Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!pacbell!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!milano!bigtex!texbell!killer!jls
From: jls@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Jerome Schneider)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: BEWARE of changing the command line switch (switchar)
Summary: Patch to COMMAND.COM fixes problem permanently
Keywords: switchar COMMAND.COM
Message-ID: <6261@killer.DALLAS.TX.US>
Date: 29 Nov 88 08:26:32 GMT
References: <824@kksys.UUCP> <170@ocsmd.OCS.COM> <826@kksys.UUCP> <10629@s.ms.uky.edu>
Distribution: na
Organization: The Unix(R) Connection, Dallas, Texas
Lines: 29

In article <10629@s.ms.uky.edu>, simon@ms.uky.edu (Simon Gales) writes:
> In article <826@kksys.UUCP> bird@kksys.UUCP (Mike Bird) writes:
> >In article <170@ocsmd.OCS.COM>, bell@ocsmd.OCS.COM (John T. Bell) writes:
>     .......
> 
> In MS C, this can be done by:
> 	system("command.com /c progname");
> 
> Note that a '/c' is used, without checking to see if '/' is actually the
> switch character.  This can be changed to '-c' if you have access to the
> application's source (I have pibterm's if you want it).  This is done 
> slightly differently in TP, but I believe that it's similar.
> 
  I posted a message with a patch to command.com  for permanently setting
either the / or - as valid switch chars within command.com.  Thus, when any
program uses the system() call, the /c works even if switchar is -.  The
patch was in a message detailing several MKS ppatches (but was very long 
- 400 lines).  I could post a quick summary or email you the patch if you 
wish.

The "Specified COMMAND search path bad" error results because command.com
doesn't see the -c as an option flag, and thus treats it like a new path
to cofigure the COMSPEC variable.  Because a file /c is not found, the
COMSPEC is not altered, but the error is posted and an empty environment
is generated.  This probably was an error in design, since the path should
only be examined by a login (or root) command.com (using the /p, for
example, but has been a bug since the begining.  Heck, don't use them
undocumented bugs, anyway! :-).