China DOS Union

The EDIT.EXE file is properly placed in the DOS directory, so why still can't it be used???

What error appears when you run it?

It just says it's a bad command.

I know you have a way to solve it )

That's probably because the PATH wasn't set to the DOS path.

Heh, I still don't understand what PATH is for. Could you explain it in detail? Thank you.

Add this line in autoexec.bat:
path=%PATH%;c:\dos
%PATH% refers to the original path, so the newly added path won't overwrite the original one.

Or try typing C:\DOS\EDIT at the command line.

Thanks to both of you, the problem is solved.
What other uses does PATH have?

PATH is generally used like this. For example, PATH C:\DOS;D:\DOS sets C:\DOS and D:\DOS as the two search paths.

So after this statement is added, whenever a command is executed, the system will search the set paths to see whether they contain that command file; if not it skips it, and if yes it executes it??

Exactly.

I've seen other people type PATH directly at the command line without modifying AUTOEXEC.BAT. What's the idea behind that?

AUTOEXEC.BAT is a batch file, that is, a collection of command-line commands, so of course you can also enter PATH directly at the command line. But note that MS-DOS 6.22 does not support entering %PATH% directly at the command line, while MS-DOS 7.10 does support it (after all, it's a newer version!).

If you enter it at the command line, then after the system restarts wouldn't the previous action become ineffective?
And as that gentleman just said, if you don't add %PATH% it will overwrite what was there before, so if you just use PATH directly
wouldn't that overwrite some commands?