Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!amdcad!ames!ncar!boulder!murillo
From: murillo@sigi.Colorado.EDU (Rodrigo Murillo)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: MS-DOS Path Name Length
Message-ID: <5670@sigi.Colorado.EDU>
Date: 27 Apr 88 15:53:30 GMT
References: <1796@uhccux.UUCP>
Reply-To: murillo@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Rodrigo Murillo)
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Lines: 29

In article <1796@uhccux.UUCP> helen@uhccux.UUCP (Helen Rapozo) writes:
>
>DOS command lines seem to be limited to about 153 characters in length.
>The PATH symbol is usually established on DOS command line.  Apparently
>then, the PATH symbol cannot be longer than 147 characters even if the
>environment space would allow for it.
>
>What are the easiest, fastest, least costly ways to work around this
>limitation?

The standard trick is to use DOS SUBST to substitute a long directory
path with a single drive letter,  and include the letter in the path
spec rather than the path name itself.  This is only available to
3.x users only.  For example:

     subst x: c:\very\long\and\gross\path\spec
     path=x:\;etc.

Remember to place a lastdrive=z line in your config.sys file to make
all the logical drives available.  You can also refer to subdirs below
the subst-ed drive as you would any drive:  path=x:\level7  refers
to a 7th level directory below the root. Have fun!


-- 
_______________________________________________________________________________
 Rodrigo Murillo, University of Colorado - Boulder  (303) 761-0410 
 murillo@boulder.colorado.edu | ..{ncar|nbires}!boulder!murillo
 ( Machines have less problems.  I'd like to be a machine. -- Andy Warhol )