Printing Directories in DOS was:RE: Whats with X

[William Lindley]

Getting back to Linux and the Internet:

On Sat, 3 May 2003, KevinO wrote:
> Is the LPT1: device still supported?

Yes, but the 'print' command (a nasty Terminate-Stay-Resident program)
isn't.

You don't need the ':' at the end of a device name; in fact, any path
ending with one of the reserved device names will be that device...
at least on Windows 98,

      c:\my documents\prn

is the same as 'prn:' (which is mapped to 'lpt1:') ... furthermore,
extensions are ignored when checking for devices, so:

      c:\my documents\prn.htm

or

      c:\my documents\prn.html

is actually the same as 'prn:' (!)

This was responsible for several little web based attacks.

When developing websites with Linux, be careful to avoid using any
filename that has, anywhere in its name, the "filename" (i.e., the part
before the extension) of:

     prn, lpt1, lpt2, lpt3, con, clock$, aux, com1, com2, com3, com4.

'aux' is left over from CP/M and the same as 'com1'.

Yes, even paths like:

     http://www.mysite.com/stereo/aux/line_in.html

will cause problems with the 'aux'...

     http://www.mysite.com/beware/con/men.html

will have problems with 'con'.

Isn't the quirky installed base wonderful?

\\/
http://www.wlindley.com