Jean Salvati ([email protected]) discovered that a file named 'aux'
cannot be created:
> ...
> Is "aux" a reserved name? Or is this a known bug? I searched the FAQ but
> didn't find any information about that.
This is due to old DOS device names which are still reserved by
Microsoft even in modern versions of Windows. Every time a
file is used by a Stata command, Stata could compare the filename
against the list of reserved names, but this could slow down
do-files and ado-files if this comparison were done on every
-save-, -use-, -insheet-, -graph save-, etc. command. This is
the first time of which I am aware that a user has encountered
one of these names in the long history of Stata for Windows.
The full list of reserved names can be found here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/fileio/fs/naming_a_file.asp
<http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/fileio/fs/naming_a_file.asp>
The relevant section reads
"Do not use the following reserved device names for the name of a
file: CON, PRN, AUX, NUL, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, COM7,
COM8, COM9, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, LPT4, LPT5, LPT6, LPT7, LPT8, and
LPT9. Also avoid these names followed by an extension, for example,
NUL.tx7."
We will create a FAQ for www.stata.com which details this.
--Alan
([email protected])
*
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
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* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
