Strange thread is strange. Maybe try looking for issues in actual DOS game executables instead of messing around with contrived boundary cases. Please try to keep the conversation civil, or the thread will be locked. Edit: FWIW, MS-DOS 5 and 6 tend to crash when executing a bodiless (header only) …

why would i give you a link? i gave you the info; provocation will not work, read the conversation again; Hahaha! Awww ... did some of the 6th graders give you a hard time again at school today? Why would you give me a link? Because that's what any intelligent person would do, which, as I correctly …

I'm listening ... what is it I don't get? If you can provide a link to the DOS API that specifically states that an EXE must contain some code after the header, that's all I need to know. already told you, read the conversation again seems rather correct, you did not signal end of the program to …

Dude ... if you don't even know that all Win32/Win64 executables contain a small DOS program at the very beginning of the file (called a DOS or MZ stub ) before the actual PE/COFF header, I think you should just keep your "advice" to yourself. its funny how you point out all the important points, …

Microsoft Visual C++ linker I think this will produce a different header (not DOS). "Visual" == 32-bit. Not sure if a valid header means a valid executable file? Something needs to executed, null ain't going to do it o.0 Who or what documentation says that "something needs to execute"? The fact …

I haven't tried it in real DOS, though, but I'm fairly sure it will handle an EXE file with no code correctly and simply exit with an appropriate exit-code generated by the loader. Well, try it first, because assumption... well, you know :) I think it's pretty far-fetched to assume that the DOS …

spiroyster wrote: Not sure if a valid header means a valid executable file? Something needs to executed, null ain't going to do it o.0 Who or what documentation says that "something needs to execute"? spiroyster wrote: Do you not need a stack frame setup too? Obviously not, since no code/interrupts …

Yup, when the EXE starts, it just jumps to the entrypoint address that is set to the MZ header. In this case you set it to 0000:0000. Does that work on a real DOS machine? I don't think so. So unless you verified it to work on real hardware/real DOS, then I don't see what DOSBox would be doing …

If I had inserted AX:4C00/INT21 termination code, it wouldn't be a zero-code file (which is kinda the whole point) ...

I don't know if this issue has been posted on the forum before, if it's even a bug, or if it's something you actually care about, but I thought I would at least make you aware of it. If you create a DOS EXE file containing only the MZ header (that is, a file without any executable code) like the …