To: Eric Backus <ericb AT lsid DOT hp DOT com>
Cc: dj AT ctron DOT com, djgpp AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu, dank AT blacks
Subject: Re: stat("/") fails 
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 92 17:38:07 MDT
From: dank AT blacks DOT jpl DOT nasa DOT gov

Eric writes:
>/ isn't a file, and it doesn't exist in another directory's file
>listing, but it IS a directory.  I bet you're right about it not
>working with Turbo-C.  But it certainly works on UNIX, and if anyone
>knows a good workaround for this on DOS, I'd like to see it.
>
>Seems like we could have the stat() function examine the first
>argument.  If it's the root directory, fill in the stat buffer
>appropriately and then return it.  If it's not the root directory,
>jump to "turbo_assist" and let Turbo-C handle it.  Maybe I'll give
>this some work tonight.

Be aware that the same problem may exist for aliases for /, i.e. .. when the
working directory is /foo, etc.  
This problem has been with MS-DOS since hierarchical file systems were
introduced; an ls that I & Chris Worrell wrote in assembler in 1984 
suffered from it.
- Dan K.