Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!bionet!agate!ucbvax!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!osu-cis!att!ihlpb!TSfR!root
From: root@TSfR.UUCP (usenet)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: setenv on boot-up (how?)
Summary: Artifacts are so much fun....
Message-ID: <513@TSfR.UUCP>
Date: 29 Mar 89 03:30:30 GMT
References: <747@stag.UUCP> <1407@atari.UUCP>
Reply-To: orc@TSfR.UUCP (David L. Parsons)
Followup-To: comp.sys.atari.st
Organization: This Space for Rent - Lisle, IL
Lines: 29
Expires:

In article <1407@atari.UUCP> kbad@atari.UUCP (Ken Badertscher) writes:

>The fact that there is a null after
>the PATH= in the default TOS environment string is an anachronism left
>over from a bug in earlier TOS versions...

 Pity that it lasted so long, because it does create another way of doing
 environments.  Having it there forces getenv() to understand both NAME=<0>
 and NAME= environment structures. You might as well say it's the standard
 format, unless you're gonna take that misfeature out in 1.4, because getenv
 will have to know how to parse it anyway.

>	...a series of null-terminated strings of the format
>	"VAR=value"; the last string is followed by two zero
>	bytes, indicating the end of the environment.
>						- Pexec Cookbook

 Where can this developer get a copy of the Pexec cookbook? Or, for that
 matter, SALAD? It might solve some of the `invent-our-own' standards
 problems if the docs were more widely available.

>   Hopefully someday I'll get to release the auto/accessory environment
>setting utility that I've written; I think people will like being able
>to stick their resources all in one folder...

 You mean the desktop?  Oh, gross! :-)

   -david parsons
   -orc@pell.uucp