Glossary - P        A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P  Q R S T U V W X

Parameter - Additional information placed after a command or function name. For example, in the command DIR XYZ, XYZ is a parameter. Also used to refer to an alias parameter or batch file parameter.

Parent Directory - The directory in which a particular subdirectory is cataloged, often seen as the directory above a subdirectory.

Parsing - The process TCC performs to analyze the command line, perform alias, function and variable expansion, and find the appropriate internal command or external command to execute. More generally, the process of breaking down a string or message into its individual components in order to process them properly. See

Passed Environment - A copy of the environment created before running an application, so that any changes made by the application will not affect the environment of the application's parent.

Path :

1) A specification of all the directories required to locate a file. For example, the path for C:\WPFILES\MYDIR\MEMO.TXT is C:\WPFILES\MYDIR\.

2) The environment variable PATH, which contains a series of path specifications used when searching for external commands and batch files.

3) The internal command PATH, which redefines the value of the environment variable PATH.

Pipe - A method for sending the standard output of one command to the standard input of another command, syntactically represented by a vertical bar "|" separating the commands. See also Redirection.

Pixel - A single dot on the screen. The color of each pixel can be individually controlled.

Previous Working Directory - The working directory used most recently, just prior to selecting the current working directory. For example, if C:\DATA is the current working directory and you switch to D:\UTIL, C:\DATA becomes the previous working directory.

Primary Shell - The copy of the character-mode command processor which is loaded by the operating system when the system starts or a session opens.