Hello Jonathan,
 \|/  Subject:  Preventing DEL from displaying things
 /|\  On Thursday April 02 1998 at 11:05, 
      you wrote to Gerald Miller saying:
 TM>>> del /q/s/z anti-vir.dat > nul
 GM>> display when using `> nul` (which I've since removed).
 JP> As I said, use the /E switch to the DEL command.  This is the best
 JP> solution.
Yes, thank you, but this has already been pointed out to me.
 JP> The second best solution is to note that errors are sent by the DEL
 JP> command to the standard *error*, and *not* to the standard output.
 JP> (All well-written commands will do this.  It is a widely accepted
 JP> convention.)  "> NUL" only redirects standard output.  To redirect
 JP> standard error, use
 JP>         del /q/s/z anti-vir.dat >& nul
This was what I was searching for!  In my haste to find a solution, I took 
the convoluted approach and used a series of IF EXIST filename .AND. ...., 
which appears to be doing the job I intended.
 JP> If you have 4OS2, Take Command for OS/2, or indeed anything other than
 JP> 4DOS, then the syntax can also be
 JP>         del /q/s/z anti-vir.dat > nul 2>&1
I thank you for taking the time to respond to my query.  I have snipped your 
message and included it in my KEEPER directory, for future references.
              G'Day ... Gerald
--- GoldED/386 3.00.Beta2 UNREG
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