set environment

[Paul Purvis]

some left over candy from halloween
who says you cannot have your cake and eat it too.
i did not realize there where ways to make environment variables stick and nt makes it harder.

do a web search for setx.exe from microsoft
and also look at the goodies at the website below.

http://www.ss64.com/nt/setx.html

http://barnyard.syr.edu/%7Evefatica/#SETENV

[Michael Mattias]

Many programers (especially me) need a decent interactive way to get
data into .BAT files....

.....
 OPEN "file2.bat" for output as #12
 PRINT #12, "xcopy " + sourceFile$ + " " + DestFile$
 CLOSE  #12
 SHELL "file2.bat"
 ...

[Paul Purvis]

i guess you want to set the environmental variables inside your dos program and have them stick once your program exits for other purposes following your program. I have found that very hard to do and i believe i may have a program not written by me that does that, but what i mostly do is have my batch file run a program that writes the set command lines to a file that ends with .bat and and have the batch file that ran my program call the batch file my program written.

run.bat name of batch file
--------------------------------------
rem start of batch file
myprogrm.exe program that writes set commands to myprogrm.bat if exist myprogrm.bat call myprogrm.bat
rem end of batch file
----------------------------------------


here is the documentation to a msdos program called setenv that i did not write.


The SETENV set of routines comprise a subroutine (coded in both TurboC
and Turbo Pascal) and a TurboC utility that uses the subroutine. These
utilities set the Environment block of a shell, not of the program.

First some background. One problem with the Environment block is that a
program can only access its Env block and can pass the Env block down to
a lower level program. When a shell calls a program, a copy of the
shell's Env block is made. This copy is used by the program. When a
program sets an environment variable with one of the normal "setenv"
routines, this env variable is not left set when the program exits back
to the shell. The env variable is only set in the programs env block,
not in the shell's.

Many programers (especially me) need a decent interactive way to get
data into .BAT files. One way to do this is with a better shell (does
4DOS handle this?) rather than command.com. But if you are releasing
software, you cannot count on a user having some wierd shell. Thus I
wrote a "setenv" that sets the shell's env block, not the program's.

This gets a little hairy. It is relatively easy to find the primary
shell's env block - just scan memory for the first env block. But if
shell A invokes shell B then you want to set shell B's env block not the
primary block (which is for shell A). Anyway the "setenv" routine looks
all around memory, using all sorts of tricks to usually get the shell's
env block.

A caveat - if it works once for you it will basically always work. But
make sure, if you are using other than command.com, that it does work!

Now what do we have here:
The basic subroutine is settheenv. I have coded it in
TurboC and TurboP.

The C prototype is: int settheenv(char * s1, char * s2);

in Pascal: boolean SetTheEnv (S1, S2 : string[24]);

s1 is the name of the env variable to set.
s2 is the value to put into that variable.

the routine returns 0 (or True) if successful and
1 (or False) if a failure. Remember to check for
failure. A common failure is when the env block
is full.

I have included TurboP source, a TPU unit, TurboC source and the object.
The TurboC files are called setenvs.* (setenvs means setenv subroutine).

I have also included a TurboC program which interactively asks the user
a question and puts the response into a shell env variable. This lets
you, for example, have a .BAT file which asks "what is your name ?" and
have the response put into an Env variable so that the .BAT file can use
it. This program also can set some system values into Env variables.
(Get the current drive for example.)

The program is called setenv which is why the subroutine is called
setenvs.

Two years ago I released setenv 1.1 and this setenv (1.3) is pretty much
the same. It does have a better search for the env block, but if you
already have setenv and it works, this will be no surprise. The
advantage of this version is that the setenvs is broken into a separate
routine so you can easily use it in your own code.

About a year ago someone released a very nice assembler version of
setenv that had a different keyboard feel. So you may want to hunt in
archives and get that utility also. I forget the author and I
apoligize, he referenced me and I want to reference him.

Oh, I put a bit of work into this program, so if you want to use it
commercially, please contact me, I would like some $$. For personal
use it is free.

Regards,
Richard Marks
931 Sulgrave Lane
Bryn MAwr, PA 19010

[email protected]

[Michael Mattias]

Set the environment variable in the batch file (SET statement). It will be valid for the life of the batch file.

If not convenient, write two(2) batch files...

REM bat1.bat
SET  myvar=value
CALL bat2.bat
REM clean up
SET  myvar=

-------------------------
REM bat2.bat
%myvar  or maybe it's %myvar% has value set in bat1.bat

[Hans-Dieter Veit]

Hello,
is it possible to set the parameter in the DOS environment?
The ENVIRON statement doesn't work since it sets only temporary / for subsequent "SHELL"ed or "EXECUTE"ed processes/programs.
I what i need is to prepare the fieldes for some tools executed subsequently in an batch job.

greetings from munich

Hans