DOS Command Reference 1

Some course materi al on the Teachi ng Network may sti l l use

the command l i ne operati ng system cal l ed DOS (Di sk
Operati ng System). Thi s requi res the user to type speci fi c
commands at a prompt.
You may al so need to use thi s system, for exampl e, when
changi ng your password, and you can enter DOS by choosi ng
'MS-DOS Prompt' from the Publ i c menu on the taskbar.
Commands can be typed i n response to the network DOS
prompt:
G:\>
Commands may be typed i n upper or l ower case. Here, they
are speci fi ed i n upper case to di sti ngui sh them from other
i nput.
Commands have a parti cul ar format. Some can be used
si mpl y by typi ng the command name onl y, as i n:
DIR
whi ch di spl ays a l i sti ng of fi l es i n the current di rectory.
Many commands can take extra i nformati on cal l ed
parameters to make them more speci fi c, For exampl e, the
COPY command can have a parameter speci fyi ng a fi l e to be
copi ed and a parameter speci fyi ng a fi l e to whi ch the copy i s to
be made. So the command woul d l ook l i ke thi s:
COPY filea fileb
I n thi s case, filea woul d be the name of a fi l e to copy from
and fileb woul d be the name of a fi l e to copy to.
Parameters can someti mes be omi tted i n whi ch case a defaul t
acti on wi l l appl y.
Commands can al so be qual i fi ed by the use of opti ons. Opti ons
are preceded by a /si gn. A si mpl e exampl e of the use of an
opti on i s wi th the DIR command. DIR can be qual i fi ed by /P or
/W. Thus the commands:
DIR
DIR /W
DIR /P
resul t i n l i sti ngs presented i n a di fferent format as detai l ed
l ater.
DOS Command Reference
Introduction
Command Format
Parameters
Options
2 DOS Command Reference
Some Useful DOS Commands
Make a copy of a fi l e or merge fi l es together.
COPY original-file destination-file
where original-file and destination-file are fi l e
names, separated by a space.
The command can be used to merge several fi l es i nto one fi l e
si nce the original-file parameter can be a l i st of
fi l enames separated by the + symbol . For exampl e:
COPY file1 + file2 file3
woul d copy fi l e1 and fi l e2 i nto fi l e3.
Note that the fi l e names used i n the copy command must
i ncl ude the fi l e extensi on i f i t exi sts. So i f you were copyi ng a
fortran program cal l ed first.for, for exampl e, you woul d
need to i ncl ude the .for extensi on i n the fi l ename.
Del ete a fi l e.
DEL filename
where filename i s the name of the fi l e to be del eted. You are
asked to confi rm that you real l y want to del ete the fi l e. Note
that the name must i ncl ude the fi l e extensi on.
The amount of space on a di sk i s l i mi ted and i t i s necessary
peri odi cal l y to ti dy up unwanted fi l es. I t i s possi bl e to use a '*'
character i n a fi l ename to match any sequence of characters.
Thi s feature i s very useful when del eti ng unwanted fi l es wi th
i denti cal extensi ons. For exampl e, when devel opi ng
programs,
DEL *.obj
wi l l del ete every bi nary (.obj) fi l e i n the current di rectory.
Si nce an .obj fi l e can al ways be recreated from the ori gi nal
source program, i t i s usual l y unnecessary to keep i t.
Obtai n a l i st of the fi l es stored i n a di rectory.
I f used wi thout opti ons thi s command wi l l gi ve a l i st of fi l es i n
the current di rectory, i ncl udi ng any extensi on (e.g. .for), and
thei r si ze.
I f used wi th the opti on /P, that i s:
DIR /P
The same i nformati on wi l l be di spl ayed page by page wi th the
message:
strike a key when ready
at the end of each page.
COPY
DEL
DIR
DOS Command Reference 3
I f i t i s used wi th the /W opti on, i .e.
DIR /W
the l i sti ng i s of names and extensi ons onl y and i n a more
compact format across the page.
Take a securi ty copy of your worki ng di sk.
I t i s very i mportant to have a second copy of your programs
and data i n case you l ose your di sk or i t becomes unreadabl e
for some reason. Use the DI SKCOPY command as fol l ows:
DISKCOPY A: A:
where A: denotes the dri ve the di sks wi l l be l oaded i nto. When
a copy of your di sk i s generated i n the computer's memory, the
computer tel l s you to remove the fi rst or source di sk and i nsert
the di sk, whi ch i s to become the copy (the target di sk).
I nsert the target di sk and press ENTER. I f the second di sk i s
not formatted i t wi l l be formatted automati cal l y. The source
di sk shoul d be wri te protected usi ng the tab i n the corner i n
case you mi stake i t for the target di sk (see the chapter on
usi ng di sks).
Obtai n a pri nted l i sti ng of a fi l e.
LIST filename
where filename i s the fi l e to be pri nted. I f the pri nter i s busy,
or i f you don't need a pri nted copy, you can use the TYPE
command to vi ew a fi l e on the screen.
You coul d al so use an edi tor such as DOS Edi t to di spl ay a fi l e,
i n whi ch case, as a bonus, you woul d then be i n a posi ti on to
correct any errors you mi ght noti ce. Remember that the fi l e
name must i ncl ude the fi l e extensi on. So i f you want to pri nt
your Pascal program cal l ed first you woul d need to use:
LIST first.pas
Change the name of a fi l e. Thi s command can be abbrevi ated
to REN:
REN oldname newname
where oldname i s the fi l e to be renamed and newname i s the
name i t i s to be gi ven.
Note that fi l es on dri ves other than the current dri ve can be
referred to by prefi xi ng the fi l ename by the rel evant dri ve
l etter, for exampl e:
A:\filename
where the \ refers to the root di rectory of the dri ve.
DISKCOPY
LIST
RENAME
4 DOS Command Reference
Fi l enames can al so i ncl ude di rectori es separated by the \
character as i n:
A:\dir1\dir2\filename
Vi ew a fi l e on the screen.
TYPE filename
where fi l ename i s the name of the fi l e to be di spl ayed on the
moni tor screen. I f you are l ooki ng at a l ong fi l e, you wi l l need
to press the PAUSE key to stop conti nuous scrol l i ng. Press the
space bar to conti nue scrol l i ng when you have read the screen.
To format a fl oppy di sk, pl ace the di sk i n the fl oppy dri ve and
type:
FORMAT A:
Note that by defaul t the di sk wi l l be formatted to hol d about 1.44
megabytes of data.
Warning: formatting will destroy any data on the disk so only
do this once!
DOS Command Listing
I n the fol l owi ng secti on, al ternati ve opti ons are separated by
the ! character. Arguments are opti onal unl ess i n i tal i cs.
cwd stands for Current Worki ng Di rectory.
DOS commands are not case sensi ti ve. Some commands have
swi tches; these must be preceded by a forward sl ash (/).
Pathnames may be preceded by a dri ve l etter as i n
X:pathname and i f no dri ve or pathname i s gi ven the current
di rectory i s assumed.
ATTRI B +!-r +!-a pathname
di spl ay, or set!cl ear Read-onl y or
Archi ve attri bute
BREAK on!off
di spl ay, or turn on!off i ncreased l evel of ^C detecti on
CHDI R (CD) path
di spl ay, or change worki ng di rectory
CHKDSK pathname (A: dri ve onl y)
check di sk or fi l e l ogi cal structure
/f - fi xprobl ems encountered
/v - verbose; di spl ays fi l especs
CLS
cl ear screen
TYPE
FORMAT
DOS Conventions
The Commands
DOS Command Reference 5
COMMAND path cttydev
run nested CLI from path wi th I /O devi ce cttydev
/e:# - set envi ronment si ze #
/p - do not i nvoke another CLI
/c command - run command and then enter
COPY pathname pathname
or
COPY pathname +pathname
copy or concatenate fi l es
/v - veri fy wri tes
/a!b - precedi ng and al l subsequent fi l es are asci i !
bi nary (* fi l enames i n source(s) and target are matched
one-to-one.)
CTTY devi ce
change MS-DOS I /O devi ce
DATE dd-mm-yy
di spl ay and/or set date (numeri cal country-dependent
format)
DEL ! ERASE pathname
del ete fi l e(s) - prompts i f pathname i s *.*
DI R pathname
di spl ay di rectory - fi l ename and/or ext defaul t to *
/p - pagi nate
/w - mul ti -col umn
DI SKCOPY dri ve: dri ve:
copy di sk sector-by-sector rather than fi l e-by-fi l e
EXI T
exi t nested CLI
FI ND string pathname
fi nd and di spl ay l i nes contai ni ng stri ng i n fi l e
/v - l i nes NOT contai ni ng stri ng
/c - count l i nes onl y
/n - di spl ay l i ne numbers al so
FORMAT drive: (A: dri ve onl y)
/1 - si ngl e si ded
/4 - use doubl e rather than hi gh densi ty (40 tracks)
/8 - use 8 sectors of each track
/n:xx - speci fi es xx sectors per track
/t:yy - speci fi es yy tracks
/v - prompt for vol ume l abel , up to 11 characters
/f:720 - format at 720 kb
LABEL dri ve: l abel (A: dri ve onl y)
di spl ay, or edi t vol ume l abel - 11 characters excl udi ng
most speci al s
MKDI R (MD) path
make di rectory
6 DOS Command Reference
MODE
i nteracti vel y confi gure vari ous opti ons
MORE
pagi nates screen output
e.g. type fi l ename | more
PATH path;path;...
di spl ay or set command search path(s) to be used after
cwd
PATH;
resets defaul t to cwd onl y
PROMPT stri ng
reset or set prompt.
Characters (each prefi xed by $) mean:
$=$, t=ti me, d=date, p=cwd, v=versi on, n=dri ve,
g=>, l =<, b=!, _=CRLF, s=l eadi ng space, e=ESC (for
ANSI dri ver)
RENAME (REN)pathname pathname
rename fi l e(s) wi thi n a dri ve - wi l dcards are matched
one-to-one
RMDI R (RD) path
remove empty di rectory
SET vari abl e=text
di spl ay al l , set or cl ear MS-DOS vari abl e - accessed as
%vari abl e%
SHARE
enabl e networked mul ti -access fi l e l ocki ng
/f:nbytes - nbytes per fi l e, need about 20 bytes per fi l e,
defaul t 2048
/l :nl ocks - nl ocks per fi l e, defaul t 20
SORT pathname pathname
sort l i nes of fi l e al phabeti cal l y, i gnori ng case, to fi l e or
stdout; reads stdi n by defaul t
/r - reverse order
/+n - on nth character i n each l i ne, defaul t i s fi rst
SUBST dri ve: path (A: dri ve onl y)
di spl ay substi tuti ons, or substi tute path by vi rtual dri ve
SYS drive: (A: dri ve onl y)
copy hi dden MS-DOS .sys fi l es from defaul t dri ve
TI ME hours:mi nutes
di spl ay and/or set ti me usi ng 24-hour format
TYPE pathname
output contents of a fi l e, wi th tab spaci ng of 8
VER
di spl ay MS-DOS versi on
DOS Command Reference 7
VERI FY on!off
di spl ay, or set!cl ear di sk wri te veri fi cati on
VOL dri ve:
di spl ay di sk vol ume l abel
XCOPY pathname pathname
copy di rectory tree
/a!m - i f archi ve bi t set ! al so cl ears i n source
/d:date- modi fi ed on or after date onl y
/s!e - copy subdi rectori es i f not empty ! even i f empty
/p - prompt
/v - veri fy
/w - wai t for keypress
I f renamed to MCOPY i t determi nes automati cal l y whether
target i s fi l e or di rectory.
Ful l detai l s of al l DOS commands can be seen by fol l owi ng the
command wi th the swi tch /? For exampl e,
DI R /?
gi ves a l i sti ng of al l DI R opti ons.
DOS commands are stored i n a templ ate and previ ous
commands can be recal l ed, character by character enabl i ng
edi ti ng as requi red.
The templ ate i s accessed by the fol l owi ng keys:-
F1 - get next character from templ ate
F2 C - get characters up to but excl udi ng character C
F3 - get remai ni ng characters from templ ate
del - ski p one character i n templ ate
F4 C - ski p characters up to but excl udi ng character C
ESC - cl ear command l i ne
I NS - toggl e overwri ti ng of templ ate
F5 - copy command to templ ate for re-edi ti ng
F6 - put ^Z i n new templ ate
The arrow keys may al so be used to recal l the previ ous
command.
Al l DOS commands may be used i n batch fi l es. Addi ti onal l y,
the fol l owi ng commands are useful for more advanced batch
processes.
Arguments for batch fi l es are accessed as %1 to %9.
ECHO on!off!message
di spl ay echo status, turn echoi ng on!off (defaul t on)
or di spl ay message
FOR %%C I N (SET of i tems) DO command
C i s any character other than 0-9, SET i s e.g. l i st of fi l es
On-Line Command Help
Command Editing
Batch File
Commands
8 DOS Command Reference
GOTO LABEL
LABEL i s any l i ne of text, usual l y preceded by col on (:)
i n fi rst col umn, whi ch makes MS-DOS i gnore i t other
than as a l abel . Termi nates i f l abel not found
I F ERRORLEVEL number command
command executed i f previ ous command returned exi t
code >= number
I F string1 == string2 command
command executed i f stri ngs match
may be negated by NOT before condi ti on
I F EXI ST filename command
command executed i f fi l e exi sts
may be negated by NOT before condi ti on
PAUSE comment
comment di spl ayed onl y i f echo on
REM comment
remark - i gnored by MS-DOS
SHI FT
shi ft arguments - al l ows access to more than 9
Several speci al characters may be used when referri ng to
di rectori es and fi l es:
\ = root di rectory or a di rectory separator
. = current di rectory
.. = parent di rectory
Wi l dcard characters may be used i n fi l enames or extensi ons:
? = any character
* = any tai l or extensi on
X: - swi tches to current worki ng di rectory (cwd) on
dri ve X.
The FC command enabl es compari son of two fi l es:
FC pathname1 pathname2
compare two fi l es, or two wi l dcarded sets of fi l es
/a - abbrevi ate output of ASCI I compari son
/b - force bi nary compari son (byte-by-byte)
/c - i gnore case
/L - force ASCI I compari son (l i ne-by-l i ne)
/Lb# - use l i ne buffer of #l i nes
/n - di spl ay l i ne numbers i n ASCI I mode
/t - do not expand tabs - defaul t expands to spaci ng
of 8
/w - compress whi te space (tabs and spaces) to
si ngl e space (l eadi ng or trai l i ng whi te space
al ways i gnored)
/# - #l i nes must match to re-synchroni ze el se
regarded di fferent (defaul t i s 2)
Special Characters
File Comparison Utility
DOS Command Reference 9
I /O Control
DOS i nput and output may be control l ed by the fol l owi ng
control key sequences. (^ = the CTRL key).
^C - abort current command
^H - destructi ve backspace
^J - l i nefeed - physi cal newl i ne to i nput l ong l i nes
^N - toggl e copyi ng of termi nal output to pri nter
^P - toggl e redi recti on of termi nal output to pri nter
^S - suspend/restart termi nal output
^X - cancel current l i ne, and output \-CR-LF
^Z - end of fi l e
I nput and output from commands or programs can be
redi rected by usi ng the fol l owi ng symbol s:

> send output to...
>> append output to...
< take i nput from...
| pi pe output to next i nput
For exampl e:
pi pe output from command a to i nput of command b:
command a | command b
send a di rectory l i sti ng to fi l e fi l ename:
DI R > fi l ename
DOS i ncl udes a ful l -screen edi tor i nvoked by the EDI T
command (wi th or wi thout a fi l ename). To use thi s edi tor type:
EDI T (filename)
The edi tor provi des pul l -down menus, operated by the
keyboard or mouse, and a hel p faci l i ty. Note that any changes
made to a fi l e overwri tes the ori gi nal , no backup i s created.
I/O Redirection
Using The
DOS Editor