[Solved] How Do I Check If a Program is in the Execution Path?

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Dell / DIMENSION 2400

Dos Batch

MS-DOS

environment variables

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sburtchin February 5, 2012 at 01:05:34 Pacific
Specs: MS-DOS 7.10, Pentium 4 / 1GB

I need to do this from an MS-DOS 7.10 boot floppy. I'm thinking something like:
SET Found=FALSE
FOR %%i IN (%PATH%) DO IF EXIST %%i\MYPROG.EXE SET Found=TRUE
IF '%Found%' == 'FALSE'                                                 GOTO ERRMSGnn
I haven't tested this yet, but is there a better more direct way?

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IVO February 5, 2012 at 03:34:18 Pacific

Under MS DOS 7.1 I can't suggest a better way, just code
SET Found=FALSE
FOR %%i IN (%PATH%) DO IF EXIST %%i.\MYPROG.EXE SET Found=TRUE
IF "%Found%"=="FALSE" ...
where %%i. takes care of paths like C:\ while working fine with no backslash suffixed ones too and avoid spaces around == in IF statement (use double quotes to embrace members).

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sburtchin February 5, 2012 at 17:46:52 Pacific

That's what I expected. Thanks for the tip about using the dot.
Do you have an example of how the single quote or spaces could cause a problem? I've seen it both ways, and in more confusing ways too. I remember reading long ago that one was superior to the other but can't remember where or why.

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IVO February 6, 2012 at 07:40:24 Pacific

Double quotes are THE RULE for IF statement and should always be coded even if their occurrence seems not requested. The ' may lead to error if the variable/string after expanded contains a quote (rare but not impossible, e.g. Joe's_Report.doc).
To avoid spaces before and after == (or = in SET) is THE RULE too since again spaces may cause mismatch when strings have leading or trailing blanks.

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sburtchin February 20, 2012 at 21:24:44 Pacific