Windows & DOS: Issues & Discussions

This approach will not work if you have a directory that have spaces in the path.

Code:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users

To move from a mapped drive, for instance, to a profile directory you would need to use cd or chdir with the "/D" switch and encase the path with quotation marks.

Code:

chdir /D "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users"

Therefore my example gives the best way to accomplish the task and keep the typing to a minimum.

Using the "set" command is not, in my opinion, a very efficient way for an alias to be created or used. Simply because of the way it needs to be typed on the command line or in a script. Also you can't use arguments with it.

Code:

C:> set dira="chdir /D $1"

C:> %dira% "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users"

The above command will not work. It would work if you only used the command with no argument capture but what would be the point? The whole idea of an alias is to be able to create a command with options and arguments without having to type the entire command every time you want to use it. In these examples we are using "dira." I count 4 characters. To use the "set" method you would be typing 6 characters to produce the same command if you were to use DosKey to produce the alias.

Code:

C:> set dira=chdir /D

C:> %dira% "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users"

The "set" command, in my opinion, should only be used to store variables.

Carlos, your idea of using doskey is perfect. approach with set command is one of teh ways that we can achieve that..!!

on the chdir usage, i thought you are trying to switch drives often, i dien't realize that you switch to different directory paths.. overlook!

/ilan