CONFIG.SYS - SET Statements

The Config.sys Documentation Project
BASEDEV Statements CALL Statements DEVICE Statements IFS Statements OS/2 Commands DOS Commands RUN Statements SET Statements PSD Statements Other Information Programs Hardware List of Statements

Environment variables are stored by OS/2 in memory and can be called by any program. They are used by many programs to store information (for example, the install path) or some configuration information. If you want to see a list of all installed environment variables and their values, type "Set" in an OS/2 window. If the list is too long, you can redirect the screen output to a file, simply type this:

SET >output.txt

General Tips

Note that SET commands in CONFIG.SYS behave differently than when entered on the command line.

So, when you issue the following commands in a OS/2 session:

SET TEMP=C:\TMP
SET TMP=%TEMP%

you get:

TEMP=C:\TMP
TMP=C:\TMP

But, if you add the same lines to CONFIG.SYS:

SET TEMP=C:\TMP 
SET TMP=%TEMP%

you get:

TEMP=C:\TMP
TMP=%TEMP%

but not TMP=C:\TMP. The environment variable TMP now has the value composed by the letters "%", "T", "E", "M", "P", "%". For that reason, in CONFIG.SYS, you must write the values explicitly as follows:

SET TEMP=C:\TMP
SET TMP=C:\TMP

This is because variables are not expanded during CONFIG.SYS processing, but they are when run from a shell (command line).

Base Operating System

• COMSPEC
• COPYFROMFLOPPY
• C1
• DESKTOP
• DEVICEFONTDISABLED
• DIRCMD - dir command options
• DISPLAYTYPE
• DPATH - search path for data files
• ENH_STRETCH - enhanced stretch-blitting
• ENH_SUSPEND - enhanced suspend option
• GRADD_CHAINS
• GREEXT
• KEYS - command line history
• LANG - country-specific settings
• OS2_SHELL - command line shell
• PATH - search path for executable files
• PROMPT - OS/2 session prompt appearance.
• ULSPATH
• VIDEO_DEVICES
• VIO_MGA
• VIO_SVGA

PM

• BACKGROUNDBITMAP
• BACKGROUNDBITMAP2
• BACKGROUNDBITMAPDELAY
• BACKGROUNDBITMAPDELAY2
• PM ASYNC FOCUS CHANGE
• PM_DYNAMIC_DRAG
• PM_ROLLUP_BUTTON
• SYSTEM_INI - Tells the system the path and name of the System INI file.
• USER_INI

Help Manager

• BOOKSHELF - help manager search path for book shelves
• GLOSSARY

Workplace Shell

• AUTOREFRESHFOLDERS - automatic refresh of folders
• AUTOSTART - autostart of objects
• SOMIR

WarpCenter

• MENUSFOLLOWPOINTER - WarpCenter menu behaviour
• SCCANBENUKED - Allows the Warpcenter to have a delete option on its context menu.
• SCFINDUTILITY - Use a different search program in the Warpcenter.
• SCKILLCONFIRMDISABLED - Avoid the "Are you sure ..." dialogue if using the Warpcenter kill feature.
• SCKILLFEATUREENABLED - Enables Warpcenter window list Warpcenter Window List as an application killer.
• SCUSEPRETTYCLOCK - Change the look of the Warpcenter clock.

Multimedia

• DSPPATH
• MMBASE

Programming Environments

Toolkit

• CPREF
• GPIREF
• INCLUDE - Include directory
• IPF_KEYS - IPF key definitions
• LIB - Points to directories where lib files are stored.
• MMREF - Defines which files should be shown in the Multimedia Programming Reference.
• PMREF
• WPSREF

OS/2 SOM

• SMADDSTAR
• SMCLASSES
• SMEMIT
• SMINCLUDE - Defines the directories where the special SOM header files are stored.
• SMNOTC
• SMTMP - Points to a directory used to store temporary files.

SOMobjects

• AVLSVRNAME
• SOMBASE
• SOMDDEBUG
• SOMDIR
• SOMDMESSAGELOG
• SOMDPORT
• SOMDTIMEOUT
• SOMRUNTIME
• SOMSOCKETS
• SOMTHREADPEER

Java Run-time

• CLASSPATH - Java run-time classpath
• SWING_HOME - Swing run-time

Networking

LAPS

• ADAPTER_NIF
• DLSINI
• ETC
• HARDWAREBITBLT
• HOME
• HOSTNAME
• I18NDIR
• LANINSTEP
• NLSPATH

Global Security Runtime

• IKEYMAN_HOME
• IKEYMAN40_HOME
• IKEYMAN50_HOME

• INIT_FILE_NAMES
• INIT_FILE_RANGES
• IPFC

• LIBC_HOOK_DLLS

• LOCPATH - Points to the location of the language files.
• LOGFILES
• LOGNAME
• MGA - Matrox graphic cards directory
• MANPATH
• MENUSTYLE - context menu entries
• MFSCACHE - mobile file sync

• MMSTREAM
• MMTYPESEXTS
• MMVWRLOG
• MMWPSLOG
• MMYIELD
• NCDEBUG
• NETVIEW_PATH - Defines the path where the SystemView client is installed.
• NEWNOTEBOOKS

• NNTPSERVER
• NSPR_OS2_NO_HIRES_TIMER
• NOLARGENTEXEICON
• NWDBPATH
• OBJECTSNOOZETIME

• PROGRAMS - Define the path for program installation.

• PSIDATADIR
• PNHOSTNAME

• QUEUE_SIZE_THRESHOLD
• RESTARTOBJECTS
• RUNWORKPLACE

• SHAPIEXCEPTIONHANDLER
• SHELLEXCEPTIONHANDLER - Disable the WPS exception handler.
• SHELLHANDLESINC - Increases the number of file handles.

• SMG_PATH - Used by the IBM AO-Manager.
• SMG_Pl2NlG - Used by the IBM AO-Manager.
• SOURCEPATH

• SRVNAME1 - Used for remote installations of OS/2.

TCP/IP

• TCPLANG - Sets the Language for TCP/IP V4.x.
• TELNET.PASSWORD.ID - Sets a password for the telnet daemon (Telnetd).
• TEMP - Define a directory were OS/2 and programs can store temporarily files.
• TIMESYNC
• TMP - Define a directory were OS/2 and programs can store temporarily files.
• TMPDIR - Define a directory were OS/2 and programs can store temporarily files.
• TZ - Timezone information.
• USE_HOSTS_FIRST
• USER
• VCFG_NO_DDC
• WPS_COMMUNICATION

EMX

• INFOPATH - Info files stored.
• LIBRARY_PATH - EMX library path

Check also CONFIG.SYS - SET Statements (Additional software).