Re: Correction to ZIP: Mass Removal of Archive Bit on All Directories

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from Harry Binswanger  on Sat, 28 Feb 2004
16:20:05 -0500


> With both versions of darchbit.bat I got really weird behavior when using
> 4DOS (including it launching Netscape and trying to re-install a random
> program I have). But the display version works fine in regular MS-DOS.

You'll get really wierd behavior with the Mac, Unix, and a whole host of other
command processors. This is for the version of DOS that comes with your
operating system.

Let's not get entangled in red herrings. 4DOS has always had a different set
of capabilities -- that's why people do, or don't, use it!

And the purpose of these commands is not to prolong discussion about other
laborious ways to work around the problem they address (TREE etc), but rather
to FIX THE PROBLEM for once and for all, on any drive that suffers from it! I
thought the discussion tiresome, and the solution obvious -- so I packaged it
in an easy-to-consume form. The exceedingly clever 9x recursion mechanism is
the brainchild of William Allen, a BATch language guru; the NT format is just
common knowledge.

> I take it this .bat file changes only the archive bit, not system, hidden,
> or read-only.

Look at the commands! They explain their capabilities clearly. They can do
any or all of the above, according to how they are set-up by the user; and, as
is quite obvious if you look at them, they could be adapted by a savvy user to
perform sweep operations of any kind on a drive.

> In general, is there any reason why any of these attributes
> have to be kept turned on?

I don't know. That's for you to determine. I can't recall any use for the
archive bit whatsoever (especially in a directory), but that doesn't mean there

isn't one, or that it wasn't conceived with a purpose. I'm just providing a
tool for a specific XyNeed. Whether there is collateral damage, I couldn't
say. But I ran them against all directories on all drives of all my machines,
and I haven't experienced any problems. YMMV.

-----------------------------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
-----------------------------