Xref: utzoo comp.sources.wanted:2705 comp.sys.ibm.pc:9542 Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bu-cs!madd From: madd@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Jim Frost) Newsgroups: comp.sources.wanted,comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Need LOGIN Shell for MS-DOS Message-ID: <17405@bu-cs.BU.EDU> Date: 14 Dec 87 02:38:55 GMT References: <145@tsdiag.UUCP> <17389@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <7216@sunybcs.UUCP> Reply-To: madd@bu-it.UUCP (Jim Frost) Organization: Boston University Distributed Systems Group Lines: 52 Keywords: MSDOS In article <7216@sunybcs.UUCP> ugfailau@joey.UUCP (Fai Lau) writes: >In article <17389@bu-cs.BU.EDU> madd@bu-it.bu.edu (Jim Frost) writes: [method of doing a login... see referenced articles] > > Why don't you do this? Issue a "rename" at the end of >the *default* autoexec.bat to change its name, and issue >another "rename" to change the name of another bat file to >autoexec.bat, which is to be brought in for another command >shell. [stuff on restoring the original autoexec.bat and related topics deleted] >Of course, this doesn't solve the problem of >having two shells in the system. If there is a way >to "substitute the current shell with a new shell...., >but then the login program in the first shell may >have to be lost. I only have experience in UNIX multitasking >in PC, so I can't say much about MS-DOS multi- >user environment. Ok, one thing at a time. This is a dandy idea but it has several flaws. Our system is multitasking. What would happen if two users logged on at once? It wouldn't even have to be too close, either, given the amount of time it'll take command.com to get through an autoexec.bat file of any complexity. (BTW, we don't have UNIX multitasking. We have one PC running 5 processors. Basically a bus-oriented LAN with diskless workstations.) This wouldn't matter if you have a single-user system, but there are other problems. Also, issuing a command.com /p (permanent) to allow a shell to become permanent and to allow the shell to switch to interactive mode makes life real difficult when you're trying to log out. The only easy way to do it is to reboot, often a painfully slow process. Another flaw is that we wanted to keep things simple. Each user has his/her own directory. We wanted their autoexec.bat file THERE so that they could always see it and modify it to boot. Essentially their home directory was "root" so far as they were concerned. All we have to do with our system is make sure they know that that last line in the autoexec.bat file (command.com) is SUPPOSED to be there. You might note that my system of doing things makes it easy to run programs as you log out, too, since anything after the line that calls command.com will be run when command.com exits. Basically .login and .logout in a single file.... >Fai Lau jim frost madd@bu-it.bu.edu "I wasn't wrong. Just inaccurate."