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 shell(CMD)                      19 June 1992                      shell(CMD)


 Name

    shell - specify name and location of the command interpreter you want
    MS-DOS to use

 Syntax


    shell=[[drive:]path]filename [parameters]


 Description

    If you want to use your own command interpreter (instead of COMMAND.COM),
    you can specify its name by adding a shell command to your CONFIG.SYS
    file.

 Parameters


    [[drive:]path]filename
                  Specifies the location and name of the command interpreter
                  you want MS-DOS to use.

    parameters    Specifies any command-line parameters or switches that can
                  be used with the specified command interpreter.


 Notes


    Default setting

    The default command interpreter for MS-DOS is COMMAND.COM.  If you do not
    use a shell command in your CONFIG.SYS file, MS-DOS searches for
    COMMAND.COM in the root directory of your startup drive.  You need to use
    the shell command if you want to specify a COMMAND.COM file that is not
    in the root directory or if you do not want to use the default environ-
    ment size for COMMAND.COM.  For information about COMMAND.COM switches,
    see the command(CMD) command.

    Using switches with a command interpreter

    The shell command itself does not accept any switches, but if the command
    interpreter does, you can include them on the shell command line.

 Examples

    Suppose the file NEWSHELL.COM is in a directory named BIN on your startup
    drive, and suppose you want to use NEWSHELL.COM as your command inter-
    preter.  To do this, add the following command to your CONFIG.SYS file:

       shell=\bin\newshell.com


    Suppose you add the line shell=newcmdp.com to your CONFIG.SYS file, and
    suppose the NEWCMDP.COM command interpreter accepts the switches /c, /p,
    and /e.  You can now use any of these switches on the shell command line.
    Thus, the following command would be valid:

       shell=newcmdp.com /c /p /e


    The shell command is the preferred method of using command to increase
    the size of the environment.  To increase the environment size to 512
    bytes, add the following command to your CONFIG.SYS file:

       shell=command.com /e:512 /p


    To start an MS-DOS command interpreter located in the directory OLD on
    drive C, add the following command to your CONFIG.SYS file:

       shell=c:\old\command.com c:\old /e:256 /p