Subj : Creating zero-length files
To   : Fred Kantor
From : Jonathan de Boyne Pollard
Date : Mon Nov 05 2001 03:59 pm

 BL>> rem> x:\altF2on.$$$

 FK> I found that on my computer, in an OS/2 session, that command did not
 FK> create a file; in an OS/2 DOS session, it did.

This is a well known syntactic quirk of IBM's 16-bit CMD.  Bat is using either 
my 32-bit CMD or JP Software's 4OS2, neither of which share this quirk, and 
both of which will create a zero-byte file when this command is run.

Another method for creating a zero-length file, that also works with my 32-bit 
CMD and JP Software's 4OS2 (but - alas! - again not with IBM's 16-bit CMD) is 
to omit the REM:

    >x:\AltF2On.$$$

There is a method that works with all three command interpreters, of course:

    copy NUL x:\AltF2On.$$$

 ¯ JdeBP ®

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