Adding to your PATH

 (* The following is from 'Exchange of IBM PC Information', *)¨
 (* July/August 1986 from an article by Mark Chance         *)

 (**NOTE: This method of adding to your PATH is NOT DOCUMENTED in **)
 (**      the DOS Reference manual and is NOT SUPPORTED by IBM.   **)


When processing a BATch file, DOS (version 2.00 and higher) has an
interesting way of accessing the information you have placed in the
environment space using the DOS SET command. If you use the SET
command from within a BATch file to set XXX to YYY:

  SET XXX=YYY

and then enter the XXX variable from within another BATch command as
shown below:

  ECHO   %XXX%

then DOS returns YYY.

Using this information, you can create a BATch file that will add a
single directory to your existing PATH statement without your having¨
to re-enter each directory currently in the PATH. First, you create¨
a BATch file (I named mine ADDPATH.BAT) that contains the following¨
command:¨

  PATH %1;%PATH%

If you create this BATch file using the COPY CON: command. type the¨
lines shown below from the keyboard. The word "enter" in brackets¨
means you press the Enter key at the end of the line; the F6 means¨
 you press Function Key 6.

  COPY CON: ADDPATH.BAT   <Enter>
  PATH %1;%PATH%   <Enter>
  F6    <Enter>

Suppose your current path contains the following directories:

  PATH C:\;C:\DOS;C:\UTIL;

And you wish to add the directory c:\APPS to the path. You simply¨
enter the following command at the DOS prompt:¨

  ADDPATH C:\APPS

The PATH would become

  PATH C:\APPS;C:\;C:\DOS;C:\UTIL;

If you wish to add the directory to your path temporarily, you might¨
consider loading COMMAND.COM as a second level command processor¨
before you enter the ADDPATH statement:¨

  COMMAND
  ADDPATH  C:\APPS

The new path will be valid as long as you operate under the second¨
level command processor. When you enter "EXIT" and return to the first¨
level command processor (loaded when you booted DOS), the original
PATH would again be valid.