Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

<[email protected]> · Tue, 24 Jan 2017 19:22:53 +0000

Hi Andrew,

> Presumably
>    PATH "epicsdir1;epicsdir2;%PATH%"
> will also work (seems to be OK for me), i.e. I just need to add quotes around the whole generated argument.

Unfortunately this syntax embeds the quotes in the PATH 

Set "PATH=a;b"           -> PATH is   a;b
PATH "c;%PATH%"    ->  PATH now contains   "c;a;b"    rather than    c;a;b 	
PATH "c;%PATH%"    ->  PATH now contains   "c;"c;a;b""

And multiple additions to the PATH will fail if the original PATH contained an &

Set "PATH=a;b & c"
PATH "c;%PATH%"  -> no error printed, path contains "c;a;b & c"
PATH "c;%PATH%"
Now prints     'c""' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
And PATH is left containing   "c;"c;a;b

I agree the shorter PATH syntax looks nicer, but it may be safer to go with the longer syntax

Regards,

Freddie

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Johnson [mailto:[email protected]] 
Sent: 24 January 2017 17:44
To: Akeroyd, Freddie (STFC,RAL,ISIS); [email protected]
Subject: Re: dllPath.bat problem

Hi Freddie,

On 01/24/2017 11:02 AM, [email protected] wrote:
>     set "PATH=A & B;C"
>     PATH C;%PATH%
> 
> Prints
>      'B' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
>      operable program or batch file.
> and PATH is left containing just C;A
> 
> The solution is to quote the entire expression using the syntax
>       SET  "PATH=epicsdir1;epicsdir2;%PATH%"
> in dllPath.bat

Presumably
    PATH "epicsdir1;epicsdir2;%PATH%"
will also work (seems to be OK for me), i.e. I just need to add quotes around the whole generated argument.

I prefer using the slightly shorter PATH command, which also makes it easier for a human to see at first glance that it's adjusting the PATH instead of setting some other variable whose name just begins with PATH.

Done - thanks,

- Andrew

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Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System