From: "Chris Underwood" <underwoodc AT logica DOT nospam DOT com>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Corruption of read-only files on program crash
Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1999 09:33:40 -0000
Organization: Logica UK Ltd.
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Message-ID: <82l8ll$4h2@romeo.logica.co.uk>
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To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
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Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com

I'm currently developing a DOS based mp3 player (eventually to be used as a
car stereo), and testing it as I go in a DOS box under Win95. As with most
developments, my program crashes sometimes (probably a buffer over-run on a
large array). When the program crashes, it occasionally destroyes the text
files it happens to have open, either replacing them with a series of
repeating bytes or blanking them completely. This is strange, since the
program only ever opens files using the following:

infile = fopen(filename, "r");

Note the open mode is "r", for read access only. How can a program crash
damage files that are never written to, or even open for writing?

Chris