Does TC intercept the APPEND command?

[SeoulBigChris]

I was trying to use the APPEND command today, and from within TC it appears to be executing something else (I get a > prompt and nothing else). When I run it from CMD.EXE it works, or I should say, it does everything it should, display the list, clear the list, build the list, EXCEPT the list of appended directories doesn't really get appended. That's a Windows problem, not TC. But after running APPEND from TC, it kicks me into some strange mode. Stranger still, when I type EXIT to try and leave this mode, it kills not only the tab, but the whole TC window.

Is there something in TC which does the same function as APPEND? I looked briefly and didn't see it.

 

[Charles Dye]

APPEND.EXE is a DOS application. I honestly don't know why they still include it with Windows; it can't possibly be good for anything!

 

[rconn]

I assume you're running an ancient version of Windows, since APPEND hasn't existed in the last three versions. Even the elderly and creaky XP doesn't support it for Win32 apps; only for DOS 16-bit apps.

TC does not intercept APPEND in any way. But if you try to run it (or any other DOS app) in a Take Command tab window, Windows will switch the session to a fixed-size DOS window, and delete the scrollback buffer.

 

[Charles Dye]

Turning on the NTCMDPROMPT directive in CONFIG.NT will mitigate some of the weirdness when APPEND exits. (But it will still be a useless relic of INT 21 days.)

 

[SeoulBigChris]

I was surprised, but APPEND is still around even in Windows 7, though as noted, it doesn't seem to exactly work. Indeed, the NTCMDPROMPT did solve the weird exit problem. I did not observe Windows switching me to a fixed size DOS command window when running under TC, although I did see that when running under CMD.EXE.

What I've done instead is just created a symbolic link in my working directory to the desired data directory. Not quite as easy as APPEND would have been, but satisfactory. If there is a modern equivalent to APPEND, I would like to know.

 

[rconn]

I was surprised, but APPEND is still around even in Windows 7, though as noted, it doesn't seem to exactly work.

It definitely does not exist in any of the x64 versions. Are you running the 32-bit version of Win 7?

 

[SeoulBigChris]

yes. I'm using 32-bit Windows 7. Poking around on the web, some users mention MS has replaced APPEND with DPATH, but I don't see DPATH on my system.

 

[rconn]

In some 32-bit versions of Windows, DPATH is simply a renamed APPEND.EXE. So it's still not useful for anything other than DOS apps.

More generally, DPATH is an environment variable that (some, but not all) Windows programs use to find their data files.