Commodore PC Ms-Dos 3.2 User's Manual page 112

40 MS-DOS User's Reference
■ If the second option includes a drive name, ms-dos copies the
original file to one on the specified drive. For example, the fol
lowing command makes a copy of memo, doc on the default , v
drive, names the copy letter.doc, and places the copy on the U
disk in drive B:
copy memo.doc b:letter.doc [)
The /v switch causes ms-dos to verify that the sectors written
on the target disk are recorded properly. If ms-dos cannot verify
a write, it displays an error message. Although there are rarely
recording errors when you run copy, the /v switch lets you verify
that critical data has been correctly recorded; it also makes the
copy command run more slowly because ms-dos must check each
entry recorded on the disk.
The /a or /b switch lets you copy either ascii or binary files,
respectively. Each switch applies to the filename preceding it, and
to all remaining filenames in the command, until copy encounters
another /a or /b switch. i )
Examples:
When used with a source filename: i)
/a Causes the file to be treated as an ascii (text) file. Data
in the file is copied up to but not including the first ,
end-of-file mark (in edlin this is control-z). The >—/
remainder of the file is not copied.
/b Causes the entire file to be copied, including any end- .
of-file marks. w
When used with a target filename: i )
/a Causes an end-of-file character to be added as the
last character of the file; for example:
copy memo.doc /a letter.doc
/b Does not add an end-of-file character; for example:
copy billing.asm /b billing2.asm
When you are appending files the default switch is always /a.
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