Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!src From: src@cup.portal.com (Steve R Calwas) Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d Subject: Re: undocumented DOS call for switch character Message-ID: <22454@cup.portal.com> Date: 23 Sep 89 17:07:15 GMT References: <933@sl10c.concurrent.co.uk> Organization: The Portal System (TM) Lines: 49 asc@concurrent.co.uk (Andy Chittenden) writes: >Does anybody know what the undocmented DOS calls are to set and get >the switch character? --------------------------------------- Int 21h (33) Function 37h (55) Get or Set COMMAND.COM Switch Character --------------------------------------- Get the current COMMAND.COM switch character or set the switch character to something new (COMMAND.COM uses the slash(/) as the default switch character). This function only affects internal COMMAND.COM commands, such as DIR and COPY. It has no effect on external programs like XCOPY or LINK. Call with: AH = 37h AL = 0 to get the current switch character AL = 1 to set the switch character DL = ASCII value of new switch character Returns: DL = ASCII value of current switch character Notes: This function is not available in DOS 4.0+ or the OS/2 DOS compatibility box. The COMMAND.COM program in MS/PC-DOS 2.xx contains an undocumented internal command, SWITCHAR, that will get or set the switch character. MS/PC-DOS 3.xx removed the SWITCHAR command, but still includes the operating system function calls. As noted above, this function only affects the COMMAND.COM internal commands and it is being phased out of the newer versions of DOS, thus it is of limited use. The new version of ANARKEY 3.00, a DOS command-line editor which I wrote, contains support for use of the UNIX switchar conventions for ALL programs, internal and external. I uploaded ANARKEY 3.00 to comp.binaries.pc and it should appear ???. If you are a registered ANARKEY user, the new version was mailed to you last Wednesday. If you are not registered and send me your registration now, I will send you the new version immediately. Steve Calwas src@cup.portal.com Santa Clara, CA ...!sun!cup.portal.com!src