Re: M-x shell does not work on Windows when default-directory too long

[Jason Rumney]

Michael Schierl <schierlm-usenet@gmx.de> writes:

> Start Emacs with -q.
>
> Open an existing file with a long path (e.g. 
> "c:/temp/deepdir/deepdir/deepdir/deepdir/deepdir/deepdir/deepdir/deepdir/deepdir/foo.txt").
>  
>
> Press M-x shell RET
>
> A shell window will appear but there is nothing in it - no prompt no
> nothing. Entered Commands will not have any effects.

>                      "COMSPEC=C:\\WINDOWS\\COMMAND.COM"))

Thank you for your report. Unfortunately COMMAND.COM is not Free
Software, so the Emacs developers cannot do anything about its
limitations. I tried to reproduce this with CMD.EXE (the native shell
of NT and its derivatives), and it does not happen, so it would appear
that COMMAND.COM is the source of the problem.