Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!uwvax!dogie!uwmcsd1!leah!emb978
From: emb978@leah.Albany.Edu ( Eric M. Boehm)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Environment space size?
Message-ID: <558@leah.Albany.Edu>
Date: 11 Jan 88 19:37:36 GMT
References: <1900@ukecc.engr.uky.edu> <554@leah.Albany.Edu> <39592@ti-csl.CSNET>
Distribution: na
Organization: The University at Albany, Computer Services Center
Lines: 24
Keywords: environment variables size
Summary: Fixing a long PATH variable


I had this problem (which is why I started delving into the environment).
Best solution is to SUBST drives for paths, and put the drives in the path
variable. For example,

SUBST G: C:\WORDSTAR\MARY\DATA
SUBST H: C:\BIN\UTILITIES\NORTON
PATH=H:;G:

You will probably need to add "LASTDRIVE=Z" to config.sys

As you can see, this will save a lot of space.

For those who wanted references, according to Van Wolverton in Supercharging
MS-DOS, the limit to increase 3.1 environment is /e:62 (992 bytes) and 3.2
is 32767. My own tests with 3.2, 3.1 and 2.21 gives a limit of 123
characters (bytes) in an environment variable. This is because the input
line buffer is 127 bytes less 4 characters for "set " (set and space). You
can try batch files to increase this but at least Zenith MS-DOS will barf if
you go beyond 123 (variable length includes variable name and equal sign).
Also according to Van Wolverton, environment will expand if you add from the
command line but if you try a batch file it will say "Out of Environment". I
used to know the reason for this but can't find it now. Something about
batch files using part of memory that environment also tries to use.