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From: linco@eng.umd.edu (Sam Lin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: DOS's Hidden UN*X-like Behavior
Message-ID: <1989Dec23.024131.6399@eng.umd.edu>
Date: 23 Dec 89 02:41:31 GMT
Sender: news@eng.umd.edu (The News System)
Reply-To: linco@eng.umd.edu (Sam Lin)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Merriversity of Uniland, College Purgatory
Lines: 78

I have been experimenting with trying to make DOS 3.1 more UN*X-like, because
it is a real pain switching between UN*X and DOS between my Sun and my PC.
Recently, I got a hold of PICNIX3 from grape.ecs.clarkson.edu, and playing
with the SWITCHAR command has yielded some interesting discoveries.

When I use "SWITCHAR -" change the DOS switch character to '-', as one would
expect, the command

   dir /w

becomes

  dir -w.

However, I discovered that the path separator also gets transformed from the
brain-damaged '\' to the UN*X '/'!!

Thus, if there is a directory called c:\tmp, typing

   dir c:/tmp

works just as well as

  dir c:\tmp.

Even more interesting, '/' now must be used as the path separator in the
invokation of programs.  '\' no longer works!  Thus to invoke the
program \util\emacs.exe, I have to type:

  /util/emacs.

Typing

  \util\emacs

results in "EXEC failure."  Usually use the "prompt [$p]" command to make
my DOS prompt display the current directory.  Strangely, even though DOS
now recognizes '/' as the path separator, it still uses the '\' in
displaying the prompt.  For instance, if I am in the directory
\kermit on drive c, I get the prompt:

  [C:\KERMIT]

However, if I invoke a new copy of COMMAND.COM by typing

 /command

my prompt looks like this:

  [C:/KERMIT]

But if I cd into a sub-subdirectory by typing, say

  cd /wp/word

my prompt looks like:

  [C:/wp\word]


Anyway, here are my questions:

1. Why does DOS get confused, and mix the '/' and '\' path separators?
   Does anybody know of any patches to COMMAND.COM which can correct this?
2. Is there any way to make the DOS prompt display the '/' path separator
   without starting a new copy of COMMAND.COM?
3. Does COMMAND.COM have any undocumented command-line switches that
   control this UN*X-like behavior?

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Sam C. Lin                  |         ///
Internet: linco@eng.umd.edu |        ///
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