Path

Format:		PATH [{<dir>}] [ADD] [SHOW] [RESET] [QUIET] [REMOVE] [HEAD]
Template:	PATH/M,ADD/S,SHOW/S,RESET/S,REMOVE/S,HEAD/S,QUIET/S
Purpose:	To control the directory list that the shell searches to find
		commands.
Path:		Internal
Specification:	PATH lets you see, add to, or change the search path that
	AmigaDOS follows when looking for a command or program to execute.
	When a directory is in the search path, you no longer need to specify
	the complete path to any files or subdirectories within that 
	directory. You can just enter the filename, and AmigaDOS will look 
	through the directories in the search path until it finds the file.

Enter the PATH command alone, or with the SHOW option, and the directory names
in the current search path will be displayed. Normally, when PATH is
displaying the directory names, a requester appears if a volume that is part
of the search path cannot be found. For instance, if you added a floppy disk
to the search path, then removed that disk from the disk drive, a requester
would ask you to insert the disk.

If you specify the QUIET option, PATH will not display requesters for volumes
that are not currently mounted. If PATH encounters an unmounted volume, it
simply displays the apropriate error code, but continues with the listing.

The ADD option specifies directory names to be added to the current PATH.
You can add as many directories a time as you wish; the ADD keyword is
optional. Names of the directories must be separated by at least one space.
When you issue the PATH command, AmigaDOS searches for each of the ADDed
directories.

Directories within the PATH are searched in the order they appeared on
the command line, with new PATH components added to the tail of the PATH
list. That is, commands in a former PATH directory override those in a latter
directory because they are found first when the Shell searches for commands.

If you specify the HEAD keyword, however, new directories are added the HEAD
of the PATH, to be searched first for commands.

To replace the existing search path with a completely new one, use PATH RESET
followed by the names of the directories. The exisitng search path, except for
the current directory and C:, is then erased and the new one is substituted.

The REMOVE option eliminates the named directory from the search path.

Examples:

1> PATH EXTRAS2.0:Tools ADD

adds the Tools directory on the Extras2.0 disk to the search path of the
Shell. If the Extras2.0 disk is not in a disk drive, a requester will ask
you to insert it in any drive.

If you remove Extras2.0 from the drive, and type

1> PATH

a list of directories in the search path will be displayed. A requester will
ask you to insert Extras2.0. However, if you had typed:

1> PATH QUIET

THe list of directores in the search path will be displayed; however, when the
path comes to Extras2.0:Tools, only an error message 

device (or volume) is not mounted

will appear in the list.


If you use two different versions of the "cmp" program, one residing in 
SYS:Tools and another in SYS:Compiler/bin, and you add only the former
directory to the path in the User-Startup by

PATH SYS:Tools ADD

only "SYS:Tools/Cmp" will be used whenever you run the "cmp" program
from the shell. Even if you enlarge the path manually by

1> PATH SYS:Compiler/bin ADD

the "SYS:Tools/Cmp" program gets used because the new directory is added
to the tail of the directory list making up the PATH, and "SYS:Tools/Cmp"
is found before "SYS:Compiler/bin" is searched for another "cmp" program.

However, would you have specified

1> PATH SYS:Compiler/bin ADD HEAD

the directory "SYS:Compiler/bin" would have been added in front of 
"SYS:Tools", and hence the Shell would have looked there first. Therefore,
"Cmp" would then refer to "SYS:Compiler/Cmp" rather than "SYS:Tools/Cmp"
because it is found first.


See also: ASSIGN