Contributor: JOHN DRABIK PROGRAM SFTFilesCount (Input, Output); { AUTHOR : John Drabik, Draper, Utah Feel free to use this code as you wish. I'd appreciate it if you'd mention me, and SWAG, however. But if you don't, it's your karma... There have been several snippets regarding how to increase the number of available file handles in a program. However, you may get into trouble if you extend the handles beyond the value of the FILES=xxx in CONFIG.SYS. This snippet will tell you the value of FILES=. If the value is lower than what your program needs (before creating extended handle space), you should tell the user to edit their CONFIG.SYS, and then reboot. The program walks from one "mini" SFT to the next. This is because there can be multiple SFTs under DOS, so you need to get the total for all SFTs. The value of FILES= should be at least 5 more than your program requires (to allow for stdin, stdout, NULL:, etc.). If your program will use the stdin, stdout, or lst (printer) defaults, you must copy the existing SFT into your (newly allocated) SFT - this will be the subject of another snippet. Otherwise, you won't be able to access defaults. This snippet does not include the SFT fields which change from version to version of DOS (this includes the filename and other useful pieces of data). As a result, if you need to walk the true SFT to get such data, you'll need a more complex SFT record (a variant), and a test for the DOS version. This code was derived in part from works by Andy Schulman and Neil Rubenking. Get one of their books if you need to access extended SFT info. Finally, this snippet works under vanilla DOS, OS/2, QEMM (with extra files), and should work with the various flavors of Windoze (though I don't use 'doze anymore, and have not tested this "cleaned-up" version of the code there.) } TYPE MiniSFTPtr = ^MiniSFT; MiniSFT = RECORD { System File Table "mini" pointer, which } Next : MiniSFTPtr; { accesses only the pointer to the next SFT } Num : WORD; { entry, and the available handle count. } END; FUNCTION FirstSFT : MiniSFTPtr; ASSEMBLER; ASM MOV AH, 52H INT 21H MOV AX, ES:[BX+4] MOV DX, ES:[BX+6] END; VAR SFT : MiniSFTPtr; FTot : WORD; BEGIN FTot := 0; SFT := FirstSFT; REPEAT FTot := FTot + SFT^.Num; SFT := SFT^.Next; UNTIL OFS(SFT^) = $FFFF; WRITELN ('FILES=', FTot, ' in CONFIG.SYS'); READLN; END.