Customizing TCC
Customizing TCC
TCC.EXE is the command line interpreter included with Take Command. It's the brains of the package, the program which accepts your commands from the keyboard or from a batch file, parses and executes them. TCC is usually run within a tab window in the Take Command interface. It can also be run by itself, in a regular console window outside of the Take Command environment, for a more spartan experience. The customizations in this section are specifically for TCC, whether it's run within the Take Command interface or by itself. Most of them also apply to the older JP Software command shells, including 4NT, older versions of Take Command, and even 4DOS.
Many of these TCC customizations are made through the OPTION dialog, which you start by typing OPTION at the prompt and pressing Enter. After you have made your desired changes, click on OK to save them. Note that the OPTION dialog is different from the Take Command configuration dialog, started by selecting Options / Configure Take Command... in the menu. The OPTION dialog customizes TCC; the Take Command configuration dialog is for customizing the GUI interface.
Another important means of customization is through the startup batch file, TCSTART.BTM. This is a user-created file; the installation program does not create it for you. You can use any text editor to create and edit the startup batch file. Normally it should be named TCSTART.BTM and go in the same directory where Take Command is installed. (In the older 4DOS and 4NT products, this file should be named 4START.BTM instead.) The commands in TCSTART.BTM will be executed every time Take Command starts. It's a good place to set up default environment variables and aliases.
Occasionally you may need to manually edit Take Command's configuration file, also called an “.INI file”. This is a regular text file and can be opened with any text editor; Notepad will work fine. Normally, the configuration file is named TCMD.INI. It might be in the Take Command program directory, or it might be stored under Application Data. (In older JP Software command shells, the .INI file may have a different name: 4DOS.INI, 4NT.INI, TCMD32.INI, and so on.) The complete pathname of the .INI file is available via the internal variable _ININAME, and you can use this variable to edit the file:
notepad "%_ininame"
Or substitute the name of your preferred text editor for Notepad. After making changes to the .INI file, restart TCC so they will take effect.
Directives for TCC should go in the [4NT] section of the .INI file. (For older JP Software shells, the relevant section will be named for the shell itself, e.g. the [4DOS] section for 4DOS, [4NT] for 4NT, [TCMD32] for most older versions of Take Command, and so on.)
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