Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!cornell!batcomputer!sun.soe.clarkson.edu!nelson
From: nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Russ Nelson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Root directory in path is buggy
Message-ID: 
Date: 12 Aug 88 13:48:07 GMT
Sender: nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu
Reply-To: nelson@clutx.clarkson.edu
Organization: Clarkson University
Lines: 18

Has anyone noticed that trying to use the root directory in your path
doesn't really work right?  For example, try using "a:" in your path.
Command.com takes "a:", and appends "\" to it, and searches "a:\:.
However, the standard interpretation of "a:" is "the current directory
on a:".  Programs using Turbo C's searchpath() use that
interpretation.  So, you would think that it would be better to use
"a:\" in the path.

Wrong, it doesn't work.  Command.com takes "a:\", and appends
*another* "\" to it, and fails to search "a:\\".  Obviously,
command.com isn't checking to see if the path element ends in "\".

The solution that we're using is to put both into the pathname:
	set path=a:;a:\

Hope this helps someone.
--
nelson@clutx.bitnet, nelson@clutx.clarkson.edu, uunet!clutx.clarkson.edu!nelson