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From: chris@que.UUCP (Chris DeVoney)
Newsgroups: net.micro.pc
Subject: /e switch in MS-DOS V3
Message-ID: <405@que.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 5-Aug-85 11:25:42 EDT
Article-I.D.: que.405
Posted: Mon Aug  5 11:25:42 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 6-Aug-85 09:44:43 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: Que Corp, Indianapolis
Lines: 33
Keywords: MS-DOS, PC DOS, environment


I don't recall if this has made the rounds on the net, but MS-DOS V3.x has
an undocumented switch to expand the default size of the environment. The
switch is in config.sys. The syntax is:

SHELL = drive/pathname_of_command_processor drive/path_to_command_process
	/p /e:number_of_16_byte_paragraphs

The drive/pathname of the command processor and the drive/pathname to the
command processor must be specified. Also note that omitting the /p switch
will cause DOS to discard the command processor after startup and send
your machine for a trip west. Here is the line I use in my config.sys file

SHELL = c:\command.com c:\ /p/e:30

Obviously, command.com is located in the root directory of my hard disk. This
sets up a 480 byte space for the environment.

The number of paragraphs should be 10 < paragraphs < 63. If less than 11 is
specified, it is bumped to 11. If more than 62 is specified, DOS prints a
message and sets the environment space to the default of 128 bytes.

As this feature is undocumented, the caveat about any undocumented feature
applies. It's here in DOS V3.0 & V3.1 (and not in previous versions). It
may or may not be in future versions. Don't go crying to Microsoft if it
doesn't show up in the next release. :-(

-- 
Chris DeVoney				voice: 317/842-7162
Que Corporation				uucp:  ihnp4!inuxc!que!chris
Indianapolis, IN 

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