Q51768: spawn Ignores arg0 with DOS 3.00 and Later

Article: Q51768
Product(s): See article
Version(s): 5.10
Operating System(s): MS-DOS
Keyword(s): ENDUSER | S_QuickC S_QuickASM | mspl13_c
Last Modified: 16-JAN-1990

Question:

Why is arg0 ignored when I use a spawn command under DOS?

Response:

Under DOS Versions 3.00 and later, the first argument (arg0) is used
to hold the path and name of the program. The third parameter in a
spawn command is arg0. Regardless of what you specify arg0 to be, DOS
passes the path and name of the program to the child function. Under
DOS 2.x, arg0 is not defined.

Under OS/2, this is not the case; arg0 is passed as specified with the
spawn command.

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