Q62202: WHEREIS.BAS Problem Under MS-DOS 4.00 and 4.01

Article: Q62202
Product(s): See article
Version(s): 7.00
Operating System(s): MS-DOS
Keyword(s): ENDUSER | B_QuickBas | mspl13_basic
Last Modified: 25-MAY-1990

The sample program WHEREIS.BAS searches for the location of a specific
file on disk. WHEREIS uses the BASIC SHELL statement to perform a DOS
DIR command and redirects the results to a file that WHEREIS.BAS later
scans for the file it is searching for.

Under MS-DOS versions 4.00 and 4.01, the WHEREIS.BAS program SHELL
command does not function correctly. The path specification string
passed to the DOS DIR command from WHEREIS ends with a blackslash
character, resulting in a DIR command something like the following:

   DIR C:\QB45\x\

This form of the DIR command returns a list of files in the QB45
directory when used under MS-DOS 3.x and earlier. Under MS-DOS 4.00
and 4.01, this command fails with the error message "Invalid
directory." Removing the trailing backslash allows the DIR command to
operate under MS-DOS 4.00 and 4.01.

To correct WHEREIS.BAS to operate under MS-DOS 4.00 and 4.01, you need
to add several lines to the ScanDir SUBprogram in WHEREIS.BAS.

In the original version of WHEREIS.BAS, line 12 of the ScanDir SUB
reads as follows:

   SHELL "DIR " + PathSpec$ + " > " + TempSpec$

To remove the trailing backslash from the string PathSpec$, replace
the line above with the following:

   StripPath$ = PathSpec$

   IF RIGHT$(StripPath$,1) = "\" AND LEN(StripPath$) > 1 THEN
     StripPath$ = LEFT$(StripPath$, LEN(StripPath$) - 1)
   END IF

   SHELL "DIR " + StripPath$ + " > " + TempSpec$

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