On 3/29/07, John Embretsen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
That is correct. The %PATH% syntax is a convenient way to refer to the current value of PATH on the command line when you set the new value. This is useful because when you use set PATH=... you reset the entire PATH variable to whatever is on the right-hand side of the equality. If you do an 'echo %PATH%' after setting 'set PATH=whatever;%PATH%' you will see that the command shell has expanded %PATH% to whatever value it had at that time. When you use the Control Panel (System Properties) way of setting environment variables, the current value is already there, so you simply edit it (add whatever you want to add) to get the result you want. I don't think using the %variable% syntax even works outside of the command shell. Some documentation on this (for Win XP) is available at http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/path.mspx?mfr=true (look for "Using environment variables with Cmd.exe").
Thanks John. I really appreciate the clarification :-) -- Laura Stewart
