Date   : Tue, 25 Sep 1984 13:13:30 PDT (Tue)
From   : Bridger Mitchell <bridger@Rand-Unix.ARPA>
Subject: Copying files containing 'holes'

Under CP/M 2.2,..., files written by random access may contain 'holes'--
logical data records that have never been written.  A number of
utilities don't seem to handle this situation well.

PIP copies only at most some of the written records, missing those in higher
directory extents.

SD reports 'virtual' file size -- the number of blocks (in Kbytes)
required if the file consisted entirely of written records.  It's easy
to get multi-megabyte sizes reported.

What 'should' a well-behaved utility do  -- i.e. what's the most useful
filesize report, and which records should be copied?  On first thought,
it seems that the size should be number of *allocated* blocks (in Kbytes)
and the copy should consist of exactly those blocks, except that in the final
block only the records <= last record of file should be copied.

Have other utilities already worked this out?

--bridger