DOS Questions

[Steam Ranger]

1. What's the difference between a file handle and a lock?
2. How do I create a FileInfoBlock usable by ExamineFH?

Thanks in advance.

[Steady]

A file handle is used to refer to a file (stream) that has been opened. Opening it implies a lock.

A lock can refer to things other than files (such as directories or volumes) and do not require opening.

See this link to the appropriate documentation. It is for OS4 but the concept is basically the same for OS3.

https://wiki.amigaos.net/wiki/AmigaD...s#File_Handles

Finally, creating a FileInfoBlock in an AmigaDOS compatible way is best done with the following code:

struct FileInfoBlock *fib = (struct FileInfoBlock *)AllocDosObjectTags(DOS_FIB, TAG_DONE);

Don't forget to

FreeDosObject(DOS_FIB, fib);

when you are done.

If you are writing code for a version of the OS that is too old, you can also use

AllocMem(sizeof(struct FileInfoBlock), 0);

because it will ensure that the allocation is longword aligned which is required for AmigaDOS structures such as FileInfoBlock.

What you definitely DON'T want to do is reserve space on the stack because that probably isn't longword aligned and will cause a crash.

[Steam Ranger]

If I write to a file once, do I need to seek to the start of it to write again?

[Thomas Richter]

I am sorry, but I do not quite understand which problem you attempt to solve. If you open a file for writing (MODE_NEWFILE), then if there is a file of the same name exists, it will be erased first, and you will write from offset 0 on. For any other mode, the file contents remains untouched, and you start overwriting from offset 0 on, leaving all bytes behind your current write position untouched. Thus, the pointer into the file is always at 0 after opening a file.

If a file is already open, the write pointer advances by the number of bytes you write. Thus, if you then seek backwards to offset 0, you start overwriting what you have written, without actually truncating the file.

[Photon]

AmigaDev is a great resource, but only for reference if you already have some experience with how the OS works. For how to, the System Programmer's Guide has examples (in Assembler) with texts that explain the concepts.

[Photon]

AmigaDev is a great resource, but only for reference if you already have some experience with how the OS works. For how to, the System Programmer's Guide has examples (in Assembler) with texts that explain the concepts.

Seeking is rarely done unless you are dealing with a multi-megabyte file. In older computers this sometimes had to be done also for smaller files (due to many reasons, slow media and little RAM being the most relevant). The typical flow is to get a file handle, then open, read or write the complete file, and close.

[Steam Ranger]

Ok. So to overwrite an open file multiple times, you need to seek. Thanks.

I'll also check out the links.

[Thomas Richter]

In that generality, no. If you want to overwrite a file, close the file handle of the file. Re-open the file with MODE_NEWFILE. No seeking necessary.

Note that if you keep the file open, and you seek back, you do not truncate it. The data that is in there remains in there, you are just overwriting what is there.