Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!srhqla!demott!kdq
From: kdq@demott.COM (Kevin D. Quitt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Crashing DOS
Message-ID: <46@demott.COM>
Date: 3 Mar 90 20:21:00 GMT
Reply-To: kdq@demott.COM (Kevin D. Quitt)
Organization: DeMott Electronics Co., Van Nuys CA
Lines: 45


    While checking on a technique suggested to the person who asked for
more than 128 characters in a path, I stumbled onto the following oddity:

Create a batch file (e.g. foo.bat) which contains:


set path=%path%;%path%
set

    I then executed the file to see if I could get more than 128
characters in the path by this simple expedient.  (I chose using PATH
twice just because why not?)

    Much to my amazement, this locked up DOS.  After trying this on
several machines I have noticed something that I would appreciate
comments about:

    Every 386 based machine crashed when trying to do this.

    Every other machine handled this without a problem (except repoting
	a syntax error on the line that was too long.



    Note: The path on my machine was more than 64 bytes already.  I had
to execute this batch file more than once on some of the other machines
to get either the crash or the error message. 

    If someone knows about this magic, I'd love to hear about it.  In
the mean time, I'd like other people to try it, and let me know what
happens on your system(s).  If I get good enough data (i.e.  whose BIOS,
what hardware, etc.), I'll publish results to the net (if anyone besides
me is interested). 

kdq
-- 



Kevin D. Quitt                          Manager, Software Development
DeMott Electronics Co.                  VOICE (818) 988-4975
14707 Keswick St.                       FAX   (818) 997-1190
Van Nuys, CA  91405-1266                MODEM (818) 997-4496 Telebit PEP last
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