MS-DOS

Microsoft Disk Operating System

Functions of MS-DOS


Booting the Computer Interaction with application programs and their control Interaction with Hardware

DOS Architecture


BIOS (Basic Input Output System) It is

specific to the individual computer and is provided by the manufacturer of the system.

DOS Kernel The Kernel is a software supplied by

Microsoft that provides a collection of Microsoft independent services called the system functions.

Command Processor (Shell) Shell is the user

interface to the operating system. It processes and executes the user commands, including loading and executing of other programs from the disk.

Commands
MS-DOS provides two types of commands

Internal Command These are memory resident command. These are automatically loaded into the computers main memory during the booting process. External Command These are also called disk resident commands. These are found in separate file on the hard disk, so that they dont consume valuable memory space.

Internal Commands


Date displays date and promts to change. Syntax - DATE[mm-dd-yy] Time- displays system time. Syntax TIME CLS shows only the comand prompt. Syntax CLS VER- displays the MS-DOS version number. Syntax - VER

Internal commands


VOL Syntax VOL[drive] DIR Disk Information Report Syntax DIR[drive:] [Path] [file name] [/P] [/W] [/A[[:]attribute]] [/O sort order] Switches /P displays one screen at a time /W displays in wide format

Internal Commands
/A attributes H, -H, S, -S, D, -D, R, -R. /O [:] Sort order N, -N, E, -E, D, -D, S.


COPY CON to create file Syntax COPY CON<file name> MD or MK DIR to create a directory Syntax MKDIR [drive:] path MD [drive:] path

Internal command


TYPE displays the contents of a text file Syntax TYPE [drive:] [path] file name CD or CH DIR displays name of the current directory. Syntax CD [drive:] [path] DEL Syntax DEL [drive:] [path] [file name]/p RMDIR or RD- deletes or removes a directory. Syntax RMDIR [drive:] [path] RD [drive:] [path]

Internal Command


REN to rename a file. Syntax RENAME [drive:] [path] filename1 filename2 COPY Syntax Copy [/y:/-y] source file destination file

External Command


CHKDSK Syntax CHKDSK [drive:] [[path] filename] [/F] [/V] XCOPY Syntax Xcopy source destination [/y /-y] TREE Syntax TREE [drive:] [path] [/f]

External Command


MOVE Syntax MOVE [/Y:/-Y] [drive:] [path] filename ATTRIB- changes attributes Syntax ATTRIB [+R R] [+A A] [+S S] [+H -H] [[drive:][path] filename] DOSKEY Syntax - DOSKEY

External Command


DELTREE Syntax DELTREE [/Y] [drive:] path FIND Syntax FIND [/V] [/C] [/N] [/I] string [[drive:] [path] filename] DISKCOPY Syntax DISKCOPY [drive1: [drive:2]] [/1] [/V]

External Command


PRINT Syntax PRINT [/D: device] FORMAT Syntax FORMAT drive: