Hi, Blair Campbell wrote: > both are not correct, as the second one would need to be prefixed with SET to > work correctly.
The source of the confusion is that PATH is both a command and an environment variable. The PATH command sets the PATH environment variable, but nothing prevents you from setting the variable with the SET command (apart from the different command line length limit). IIRC when command.com parses the command line the first non-filename character is used to separate the command name from the command line (the space character is one of them), so the character = after PATH will break the command from the command line and will be put on the command line. The PATH command ignores an = at the start of the path list so you get the "PATH=something" syntax working. Other characters get the same result (for example "PATH,something") and other are put in front of the path list (like "PATH;something"). Supporting the generic VAR=VALUE assignment (meaning SET VAR=VALUE) could break old programs that use the = character for special meaning on the command line (such as old linkers and librarian utilities). Ciao --- http://www.mariottini.net/roberto/ SuperbCalc: http://www.mariottini.net/roberto/superbcalc/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
