[Info-vax] Foreign commands ... newbie question

[Bob Koehler]

In article <2ac640bb-b043-4eb6-b15a-9b001ed8be29 at h39g2000prh.googlegroups.com>, Jojimbo <jjgessling at gmail.com> writes:
> 
> What did I just run?  Seems some clever person put c.com in the front
> of dcl$path.  What it
> does I have no knowledge or desire to figure it out.  I think dcl$path
> is way too dangerous
> to be set in an environment like our with too many user with SYSPRV.

   Do a dir dcl$path:*.com,.exe and see what file it found first.  When
   DCL$PATH is defined, entering a wildcard causes DCL to search for and
   run the first match.

   Which is why my DCL$PATH starts with a directory that holds $.com,
   and $.com contains an appropriate error message about trying to
   do everything all at once.  Then it exists with status %X00038008.

   Of course, $.com doesn't match %%, but I'm not likely to type those
   two characters and return all in one typo.