Just had a case here where the “Log output” option had an effect on whether or not the program succeeded. Not sure if this is a known effect, but for this old DOS program, it bombed out with a “Unable to allocate console” message if “Log output” was enabled (default), but ran perfectly if it was switched off.
Maybe this should be documented, or work its way into a KB or something…
Steve
hmm, that’s interesting! which DOS program was it?
It’s called pfltd.exe, I don’t actually really know what it does, I think it’s some kind of compiler. For some kind of historical reason it doesn’t use stdout/stdio, but accesses the console some more esoteric way. I can send you the .exe if you want to do tests on it.
Steve
no, don’t send it, but thanks for the offer… the code to redirect stdout and stderr is complicated enough just trying to work with modern programs - some don’t behave the way they should!
Fwiw, found another one that does it: an old MS “link” program:
Microsoft ® Segmented-Executable Linker Version 5.10
Copyright © Microsoft Corp 1984-1990. All rights reserved.
Same behaviour.
Steve
shudder