ERR weirdness

[Mark Newman]

Howdy,

I'm getting different values from the ERR function, depending on how it's used. For example:

FILECOPY file1, file2

sets ERR to 183 if 'file2' exists (listed in WINAPI.INC as "File exists"). If I try and test for it, it fails:

FILECOPY file1, file 2
IF ERR = 183 THEN
...Alert the user...
END IF

But the IF statement evaluates FALSE. Huh??? Even in the debugger the ERR value is 183.

However, if I assign ERR to a variable and try again, it turns out that ERR is also reporting 75! Like so:

LOCAL lErrorCode AS LONG, lApiError as LONG
FILECOPY file1, file 2
lErrorCode = ERR
lApiError = ERRAPI
IF lErrorCode = 75 THEN
...Alert the user...
END IF

Now the 'lErrorCode' variable is 75 and the 'lApiError' variable is 183, as they should be, so the IF statement evaluates TRUE and everything is correct. I don't understand; shouldn't the ERR and ERRAPI functions return the correct values without having to assign them to a variable?

Thanks,



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---
Mark Newman

[Colin Schmidt]

Hello,

The ERR system variable values are described under the help file in this location:

Reference Guide -> Error Codes -> Error Codes

This has a complete list of the PB run time errors, and “File Exists” is not one of them.

Also, the help file states for the FILECOPY statement that: “If the destination file already exists, it will be overwritten.” Thus the FILECOPY statement doesn’t return any errors if the file already exists.

What I would do is check for the file your self before the file copy using a generic function like this:

FUNCTION FileNotExists_Or_Overwrite (pFileName AS STRING) AS LONG
    IF DIR$(pFileName) <> "" THEN
        IF MSGBOX("Do you wish to overwrite the file " _
        + pFileName + "?", %MB_YESNO, "Copy File") _
        = %IDYES THEN
            FUNCTION = %True
        ELSE
            FUNCTION = %False
        END IF
    ELSE
        FUNCTION = %True
    END IF
END FUNCTION

Colin Schmidt

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Colin Schmidt & James Duffy, Praxis Enterprises, Canada

[Mark Newman]

Thanks for the reply; looking back at my post I may have focused too much on the FILECOPY aspect, which really isn't the problem. My problem is that after the FILECOPY completes (and correctly overwrites the destination file, which is what I want), the ERR value is 183. The docs say that isn't a valid number for ERR, however it is defined in WINAPI32.INC as:

%ERROR_ALREADY_EXISTS = 183&

Okay, fine, but that should be reflected in the ERRAPI function, not ERR.

But when I assign variables to ERR and ERRAPI:

LongVar1& = ERR
LongVar2& = ERRAPI

The correct values are in the variables: LongVar1& = 75 (path/file access error), LongVar2& = 183 (already exists). The big issue is why do I have to assign the ERR and ERRAPI system variables to local variables to get the correct values?

My guess right now is that my system (NT4/SP6, Pent III/400, PB6, VB6 SP3, Office 2K) is somehow at fault, but I wanted to see if anyone might have seen this or have an explanation.

Hope this is a better explanation!


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Mark Newman

[This message has been edited by Mark Newman (edited March 20, 2000).]

[Colin Schmidt]

Hello,

I hope this helps then. When I run this with the two files c:\a.a and c:\b.b already existing I don't get any error messages what so ever. I am running Win98SE.

#COMPILE EXE

FUNCTION PBMAIN
    LOCAL lerr AS LONG
    LOCAL lerrapi AS LONG
    'So that we know for sure what directory we are working in
    CHDIR "c:\"
    FILECOPY "a.a", "b.b"
    MSGBOX STR$(ERR)
    MSGBOX STR$(ERRAPI)
    
    lerr = ERR
    lerrapi = ERRAPI
    
    MSGBOX STR$(ERR)
    MSGBOX STR$(ERRAPI)
    MSGBOX STR$(lerr)
    MSGBOX STR$(lerrapi)
    
END FUNCTION

Colin Schmidt

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Colin Schmidt & James Duffy, Praxis Enterprises, Canada

[Eric Pearson]

Colin --

On NT4 I see errors 75 and 183. On 98 I see zero and zero.

-- Eric

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Perfect Sync: Perfect Sync Development Tools
Email: mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>



[This message has been edited by Eric Pearson (edited March 20, 2000).]

[Dave Navarro]

It's a bug in PowerBASIC when FileCopy is used in Windows NT.

Windows NT returns the error 183 and PowerBASIC is "supposed" to ignore it, but it doesn't.

--Dave


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PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[Mark Newman]

Thanks to all of you for your help. It is most appreciated!


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Mark Newman