Date:	Tue, 23 Dec 1997 16:49:05 +0200 (IST)
From:	Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
To:	Ruiter de M <mdruiter AT cs DOT vu DOT nl>
cc:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject:	Re: Emacs 19.34 find-file bug?
In-Reply-To:	<67o872$r7t$1@star.cs.vu.nl>
Message-ID:	<Pine.SUN.3.91.971223163736.14788B-100000@is>
MIME-Version:	1.0

On 23 Dec 1997, Ruiter de M wrote:

> I am sure it is because `CON' is a reserved filename under DOS, but
> maybe EMACS could check that?

I'm not sure why should Emacs do that.  It doesn't do this on any other
platform AFAIK (try `C-x C-f /dev/tty0 RET' on Unix, for example).  Why 
should an editor second-guess the user about the files the user wants to 
read?

> DJGPP-specific or just DOS-specific?

DOS-specific, of course.  DOS pretends that the characters devices live 
in every directory.  CON is a simple case; try seemingly innocent names 
like "aux.c" or "com1.txt".

I could have prevented Emacs from opening names that are reserved by 
device drivers, but somebody might actually want that.  I will think 
about it.

> Is there something I can do about it without recompiling EMACS?

You can't do anything (except not trying to visit such files, of course).

> How is this handled in EMACS 20?

Nothing's changed in this context in Emacs 20.

> I'm very happy with EMACS though, thanx Eli!

You are welcome.  But my contribution to Emacs is relatively modest.

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