RIDDLER PART 2

The ATTRIB listing will show a list of entries, each of which will probably look something like:

  A    SHR  Filename FullPathFilename

The initial four characters, A,S,H,R are the "file attributes." Only those appropriate to a given file will be shown.

The "A" is officially called the "Archive Bit" and tells you whether the file has been changed since the last time it was "archived." The main old-timey use was probably with the DOS XCOPY command, where the /m switch would let you copy only files that had been changed, and would "turn off the A bit" so that you wouldn't copy them again (unless they were changed again) in your next backup.

The "S" is the "System Bit" and is applied specifically so that you don't have to look at all of the program system files - and generally so you don't copy or move them unintentionally. BY DESIGN dating back to DOS version 1.4, at least, they do not display in normal DIR listings.

The "H" is the "Hidden Bit," which traditionally had no more nefarious a purpose than to permit you to "remove" files from display in a DIR listing. DOS is only able to display about 25 lines on a screen. If you were working with a directory that had a few dozen files, it was very handy to be able to "Attrib +H" a few of them to get the out of the way. "ATTRIB -H *.*" brought them all back when you were done with what you were working on.

The "R" is the "ReadOnly Bit," which merely means that you are "inhibited" from changing the file, especially by accident. Note that "inhibited" does NOT mean "prevented."

I suppose that "Riddler" would be appalled to know that there are also other attribute bits that don't display in the ATTRIB listing. As an example, the "dirty bit" tells a program whether a file has been changed since it was last saved, so that the program can ask "Do you want to save" when you try to close without saving. And then there's the "busy bit" that lets the machine know that someone has a file open - so that you don't have two people making conflicting changes at the same time. DEEP, DARK CONSPIRACY.

Cumulative disk space used is exceedingly difficult to calculate exactly, due to the need to look at exactly how many "clusters" each file needs (for each of about 15,000 files on my machine?). A rough calculation brings me easily within 10M of matching the total writable space on my drive with the space used by known and easily identifiable files. Since my last backup of about 3 years worth of email files was some 1.4G-Bytes, I really wonder where Windows is storing "all of my email in secret files."

The Registry Key where "Mr Riddler" claims that Windows stores every web site you have ever visited contains exactly ONE entry on my machine. Man, I gotta get busy and go somewhere!

John