Path: utzoo!attcan!lsuc!maccs!cs4g6ag
From: cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Stephen M. Dunn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.programmer
Subject: Re: How do I make my path bigger?
Message-ID: <2606C48F.5285@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca>
Date: 21 Mar 90 00:02:22 GMT
References: <9393@shlump.nac.dec.com>
Reply-To: cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Stephen M. Dunn)
Organization: McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario
Lines: 33

In article <9393@shlump.nac.dec.com> rothstein@nutmeg.Enet.DEC.com (Lee Rothstein, 603-884-0039) writes:
$>For example
$>Set path=c:\;c:\bin
$>and
$>Set path=%path%;c:\etc
$>will expand as you would expect.
$>(Dos documentation treats the Path command and set path= as synonomous.)
$This has been proposed many times.  It does not work on any
$version of DOS, on any 80x86 hardware I have ever seen!!

   It won't expand beyond 128 characters; however, for shorter strings, it
does work.

$Because the expansion of the environment variable on the right side
$of the assign is done before it is submitted to command.com and
$therfore the 128 character truncation of the command line still
$occurs.

   Wrong.  The expansion of environment variables (which, BTW, only works
in batch files) _is_ done by COMMAND.COM.  The only part of command input
and processing which is not done by COMMAND.COM is the actual input and
editing of the line (this is done with a DOS call).

   I would imagine that since the input is limited in length to 128
(or maybe 127 ... I'm not sure) bytes, COMMAND.COM assumes that it will
never have to face a command line longer than that, even though using
environment variable expansion can easily generate one several times
that length.
-- 
Stephen M. Dunn                               cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca
          <std_disclaimer.h> = "\nI'm only an undergraduate!!!\n";
****************************************************************************
    "So sorry, I never meant to break your heart ... but you broke mine."