Subj : File deleting & attributes
To   : Nightfox
From : Digital Man
Date : Wed Sep 09 2009 09:30 am

  Re: File deleting & attributes
  By: Nightfox to All on Thu Sep 03 2009 08:50 pm

 > I'm working on a JavaScript script for Synchronet that involves extracting
 > an archive into a temporary directory, and then it will recursively delete
 > the temporary directory when it's done.
 > My BBS is running in Windows 2000, and it looks like if one of the
 > extracted files has the read-only attribute set, file_remove() doesn't
 > remove it.  I then started to look into how file attributes are represented
 > in Synchronet's JavaScript model and if it's possible to change them.  I
 > noticed that the File class has a property called 'attributes', and there's
 > also a function called file_attrib(), which will give you a file's
 > attributes.  The attributes are represented by a number, but the docs don't
 > seem to say what that number means or if there are any variables anywhere
 > that represent different file attributes.  I checked sbbsdefs.js and didn't
 > see any mention of file attribute definitions in there.
 >
 > So, my questions are:
 > 1. Is it possible to delete a file regardless of its attributes?  And if
 > so, how?

No, you would have to change the attributes first. I would suggest modifying
your file extraction command line to strip any read-only attributes.

 > 2. For File's attribute property and file_attrib()'s return value, what are
 > the attribute values that it can be checked against (or more precisely,
 > where can I find the list of attributes)?

The attribute bit values are platform specific (e.g. different from Windows and
Linux). For example, on Windows:

#define _A_NORMAL       0x00    /* Normal file - No read/write restrictions */
#define _A_RDONLY       0x01    /* Read only file */
#define _A_HIDDEN       0x02    /* Hidden file */
#define _A_SYSTEM       0x04    /* System file */
#define _A_SUBDIR       0x10    /* Subdirectory */
#define _A_ARCH         0x20    /* Archive file */

 > 3. If you wanted to change a file's attributes, can that be done by opening
 > it with the File class, changing its attributes property, and saving the
 > file?

Yes, but no "saving" is necessary, just close the file.

                                            digital man

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