Anyone have an idea on how to access directories in DOS that have a <space> as the lead character for the name. For exapmle:

DOS <<<<< normal
Drivers <<<< normal
_Programs <<<< note the space before the name, I used an underscore, but it is actually a space.

I can not do anything these directories or there contents because I am unable to specify them correctly. Is there an ASCII character I need to enter?

Any help appreciated.

Thank you

Wrap the directory name in double quotes e.g. " spacfil"

cd " progfils"

etc...

Good luck

Hey, it's 'Victor/Virginia'

DEL won't, I don't think, but DELTREE (or MOVE) should work with the quote technique

Life is hard; it's harder if you're stupid. -John Wayne

Report Offensive Follow Up For Removal

Hey it's Valerie - not sis or bro

I may be wrong here, but I feel sure that "space" is not a valid leading character in a directory name, so you will not be able to access it under the current name.
You can use the disk edit function in, for example, Norton Utilities or PC Tools to edit the directory entry and change it into a valid character, like a letter.

Nigel

Sure, 3rd party tools will let you work with illegal filenames, but, as referenced in the linked M$ article, that's not necessary.

Life is hard; it's harder if you're stupid. -John Wayne

Report Offensive Follow Up For Removal

As always you are correct jboy. The OP in this case however wanted to access the directory, not delete it :-)

Nigel

Rename with MOVE would be the best bet.

Life is hard; it's harder if you're stupid. -John Wayne

Report Offensive Follow Up For Removal

Contrary to popular belief, spaces are legal tokens for filenames in any form of FAT (FAT12, FAT16, FAT32) under MS-DOS. OS/2, for instance, is notorious for hiding system files on FAT partitions with names like "EA DATA. SF" and "WP ROOT. SF". I often use spaces in directory names (in addition to the 3 character extension.) As a result, I get no overhead on the file allocation table, while still having readable names in pure DOS. Directories with spaces are just a tad trickier to work with.

Obviously your directory cannot possibly be named " PROGRAMS", as that is 9 characters including the leading space. I will assume you meant " PROGRAM.S" for the time being since that is valid. Simply issue the following command in DOS 6.x:

REN ?PROGRAM.S NEWNAME

If that doesn't work, find a Windows 95 (or 98) boot disk, browse to the directory and issue the following:

REN " PROGRAM.S" NEWNAME

Most problems with seemingly "invalid" filenames can be resolved without the use of a disk editor.

Hard to to figure how these two are different:

copy[space][space]file
copy[space]file

I wound be really surprised if you can use "REN ?PROGRAM.S NEWNAME" from Glitchmans response above, since

1. The filename has nine characters when only eight are possible/allowed.

2. A "?" in the beginning of the filename is a reserved character, to indicate to the OS that the file is deleted.

Unfortunatley I cannot try it out now, so I'm looking forward to see the outcome here.

Nigel

Hi Nigel,

Well...

I just did this:
***
C:\temp\->type nul > abc

C:\temp\->type nul > xbc

C:\temp\->ren ?bc ?bc.txt

C:\temp\->dir /s/b
C:\temp\-\abc.txt
C:\temp\-\xbc.txt
***
So in this case it's not so much a first char indicating a deleted file as a customary "wildcard".

I'm in NT CMD, but I'll bet money it acts the same in DOS.

M2

If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.

I'll be damned, I really should have remebered that ;-)
I have to blame it on age I guess.

"A "?" in the beginning of the filename is a reserved character, to indicate to the OS that the file is deleted."

No, it's the wildcard for a single character - although a few 'undelete' programs will show a question mark, the first character of a deleted file is the lower case sigma (HEX e5)

Life is hard; it's harder if you're stupid. -John Wayne

Report Offensive Follow Up For Removal

Wow, thanks for all the advice from all of you, but I still am unable to perform the task I am trying to complete.

Perhaps I should define what I am trying to do in more detail.

I have a DOS 6.2 machine that is being used to control a piece of equipment in a semiconductor fab. This tool, and the pc are about 10 years old, so the manufacturer offers basically no support for the software, or the tool. I am trying to copy the contents of the hard drive so as create a "backup" on my network.

I have been able to copy all system files and most directories using xcopy. However there are (4) directories that are hidden directories, that have a space, or hidden character as the lead character. So I can not copt these directories as xcopy only copies unhidden files. If I could change the attribute of the directory I could copy. but again I can not access then due to not knowing the correct name. I am sure the manufaturer of the tool did this to make them inaccessable, but I now have no support from them, and would like to access these (4) directories.

Hope this makes sense.

And thanks again for any and all advice.

rljonz

You can use the DRDOS xcopy to copy hidden files/directories.

DRDOS xcopy

M2

If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.

I am running WINNT4.0, SP6 and dual booting to MS-DOS6.22 with Windows for workgroups 3.11. My first questions would be, if the directories are hidden, how do you know their names and that the first character start with a space. I was trying to duplicate your situation. Using the File Manager with WINNT, I created (on my D drive) a directory _Dog (the underscore is really a apace). This version of file manager supports long file names. If fact, that is the default. Then went to "View," "All File Details" and file manager will show DOG~1 as the MS-DOS file name.

At the WINNT D:\> command prompt, I entered the "dir" command. Directory did not show up. Then,

attrib -H D:\?Dog and got "File not found - D:\?Dog Then,

attrib -H D:\" dog" and got D:\>. Then the "Dir" command and the _Dog directory show up (the underscore is really a apace).

If you want to, you can move and/or rename the directory using

move D:\" dog" D:\mydog

Change the directory back to dog (with the space thing and make it a hidden.

At a MS-DOS 6.22 D:\. prompt enter

attrib -H D:\>Dog~1

The directory can now been seen under DOS. Yes, it is possible to have a directory _Programs (the underscore is really a apace). But, the MS-DOS file name will be PROGRA~1.

Microsoft article ID: 142982 give some additional information on "How Windows Generates 8.3 File Names from Long File Names".

CoffeeBreak

Hi CoffeBreak,

Good stuff

M2

If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.