Microsoft KB Archive/35937

= Equal-Sign Characters in Environment Variables =

Article ID: 35937

Article Last Modified on 5/12/2003

-

APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft MS-DOS 2.11 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 3.1
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 3.2 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 3.21 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 3.3 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 3.3a
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 4.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 4.01 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 5.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 5.0a
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.2 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.21 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.22 Standard Edition

-



This article was previously published under Q35937



SUMMARY
When using environment variables in MS-DOS, you cannot include an equal sign as a character data/value section in an environment variable. The MS-DOS environment parser uses the equal sign as the delimiter between the name and the value of an environment variable. Thus, trying to set the environment variable &quot;EXRC&quot; to &quot;TABS=4&quot; as follows

set EXRC=TABS=4

would result in a syntax error. In OS/2, it is possible to set this environment variable by using the caret character (^) to &quot;escape&quot; the equal sign. Thus, under OS/2, it is possible to set the environment variable &quot;EXRC&quot; as follows:

set EXRC=TABS^=4

Additional query words: 6.22 2.00 2.10 2.11 2.25 3.00 3.10 3.20 3.22 3.30 3.30A 4.00 5.00 5.00a 6.00 6.20

Keywords: KB35937

-

[mailto:TECHNET@MICROSOFT.COM Send feedback to Microsoft]

© Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.