[Coco] Intro and need some help (Was: Re: (no subject))

[Robert Gault]

Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>
>> Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Bill
>>>> Try "attr file -d" This will make it a file then it can be deleted
>>>> normally.
>>>
>>> Tried that (even though the manual said it wouldn't work).  Directory
>>> has to be empty to do that.
>>>
>>> <snip>
>>
>> Try using dEd to gain direct access to the drive. Follow the directory
>> tree to
>> the file descriptor and change the first byte so that bit-7 is not set.
>
> Success!!  The HELP page is a bit misleading it says:
>    DED <devname>
> I thought thast meant it only worked with things like /i0 and I
> certainly didn't want to have to walk thru the whole disk looking
> for one byte.
> What I ended out doing was:
>     DED <the bad filename>
> and then just Zapping all the sectors so it was an empty directory.
> Then a simple DELDIR cleaned it up.
>
> Thanks again for the help.  I now feel comfortable that I can get
> out of whatever trouble I get into.  Next step will be to make a
> backup copy of my whole disk and then see about moving all the
> sources out here so I can play with them.
>
> bill
>
>

Bill,

For the future, you don't "walk through the whole disk". What you do is open the 
disk for direct access as follows, ded /h0@   . This gives raw access to the 
disk and starts you in LSN0. DD.DIR bytes 8-$A is the address of the root 
directory. You go to that directory and either look for your file or a 
sub-directory. Each entry points to the file/directory descriptor. Eventually 
you will get to the LSN you want to change.
Read the OS-9 manual so you understand disk structure.