The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 4 (of 5)

what is ERRORLEVEL?

Hi all
I'm learning programming with ms-dos, with the idea to move on linux later. Windows programming is quite interesting too.....
I have search on the internet many books about ms-dos, and I'm learning what I should have learned before moving to windows 98. (ms-dos is really powerful)
But I can't really figure out what ERRORLEVEL is. Even reading about it in several manuals. I'm a c programmer, and the definition said "it's a code given by the program"
so is it the number gven by return 0; function in main()??
My intention is to make an interactive batch file using a .com program to get key typed by the user then using ERRORLEVEL to interpret the key typed. (If you have done something similar just tell me how)

By the way, how can ERRORLEVEL be use in windows?

Thanks in advance for any assistance you might be able to provide.

-- Victor NOAGBODJI

Victor
Monday, April 26, 2004

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=what+is+errorlevel

Russell Thackston
Monday, April 26, 2004

Sorry. Meant to give you the link below. Though many of the links returned by Google are helpful.

http://www.robvanderwoude.com/errorlevel.html

Russell Thackston
Monday, April 26, 2004

//I'm learning programming with ms-dos, with the idea to move on linux later. ... (ms-dos is really powerful)

MS-DOS's shell is like a toy comparing to linux's shells. And DOS(not add-ons) just implements a tiny subset of linux's shells commands. Maybe instead of learning MS-DOS, which is almost useless now, you should go straight to start learning linux. You can avoid some confusion too.

Most undergrads learn linux without any prior knowledge of MS-DOS.

S.C.
Monday, April 26, 2004

While we're discussing DOS, I'll mention something I found today:

"Command Prompt Explorer Bar"
http://weblogs.asp.net/robsteel/archive/2004/04/24/119574.aspx

Basically press CTRL-M on any Explorer window, and it pops up an embedded shell window starting at that directory.

Oh, and I agree that Linux shells are much more robust than standard DOS, if that matters.

pds
Monday, April 26, 2004

Thanks for all

Victor
Monday, April 26, 2004