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From: leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc
Subject: Re: Stdout redirection in config.sys
Keywords: config.sys redirection IO
Message-ID: <1991May17.002511.12329@qiclab.scn.rain.com>
Date: 17 May 91 00:25:11 GMT
References: <3487@wn1.sci.kun.nl>
Organization: SCN Research/Qic Laboratories of Tigard, Oregon.
Lines: 30

m2c11@dbf.kun.nl (John Graat) writes:

>is there anyone who knows if it is possible (and if so, how) to redirect the
>standard output within the config.sys? It is obvious to me that a '>' does
>not work. It is of course possible to change some instructions in some of the
>.sys files by nop's, but then I have to debug the .sys files, which I
>am not very interested in.

This is only documented in a few OEM manuals, and thus may be subject
to change without notice. You can't redirect *just* stdin. But you can
redirect STDIN and STDOUT.

shell=command.com NUL /e:1024 /p

NUL will be the console device until you change it. Obviously, this
requires a CTTY CON statement in your AUTOEXEC.BAT...

Note that you will still lose file handles if you install any TSRs. Just
as if you'd put "TSR >NUL" in AUTOEXEC.BAT. 

Any device is apparently usable. My notes say that anything on the shell
line that doesn't start with a switch character will be checked. If it is
a device, that becomes the console device. If it is a directory, that
is where COMSPEC will point, and where DOS will look for things like 
COUNTRY.SYS.

-- 
Leonard Erickson			leonard@qiclab.uucp
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