DOS ain't dead

Ctrl-Z was never actually an EOF character in MS-DOS (Miscellaneous)

posted by bencollver , 12.02.2026, 15:40

> ASCII code 26 IS the End-Of-File character _in ASCII_. If you're dealing
> with ASCII text (which you usually are at a DOS command prompt) it simply
> IS the EOF character.

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about ASCII character 26:

Caret notation:
^Z

Decimal:
26

Hexadecimal:
1A

Abbreviations:
SUB

Control Pictures:
␚

Name:
Substitute

Description:
Replaces a character that was found to be invalid or in error. Should be ignored.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C0_and_C1_control_codes#C0_controls

Complete thread:

• Ctrl-Z was never actually an EOF character in MS-DOS - bencollver, 11.02.2026, 16:18
  • Was: Ctrl-Z was never actually an EOF character in MS-DOS - tkchia, 11.02.2026, 16:43
    • Was: Ctrl-Z was never actually an EOF character in MS-DOS - bencollver, 11.02.2026, 19:26
  • Ctrl-Z was never actually an EOF character in MS-DOS - bretjohn, 12.02.2026, 02:45
    • Ctrl-Z was never actually an EOF character in MS-DOS - bencollver, 12.02.2026, 15:40
      • Ctrl-Z was never actually an EOF character in MS-DOS - bretjohn, 14.02.2026, 02:34