'copy' command overwrites original \ VOGONS

'copy' command overwrites original

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First post, by Akuma

Posted on 2019-08-06, 09:44

Akuma Offline

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Can anyone confirm/reproduces this ?

I wanted to copy a file in dosbox, instead of pressing shift I hit the enter key resulting in a malformed command.
This should result in a syntax error but it does not: (it destroys the file in the process)

1C:\>copy UNP412B.EXE
2 UNP412B.EXE
3   1 File(s) copied.
4C::\>dir UNP412B.EXE
5Directory of C:\.
6UNP412B  EXE                          0 06-08-2019 11:30
7    1 Files(s)                                0 Bytes.
8    0 Dir(s)                 262,111,744 Bytes free.
9C:\>

Dosbox Version: 0.74-4.3 (compiled with heavy debug enabled)

'copy' command overwrites original

Reply 1 of 4, by Zup

Posted on 2019-08-06, 10:16

Zup Offline

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Not a malformed command.

In copy, the origin is required, but destination is not required. If an user omits destination, the files are copied to current directory.

(I'm not sure if it warned about existing files)

I have traveled across the universe and through the years to find Her.
Sometimes going all the way is just a start...

I'm selling some stuff!

Reply 2 of 4, by ripsaw8080

Posted on 2019-08-06, 10:25

ripsaw8080 Offline

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It's a known issue with the COPY command. Real DOS would stop you with a "File cannot be copied onto itself" error message. Can be worse if you do a COPY *.* command, which truncates all files in the current directory to zero bytes. Anyway, for the time being, just don't do it. 😉

Reply 3 of 4, by Akuma

Posted on 2019-08-06, 10:44

Akuma Offline

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@zup
And there I thought I found a bug, I should know better by now. Thanks.

@ripsaw:
I don't think my pinky would trip over the shift and hit the [8][SHIFT][.][8][SHIFT] key. But I moved my beverage to the other side 😉

Reply 4 of 4, by ripsaw8080

Posted on 2019-08-06, 11:31

ripsaw8080 Offline

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Well, just as you mistakenly left out a destination when copying a single file, it's possible to do the same when copying multiple files, so just be careful, and also don't use DOSBox to do file management on irreplaceable files. 😀

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