filenames and the kernel

[John F. Haugh II]

In article <00000FN at cdis-1.UUCP> tanner at cdis-1.UUCP (Dr. T. Andrews) writes:
>From: jfh at rpp386.cactus.org (John F. Haugh II)
>) Early MS-DOS and CP/M didn't include directories.
>Both CP/M and early MS-DOS not only included directories, but they
>also included several syscalls to deal with them (on top of which you
>might build opendir() and friends).  Note functions 0x11 and 0x12 to
>scan the directory.
>
>One directory per disk.  To change current directory, use syscall 0x0E.
>To get current directory, use 0x19.

Sorry, I was referring to their lack of directory trees ala UNIX
and friends.  Virtually all operating systems which support some form
of mass storage device support at least a single level directory.
However, many do not support subdirectories.  Most ancient OSs for
PCs fall into that catagory.

Subdirectories did not exist in the initial release of MS-DOS.  It
was not until 2.1 [ or something like that ] that more than one
directory could exist per volume.
-- 
John F. Haugh II                             UUCP: ...!cs.utexas.edu!rpp386!jfh
Ma Bell: (512) 832-8832                           Domain: jfh at rpp386.cactus.org