2018-02-23 18:58:03 +00:00
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---
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created_at: '2015-07-11T18:38:51.000Z'
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title: Zombie Operating Systems and ASP.NET MVC (2009)
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url: http://bitquabit.com/post/zombie-operating-systems-and-aspnet-mvc/
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author: kreeben
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points: 78
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story_text: ''
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comment_text:
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num_comments: 15
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story_id:
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story_title:
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story_url:
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parent_id:
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created_at_i: 1436639931
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_tags:
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- story
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- author_kreeben
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- story_9871014
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objectID: '9871014'
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2018-06-08 12:05:27 +00:00
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year: 2009
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2018-02-23 18:58:03 +00:00
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---
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2018-03-03 09:35:28 +00:00
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In 1973, an operating system called CP/M was born. CP/M had no
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directories, and filenames were limited to 8.3 format. To support input
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and output from user programs, the pseudofiles `COM1`, `COM2`, `COM3`,
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`COM4`, `LPT1`, `LPT2`, `CON`, `AUX`, `PRN`, and `NUL` were provided.
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2018-02-23 18:19:40 +00:00
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2018-03-03 09:35:28 +00:00
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In 1980, Seattle Computer Products decided to make a cheap, approximate
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clone of CP/M, called 86-DOS. 86-DOS therefore had no directories,
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supported 8.3 file names, and included the pseudofiles `COM1`, `COM2`,
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`COM3`, `COM4`, `LPT1`, `LPT2`, `CON`, `AUX`, `PRN`, and `NUL`. Further,
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because many programs always saved their files with a specific
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extension, [any file with these names and an extension was treated as
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identical to the filename without the
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extension](http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2003/10/22/55388.aspx).
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2018-02-23 18:19:40 +00:00
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2018-03-03 09:35:28 +00:00
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In 1981, Microsoft Corporation purchased the rights to use 86-DOS,
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renamed it MS-DOS, and shipped it to customers.
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2018-02-23 18:19:40 +00:00
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2018-03-03 09:35:28 +00:00
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In 1983, Microsoft Corporation released MS-DOS 2.0. MS-DOS 2.0 supported
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hierarchical directories. To maintain backwards compatibility with
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applications designed for MS-DOS 1.0, which had no concept of
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directories, Microsoft placed the pseudofiles `COM1`, `COM2`, `COM3`,
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`COM4`, `LPT1`, `LPT2`, `CON`, `AUX`, `PRN`, and `NUL`, with all
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possible extensions, in all directories.
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In 1988, Microsoft began the development of a modern, preemptively
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multitasked, memory-protected, multiuser system loosely based on VMS,
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called Windows NT. Windows NT supported a completely new file system
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design, called NTFS, modeled on OS/2’s HPFS, which allowed for arbitrary
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file names in Unicode UCS-2. To maintain backwards compatibility with
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DOS applications running under the new operating system, some of which
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were written before DOS had hierarchical directories, Windows NT placed
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the pseudofiles `COM1-9`, `LPT1-9`, `CON`, `AUX`, `PRN`, and `NUL`, with
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all possible extensions, in all directories. Windows NT shipped to
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customers in 1993.
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In 1998, Microsoft released the Option Pack to the two-year-old Windows
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NT 4.0, containing a new technology called Active Server Pages, or ASP.
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ASP allowed the creation of dynamic websites via COM scripting. Because
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ASP was file-based, URLs by definition could not include `/com1-9.asp`,
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`/lpt1-9.asp`, `/con.asp`, `/aux.asp`, `/prn.asp`, or `/nul.asp`.
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In 2002, Microsoft announced the imminent release of the .NET framework.
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One component of .NET was ASP.NET, a vast improvement over ASP. Although
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ASP.NET provided vastly superior ways to write web pages than those
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provided by ASP, the mechanism was still completely based on per-file
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web pages—and although this mechanism could be overridden by various
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means, for backwards compatibility reasons, ASP.NET always checked for
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the existence of a file first before attempting to execute a custom
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handler. Thus, web pages could not contain `/com[1-9](\..*)?`,
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`/lpt[1-9](\..*)?`, `/con(\..*)?`, `/aux(\..*)?`, `/prn(\..*)?`, or
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`/nul(\..*)?`.
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In 2009, Microsoft released ASP.NET MVC, a thoroughly modern, orthogonal
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web framework supporting the most up-to-date understanding of how to
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architect well-factored, scalable web applications. ASP.NET MVC broke
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free of the per-file emphasis of previous frameworks, instead
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emphasizing regex-based URL dispatching, similar to popular scripting
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frameworks such as Django, Rails, and Catalyst. These URLs did not map
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to files; they instead mapped to objects that were designed to handle
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the request. Thus, URLs could be built entirely on what made logical
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sense, rather than on the confines of what the file system dictated.
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But ASP.NET MVC was based on ASP.NET. Which checks for the existence of
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a file before running any scripts. Which means it will check directories
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that have `COM1-9`, `LPT1-9`, `CON`, `AUX`, `PRN`, and `NUL` in them,
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with any extension.
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And that is why, in 2009, when developing in Microsoft .NET 3.5 for
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ASP.NET MVC 1.0 on a Windows 7 system, [you cannot include
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`/com\d(\..*)?`, `/lpt\d(\..*)?`, `/con(\..*)?`, `/aux(\..*)?`,
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`/prn(\..*)?`, or `/nul(\..*)?` in any of your
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routes](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/987105/asp-net-mvc-routing-vs-reserved-filenames-in-windows).
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