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--------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0 | P A T H M A N V 1 . 0 5 o-<+>-o ---------------------------- | Path Management Utility for DOS | Copyright(c)1992 by Anchor Software <^ | ^> All Rights Reserved Worldwide \_|_/ ^ Anchor Software - P.O. Box 124 - Cheswick, PA 15024 - (412)274-6404 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Professional Shareware - $15 Registration fee - Contact us for Site License To register use the form provided on page 12 of this document. Introduction: PATHMAN is a program designed to provide a logical extension to DOS's PATH command and environment variable by simplifying the editing and management of the DOS search path. A basic approach to adding and removing directories as well as the extension of the search path beyond the 127 byte limit allows PATHMAN to open the DOS PATH for use in 90's network and Windows computing. These capabilities are great for network administrators who create menuing systems and batch files for users, developers and analysts who need to modify their path to test and/or debug new software, and for any serious PC user. And best of all it works just like the PATH command you already use. Typically, the limit of your PATH environment variable is confined to the length of a line provided by the command processor(COMMAND.COM). Excerpt from the "Microsoft MS-DOS Operating System version 5.0 User's Guide and Reference" "...Length limit for the path command The maximum length of the path command is 127 characters. To fit more directories in the search path, you can shorten directory names, use the subst command to redirect directories to logical drives (which shortens the entries on the path command line), or use the append/x:on command." At Anchor we have discovered that the DOS search path can actually be as large as the active DOS environment. That is, if you so desire you could allocate a 32K environment and grow your search path to that size. Of course this is severely impractical. Our point is that the search path can actually be longer than the 127 characters mentioned above. The problem is that there has really be no means to put a path into the environment longer than 127 bytes since DOS's PATH command is limited to the length of the command line provided by COMMAND.COM. Granted, PATHMAN is also limited by the 127 byte command line, however, PATHMAN is able to add to an existing path not just replace it. PATHMAN can also read paths from a file, in which case the path can exceed the 127 byte limit. PATHMAN v1.05 by Anchor Software Page 1 We realize deliberately extending the PATH beyond the documented limit, might cause some uneasiness over compatibility issues, however we have not experienced any problems to the date of this publication. In any event, PATHMAN provides you with the tools you need to easily update, edit, save, and restore one or multiple search paths so the length of your path is left up to you. In other words, you don't have to exceed the DOS limit unless you want to. PATHMAN lets you decide. PATHMAN is particularly handy, now that more and more PC's are networked to potentially multiple servers with large disk volumes that have intricate directory structures used for program and data storage. PATHMANs + and - features let you simply add and remove directories from your path. The save and restore features let you modify and restore the path on the fly without having to check for available environment space. This is done by saving the path to a file instead of to another temporary environment variable. You can even save to and from the file of your choice and you can edit the file in any ASCII editor to boot. In addition, with PATHMANs /c and /d options you eliminate invalid and redundant drives and directories from your path with a single command. So if you are a serious PC user using DOS and or Windows and on a network we're sure PATHMAN can help you. Look for more innovative utilities for DOS, Windows, and networks from Anchor Software. PATHMAN v1.05 by Anchor Software Page 2 Installation: To install PATHMAN simply copy PATHMAN.EXE to your \DOS or your "utilities" subdirectory. Where "utilities" is any directory currently in your path where you keep your DOS utilities. Command Reference: Syntax: PATHMAN [[drive:]path[;...]] PATHMAN - To show the current path. This will display the search path similar to the way DOS does it with a few additions. You are notified of any invalid or redundant directories. Also the current size of the path in bytes is displayed as well as the maximum size of path that the current DOS environment support. (To increase your environment size modify the /e parameter on the shell command in you config.sys file. "shell=C:\dos\command.com /e:512 /p". For more information on the shell command see your DOS manual.) PATHMAN "path" - To set normal DOS path. Where "path" is of the form [[drive:]path[;...]] PATHMAN +"path" - To append to the current path. Where "path" is of the form [[drive:]path[;...]]. Any invalid directories specified in "path" will not be added to your search path. All valid directories are added to the end of the current DOS search path. PATHMAN -"path" - To remove part of the current path. Where "path" is of the form [[drive:]path[;...]]. The search path is parsed for a match to each directory you specify. For example, say your path is PATH=C:\;C:\util;C:\dos and you wanted to remove the reference to C:\ you would type PATHMAN -C:\. If you wanted to remove C:\ and C:\dos you could type PATHMAN -C:\;C:\DOS. PATHMAN ^"path" - To insert "path" at the beginning of the current path. Only those directories in "path" that are valid will be inserted. Invalid directories are skipped. PATHMAN @filename - To read the path from a file either created by PATHMAN or an ASCII editor. The file should contain one directory name per line. The size of the file is limited only by the maximum size of path that your active DOS environment can handle. (See Appendix A for a sample PATHMAN file.) PATHMAN v1.05 by Anchor Software Page 3 PATHMAN +@filename - To append the directories listed in the file to the path. (See Appendix A for a sample PATHMAN file.) PATHMAN -@filename - To remove the directories listed in the file from the search path. (See Appendix A for a sample PATHMAN file.) PATHMAN ^@filename - To insert the directories listed in the file at the beginning of the search path. (See Appendix A for a sample PATHMAN file.) PATHMAN /s - To save the current path. This option works in conjunction with the /r option to provide quick save and restore functions to the path. When you execute this option PATHMAN saves the current search path to an ASCII file. The file is saved to the root directory of your C: drive and is called PATHMAN.SVD by default. To have PATHMAN save the file to another drive or subdirectory use the DOS SET command to set the TEMP environment variable to the drive and directory you wish. For example: set TEMP=D:\temp. PATHMAN /s=filename - To save the current path to a file. This option lets you specify the file to which you want the path saved. (Example: PATHMAN/s=C:\mypath.txt ). The file saved can be modified by any ASCII editor. The format of the file is one directory per line. PATHMAN /r - To restore from a saved path. This option works in conjunction with the /s option to provide quick save and restore functions to the path. When you execute this option PATHMAN replaces the current path with the path previously saved by the PATHMAN/s command. As in the /s command PATHMAN uses the file PATHMAN.SVD in the root directory on your C: drive as the default, unless you have the TEMP environment variable set to some other location. PATHMAN /c - To clear invalid directories from the path. PATHMAN verifies the integrity of all directories in your search path. If an invalid directory is detected you are notified however no action is taken. The /c option removes all references to any invalid directories from your path. This is handy in a network environment when a server drops your connection and you still have references to network drives in your path. PATHMAN /d - To clear redundant directories from the path. PATHMAN verifies whether redundant directory PATHMAN v1.05 by Anchor Software Page 4 entries exist in your search path. If a redundant directory is detected you are notified however no action is taken. The /d option removes all references to any redundant directories from your path. Having redundant directories in your path will slow down your system since the same directory would be searched more than once for a particular command. PATHMAN /x - To set the path to NULL. That is, remove all entries from the PATH environment variable such that the DOS PATH command gives you the "No Path" message. Multiple switches can be used on the same command line. For example you could enter : PATHMAN +C:\windows;C:\util -C:\dbase /s=C:\test.pth This would add C:\windows and C:\util, remove C:\dbase, and then save the path to the file called test.pth. Please note that the switches are processed in the order that they appear on the command line and each switch must be separated by a space. CAVEAT: You CANNOT set the path with PATHMAN with the following syntax: PATHMAN=C:\;C:\dos;C:\util PATHMAN does not recognize the "=" (equal sign) and will return the error message: "Invalid stack override directive". PATHMAN v1.05 by Anchor Software Page 5 RETURN CODES: Values returned in ERRORLEVEL. 0 - Successful completion of all operations requested. 1 - Not enough memory for PATHMAN dynamic memory allocation. This error occurs when PATHMAN does not have sufficient free DOS memory to allocate the buffers necessary to perform the requested operation. 2 - Internal Error. This is normally caused by a memory corruption by some other program. 3 - Not enough room in environment. This error is returned if a request is made to add more directories to the path than the current command environment can handle. To remedy this situation the environment size must be increased by modifying the /E: parameter on the SHELL command in your config.sys file. 4 - Cannot read file. An invalid file was specified. PATHMAN does verification of any file specified to be read as a saved path file. PATHMAN also verifies each directory before it is placed into your path so that incorrect information is not stored in the path. 5 - Cannot write to a file. PATHMAN encountered problems creating a file while saving the path. This normally results from an invalid file specification or insufficient disk space. 6 - Wrong DOS Version. This is returned if the DOS version encountered is not directly supported by PATHMAN. Version checking can be disabled.(See the compatibility section later in this document.) PATHMAN v1.05 by Anchor Software Page 6 SUGGESTED CONVENTION: When you save your path to a file we suggest using a .PTH extension as a convention. A future release will have features designed around this convention. DIRECTORY SORT ORDER: The order in which your directories are searched has an effect on the speed of your system. There are two directory ordering methods to consider. a. Order by the speed of the access times of your devices. That is order your path such that your fastest disk drives are first. For example, place any references to your hard disk before any reference to floppy devices. On a network, you would probably want to place references to your local drives (hard disks, etc..)first, then references to the network drives. b. Order by the most frequently accessed directories. For example, if you get DOS from the network, use a menuing system that calls a lot of batch files from one directory, or use one application far more than any other. Put those directories first then use the sort by speed method for the remaining directories in the path. In addition, performance can be affected by the length of the path since all of the directories in the path are searched until a program is found. Depending on your requirements you might prefer to save a number of short paths and switch between them or use batch files to dynamically add(+ or ^) and remove(-) directories only when needed. USE WITH MICROSOFT WINDOWS: If you are using Windows to access the DOS prompt be aware that the environment that you access in the DOS window is a subprocess of the original command environment. Thus that process has inherited a copy of the environment from the Windows process. When this is done in DOS only enough memory is allocated in the subprocess to accommodate the size of the current environment, not necessarily the size specified on your shell command in config.sys. So you may experience problems trying to grow your search path in the DOS window. The same holds true for any program that gives you access to the DOS prompt without exiting, that is a second version of command.com is loaded and this version inherits a copy of the environment including the path variable and only enough memory is allocated for what is currently in use. To allow more environment space in Windows edit the properties of your DOS prompt icon and add /E:xxxx to the command line where xxxx is the number of bytes you want allocated to your DOS session's environment. Furthermore, PATHMAN is a DOS program. So if you try to run PATHMAN from Windows, Windows will first open a DOS session for PATHMAN to run in. That is, as described above, Windows creates a subprocess of the Windows process and passes a copy of the environment to that subprocess. So any changes to the PATH variable will only take effect in that subprocess. In other words, running PATHMAN from Windows will appear to have no effect. You must exit Windows and run PATHMAN from PATHMAN v1.05 by Anchor Software Page 7 the DOS prompt and then restart Windows to effect the path that Windows uses to search for programs. (Development of a Windows version of PATHMAN is in the R&D phase.) DOS . (CURRENT) and .. (PARENT) DIRECTORY SPECIFICATIONS Depending on your version of DOS, PATHMAN's directory verification routines may not permit you to use certain implementations of the . and .. directory specification. However, the standard Novell search drive specification is always supported. (D:. where D is any valid drive letter) AUTOEXEC.BAT We suggest that you keep a modest PATH statement in you autoexec.bat file since so many programs installation procedures automatically update your PATH statement in autoexec. Immediately following this PATH statement place your call to the PATHMAN program. For Example: PATH C:\DOS;C:\UTIL PATHMAN +@autoexec.pth BATCH FILES AND THE %PATH% BATCH VARIABLE: As a general rule when using a longer path the %PATH% batch file variable should be avoided since unwanted truncation of the path can occur. For example a command like PATH C:\stuff;%PATH% in a batch file would truncate your path at the 127 byte mark. %PATH% would be expanded when the batch file is run potentially supplying a line to the command processor longer than 127 bytes. Anything beyond 127 bytes per command in a batch file is ignored so your path could get truncated. You can easily replace this command with PATHMAN ^C:\stuff to get the same result and maintain your long path. A common method used by programs that start with a batch file is to save your path using the DOS SET command to another environment variable: SET YPATH=%PATH% Then add to the path or change it all together using a PATH command: PATH C:\prog;%PATH% Run the program and then restore your path using the command: PATH %YPATH% This whole scenario works fine as long as your path does not exceed 127 bytes. Unfortunately, if your path is long it could be truncated. The PATHMAN commands to perform this same function avoiding any chance of truncation are compared below to the conventional batch commands: PATHMAN v1.05 by Anchor Software Page 8 Without PATHMAN With PATHMAN ------------------------------------------------------ SET YPATH=%PATH% | PATHMAN /s PATH C:\prog;%PATH% | PATHMAN ^C:\prog prog | prog path %YPATH% | PATHMAN /r SET YPATH= | | -or more simply- | | PATHMAN ^C:\prog | prog | PATHMAN -C:\prog PATHMAN v1.05 by Anchor Software Page 9 COMPATIBILITY: PATHMAN has been tested with MS-DOS versions 3.3, 4.0, and 5.0. DR DOS version 5.0 DEC Pathworks versions 3.0, 4.0, and 4.1. Novell NetWare workstation shells. PATHMAN will not run if a DOS version other than one of those listed above is detected. DOS version checking can be disabled by setting the DVC environment variable to NO (SET DVC=NO). Keep in mind that running PATHMAN without DOS version checking can cause unpredictable results. APPENDIX A: Sample PATHMAN file. Files read and written by PATHMAN consist of one directory name per line, one directory followed by a carriage return and linefeed then another directory. For example: C:\ C:\DOS C:\UTIL C:\WINDOWS C:\DBASE4 C:\WORD5 PATHMAN v1.05 by Anchor Software Page 10 DISCLAIMER: "PATHMAN is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of PATHMAN. In no event shall the author's liability for any damages ever exceed the price paid for the license to use the software regardless of the form of the claim." LICENSING (REGISTERING): You may use PATHMAN for a free 15 day trial period. If you continue to use PATHMAN after the 15 day trial period, you are required to register your copy of PATHMAN and obtain a license number. When you register PATHMAN you will be given a license number and sent a disk with the latest version of PATHMAN. To register your copy of PATHMAN send $15 check or money order to Anchor Software, P.O. BOX 124, Cheswick, PA 15024. The registration fee will license one copy for use on any one computer at any one time. Site-License arrangements may be made by contacting Anchor Software. Any parties interested in distributing PATHMAN with their products should also contact Anchor Software. We encourage you to pass a copy of PATHMAN along to your friends and associates for evaluation. Please encourage them to register their copy if they find that they can use it. All registered users will receive a copy of the latest version of PATHMAN. TRADEMARK ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Microsoft, MS-DOS, and Microsoft Windows are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. DEC, and Pathworks are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation. Novell, and NetWare are trademarks of Novell Inc. DR DOS is a trademark of Digital Research Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their holders. TECHNICAL SUPPORT Please direct all questions or comments about PATHMAN Path Management Utility for DOS to: Mail: Anchor Software P.O. Box 124 Cheswick, PA 15024 Phone: (412) 274-6404 Fax: (412) 274-5010 CompuServe: 75230,3055 PATHMAN v1.05 by Anchor Software Page 11 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0 | P A T H M A N V 1 . 0 5 o-<+>-o ---------------------------- | Path Management Utility for DOS | Copyright(c)1992 by Anchor Software <^ | ^> All Rights Reserved Worldwide \_|_/ ^ Anchor Software - P.O. Box 124 - Cheswick, PA 15024 - (412)274-6404 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- REGISTRATION FORM PATHMAN V1.05 NAME______________________________________________ COMPANY___________________________________________ 0 0 | STREET____________________________________________ | o-<+>-o o-<+>-o | CITY______________________________________________ | | | <^ | ^> STATE_________________________ ZIP____________ <^ | ^> \_|_/ \_|_/ ^ TELEPHONE_____________________ DATE____________ ^ Diskette format (choose one) 5.25"_____ 3.5"_____ PATHMAN V1.05 Registration.....................$15.00...______ Site license info available by calling Anchor Software. Pennsylvania residents add 6% sales tax.................______ Please add $3.50 shipping & handling....................______ ($5.00 outside the United States and Canada) Total Amount Enclosed...................................______ Terms: Check or Money Order in United States currency. All licenses are prepaid. Make checks or money orders payable to: Anchor Software. Where did you get your copy of PATHMAN ?____________________________ What type of computer, operating system, and network do you use ? ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ Comments:___________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ PATHMAN v1.05 by Anchor Software Page 12 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0 | P R I M E N V V 1 . 0 0 o-<+>-o ---------------------------- | The Primary DOS Environment Function Library for C | Copyright(c)1992 by Anchor Software <^ | ^> All Rights Reserved Worldwide \_|_/ ^ Anchor Software - P.O. Box 124 - Cheswick, PA 15024 - (412)274-6404 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- PRODUCT DESCRIPTION: "The Primary DOS Environment Function Library for C" gives you the ability to access and modify any part of the primary DOS environment from your executable C programs. The primary environment is the original environment supplied to COMMAND.COM and is not the copy of the environment passed to your executable programs. The primary environment is the environment immediately effected by DOS's SET, PATH, and PROMPT commands. This means you can modify any existing environment variable as well as add variables of your own from your executable C programs and have those changes remain in effect once your program terminates. From creating custom installation programs to program-to-program communication this library will prove to be a useful addition to any C programmers toolkit. The library is only available directly from Anchor Software. Use this form to order PRIMENV. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ORDER FORM PRIMENV V1.00 NAME______________________________________________ COMPANY___________________________________________ 0 0 | STREET____________________________________________ | o-<+>-o o-<+>-o | CITY______________________________________________ | | | <^ | ^> STATE_________________________ ZIP____________ <^ | ^> \_|_/ \_|_/ ^ TELEPHONE_____________________ DATE____________ ^ Diskette format (choose one) 5.25"_____ 3.5"_____ Compiler (choose one) Microsoft_____ Lattice_____ PRIMENV V1.00 Registration.....................$50.00...______ Pennsylvania residents add 6% sales tax.................______ Please add $3.50 shipping & handling....................______ ($5.00 outside the United States and Canada) Total Amount Enclosed...................................______ Terms: Check or Money Order in United States currency. All licenses are prepaid. Make checks or money orders payable to: Anchor Software. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- PATHMAN v1.05 by Anchor Software Page 13