MK>
  >   sprintf(runme,"CMD.EXE /C HELP.CMD SYS%04u",rc);
MK>

  You know, you could probably code a proper call to DosGetMessage in
  almost the same amount of code.  It wouldn't have all of the hidden
  pitfalls of your current method (such as relying on PATH to be set up
  correctly), and it wouldn't be so s-l-o-w.

MK>
  > runme[strlen(runme) + 1] = 0;
MK>

  I think that you need to take a second look at this line.  (-:

  Here, have an implementation that doesn't need two extra processes
  just to print text from a help file and that is only three lines
  longer than yours :

    void
    ShowHelp (APIRET rc)
    {
        static const char FileName[] = "OSO001H.MSG" ;
        ULONG MsgLength = 0 ;
        char *IvTable[] =  { 0 } ;
        char buf[DECIDE_YOUR_MAXIMUM_BUFFER_SIZE] ;

        if (0 == DosGetMessage(IvTable, 0, buf, sizeof(buf), rc,
                               (char *)FileName, &MsgLength)) {
            cout.write(buf, MsgLength) ;
        } else
            cout << "No help is available for error SYS"
<< rc << endl ;
    }

  > JdeBP <
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