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22.21 The dark secrets of the /dev/ directory...

Q: All DJGPP programs cannot find files in the d:\dev directory, but work okay in other directories. What is going on here??

Q: I installed DJGPP in the e:/dev/djgpp, and it doesn't work!

A: This is an unfortunate side-effect of the special treatment given to the \dev directory on each drive. DJGPP transparently supports Unix-style devices such as /dev/null and /dev/tty, so that programs ported from Unix that refer to these devices will work. Unfortunately, due to a half-hearted way DOS and Windows support devices, the DJGPP library must treat the \dev directory specially. The net effect is that if you have a real directory by that name, you will get erratic behavior.

A work-around is either to rename the \dev directory to some other name, like \devel, or move it down the directory hierarchy, for example make it d:\software\dev. (The special treatment is only reserved to the \dev directories immediately under the root of every drive.)


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