Descriptive DOS Command

Descriptive DOS Command

attrib

Change or view the attributes of one or more files. It defaults to displaying the attributes of all files in the current directory.

Options:

• To add an attribute attach a '+' in front of it.

• To remove an attribute attach a '-' in front of it

• Attributes include

o A - Archived (used mainly by file archiving software)

o H - Hidden

o S - System

o R - Read-only

SYNTAX:

attrib [+|-ahrs] [filespec]

Descriptive DOS Command   cd or chdir   Change current directory.   SYNTAX: cd directory                   Descriptive DOS Command   chkdsk   Verifies a hard disk or a floppy disk for file system integrity.   Options: • /F : Fixes errors on the disk • /V : Displays the full path and name of every file on the disk   SYNTAX: chkdsk drive [[path]filename] [/F] [/V]           Descriptive DOS Command   cls   This command Clears the screen.   SYNTAX: cls                   Descriptive DOS Command   copy   Copies files from one location to another. The destination defaults to the current directory. If multiple source files are indicated, the destination must be a directory, or an error will result.   SYNTAX: copy filespec [destination]   Files may be copied to devices (e.g. "copy file lpt1" would send the file to the printer on lpt1. "copy file con" would output to screen, which would be the same as type.   Most useful to note that "copy file.txt+file2.txt > file_cat.txt" will concatenate the files and output them as file_cat.txt.       Descriptive DOS Command   copy device   SYNTAX: copy device filename   In this usage, data is written from the given device to the file until the end-of-file character (ASCII character 26, which may be typed as ctrl-Z) is encountered. The most commonly used device is named con, which is short for "console"; thus, copy con filename would allow the user to type directly into a file, and press ctrl-Z when finished.                 Descriptive DOS Command   defrag   Defragments disk drive   SYNTAX: defrag driveletter                   Descriptive DOS Command   del or erase   Deletes files.   SYNTAX: del filename erase filename To delete files in Quiet mode del /Q filename               Descriptive DOS Command   deltree   Deletes a directory along with all of the files and subdirectories that it contains. Normally, it will ask for confirmation of such a drastic action.   SYNTAX: deltree [/y] directory   The /y parameter if present tells the deltree command to carry out without first prompting for confirmation.   The deltree command is not included in recent Microsoft Windows operating systems. Deleting a non-empty directory in those versions of Windows where the command is not included, can be achieved by the use of the rmdir command as in the following example: rmdir /s directory       Descriptive DOS Command   dir   Displays contents of a directory.   Options : • /w : Wide list format • /p : Pause at every page • /s : Also look in subdirectories • /a[xx] : Display files with the specified attributes only • /o[xx] : Modifies sort order   SYNTAX: dir [options] [filespec]           Descriptive DOS Command   echo   Prints its own arguments back out to the DOS equivalent of the standard output stream. Usually, this means directly to the screen, but the output of echo can be redirected like any other command. Often used in batch files to print text out to the user.   SYNTAX: echo this is text Outputs 'this is text' echo. Outputs a blank line   Another important use of the echo command is to toggle echoing of commands on and off in batch files.   echo on turns on echoing of commands echo off turns off echoing of commands     Traditionally batch files begin with the @echo off statement. This says to the interpreter that echoing of commands should be off during the whole execution of the batch file thus resulting in a "tidier" output. The @ symbol declares that this particular command (echo off) should also be executed without echo.   For example the following 2 batch files are equivalent: Batch1.bat: @echo off echo The files in your root directory: dir /b /a-d c:\   Batch2.bat: @echo The files in your root directory: @dir /b /a-d c:\   Echo can be used to write to files directly from the console, by redirecting the output stream: echo text > filename   Echo can also be used to append to files directly from the console, again by redirecting the output stream: echo text >> filename   To type more than one line from the console into a file, use copy con (above).         Descriptive DOS Command   Edit   EDIT filename   Brings up the DOS Edit program so you can make changes in a text file. This is a very simple text editor and won't work with regular word processing documents.           Descriptive DOS Command   exit   Exits the current batch script or the controlling thread. When running from Windows this will close the command prompt.   SYNTAX: EXIT [/B] [exitcode] /B        Exit the current batch script and set ERRORLEVEL to exitcode   Without this option, the controlling thread and any intermediate batch files are immediately exited, and the process return code is set to exitcode.             Descriptive DOS Command   fdisk   Manipulates hard disk partition tables. The name derives from IBM's habit of calling hard drives fixed disks. When run from the command line, it displays a menu of various partitioning operations: 1. Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive 2. Set active partition 3. Delete partition or Logical DOS Drive 4. Display partition information 5. Change current fixed disk drive               Descriptive DOS Command   find   A filters to find lines in the input data stream that contain or don't contain a specified string and send these to the output data stream. Find may also be used as a pipe.   SYNTAX: find "keyword" < ''inputfilename'' > ''outputfilename''   Searches for a text string in a file or files. FIND [/V] [/C] [/N] [/I] "string" [[drive:][path]filename[ ...]]   /V Displays all lines NOT containing the specified string. /C Displays only the count of lines containing the string. /N Displays line numbers with the displayed lines. /I Ignores the case of characters when searching for the string. "string" Specifies the text string to find. [drive:][path]filename Specifies a file or files to search.   If a pathname is not specified, FIND searches the text typed at the prompt or piped from another command.         Descriptive DOS Command   format   Delete all the files on the disk and reformat it for MS-DOS In most cases, this should only be used on floppy drives or other removable media. This command can potentially erase everything on a computer's hard disk.   /autotest and /backup is an undocumented feature. Adding it formats the drive without a confirmation prompt.   SYNTAX: format [options] drive FORMAT drive: [/V[:label]] [/Q] [/F:size] [/B | /S] [/C] FORMAT drive: [/V[:label]] [/Q] [/T:tracks /N:sectors] [/B | /S] [/C] FORMAT drive: [/V[:label]] [/Q] [/1] [/4] [/B | /S] [/C] FORMAT drive: [/Q] [/1] [/4] [/8] [/B | /S] [/C]   Searches for a text string in a file or files. FIND [/V] [/C] [/N] [/I] "string" [[drive:][path]filename[ ...]]   /V[:label] Specifies the volume label. /Q Performs a quick format. /F:size Specifies the size of the floppy disk to format (such as 160, 180, 320, 360, 720, 1.2, 1.44, 2.88). /B Allocates space on the formatted disk for system files. /S Copies system files to the formatted disk. /T:tracks Specifies the number of tracks per disk side. /N:sectors Specifies the number of sectors per track. /1 Formats a single side of a floppy disk. /4 Formats a 5.25-inch 360K floppy disk in a high-density drive. /8 Formats eight sectors per track. /C Tests clusters that are currently marked "bad."           Descriptive DOS Command   help   It gives help about DOS. help 'command' would give help on a specific command, in MS-DOS 6 a HELP program was started which would give more details and examples, earlier versions basically gave the same information as command/? would give.                     Descriptive DOS Command   InterLnk   MS-DOS 6 and above command to network PCs using a null modem cable or LapLink cable.InterLnk is the client-side program (InterSvr is the server) which mapped the drives of the machine running InterSvr to the local machine.                     Descriptive DOS Command   InterSvr   MS-DOS 6 and above command used to network PCs using a null modem cable or LapLink cable. The server-side version of InterLnk, it also immobilizes the machine it's running on as it's an active app (As opposed to a TSR) which must be running for any transfer to take place.                     Descriptive DOS Command   label   Changes the label on a logical drive, such as a hard disk partition or a floppy disk.                       Descriptive DOS Command   md or mkdir   Makes a new directory. The parent of the directory specified must already exist.   SYNTAX: md directory                   Descriptive DOS Command   mem   Displays memory usage.   SYNTAX: mem         Descriptive DOS Command   memmaker   Starting from version 6, MS-DOS included the external program MemMaker which was used to free system memory (especially Conventional memory) by automatically reconfiguring Autoexec.bat and Config.sys files. This was usually done by moving TSR Programs to the Upper memory. The whole process required 3 system restarts. Before the first restart the user was asked whether he wanted to enable EMS Memory or not. The use of MemMaker was popular among gamers who wanted to enable or disable Expanded memory in order to run a game which required EMS or not. The result would however not be as good as someone chaning the settings themself.   Options : • /BATCH Runs MemMaker in batch (unattended) mode. In batch mode, MemMaker takes the default action at all prompts. • /UNDO Instructs MemMaker to undo its most recent changes.         Descriptive DOS Command   more   Pages through the output so that you can view more than one screen of text.   SYNTAX: command | more   More may also be used as a filter. more < inputfilename           Descriptive DOS Command   move   Moves or renames a file.   SYNTAX: move filename newfilename                   Descriptive DOS Command   msd   Provides detailed technical information about the computer's hardware and software.   SYNTAX: msd                   Descriptive DOS Command   pcpark   Parks the hard disk(s) (stops their turning) in order to enable safe shutdown; only used on early versions.   SYNTAX: pcpark                   Descriptive DOS Command   rd or rmdir   Remove a directory, which must be empty of files.   SYNTAX: rd directory                   Descriptive DOS Command   rem   Remark statement, normally used within a batch file. However on the command line, rem can also be used to create a zero length file by redirecting an empty remark statement to a filename.   SYNTAX: rem > newfilename     An alternative way to not run a specific statement in a batch file is creating a label that will never be used, ::.           Descriptive DOS Command   ren   Renames a file. Unlike the move command, this command cannot be used to rename subdirectories, or rename files across drives.   SYNTAX: ren filename newname     A more useful function of this command is to mass rename files by the use of wildcards. For example, the following command will change the extension of all files in the current directory from htm to html: ren *.php *.php         Descriptive DOS Command   scandisk   Disk diagnostic utility   SYNTAX: scandisk driveletter     Scandisk is a replacement for the chkdsk utility. Its primary advantages over chkdsk is that it is more reliable and has the ability to run a surface scan which checks and marks bad sectors on the disk.             Descriptive DOS Command   set   Sets environmental variables.                   Descriptive DOS Command   sort   A filter to sort lines in the input data stream and send them to the output data stream.   SYNTAX: sort < inputfilename > outputfilename                   Descriptive DOS Command   time and date   Set/display the date and time   SYNTAX: date time                   Descriptive DOS Command   tree   Shows the directory tree of the current directory Options:   /F (Displays the names of the files in each folder.) /A (Use ASCII instead of the extended characters.)   SYNTAX: tree [options] [directory]               Descriptive DOS Command   truename   SYNTAX: truename filename   Outputs the entire path (full directory and filename) of a file. For example, if the working drive and directory were C:\PROGRAMS and one typed truename fish, the output would beC:\PROGRAMS\FISH. This command was rarely, if ever, documented in DOS manuals.                 Descriptive DOS Command   type   Display a file. The more command is frequently used in conjunction with this command, e.g. type long-text-file | more.   SYNTAX: type filename                   Descriptive DOS Command   undelete   Restores file previously deleted with del. By default all recoverable files in the working directory are restored. The options are used to change this behaviour. If the MS-DOS mirror TSR program is used, then deletion tracking files are created and can be used by undelete.   Options : • /list : lists the files that can be undeleted. • /all : Recovers all deleted files without prompting. Uses a number sign for missing first character. • /dos : Recover only MS-DOS aware files, ignore deletion tracking file. • /dt : Recover only deletion tracking file aware files.   SYNTAX: undelete [filespec] [/list|/all][/dos|/dt]         Descriptive DOS Command   ver   Shows the version of MS-DOS you are using. Some versions of MS-DOS support an undocumented /r switch, which will show the revision as well as the version.   SYNTAX: ver [/r]                 Descriptive DOS Command   xcopy   Copy entire directory trees.   SYNTAX: xcopy directory [destination-directory]   Copies files and directory trees. XCOPY source [destination] [/A | /M] [/D[:date]] [/P] [/S [/E]] [/W] [/C] [/I] [/Q] [/F] [/L] [/H] [/R] [/T] [/U] [/K] [/N]   source Specifies the file(s) to copy. destination Specifies the location and/or name of new files. /A Copies files with the archive attribute set, doesn't change the attribute. /M Copies files with the archive attribute set, turns off the archive attribute. /D: date Copies files changed on or after the specified date. If no date is given, copies only those files whose source time is newer than the destination time. /P Prompts you before creating each destination file. /S Copies directories and subdirectories except empty ones. /E Copies directories and subdirectories, including empty ones. Same as /S /E. May be used to modify /T. /W Prompts you to press a key before copying. /C Continues copying even if errors occur. /C Continues copying even if errors occur. /I If destination does not exist and copying more than one file, assumes that destination must be a directory. /F Displays full source and destination file names while copying. /F Displays full source and destination file names while copying. /L Displays files that would be copied. /H Copies hidden and system files also. /R Overwrites read-only files. /T Creates directory structure, but does not copy files. Does not include empty directories or subdirectories. /T /E includes empty directories and subdirectories. /U Updates the files that already exist in destination. /K Copies attributes. Normal Xcopy will reset read-only attributes. /Y Overwrites existing files without prompting. /-Y Prompts you before overwriting existing files. /N Copy using the generated short names.