home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Collection of Tools & Utilities
/
Collection of Tools and Utilities.iso
/
olrdrs
/
jh3b4of4.zip
/
SETPATH.TXT
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1993-03-01
|
5KB
|
114 lines
SETPATH - create DOS PATH from file
Syntax
SETPATH [D:\PATH\]FILENAME.EXT
Parameters
FILENAME.EXT is the name of the path file; a standard ASCII
file which contains the names of ALL the directories in the
DOS PATH. The format of the file is simple: one path entry
per line, exactly as they would appear in the SET PATH=
command:
C:\
C:\MSDOS
D:\UTILS
.
etc....
Comments
SETPATH will create the DOS PATH from the entries in
FILENAME.EXT. As with ADDPATH/REMPATH, SETPATH will
validate each entry, but with a twist: if an invalid entry
is found in the path file, SETPATH will beep three times,
display an appropriate error message with the invalid entry
and its location in the file, and will wait five seconds
before continuing. If you use SETPATH as a replacement for
the DOS PATH command in AUTOEXEC.BAT, this feature is very
useful, since PATH will still be built, but you will be
notified of the error. If you missed the error display, re-
run SETPATH from the command line. SETPATH can be used as
often as desired; it will create a complete new DOS PATH
each time it is run.
Note that the current "." and parent ".." directory entries
are allowed in the SETPATH file. Although DOS automatically
searches the current directory before searching the path,
this feature allows you to list matching files in the
current and/or parent directory when using the SRCHPATH
program.
IMPORTANT NOTE: DOS ENVIRONMENT SPACE
The PATH variable is stored in the DOS environment, which
normally defaults to 160 bytes. If your PATH contains
many directories, or if you already use a large number of
environment variables (e.g., you have many SET commands in
AUTOEXEC.BAT), DOS may issue an "out of environment space"
message. In such cases, you should increase environment
allocation via the SHELL command in CONFIG.SYS:
SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM /P /E:XXXX
where XXXX is the desired environment space, in bytes. If
you had sufficient environment space before you used SETPATH,
and you did not use the SHELL command in CONFIG.SYS, then the
value XXXX should be equal to:
165 + total size of the entries contained in the FILENAME.EXT
file + total number of entries in FILENAME.EXT file.
If you used the SHELL command in CONFIG.SYS, then you should
replace 165 with your current environment size in the formula
above.
EXAMPLE
You do not use a SHELL command, and you ran out of environment
space when running SETPATH. Path entries in PATH.DAT are as
follows:
C:\ (3 characters)
C:\DOS (6 characters)
C:\UTIL (7 characters)
D:\GENERAL\BAT (14 characters)
F:\WINDOWS (10 characters)
The total length of the entries is 3+6+7+14+10=40 characters.
The formula above yields:
165 + 40 (length of entries) + 5 (number of entries) = 210
You should add the following statement to CONFIG.SYS:
SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM /P /E:210
Note: The above method guarantees sufficient environment space
to store the PATH value. However:
- If you increase the number of entries in your path file or if
you add SET commands in AUTOEXEC.BAT, you may have to increase
environment space again.
- If you did not have a SHELL command in CONFIG.SYS, you may
not have exceeded the 160 bytes default by much, and the
above method will allocate more environment than is actually
needed (160 bytes at worst).
- If you want freedom from worry, purposely over-allocate
environment space by assigning a larger value to the /E:
value -- but don't do it if you need every available byte
of DOS memory.
- A utility such as QuarterDesk's Manifest (included in the
last few releases of the QEMM memory manager) will let you
know if you are over-allocating your environment, and by
how much.
- The DOS 6.0 MEM /D command will also show the amount of
allocated environment.