct.unl.pt (Jose Pina Coelho)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms.programmer,comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: What to do about stdin, stdout, and stderr under Windows 3.0?
Message-ID: <JPC.91May8141743@terra.fct.unl.pt>
Date: 8 May 91 14:17:43 GMT
References: <1991Apr30.162028.7771@sq.sq.com> <6690@bwdls58.bnr.ca>
 <1991May7.213347.709@sq.sq.com>
Sender: news@fct.unl.pt (USENET News System)
Organization: Universidade Nova de Lisboa -- Lisbon, Portugal
Lines: 37
In-Reply-To: dak@sq.sq.com's message of 7 May 91 21:33:47 GMT