Command: shell / shellhigh
SHELL / SHELLHIGH tells FreeDOS what command shell to run.
SHELL / SHELLHIGH is a CONFIG.SYS / FDCONFIG.SYS command.
Syntax:
shell / shellhigh=[drive][path]filename [options]
drive The drive letter, e.g. C:
path The directory, e.g. \example\
filename The command shell to run. For example,
C:\example\COMMAND.COM
Options:
options These are passed to the command shell.
Comments:
SHELL / SHELLHIGH indicates the shell to use; often used to alter
COMMAND.COM's behavior. Note: it is command.com that processes
AUTOEXEC.BAT; by using the SHELL / SHELLHIGH option, you can get
command.com to process a differently named file (such as FDAUTO.BAT
for coexisting with another DOS using different configuration options)
or run a completely different command interpreter such as 4DOS or a
(UNIX) sh variant.
SHELLHIGH is like SHELL, except it attempts to load the command SHELL
(e.g. 4DOS.COM or COMMAND.COM) into high memory first (failing that
it should load it in conventional memory).
Note for SHELLHIGH: The order you load devices may have a large impact
on amount of free memory available. In general try to load large (in
memory usage) programs into high memory first.
Important for SHELLHIGH: You should have a high memory manager such as
HIMEMX, JEMM386 or JEMMEX installed when using this option.
SHELL / SHELLHIGH is a command internal to kernel.sys and needs no
other file in order to work.
Examples:
IN CONFIG.SYS / FDCONFIG.SYS:
shell=C:\4DOS.COM /E:256 /P
shell=C:\FREEDOS\BIN\command.com C:\FREEDOS\BIN /E:1024
/P=C:\fdauto.bat
OR:
shellhigh=C:\4DOS.COM /E:256 /P
shellhigh=C:\FREEDOS\BIN\command.com C:\FREEDOS\BIN /E:1024
/P=C:\autoexec.bat
See also:
autoexec.bat/fdauto.bat
command.com
config.sys/fdconfig.sys
(fdxms)
(fdxms286)
himemx
jemm386
jemmex
Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall, updated 2011 and 2022 by W. Spiegl.
This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO.
See the file H2Cpying for copying conditions.