Sender: nate AT cartsys DOT com
Message-ID: <363FBFA4.ACC9CA83@cartsys.com>
Date: Tue, 03 Nov 1998 18:44:52 -0800
From: Nate Eldredge <nate AT cartsys DOT com>
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To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: System help
References: <000601be0691$344ae260$d42c1ec8 AT enterprise-z> <363E878B DOT 466B476B AT cartsys DOT com> <71n4kv$6fv$1 AT nnrp1 DOT dejanews DOT com>
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Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com

cbfalconer AT my-dejanews DOT com wrote:

> Correction - built into COMMAND.  Get a copy of 4dos (www.jpsoft.com) and that
> limitation goes away.  I think the default will be 512 chars, and I believe it
> is configurable.  Not to mention all the other advantages.

From the command line, that is true, but for the wrong reasons.  I use
4DOS, although an old one (it's registered), and it uses yet another
workaround; it sets an environment variable to the command line.  DJGPP
doesn't support this either when calling or being called.  I proposed
adding this support some time ago, but it seemed a lot like creeping
featurism, being a nonstandard hack.

On the other hand, the actual DOS call which gives the function call
mechanism (INT 21h/AH=4Bh) does limit the command line to 126 characters
in all versions I know about.  (It's a 128-byte buffer, where the first
character is a length count, and the string is terminated with a CR.) 
So the limitation of that mechanism is indeed in the DOS kernel, and
applies to DJGPP's `system', which uses that when the child is not a
DJGPP program.
-- 

Nate Eldredge
nate AT cartsys DOT com