EXPAND environment variable

[bigfatroundguy]

Does anyone know the effect that the following command has within an Autoexec.bat file:

set EXPAND=YES

It is typically found on bootdisks and I googled everywhere and found nothing

[ssmokee]

Does anyone know the effect that the following command has within an Autoexec.bat file:

set EXPAND=YES

It is typically found on bootdisks and I googled everywhere and found nothing

Looks like it is just setting an environment variable. What it does exactly depends on who wrote the config.sys and autoexec.bat files.

[bigfatroundguy]

I continue to tinker...

I have removed the set EXPAND=YES and it seems to have no impact on my autoexec.bat successfully decompressing (using extract) the ebd.cab file onto a ramdisk (i tried several commands without issue).

If this environment variable served a purpose at one time, it certainly isn't obvious what purpose it serves now.

[os2fan2]

expand itself does not use any environment variables.

You might try doing something like grepping for "SET EXPAND" in your batch files, eg

grep -i "set expand" *.bat

DOS, Windows, or expand is not going to fall over because EXPAND is not in the environment. I suspect it's a woofy setup proggie that stuck it in there, but forgot to clean up after itself

woof = sound of dog (ie it's a dog of a program). it refers to an correct implementation of a bad design [which is not a bug]. A dog of a program has lots of bad design faults, whether or not it is buggy as well.

W

[HyperHacker]

How do you grep in Windows though?

I think it has to do with the replacement of environment variables with their contents in various places.

[os2fan2]

you could download a grep.exe from somewhere.

Semware Editor comes with one, as does the Resource Kits. you can search for lots of other freeware ones. Findstr.exe from Winnt 4.0 or the Win98 resource kit works under Windows 9x.

W