Developer(s) | IBM, Microsoft |
---|---|
Initial release | December 1987 |
Operating system | OS/2, Windows |
Type | Command |
In
computing, dpath
is an internal
cmd.exe
command on
IBM
OS/2
[1] and
Microsoft
Windows
[2]
[3] that allows using a set of files with the
TYPE
command and with
input redirection as if they are in the current directory. On Windows it is undocumented and deprecated. dpath
differs from the
append
command in the way it operates. dpath
informs programs what directories they should search in order to find
computer files. It is then up to the applications to recognize %DPATH%
. Using the append
command on the other side, programs are able to find files without recognizing that the command is in effect.
In
DOS the append
command allows programs to open data files in specified directories as if they were in the
current directory. Since
Windows NT this is not working as the cmd.exe introduced command processor extensions and append
become redundant. Despite this the executable was and is still available in
32-bit versions of Windows. Anyway, the command relied on %DPATH%
environment variable, which can be edited with the dpath
command. In the modern Windows installations only the dpath
command is working despite the help message still is pointing to the append
command.
[4]
[5]
DPATH pathname [;pathname] [;pathname] [;pathname]... DPATH DPATH ; pathname : drive letter and/or folder ; : the command 'DPATH ;' will clear the path
Without parameters the will display the current list of the directories.
Editing %DPATH%
environment variable also can be used.
DPATH /? will print the append
command help message.
Input redirection: [4]
C:\>echo hello>c:\test\in.txt
C:\batch>type c:\test\in.txt
hello
C:\>dir /a /b
C:\>set /p var=<in.txt
The system cannot find the file specified.
C:\>set var
Environment variable var not defined
C:\>dpath c:\test;
C:\>set /p var=<in.txt
C:\>set var
var=hello
With TYPE command: [5]
C:\>echo hello>c:\test\in.txt
C:\batch>type c:\test\in.txt
hello
C:\>dir /a /b
C:\>set /p var=<in.txt
The system cannot find the file specified.
C:\>type in.txt
hello