Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!b.gp.cs.cmu.edu!Ralf.Brown@B.GP.CS.CMU.EDU
From: Ralf.Brown@B.GP.CS.CMU.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: Child processes in Mess-Dos
Message-ID: <270dc2e4@ralf>
Date: 6 Oct 90 11:41:24 GMT
Sender: ralf@b.gp.cs.cmu.edu
Organization: Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science
Lines: 36
In-Reply-To: <1990Oct5.170852.29736@sea.com>

In article <1990Oct5.170852.29736@sea.com>, keck@sea.com (John Keck) wrote:
}In article <4469@bwdls58.UUCP> mlord@bwdls58.bnr.ca (Mark Lord) writes:
}>Ok.. I believe the difference here is whether or not the complete path is
}>given for the command.  If fully qualified, COMMAND.COM is not needed,
}>otherwise it probably is needed to do the PATH search and actual invocation.
}>
}>Ie.  "C:\BIN\MAPMEM.COM"  -- probably does not need COMMAND.COM
}>     "MAPMEM"             -- probably DOES need COMMAND.COM
}>
}
}Seems to me I read somewhere the EXE loader is part of COMMAND.COM.  So
}perhaps the distinction is whether the child is COM or EXE file.

OK, a bit of history here....

Under DOS 1.x (both MS and PC), the program loader (both .COM and .EXE) is
in the transient portion of COMMAND.COM.

Under PC DOS 2.x, the program loader is in a *second* transient portion of
COMMAND.COM.

Under MSDOS 2.x, and all versions of DOS since 3.0, the programm loader is
in the kernel (IBMBIO.COM or MSDOS.SYS).



Whether the program is a .COM or a .EXE makes no difference as to whether it
gets loaded by the kernel or COMMAND.COM, as there is only a single program
loader.


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