How can I check an environment variable in DRDOS/MSDOS batch file? \ VOGONS

How can I check an environment variable in DRDOS/MSDOS batch file?

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First post, by keenerb

Posted on 2021-09-02, 16:15

keenerb Offline

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C:\SET SOMEVAR=1
C:\ECHO %SOMEVAR%
%SOMEVAR%

C:\

Is this even possible in old DOS versions?

Reply 1 of 2, by jakethompson1

Posted on 2021-09-02, 16:47

jakethompson1 Offline

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Are you actually doing it from a .BAT file or from the prompt? It will work from inside the .BAT file. If I remember right, the % notation working at the interactive prompt wasn't added until Windows 95 (possibly for better compatibility with NT cmd?)

Reply 2 of 2, by Gmlb256

Posted on 2021-09-02, 16:57

Gmlb256 Offline

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A way to check every DOS environment set is just to type SET.

You can use the MORE command like this in case there are too many:

1SET | MORE

So it would prompt you to press a key to continue if the height of the screen gets exceeded.

If MORE is not available then you can use ECHO to output the information into a file:

1SET > ENV.TXT

For batch files you could use something like this:

1IF "%SOMEVAR%"=="1" ECHO SOMEVAR IS SET
2IF "%SOMEVAR%"=="0" ECHO SOMEVAR IS NOT SET

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