Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!fxgrp!ljz
From: ljz@fxgrp.UUCP (Lloyd Zusman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: '=' on command line to .BAT files
Keywords: equal sign .BAT
Message-ID: <300@fxgrp.UUCP>
Date: 15 May 88 06:40:48 GMT
Reply-To: ljz@fx.com (Lloyd Zusman)
Organization: Master Byte Software, Los Gatos, California
Lines: 35

Consider the following fragment of a .BAT file intended to run under
DOS3.3.  Assume the file is called MAKEIT.BAT ...

    @echo off
    ...
    ...
    c:\bin\make %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9
    ...
    ...

In other words, MAKEIT.BAT does arbitrary setup stuff, invokes a 'make'
program with the command-line arguments passed to MAKEIT.BAT, and then
does some arbitrary cleanup stuff.

The problem arises because sometimes I want to invoke my .BAT file
like this:

    MAKEIT SOMETHING=WHATEVER
                    ^
                    ^
           note the equal sign

The equal sign screws things up, as DOS seems to treat it as an argument
separator.

I'm well versed in programming and am very capable of writing an
equivalent program to MAKEIT in some language or another, thereby
avoiding this problem.  However, is there any hope of getting around
this problem with equal signs while still using a .BAT file?


--
    Lloyd Zusman
    Master Byte Software
    Los Gatos, California		Internet: ljz@fx.com
    "We take things well in hand."	UUCP:     ...!ames!fxgrp!ljz