[net.micro.pc] ERRRROORR: DOS 3.1 environment size!!!!

del@pilchuckDataio.UUCP (Erik Lindberg) (03/21/86)

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I have not been around for a couple of weeks, so this comes a little late
after the postings regarding fixup of DOS environment size. There was an
error in one of the postings:

shell = c:\command.com c:\ /p /e:20

One of the articles described the string "c:\" as indicating where the
autoexec.bat file is found. This is not the case, it is where the command.com
file is to be found for reloading any time it is necessary. For many people
the above command line will be correct, since the location of both will
be coincidentally the same. Any of us poor souls using a pre-xt standard
controller board (and consequently booting off a floppy) get errors when
doing it as described in the original article. My config.sys says:

shell = c:\bin\command.com c:\bin /p /e:20

and autoexec.bat MUST be located in a:\ (so does config.sys, incidentally,
but I put mouse.sys, vdisk.sys, etc.sys in c:\sys). Note that in any
conceivable situation I have imagined, the second path must be the
the same as the first path to command.com. I am curiouser and curiouser
why the option is there.

lotto@talcott.UUCP (Jerry Lotto) (03/24/86)

In article <289@pilchuckDataio.UUCP>, del@pilchuckDataio.UUCP (Erik Lindberg) writes:
> []
> []
> I have not been around for a couple of weeks, so this comes a little late
> after the postings regarding fixup of DOS environment size. There was an
> error in one of the postings:
> 
> shell = c:\command.com c:\ /p /e:20
> 
> One of the articles described the string "c:\" as indicating where the
> autoexec.bat file is found. This is not the case, it is where the command.com
> file is to be found for reloading any time it is necessary. For many people
> the above command line will be correct, since the location of both will
> be coincidentally the same. Any of us poor souls using a pre-xt standard
> controller board (and consequently booting off a floppy) get errors when
> doing it as described in the original article. My config.sys says:
> 
> shell = c:\bin\command.com c:\bin /p /e:20
> 
> and autoexec.bat MUST be located in a:\ (so does config.sys, incidentally,
> but I put mouse.sys, vdisk.sys, etc.sys in c:\sys). Note that in any
> conceivable situation I have imagined, the second path must be the
> the same as the first path to command.com. I am curiouser and curiouser
> why the option is there.

It is exactly for the situation you are in (pre XT controllers.)
The string is used to build COMSPEC ie. where you want command.com
to be reloaded from whenever the transient portion gets overlaid.
Memory rich PC users probably never encounter this problem anyway,
but it was once an issue.
-- 

Gerald Lotto - Harvard Chemistry Dept.

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