RE: How to delete rogue nul files

["Buchbinder, Barry (NIH/NIAID)" <BBuchbinder at niaid dot nih dot gov>]

At Wednesday, July 21, 2004 1:51 PM, zzapper wrote:
> On Wed, 21 Jul 2004 13:28:30 -0400,  wrote:
> 
>> At 01:32 PM 7/21/2004, you wrote:
>>> On Wed, 21 Jul 2004 18:14:45 +0100,  wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> I recently seem to be leaving nul files around my file system
>>>>> which I cannot delete from Cyg or Win
>>>>> 
>>>>> Hilfe mich!
>>>> 
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> DEL \\.\c:\somedir\nul
>>>> 
>>>>    cheers,
>>>>      DaveK
>>> 
>>> no luck
>>> 
>>> C:\inetpub\wwwdev\www.planet.com>del nul
>>> The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.
>> 
>> 
>> Use the syntax Dave suggested and you'll have better luck.
> 
> Larry
> That zeroed the file, but it's still undeletable. But what is that
> wierd delete syntax?? 

Are you sure that they are really there?  When you see them but cannot
delete them in windows, are you using cmd.exe or command.com or have you
tried in Windows Explorer?  Do you see them in Windows Explorer?  If not,
you have fallen into the following pitfall.

Many versions of DOS and Windows report the existence of NUL, AUX, and
"other special file names" in every directory.  But they are not really
there.  This allows

C:\path> dir > nul

in any directory.  There is no C:\DEV in DOS/Windows to put nul/aux/etc.
into.

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