COMMAND COMMAND
Name
command - starts the command processor
Syntax
command [drive:][path][cttydev] [/e:nnnnn][/p] [/c string]
Description
This command starts a new command processor (the MS-DOS pro-
gram that contains all internal commands).
When you start a new command processor you also create a new
command environment. This new environment is a copy of the
old, parent, environment. However, you can change the new
environment without affecting the old one.
The command processor is loaded into memory in two parts:
transient and resident. Some applications write over the
transient memory part of command.com when they run. When
this happens, the resident part of the command processor
looks for the command.com file on disk so that it can reload
the transient part.
The drive:path options tell the command processor where to
look for the command.com file if it needs to reload the
transient part into memory.
cttydev allows you to specify a different device (such as
AUX) for input and output. See ctty in this chapter for more
information.
/e Specifies the environment size, where nnnnn is the size
in bytes. The size may range between 128 and 32768
bytes. The default value is 128 bytes.
If nnnnn is less than 128 bytes, MS-DOS defaults to 128
bytes and displays the following message:
Invalid environment size specified
If nnnnn is greater than 32768 bytes, MS-DOS displays
the same message, but defaults to 32768 bytes.
/p Tells command.com not to exit to any higher level shell.
/c Tells the command processor to perform the command or
commands specified by string and then to return. If
used, it should be the last switch in the command.
Example
The following command tells the MS-DOS command processor to
do three things:
⊕ Start a new command process under the current program
⊕ Run the commamd chkdsk b:
⊕ Return to the first command process
command /c chkdsk b:
To learn how to use a pathname and the /p switch with command
see the sample config.sys file in Appendix A `How to
Configure Your System'
Notes
command is an external command.
COMMAND (printed 8/16/89) COMMAND