Article ID: 33449
Article Last Modified on 11/16/2006
APPLIES TO
- 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 Q33449
SYMPTOMS
You receive an "out of environment space" error.
CAUSE
The "out of environment space" error can occur when there are many set commands or a long path statement in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
RESOLUTION
You can change the available environment space by putting the following line in the CONFIG.SYS file:
shell=c:\command.com /e:<size> /p
To set the environment to 256 bytes, use one of the following lines:
MS-DOS Version Configuration Command
---------------------------------------------
3.00 or 3.10 shell=command.com /e:16 /p
3.20 or later shell=command.com /e:256 /p
MORE INFORMATION
The /e:<size> parameter specifies the environment size, where <size> is the size in bytes or in multiples of 16 bytes.
The term "paragraph" is used to refer to these 16 bytes.
For MS-DOS versions 3.0 and 3.1, size is in multiples of 16 bytes that you want to reserve for the MS-DOS environmental variables, ranging from 10 to 62 paragraphs (160 to 992 bytes).
For MS-DOS versions 3.2 and later, the size is the actual number of bytes, ranging from 160 to 32,768 bytes. MS-DOS rounds the specified size up to the next logical paragraph boundary.
For MS-DOS versions 3.2x, 3.3x, 4.0, 4.01, and 4.01a, the default size is 160 bytes.
For MS-DOS version 5.0 and later, the default size is 256 bytes.
NOTE: Attempting to use the /e:<size> parameter without the forward slash (/) results in the following error message at bootup:
Additional query words: 6.22 3.00 3.10 3.20 3.30 3.30a 4.00 4.01 4.01a 5.00 5.00a 6.00 6.20
Keywords: KB33449
