We use Eudora 5 on a network (Win98 workstations on a Linux/Samba fileserver), and each mailbox generates a locking file when in use (owner.lok). If Windows falls over, the lok file is left & generates a false 'mailbox in use' warning. To clear this, you have to delete owner.lok. I'm trying to write a batch file which tries to delete owner.lok and then runs eudora. This works unless owner.lok is genuinely in use by another copy of eudora, when DOS correctly gives a sharing violation (error 32 i think) and abort/r/f, requiring manual response. What I want it to do is carry on & run Eudora so that Eudora can put up its 'in use' warning. How can I stop the batch file jamming here? I've tried: echo a | del h:\eudora\owner.lok and: echo f | del h:\eudora\owner.lok as given at http://computing.net/dos/wwwboard/forum/2711.html Here's the file so far: if exist h:\eudora\owner.lok goto wipelok goto runeud :wipelok echo f | del h:\eudora\owner.lok if errorlevel 1 goto runeud :runeud start /max d:\progra~1\qualcomm\eudora\Eudora.exe h:\eudora @echo off cls --------- Could I maybe detect that owner.lok is currently off-limits without triggering the error? Grateful for any help Tim

COMMAND.COM has many undocumented switches. One of them is the /F switch, which responds FAIL to such questions. So, instead of: echo f | del h:\eudora\owner.lok Use this: %COMSPEC% NUL /F /C del h:\eudora\owner.lok The %COMSPEC% variable stores the command interpreter (command.com) full path. The 'NUL' supresses the output. Besides the /F switch, I've found 3 other undocumented switches for COMMAND.COM: /D - Don't know what this one does yet /T - Same as /P, but won't run AUTOEXEC.BAT /Z - Display errorlevel after each command There could be more, I'm no sure. -- Leonardo Pignataro - Secret_Doom -- secret_doom@hotmail.com www.batch.hpg.com.br

Leonardo, that does it. Thanks very much. Tim