Mail Archives: opendos/2001/02/05/16:48:20
On 2001-02-03, Alan S. wrote:
> I can launch [both directly and via WinMe shortcut] a .BAT containing
> the text C:\DRDOS7\COMMAND.COM !!!
Hm. Itīs good to know it works, but AFAI see it, starting DR-DOS
COMMAND.COM from a MS-DOS COMMAND.COM .BAT file
is the same as opening a MS-DOS COMMAND.COM and then typeing
the name of the DR-DOS COMMAND.COM.
This will cause both command processors to be active in memory
and you will loose about 5-8 Kb of precious DOS memory.
Mind, that the %COMSPEC% environment variable must point
to the *correct* command processor, otherwise the DOS box
may hang when the shell needs to reload its transient portion
after executing external commands. Please try to load DR-DOS
COMMAND.COM directly, but specify the reload path as
parameter, e.g. "c:\drdos\command.com c:\drdos\ /P:". Otherwise
DR-DOS COMMAND.COM may try to reload its transient portion
from the root of the drive and will possibly pick up the MS-DOS
COMMAND.COM there and crash...
BTW. I purposefully suggested to run a number of special tests by giving
some specific command line options when starting COMMAND.COM,
and the like. Have you looked into them? Even if youīve already found a
partial solution, I would still be interested in the results of each of these tests,
as this may help me to get a clear picture of what is actually going on,
even though I donīt use Me myself - but I do know how COMMAND.COM
works.
> Without executing a CONFIG.SYS, is it possible to execute command
> switches like HISTORY=ON,512,ON for the DOS box? [There are mechanisms
> for getting device drivers and environment variables processed, but I
> don't know of anything I can do with the HISTORY command switch...?]
Unfortunately, you cannot (with publically available releases of DR-DOS).
The HISTORY functionality is not part of a device driver or the like. It is
build into the console driver in the BDOS kernel. Under DR-DOS you can
change the settings at runtime via API functions, but since your underlaying
OS is MS-DOS (8), you cannot. The MS-DOS kernel neither provides the
HISTORY functionality nor supports it the corresponding API. Under
MS-DOS, a similar feature is build into the DOSKEY driver, and if you
load the DOSKEY TSR in your DOS box, command line history is available
(although not as powerful as under DR-DOS)... I donīt know if DOSKEY
is still distributed with Me, but if not, you can use the DOSKEY of a previous
issue and use SETVER to fake the DOS version (SETVER must be loaded
via a utility like DEVICE.COM if you cannot load it in CONFIG.SYS).
(You cannot use the DR-DOS DOSKEY, because this implementation only
contains the macro portion of the MS-DOS DOSKEY functionality, and
a frontend to the command line history portion, which is part of the kernel
under DR-DOS. So loading the DR-DOS DOSKEY under MS-DOS does
not give you the functionality you need.)
Hope it helps,
Matthias
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Matthias Paul, Ubierstrasse 28, D-50321 Bruehl, Germany
<Matthias DOT Paul AT post DOT rwth-aachen DOT de> <mpaul AT drdos DOT org>
http://www.rhrz.uni-bonn.de/~uzs180/mpdokeng.html
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