File system functions that an application uses to copy, rename or move file objects do not support the use of global characters. For example, a user can perform a global copy of all files with the extension .EXE by entering the following on the command line:

    copy *.exe

An application, however, cannot perform a similar global copy operation by making a single call to DosCopy or DosMove. These functions operate on a single, specific file object.

DosEditName, however, provides applications with the ability to transform an element of a full path name into another name, using an editing string that contains global characters. For example, for an application to copy all files with an extension of .SRC to files with an extension of .SAM, the application would:

• Search for all files with the .SRC extension by using DosFindFirst and DosFindNext,

• Transform the file names by using DosEditName with an editing string of "*.SAM",

• Copy the files with the new extension with DosCopy.