Some senseless babbling from Sean Dennis to Herbert Rosenau
on 12-12-99  13:48 about Fix_Paks...

 SD> RE: Fix_Paks
 SD> BY: Herbert Rosenau to Ron Nicholls on Fri Dec 10 1999 09:45 pm

 SD> OTE: DCTEdit v0.04 [1]
 > RN> Are the early fix paks for Warp 4 ( 1 to 8 )
 > RN> still available anywhere.
 >  
 > Why?
 >  
 > Use FP 11 to become a most stable system. It hold all older fixacks.
 >  
 > It's not the most recent.... but the most stable since FP9.

 SD> And FP11 has a very nasty bug in it that will cause several programs
 SD> (such as  Post Road Mailer) to barf because FP11 causes the system to
 SD> not update  directories correctly, causing said programs to crash and
 SD> burn. 
 SD> I run Post Road Mailer and had that problem.  I upgraded to FP12 last
 SD> week and  am very glad I did.

It should be pointed out that your characterization of where the bug is, is
incorrect.  The bug lies with PRM, and any other program that developed
problems with FP11.

Setting the archive bit on a directory is quite correct practice, and one
can make a good argument for OS/2 being buggy up until FP11, with respect
to backup program functionality.

The problem with the programs is that they are assuming a directory has
*only* the directory bit set (and hence the attributes storage area has a
decimal value of 16).  In reality, all other bits are valid for a
directory.  These programs will also be unable to see hidden, system, or
read-only directories (this latter being more potentially problematic than
the others), unless they have special steps to allow for all combinations
*except* for those containing the archive bit (which is quite a silly waste
of typing and execution time).

Mike Ruskai
thannymeister@yahoo.com


... An agreeable person: A person who agrees with me.

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