Windows XP cmd session
Why does cd P* fail with the message "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process." ? cd Pr* works as expected.
C:\>dir
Volume in drive C has no label.
Volume Serial Number is C8D7-D7A3
Directory of C:\
01/09/2012 10:52 AM 483 aclient.cfg
08/18/2011 03:04 PM 0 AUTOEXEC.BAT
08/18/2011 03:04 PM 0 CONFIG.SYS
01/13/2012 01:09 PM <DIR> cygwin
08/18/2011 03:16 PM <DIR> dell
01/11/2012 10:53 AM <DIR> Documents and Settings
08/18/2011 03:19 PM <DIR> Intel
08/19/2011 10:18 AM <DIR> oracle
03/26/2012 02:09 PM <DIR> Program Files
03/29/2012 02:53 PM <DIR> Quarantine
03/29/2012 03:43 PM <DIR> WINDOWS
3 File(s) 483 bytes
8 Dir(s) 233,362,567,168 bytes free
C:\>cd P*
The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.
C:\>cd Pr*
C:\Program Files>
A dir /a will reveal a pagefile.sys which would account for a conflict between what you think you're doing, and what the shell is attempting to do. The shell will evaluate the first thing named, starting with a p and try to change directory into it (even if it isn't a directory).