Really?

[RocketCityElectromagnetics]

"Enables the command extensions... " For real? How about explaining what command extensions are or even a link (anchor) to what command extensions are. This is beyond absurd. Whoever wrote this must have intended to be aleck.

---

Document Details

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• ID: 2c1319ea-20fb-948f-dc98-622d106439ca
• Version Independent ID: d8e5fe91-62d8-1565-f625-dbde41df0dec
• Content: setlocal
• Content Source: WindowsServerDocs/administration/windows-commands/setlocal.md
• Product: windows-server
• Technology: manage-windows-commands
• GitHub Login: @coreyp-at-msft
• Microsoft Alias: coreyp

[ghost]

Please note that this makes sense to most people learning in detail how the operating system works in a command line environment.

Regarding your suggestion to explain what command extensions are; it is a topic unto itself and can have different meanings to different people, depending on their scenario. In some scenarios, it can be interpreted to mean any file you can open by entering the file name (without the extension) to open that file in its current default application. In other scenarios, it can mean any script file you can run like a command within the setlocal / endlocal environment.

I recommend reading more about the topic by doing a web search and see if you can find the information you require to understand the concept:

• https://www.bing.com/search?q=command+extensions
• https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&q=command+extensions

If your experience still urges you to say that the documentation needs to be improved, please post again with suggestions on how to add proper, factual information and suggestions on where it fits within the already existing information on the page.

Thank you for wanting to improve the documentation. Appreciated.

[KalleOlaviNiemitalo]

Command Extensions is a mode of the cmd command interpreter that changes the behavior of variable expansion and of many internal commands. These changes are described in the documentation of each command. The cmd documentation topic has a list of affected commands, although it fails to mention the date and time commands. The assoc, color, and ftype commands are not available at all if Command Extensions are disabled.

[ghost]

Thank you for pointing out the details which could be added to improve the article. I notice that the commands date and time have got their own pages, but I also appreciate your point that setlocal affects those commands and that the details should be mentioned.

[KalleOlaviNiemitalo]

To be clear, I suggest these changes:

• In the setlocal topic, refer to the cmd topic for information about Command Extensions. Place this above the "Testing for command extensions in batch files" remark.
• In the cmd topic, mention that setlocal is another way to enable or disable Command Extensions. Place this somewhere near "You can disable command extensions for a particular process by using /e:off."
• In the cmd topic, add date and time to the list of commands affected by Command Extensions.
• In the color topic, add a note saying that the command is not available from PowerShell, but the BackgroundColor and ForegroundColor properties of $ExecutionContext.Host.UI.RawUI can be set instead.
• In the assoc, color, and ftype topics, say that cmd does not recognize these commands if Command Extensions are disabled. Place these near the notes that say these commands are not available from PowerShell.

[KalleOlaviNiemitalo]

Command Extensions is a mode of the cmd command interpreter that changes the behavior of variable expansion and of many internal commands.

By "internal commands", I mean commands that run within the cmd process, as opposed to external commands that run as separate processes and have their own .exe files.

[ghost]

Point taken, fair point. I will start a PR to suggest those changes.

[ghost]

There you go. PR #4461 is now available for review, comments, and suggestions. Feel free to join in.

[RocketCityElectromagnetics]

Thank you. Very much appreciated. I am of the generation that has been coding since the 80's, and I never saw the concept of command extensions until around the turn of the new millennnium, and it seems there is confusion among the creators of the concept about just what it means and exactly what are its impact -- what functionality is added, what functionality is removed, and there is terribly inconsistency in the industry on which built-in functions behave differently with commadn extensions -- terrible, terrible, genuinely awful consistency. Thank you for any and all effort to try to better clarify Microsoft's intent for command extensions. Perhaps some day soon we will even see greater consistency in built-ins conforming to the rules set for command extensions by Microsoft. I am, however, thankful that MS hasnt alltogther abandoned classic command line and batch and forced migration to exclusively PowerShell. While PowerSheel certainly brings greater capability, I'd almost rather resort to Tcl than deal with the exact syntax of the myriad of commands in PS though in modern times, I do realize we have IntelliSense/Code-completion and a vast information super highway to misguide us for hours and weeks on end. Before creating artifical intelligence, I'd like to see us preserve what little human intelligence and rebuild more of the human intelligence that has quickly faded in the past century and at an exponential rate as we see in the madness in all contexts and all cultures over the past decade.

[ghost]

Thank you for the nice words. As a former computer support agent and onsite technician, I am mostly driven by troubleshooting and general software, installation and maintenance knowledge. I see what you are saying, but as a hobby linguist and in the light of cynicism, it is far too easy to imagine that the future will be dictated by money, might, or the masses of mainstream people. We can only hope for the better.

[KalleOlaviNiemitalo]

Perhaps some day soon we will even see greater consistency in built-ins conforming to the rules set for command extensions by Microsoft.

I'm not sure what rules you refer to. Anyway, because cmd is in maintenance mode, I don't think Microsoft will make any changes to the syntax of its built-in commands.

Surprisingly, command extensions are currently at version 2:

C:\>IF CMDEXTVERSION 1 (ECHO yes) ELSE (ECHO no)
yes

C:\>IF CMDEXTVERSION 2 (ECHO yes) ELSE (ECHO no)
yes

C:\>IF CMDEXTVERSION 3 (ECHO yes) ELSE (ECHO no)
no

SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS and CMD /E:ON don't seem to provide a way to select a different version of command extensions. I wonder when version 2 was added, and how it differs from version 1.

[ghost]

SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS and CMD /E:ON don't seem to provide a way to select a different version of command extensions. I wonder when version 2 was added, and how it differs from version 1.

I tried searching the web for clues to an answer to your question. This is one of the hits I found:

https://github.com/imatix/gsl/blob/master/src/c.bat#L21-L30

:-  Start CMD.EXE version detection
verify other 2>nul
setlocal enableextensions
if errorlevel 0 goto __cmd_ok
echo %0: This command requires command extensions version 2 in CMD.EXE.  
echo %0: Please use a supported system (Windows 2000 or newer).
exit
:__cmd_ok
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
:-  End CMD.EXE version detection

I know this is fairly anecdotal, but maybe it could help a bit with any future research you might want to do for that question.

[RocketCityElectromagnetics]

Very interesting. Thank you.

[ghost]

Sorry for the lack of changes. The page was updated externally, making me lose the overview of what to keep and what to drop from my own changes. I ended up choosing to close the PR and delete the fork I had created, making it necessary to start over from scratch. I plan to make a new PR when I get my next day off.

[ghost]

Note to myself: https://sive.rs/zipit

[ghost]

(ref. #5409 )