DOCUMENT:Q63071  17-DEC-2000  [msdos]
TITLE   :Only First 8 Characters in a Batch Label Recognized
PRODUCT :Microsoft Disk Operating System
PROD/VER:MS-DOS:4.01,5.x,6.0,6.2,6.21,6.22
OPER/SYS:
KEYWORDS:

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The information in this article applies to:

 - Microsoft MS-DOS operating system versions 4.01, 5.0, 5.0a, 6.0, 6.2, 6.21, 6.22 
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SUMMARY
=======

MS-DOS recognizes only the first eight characters of a batch file label;
subsequent characters are ignored.

NOTE: This eight-character limitation also applies to the %config% variable
passed to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file in MS-DOS versions 6.0 or later when you use
multi-boot configurations.

For example, the labels LATESTCHANGE and LATESTCHANGES are identical to MS- DOS.
The line "GOTO LATESTCHANGE" (without the quotation marks) transfers to the
first label in the file that has same first eight characters as LATESTCHANGE.

MORE INFORMATION
================

The following examples illustrate this limitation.

Example 1
---------

The following example

   goto latestch
   : latestchanges
   echo two
   : latestch
   echo three

displays the following

   two
   three

rather than displaying the following:

   three

Example 2
---------

The following example

   :latestch
   echo zero
   :latestchanges
   echo one
   goto latestchanges

displays the following until CTRL+C is pressed, terminating the batch file:

   zero
   one
   zero
   one
   zero
   one
   etc.

Additional query words: 6.22 4.01 5.00 5.00a 6.00 6.20 multiboot

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Keywords          :  
Technology        : kbMSDOSSearch kbMSDOS621 kbMSDOS622 kbMSDOS620 kbMSDOS600 kbMSDOS500 kbMSDOS401 kbMSDOS500a
Version           : MS-DOS:4.01,5.x,6.0,6.2,6.21,6.22

=============================================================================

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