Commodore 1541-II - Page 40

FORMAT FOR THE SCRATCH COMMAND:
PRINT# 15,' 'SCRATCHO:pattern''
or abbreviate it as:
PRINT#15,"S0:pattern"
"pattern" can be any file name or combination of characters and wild card characters. As
usual, it is assumed that the command channel has already been opened as file 15.
Although not absolutely necessary, it is best to include the drive number in Scratch
commands.
If you check the error channel after a Scratch command, as described in the prior
section, the value for ET (error track) will tell you how many files were scratched. For
example, if your diskette contains program files named "TEST", "TRAIN",
"TRUCK", and "TAIL", you may scratch all four, along with any other files beginning
with the letter "T", by using the command:
PRINT#15,"S0:T*"
Then, to prove they are gone, you can type:
GOSUB 59990
to call the error checking subroutine given earlier in this chapter, and if the four listed
were the only files beginning with "T", you will see:
01,FILES SCRATCHED,04,00
READY. ■
The "04" tells you 4 files were scratched.
ERASING OLD PROGRAMS: BASIC 3.5
The Scratch command allows you to erase unwanted programs and files from your
diskettes, and free up the space they occupied for use by other files and programs. It can
be used to erase either a single file, or several files at once via pattern-matching (described
at the end of Chapter 3).
FORMAT TOR THE SCRATCH COMMAND:
SCRATCH "pattern",Ddrive #,Uunit #
32