List of MS-DOS Commands

Contents
1 Resident and transient commands

2 Command line arguments
3 Windows command prompt
4 Commands
4.1 @
4.2 :
4.3 ;
4.4 /*
4.5 ( )
4.6 append
4.7 assign
4.8 attrib
4.9 backup and restore
4.10 BASIC and BASICA
4.11 call
4.12 cd or chdir
4.13 chcp
4.14 chkdsk
4.15 choice
4.16 cls
4.17 copy
4.18 ctty
4.19 defrag
4.20 del or erase
4.21 deltree
4.22 dir
4.23 echo
4.24 edit
4.25 edlin
4.26 exe2bin
4.27 exit
4.28 extproc
4.29 fastopen
4.30 fc or comp
4.31 fdisk
4.32 find
4.33 for
4.34 format
4.35 help
4.36 intersvr & interlnk
4.37 join
4.38 label
4.39 loadfix
4.40 loadhigh, lh
List of MS-DOS commands
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In the personal computer operating systems MS
-DOS and PC DOS, a number of standard
system commands were provided for common
tasks such as listing files on a disk or moving
files. Some commands were built-in to the
command interpreter, others existed as transient
commands loaded into memory when required.
Over the several generations of MS-DOS,
commands were added for the additional
functions of the operating system. In the current
Microsoft Windows operating system a text-
mode command prompt window can still be
used. Some DOS commands carry out functions
equivalent to those in a UNIX system but
always with differences in details of the
function.
Resident and transient
commands
The command interpreter for MS-DOS runs
when no application programs are running.
When an application exits, if the command
interpreter in memory was overwritten, MS-
DOS will re-load it from disk. The command
interpreter is usually stored in a file called
"COMMAND.COM". Some commands are
internal and built-into COMMAND.COM,
others are stored on disk in the same way as
application programs. When the user types a
line of text at the operating system command
prompt, COMMAND.COM will parse the line,
and attempt to match a command name to a
built-in command or to the name of an
executable program file or batch file on disk. If
no match is found, an error message is printed
and the command prompt is refreshed.
[1]
Resident commands varied slightly between
revisions of MS-DOS. Typically, the functions
DIR (list directory), ERASE or DEL (erase a
file or directory), COPY (copy files), DATE
(display or set date), TIME (display or set
time), CD (change working directory), MD
(make a directory on the current disk), REN
(rename a file or directory) and some others
were resident in COMMAND.COM.
Page 1 of 25 List of MS-DOS commands - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
19-11-2011 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_MS-DOS_commands
4.41 md or mkdir
4.42 mem
4.43 memmaker
4.44 mode
4.45 more
4.46 move
4.47 msd
4.48 path
4.49 pause
4.50 pcpark
4.51 print
4.52 readline
4.53 rd or rmdir
4.54 rem
4.55 ren
4.56 scandisk
4.57 set
4.58 setver
4.59 share
4.60 smartdrive
4.61 sort
4.62 subst
4.63 sys
4.64 time and date
4.65 tree
4.66 truename
4.67 type
4.68 undelete
4.69 ver
4.70 verify
4.71 xcopy
5 See also
6 References
7 External links
Parts of an MS-DOS command line,
showing a system prompt, command
and command line arguments, drive
letters, file spec with wildcard
character and command line switches.
Transient commands were too large to keep in
the command processor, or were less frequently
used. Such utility programs would be stored on
disk and loaded just like regular application
programs, but were distributed with the
operating system. Copies of these utility
command programs had to be on an accessible
disk, either on the current logged-in floppy
drive or on the command path set in the
command interpreter.
A special type of external, transient command
is the batch file, containing a set of commands
that are processed as if entered at the command
line. Some additional keywords are recognized
by the command interpreter COMMAND.COM
to make batch files more useful. These
commands aren't useful if typed in interactively
at the command prompt, but allow flexible
processing by a batch file.
Command line arguments
Main article: Command-line interface
In the list below, commands that can accept
more than one filename, or a filename including
wildcards (* and ?), are said to accept a
filespec parameter. Commands that can
accept only a single filename are said to accept
a filename parameter. Additionally, zero or
more command line switches, or other
parameter strings, can be supplied on the
command line. Spaces, and symbols such as a
"/" or a "-" may be used to allow the command
processor to parse the command line into file
names, file specifications, and other options.
In DOS commands, unlike Unix, lower-case and capital
letters are equivalent for file name specifiers; DOS
commands preserve case, but do not require file specifiers to
match case. Often parameters or arguments are also
independent of case, especially in those programs developed
only for DOS. Utility programs that also have versions
running under UNIX-like operating systems often use upper
and lower case arguments to mean different things.
Sometimes a hyphen ("-") may be used instead of a slash
("/"); very early versions of DOS made the setting of the delimiter character a user-controlled option.
Commands which are not built into the command interpreter may follow the same conventions.
For some commands, a UNIX command with similar functions is given. Comparisons are
approximate. While many commands are the same across many DOS systems (MS-DOS, PC DOS,
DR-DOS, FreeDOS, etc.) some differ in command syntax or name.
Windows command prompt
Microsoft Windows supports a number of commands which may be invoked by typing them in a
command window; they are usually similar to their MS-DOS equivalents. Typing hel p followed by
a carriage return at a command prompt will list the commands. File and path names used as
arguments may be long, unlike MS-DOS names in "8.3" form, and may contain embedded spaces;
names with spaces must be enclosed between a pair of double-quote character (").
Two command-line interfaces can be used in original DOS systems. Since this 16-bit executable is
based on the DOS command.com, it does not support all the extended file-name syntax of Windows.
Commands
A partial list of the most common commands for MS-DOS follows.
@
Commands beginning with the @ command are never echoed before running. The main use is to
prevent batch echo by placing a command @echo of f at the beginning of batch files.
:
A colon in front of a word, like : l abel , designates a label. Unlike remarks (REM), labels are
not processed by the command processor, so comments might be added proceeded by a pair of
colons, eg ::, or by a colon and space.
;
Semicolons at the beginning of the line are usually processed by the command processor, but
most other programs ignore these. This might be used to add a small batch file to the beginning
of a program's data file, in the way that EXTPROC works.
/*
In PC DOS, OS/2 thus 4OS2, 4DOS, 4NT etc, a batch file beginning with /* is treated as a
REXX script. PC DOS 7.0, 2000 and 7.1 implement this feature.
In REXX, as in C, comments are surrounded by a matching / * comment */ .
( )
Commands surrounded by parenthesis ('(' and ')') are treated as a single command. This is very
useful to execute several commands in the same iteration of a FOR loop.
append
Displays or sets the search path for data files. DOS will search the specified path(s) if the file is
not found in the current path. This had some creative uses, such as allowing non-CD based
games to be run from the CD, using configuration/save files stored on the hard drive.
append;
append [ d: ] pat h[ ; ] [ d: ] pat h[ . . . ]
append [ / X: on| of f ] [ / E]
assign
The command redirects requests for disk operations on one drive to a different drive.
assi gn [ x[ : ] =y[ : ] . . .
assi gn / STATUS
Options:
x The drive letter to reassign.
y The drive letter that x: will be assigned to.
/STATUS Displays the current drive assignments.
If typed without parameters then all drive letters are reset to original assignments.
The command is available in MS-DOS 5.00.
attrib
Attrib changes or views the attributes of one or more files. It defaults to displaying the attributes
of all files in the current directory.
ATTRI B [ +R| - R] [ +A| - A] [ +S| - S] [ +H| - H] [ dr i ve: ] [ pat h] [ f i l ename] [ / S [ / D] ]
Options:
To add an attribute attach a '+' in front of it.
To remove an attribute attach a '-' in front of it
Attributes include
R - Read-only
A - Archive
S - System
H - Hidden
/D - Process folders as well.
/S - Process matching files in the current folder and all subfolders.
Note: Everything inside a brace [option] is an optional item. Roughly equivalent to the Unix
commands chat t r and l sat t r .
backup and restore
Programs to back up and restore files from an external disk. These appeared in version 2, and
continued to PC DOS 5 and MS-DOS 6 (PC DOS 7 had a deversioned check).
In DOS 6, these were replaced by commercial programs (CPBACKUP, MSBACKUP), which
allowed files to be restored to different locations.
BASIC and BASICA
An implementation of the BASIC programming language for PCs. The Basic language as
implemented by this was a very common operating system on 8- and 16-bit machines that were
made in the 1980's.
IBM computers had BASIC 1.1 in ROM, and IBM's versions of BASIC used code in this ROM-
BASIC, which allowed for extra memory in the code area. BASICA last appeared in IBMDOS
5.02, and in OS/2 (2.0 and later), the version had ROMBASIC moved into the program code.
Microsoft released GW-BASIC for machines with no ROM-BASIC. Some OEM releases had
basic.com and basica.com as loaders for GW-BASIC.EXE.
Basic was dropped after MS-DOS 4, and PC DOS 5.02. OS/2 (which uses PC DOS 5), has it,
while NT (MS-DOS 5) does not.
call
Calls one batch program from another. A new batch file context is created with the specified
arguments and control is passed to the statement after the label specified.
Syntax:
cal l [ f i l espec] [ bat ch f i l e par amet er s]
filespec: name and if necessary path of the new batch file
parameters: switches
cd or chdir
Change current working directory. Displays the current working directory when used without a
path parameter.
cd
displays the current working directory on the current drive.
cd directory
changes the working directory on the current drive to directory.
chdi r e: directory
changes the working directory on E: to directory.
cd . .
changes the working directory to the parent directory (up one directory level).
cd \
changes the working directory to the root (top level) directory of the current drive.
Equivalent to the Unix command cd (with a path parameter), or pwd (without a parameter). cd . .
changes to the parent directory.
chcp
Changes the code page used to display character glyphs in a console window.
chcp [ codepage]
With a numeric parameter, this command changes the codepage setting to codepage. Without a
parameter, the command displays the currently active codepage. The codepage 1252 lets use the GUI
charset in the command line, while 65001 is utf-8.
chkdsk
Verifies a storage volume (hard disk, partition, floppy disk, flash drive, etc) for file system
integrity.
Options:
/F : Fixes errors on the volume (without /F, chkdsk only detects errors)
/P : Forces a full verification
/R : Searches for defective sectors and recovers legible information (applies /F)
/X : Unmounts the volume before processing if needed. (Note: Unmounting temporarily
invalidates all pointers/handlers to the volume until process is completed)
chkdsk volume letter: pat h f i l ename [ / F] [ / P] [ / R] [ / X]
Equivalent to the Unix command f sck
choice
Allows for batch files to prompt the user to select one item from a set of single-character
choices.
Choice was introduced as an external command with MS-DOS 6.0;
[2]
Novell DOS 7
[3]
and PC
DOS 7.0. Earlier versions of DR DOS supported this function with the built-in switch command
(for numeric choices) or by beginning a command with a question mark.
[3]
This command was formerly called ync (yes-no-cancel).
[citation needed]
cls
Clears the screen.
cl s
Equivalent to the Unix cl ear .
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 [ sour ce\ f i l ename] [ dest i nat i on\ f ol der ]
Files may be copied to devices. For example, copy file l pt 1 sends the file to the printer on
LPT1. copy file con outputs file to the screen ("console"), which can also be done using t ype
file. Devices themselves may be copied: copy con file takes the text typed into the console
and puts it into file, stopping when EOF (Ctrl+Z) is typed.
Files may be concatenated using +. For example, copy file1+file2 file_cat will
concatenate the files and output them as file_cat. There are two switches to modify the
command's behaviour, / a (text mode, the default) and / b (binary mode). In text mode, copy will
stop when it reaches the EOF character; in binary mode, the files will be concatenated in their
entirety, ignoring EOF characters.
Examples of usage:
copy / a al pha. t xt + bet a. t xt gamma. t xt
copy / b al pha. mpg + bet a. mpg gamma. mpg
Equivalent Unix commands are cp (for copying) and cat (for concatenation). Device files may
be copied in Unix as well, e.g. cp file / dev/ t t y will display a file on the screen (but cat
file is more commonly used here).
Equivalent RT-11/RSX-11/OpenVMS command is copy.
Examples of usage:
copy con f i l ename. ext ensi on
Everything typed at the console is sent to the file, until a control Z character is typed.
ctty
Defines the device to use for input and output.
Syntax:
ct t y device
device: The terminal device to be used.
Example of usage:
ct t y COM1
hel l o
defrag
(in MS-DOS/PC DOS; diskopt in DR-DOS)
Defragments a disk drive.
Options:
- A Analyses the fragmentation of a disk drive
- F Force defragmentation even if disk space is low
- V Verbose output mode
- H Defrag hidden files
Example of usage:
def r ag driveletter: - a - v
No Unix equivalent.
del or erase
Deletes one or more files.
This command is used to delete a particular or more files.
Syntax:
del filename
er ase filename
Options
*. * Al l f i l es i n cur r ent f ol der
*. * / s al l f i l es i n cur r ent f ol der and sub f ol der s,
Equivalent to the Unix command r m.
Equivalent in RT-11/RSX-11/OpenVMS operating systems line is del et e command which can
be contracted to del .
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.
del t r ee [ / y] directory
The /y parameter, if present, tells the del t r ee command to carry out without first prompting for
confirmation.
The del t r ee command is included in certain versions of Microsoft Windows and Microsoft
DOS Operating Systems. It is specifically available only in versions of MS-DOS 6.0 and higher,
and in Microsoft Windows 9x.
In Microsoft Windows NT, the functionality provided exists but is handled by the command "rd"
or "rmdir" which has slightly different syntax.
However this behavior can also be achieved on almost any version Microsoft Windows or
Microsoft DOS by using the "del" or "erase" command as in the following example:
del / s / f [ / q] directory && r d / s [ / q] directory
In Unix, the functionality of del t r ee is provided by the r mcommand with the parameter - r (or
- r f for the / y switch).
dir
Lists the contents of a directory.
The dir command typed by itself, displays the disk's volume label and serial number; one directory
or filename per line, including the filename extension, the file size in bytes, and the date and time the
file was last modified; and the total number of files listed, their cumulative size, and the free space
(in bytes) remaining on the disk. The command is one of the few commands that exist from the first
versions of DOS.
di r [ dr i ve: ] [ pat h] [ f i l ename] [ par amet er s]
Most commonly used parameters of dir include:
/ W: Displays the listing in wide format, with as many as five filenames or directory names
on each line.
/ P : Pause at every page
/ S : Also look in subdirectories
/ Axx: Display files with the specified attributes only
/ Oxx: Modifies sort order
/ B : Uses bare format (no heading information or summary)
> [drive:][path]filename : To Store Result in a text file;(c:\dir > c:\fileList.txt) (this is
not a parameter, it is output redirection)
Possible attributes for the A parameter are D(directories), R(read-only files), H(hidden files), A
(files/directories with the archive bit on), and S (system files). The prefix - negates an attribute;
attributes can be combined (e.g. / A: DA means directories with the archive bit on).
Possible sort orders are N(name), S (size), E (extension), D(date and time), A (last access date), and G
(group directories first). The prefix - reverses the order.
Other less commonly used parameters of dir include:
/ D: Display wide format but sorted by column
/ L : Display forced into lowercase
/ N: Display forced into long file name format instead of 8.3
/ Q: Displays the owner of each file
/ X : Display shows 8.3 names next to long file names
The default parameters of dir can be set using the DIRCMD environment variable.
Equivalent to the Unix command l s (the option - l is "long" list format, it works in the opposite
manner to / w.)
Equivalent in RT-11/RSX-11/OpenVMS operating systems line is di r ect or y command which can
be contracted to di r .
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.
echo this is text Out put s ' t hi s i s t ext '
echo. Out put s a bl ank l i ne
Another important use of the echo command is to toggle echoing of commands on and off in
batch files.
echo on t ur ns on echoi ng of commands
echo of f t ur ns of f echoi ng of commands
Traditionally batch files begin with the @echo of f 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 of f
echo The f i l es in your r oot di r ect or y:
dir / b / a- d c: \
Batch2.bat:
@echo The f i l es in your r oot di r ect or y:
@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
Echo can also be used to redirecting the output stream to a device:
echo This line will print on a line printer. >> LPT1:
To type more than one line from the console into a file, use copy con (above).
Equivalent to the Unix command echo.
edit
Full-screen text editor, included with MS-DOS 5 and 6, OS/2 and Windows NT to 4.0
Windows 95 and later, and W2k and later use Edit v2.0
PC DOS 6 and later use the DOS E Editor.
DR-DOS used editor up to version 7.
edlin
DOS line-editor. It can be used with a script file, like debug, this makes it of some use even
today. The absence of a console editor in MS-DOS/PC DOS 1-4 created an after-market for third
-party editors.
In DOS 5, an extra command "?" was added to give the user much needed help.
DOS 6 was the last version to contain EDLIN, for MS-DOS 6, it's on the supplemental disks, PC
DOS 6 had it in the base install. Windows NT 32-bit, and OS/2 have Edlin.
exe2bin
Converts an executable (.exe) file into a binary file with the extension .com, which is a memory
image of the program.
The size of the resident code and data sections combined in the input .exe file must be less than
64KB. The file must also have no stack segment.
exit
Exits the current command processor. If the exit is used at the primary command, it has no effect
unless in a DOS window under Microsoft Windows, in which case the window is closed and the
user returns to the desktop.
exi t [ / B]
/ B When used wi t hi n a bat ch scr i pt , exi t s t he scr i pt wi t hout cl osi ng t he cal l i ng DOS wi ndow
Exit also exists in Unix-shells. If an exit command is used in the primary command shell under
Unix, however, it will logoff the user, similar to the control-D keystroke.
extproc
Passes batch file to an external processor. This command appears in OS/2's cmd.exe, and by way
of 4OS2 and 4NT, into the 4nt system. In general, DOS has no way of passing batches to
external processors, except by a small batch file at the lead.
fastopen
Main article: FASTOPEN
fc or comp
Compares two files or sets of files and displays the differences between them.
FC [ / A] [ / C] [ / L] [ / LBn] [ / N] [ / T] [ / W] [ / nnnn] [ dr i ve1: ] [ pat h1] f i l ename1 [ dr i ve2: ] [ pat h2] f i l ename2
FC / B [ dr i ve1: ] [ pat h1] f i l ename1 [ dr i ve2: ] [ pat h2] f i l ename2
/ A Di spl ays onl y f i r st and l ast l i nes f or each set of di f f er ences.
/ B Per f or ms a bi nar y compar i son.
/ C Di sr egar ds t he case of l et t er s.
/ L Compar es f i l es as ASCI I t ext .
/ LBn Set s t he maxi mumconsecut i ve mi smat ches t o t he speci f i ed number of l i nes.
/ N Di spl ays t he l i ne number s on an ASCI I compar i son.
/ T Does not expand t abs t o spaces.
/ W Compr esses whi t e space ( t abs and spaces) f or compar i son.
/ nnnn Speci f i es t he number of consecut i ve l i nes t hat must mat ch af t er a mi smat ch.
[ dr i ve1: ] [ pat h1] f i l ename1 Speci f i es t he f i r st f i l e or set of f i l es t o compar e.
[ dr i ve2: ] [ pat h2] f i l ename2 Speci f i es t he second f i l e or set of f i l es t o compar e.
[ citation needed]
Equivalent to the Unix commands comm, cmp and di f f .
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. Cr eat e DOS par t i t i on or Logi cal DOS Dr i ve
2. Set act i ve par t i t i on
3. Del et e par t i t i on or Logi cal DOS Dr i ve
4. Di spl ay par t i t i on i nf or mat i on
5. Change cur r ent f i xed di sk dr i ve ( onl y avai l abl e i f t he comput er has mor e t han one har d dr i ve)
FDISK /MBR installs a standard master boot record on the hard drive.
FDISK /MBR #: where # is other partition on system. Completes above command on indicated
partition.
e. g. : " C: \ FDI SK / MBR D: " woul d i nst al l boot r ecor d on D: \ par t i t i on.
Fdisk exists under Unix with the same name, but it is an entirely different program. However
they share purposes.
find
A filter 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.
f i nd " keywor d" < ' ' i nput f i l ename' ' > ' ' out put f i l ename' '
Sear ches f or a t ext st r i ng i n a f i l e or f i l es.
FI ND [ / V] [ / C] [ / N] [ / I ] " st r i ng" [ [ dr i ve: ] [ pat h] f i l ename[ . . . ] ]
/ V Di spl ays al l l i nes NOT cont ai ni ng t he speci f i ed st r i ng.
/ C Di spl ays onl y t he count of l i nes cont ai ni ng t he st r i ng.
/ N Di spl ays l i ne number s wi t h t he di spl ayed l i nes.
/ I I gnor es t he case of char act er s when sear chi ng f or t he st r i ng.
" st r i ng" Speci f i es t he t ext st r i ng t o f i nd.
[ dr i ve: ] [ pat h] f i l ename Speci f i es a f i l e or f i l es t o sear ch.
I f a pat hname i s not speci f i ed, FI ND sear ches t he t ext t yped at t he pr ompt
or pi ped f r omanot her command.
Equivalent to the Unix command gr ep. The Unix command f i nd performs an entirely different
function analogous to di r / s.
for
The FOR loop can be used to parse a file or the output of a command.
FOR [ swi t ches] %var i abl e I N ( set ) DO command [ par amet er s f or command]
[ swi t ches] / D
Use f or f i ndi ng di r ect or y names i f ( set ) cont ai ns wi l dcar ds and i s a di r command
/ R [ [ dr i ve: ] pat h]
Use t o r ecur si vel y sear ch di r ect or y t r ee
/ L
Changes set t o ( st ar t , st ep, end) and i s used f or number sequences
/ F [ " opt i ons" ]
[ " opt i ons" ]
eol =c Set t he end of l i ne char act er
ski p=n Number of l i nes t o ski p bef or e pr ocessi ng
del i ms=xxx set t he del i mi t er s t o use ( def aul t ar e space and t ab)
t okens=x, y, m- n Can be used t o r et ur n si ngl e, mul t i pl e or r ange of t okens
Wi t h t hi s swi t ch ( set ) can be a l i st of f i l es, " quot ed st r i ng" , command.
I f a l i st of f i l es i s used each f i l e wi l l be par sed usi ng t he [ " opt i ons" ]
%var i abl e Use a si ngl e l et t er pr eceded by %%
( set ) Li st of dat a t o par se
command command t o execut e
Example:
f or / f " Ski p=4 t okens=1" %%i i n ( ' NET FI LES' ) do i f not " %%i " EQU " The" NET FI LE %%i / CLOSE
Wi l l cl ose open net wor k shar ed f i l es
format
Deletes the FAT entries and the root directory of the drive/partition, and reformats 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 are undocumented features. Both will format the drive without a
confirmation prompt.
f or mat [ options] drive
FORMAT dr i ve: [ / V[ : l abel ] ] [ / Q] [ / F: si ze] [ / B | / S] [ / C]
FORMAT dr i ve: [ / V[ : l abel ] ] [ / Q] [ / T: t r acks / N: sect or s] [ / B | / S] [ / C]
FORMAT dr i ve: [ / V[ : l abel ] ] [ / Q] [ / 1] [ / 4] [ / B | / S] [ / C]
FORMAT dr i ve: [ / Q] [ / 1] [ / 4] [ / 8] [ / B | / S] [ / C]
/ V[ : l abel ] Speci f i es t he vol ume l abel .
/ Q Per f or ms a qui ck f or mat .
/ F: si ze Speci f i es t he si ze of t he f l oppy di sk t o f or mat ( such
as 160, 180, 320, 360, 720, 1. 2, 1. 44, 2. 88) .
/ B Al l ocat es space on t he f or mat t ed di sk f or syst emf i l es.
/ S Copi es syst emf i l es t o t he f or mat t ed di sk.
/ T: t r acks Speci f i es t he number of t r acks per di sk si de.
/ N: sect or s Speci f i es t he number of sect or s per t r ack.
/ 1 For mat s a si ngl e si de of a f l oppy di sk.
/ 4 For mat s a 5. 25- i nch 360K f l oppy di sk i n a hi gh- densi t y dr i ve.
/ 8 For mat s ei ght sect or s per t r ack.
/ C Test s cl ust er s t hat ar e cur r ent l y mar ked " bad. "
There is also an undocumented /u parameter for "unconditional" that will write strings of zeros
on every sector. This is now an official switch in Windows Vista and 7 but with the parameter /p
instead.
Equivalent to the Unix command mkf s.
Equivalent in RT-11/RSX-11/OpenVMS operating systems line is f or mat command which can
not create filesystem. After formatting one should use i ni t i al i ze (contracted to i ni t )
command to create filesystem (Equivalent to MS-DOS command f or mat / q or "quick format").
help
Gives help about DOS.
MS-DOS
help 'command' would give help on a specific command. By itself, it lists the contents of
DOSHELP.HLP. Help for a specific command invokes the command with the /? option. In MS-
DOS 6.x this command exists as FASTHELP.
MS-DOS 6.xx help command uses QBASIC to view a quickhelp HELP.HLP file, which contains
more extensive information on the commands, with some hyperlinking etc. The MS-DOS 6.22
help system is included on Windows 9x cdrom versions as well.
PC DOS
PC DOS 5,6 help is the same form as MS-DOS 5 help command.
PC DOS 7.xx help uses view.exe to open OS/2 style .INF files (cmdref.inf, dosrexx.inf and
doserror.inf), opening these to the appropriate pages.
DR-DOS
In DR-DOS, help is a batch file that launches DR-DOS' reference, dosbook.
Microsoft Windows
Windows NT, all versions, uses DOS 5 style help, but versions before VISTA have also a
Windows help file (NTCMDS.HLP or NTCMDS.INF) in a similar style to MS-DOS 6.
FreeDOS
FreeDOS uses an HTML help system, which views HTML help files on a specified path. The
path is stored in HELPPATH environment variable, if not specified, default path is \ HELP on the
drive which HELP is placed.
Partially equivalent to the Unix command man.
intersvr & interlnk
(in MS-DOS; filelink in DR-DOS)
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 is an active app (As opposed to a TSR) which
must be running for any transfer to take place. DR-DOS' f i l el i nk is executed on both the client
and server.
New in PC DOS 5.02, MS-DOS 6.0
[4]
No direct Unix equivalent, though some Unices offer the ability to network computers with
TCP/IP through null modem or Laplink cables using PLIP or SLIP.
join
Attaches a drive letter to a specified directory on another drive.
[4]
J OI N d: [ d: \ pat h]
J OI N [ / D] ( r emoves dr i ve assi gnment )
If J OI N a: c: \ f l oppy were executed, c:\floppy would display the contents of the a: drive. The
opposite can be achieved via the subst command.
label
Changes the label on a logical drive, such as a hard disk partition or a floppy disk.
In Unix and Unix-like systems, this differs from filesystem to filesystem. e2l abel can be used
for ext2 partitions.
loadfix
Loads a program above the first 64K of memory, and runs the program.
l oadf i x [ dr i ve: ] [ pat h] f i l ename
Included only in MS-DOS/PC DOS. DR-DOS used memmax, which opened or closed lower,
upper, and video memory access, to block the lower 64K of memory.
[5]
loadhigh, lh
Main article: loadhigh
hiload in DR-DOS.
md or mkdir
Makes a new directory. The parent of the directory specified will be created if it does not already
exist.
md directory
Equivalent to the Unix command mkdi r .
mem
Displays memory usage.
mem
Options:
/CLASSIFY or /C - Lists the size of programs, provides a summary of memory in use and
lists largest memory block available.
/DEBUG or /D - Displays status of programs, internal drivers, and other information.
/PROGRAM or /P Displays status of programs currently loaded in memory.
Equivalent to the Unix command f r ee.
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 the
AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files. This was usually done by moving TSR Programs to
the Upper memory. The whole process required three system restarts. Before the first restart the
user was asked whether he/she wanted to enable EMS Memory.
The use of MemMaker was popular among gamers who wanted to enable or disable Expanded
memory in order to run a game.
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.
PC DOS uses another program RamBoost to optimize memory, either the HIMEM/EMM386 or
a third-party memory manager.
mode
Configures system devices. Changes graphics modes, adjusts keyboard settings, prepares code
pages, and sets up port redirection.
[6]
more
Pages through the output so that you can view more than one screen of text.
command | mor e
Equivalent to the Unix commands mor e and l ess.
More may also be used as a filter.
mor e < inputfilename
move
Moves files or renames directories.
move filename newname
move driveletter:\olddir driveletter:\newdir
Example of usage:
move c: \ ol d c: \ new
Equivalent to the Unix command mv. DR-DOS used a separate command for renaming
directories, r endi r .
msd
Main article: Microsoft Diagnostics
Provides detailed technical information about the computer's hardware and software.
msd
New in MS-DOS 6;
[7]
the PC DOS version of this command is QCONFIG.
[citation needed]
The
command appeared first in Word2, and then in Windows 3.10.
No Unix equivalent, however in GNU/Linux similar type of information may be obtained from
various text files in / pr oc directory.
path
Displays or sets a search path for executable files.
pause
Suspends processing of a batch program and displays the message 'Press any key to continue. . .'.
This command exists in all versions of Microsoft Windows and has the exact same function.
pcpark
Parks the hard disk heads in order to enable safe shutdown; only used on early versions.
pcpar k
No Unix equivalent.
MS-DOS 3.2 (and possibly others) used the command HHSET
print
Adds a file in the print queue.
Options:
/D device : Specifies the name of the print devices. Default value is LPT1
/P filename : Add files in the print queue
/T : Removes all files from the print queue
/C filename : Removes a file from the print queue
This command was introduced in MS-DOS version 2. Before that there was no built-in support for
background printing files. The user would usually use the copy command to copy files to LPT1.
Equivalent to the Unix commands l p and l pr .
readline
Reads a line from input, and sets the variables %1 to %9, as if the line had been set as batch
parameters.
Use t he READLI NE command t o r ead a l i ne of t ext f r omt he
keyboar d and pl ace i t i n t he bat ch f i l e var i abl es t o
Thi s command can onl y be used f r omwi t hi n a bat ch f i l e.
SYNTAX: READLI NE [ / V]
wher e:
/ V conver t s t he i nput l i ne t o upper case.
The command occurs in the OS/2 command.com and cmd.exe, but not in other systems.
rd or rmdir
Remove a directory (delete a directory), by default the directories must be empty of files for the
command to succeed. The deltree command in some versions of MS-DOS and all versions of
Windows 9x removes non-empty directories.
r mdi r / s
The [/s] parameter enables r mdi r to function in the same way as del t r ee, deleting all sub
folders and Files, and by default requiring confirmation.
r mdi r / s / q
The [/q] parameter, if present, tells the r mdi r command to carry out the deletion without first
prompting for confirmation. This is the same as running del t r ee [ / y] .
rem
Remark statement, normally used within a batch file, and for DR-DOS, PC/MS-DOS 6 and
above, in CONFIG.SYS.
The REM command is processed by the command processor, the output can be redirected to
create a zero-byte file.
r emThi s cr eat es a zer o- byt e f i l e i n some command pr ocessor s.
r em> newfilename
: : Thi s never cr eat es a f i l e
: : > filename.ext
REM is also useful in logged sessions or screen-captures.
One might add comments by way of labels, usually starting with double-colon ::. These are not
processed by the command processor.
In Unix, the #sign can be used to start a comment.
ren
Renames a file. Unlike the move command, this command cannot be used to rename
subdirectories, or rename files across drives.
r en filename newname
You can rename files in another directory by using the PATH parameter:
r en [ [ pat h\ ] f i l ename] [ newf i l ename]
This example renames c:\windows\filex.txt to c:\windows\filey.txt
r en c: \ Wi ndows\ f i l ex. t xt f i l ey. t xt
Using a path in the destination newname will move the file to the new path, if this is on the same
device. This renames the file to the c:\temp directory.
r en c: \ wi ndows\ f i l ex. t xt \ t emp\ f i l ey. t xt
On DOS with long filename support, care must be taken when directories have spaces in their
names like "Documents and Settings". In these cases double-quotes are used to enclose them.
Note it is necessary only to enclose blocks including spaces.
r en c: \ " Document s and Set t i ngs" \ "Al l User s" \ Deskt op\ f i l ex. t xt f i l ey. t xt
r en " c: \ Document s and Set t i ngs\ Al l User s\ Deskt op\ f i l ex. t xt " f i l ey. t xt
Wildcards in the destination are replaced by the corresponding part of the original name, so the
command below will change the extension of the file from .doc to .txt, here myfile.doc becomes
myfile.txt.
r en myf i l e. doc *. t xt
Mass renames can be accomplished by the use of wildcards. For example, the following
command will change the extension of all files in the current directory which currently have the
extension htm to html:
r en *. ht m*. ht ml
In Unix, this functionality of a simple move is provided by the mv command, while batch
renames can be done using the rename command.
scandisk
Disk diagnostic utility. Scandisk was a replacement for the chkdsk utility, starting with later
versions of MS-DOS. Its primary advantages over chkdsk is that it is more reliable and has the
ability to run a surface scan which finds and marks bad clusters on the disk. It also provided
mouse point-and-click TUI, allowing for interactive session to complement command-line batch
run.
chkdsk had surface scan and bad cluster detection functionality included, and was used again on
Windows NT based operating systems.
Equivalent to the Unix command f sck.
set
Sets environmental variables. See Environment variable.
CMD.EXE in Windows NT 2000, 4DOS, 4OS2, 4NT, and a number of third-party solutions
allow direct entry of environment variables from the command prompt, in the manner of set / p.
set / p choi ce=Type your t ext .
echo You t yped: " %choi ce%"
From at least Windows 2000, the set command with the / A switch allows the evaluation of strings
into variables, thus providing inter alia a means of performing integer arithmetic.
[8]
setver
TSR designed to return a different value to the version of DOS that is running. This allows
programs that look for a specific version of DOS to run under a different DOS.
Setver appeared in version 4, and has been in every version of DOS, OS/2 and Windows NT
since.
share
Installs support for file sharing and locking capabilities.
shar e [ / F: space] [ / L: l ocks]
/ F: space Al l ocat es f i l e space ( i n byt es) f or f i l e- shar i ng i nf or mat i on.
/ L: l ocks Set s t he number of f i l es t hat can be l ocked at one t i me.
smartdrive
Main article: SmartDrive
sort
A filter to sort lines in the input data stream and send them to the output data stream.
sor t < inputfilename > outputfilename
Similar to the Unix command sor t . Handles files up to 64k. This sort is always case insensitive.
[9]
subst
A utility to map a subdirectory to a drive letter.
[4]
subst <d:> <path>
subst <d:> / D ( Del et es t he subst i t ut e dr i ve)
If SUBST e: c: \ edr i ve were executed, a new drive letter e: would be created, showing the
contents of c:\edrive. The opposite can be achieved via the join command.
sys
A utility to make a volume bootable. Sys rewrites the Volume Boot Code (the first sector of the
partition that Sys is acting on) so that the code, when executed, will look for Io.sys. Sys also
copies the core DOS system files, Io.sys, Msdos.sys, and Command.com, to the volume. Sys
does NOT rewrite the Master Boot Record, contrary to widely-held belief.
time and date
Display and set the time and date
t i me
dat e
When these commands are called from the command line or a batch file, they will display the
time or date and wait for the user to type a new time or date and press RETURN. The commands
t i me / t and dat e / t will display output without waiting for input.
The Unix command dat e displays both the time and date, but does not allow the normal users to
change either. Users with superuser privileges may use dat e - s <new- dat e- t i me>to change
the time and date.
The Unix command t i me performs a different function.
tree
Shows the directory tree of the current directory
Syntax:
t r ee [ options] [ directory]
Options:
/F (Displays the names of the files in each folder.)
/A (Use ASCII instead of the extended characters.)
/? (Shows the help)
Note: Does not work on some computers with Windows 7 OS.
truename
t r uename
or
t r uename drivename
or
t r uename filename
or
t r uename directory
If typed without a parameter then the current active drive pathname is displayed.
MS-DOS can find files and directories given their names, without full path information, if the
search object is on a path specified by the environment variable PATH. For example, if PATH
includes C: \ PROGRAMS, and file MYPROG. EXE is on this directory, then if MYPROGis typed at the
command prompt, the command processor will execute C: \ PROGRAMS\ MYPROG. EXE
the TRUENAME command will expand a name in an abbreviated form which the command
processor can recognise into its full form, and display the result. It can see through SUBST and
J OI Nto find the actual directory. In the above example,
TRUENAME MYPROG
would display
C: \ PROGRAMS\ MYPROG. EXE
and for a substituted drive set up by
subst d: c: \ ut i l \ t est
the command
t r uename d: \ t est . exe
will display
c: \ ut i l \ t est \ t est . exe
This command also displays the UNC pathnames of mapped network or local CD drives.
This command is an undocumented DOS command. The help switch "/?" defines it as a
"Reserved command name". It is available in MS-DOS 5.00.
This command is similar to the Unix whi ch command, which, given an executable found in
$PATH, would give a full path and name. The C library function r eal pat h performs this
function.
The Microsoft Windows command processors do not support this command.
type
Display a file. The mor e command is frequently used in conjunction with this command, e.g.
t ype long-text-file | mor e.
t ype filename
Equivalent to the Unix command cat . Note that you can use this to concatenate files (type file1
file2 > file3) however this won't work for large files--use copy command instead.
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 behavior. if the MS-DOS mi r r or TSR
program is used, then deletion tracking files are created and can be used by undel et e.
Syntax:
undel et e [ filespec] [ /list| /all] [ /dos| /dt]
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.
In Unix and Unix-like systems this differs from filesystem to filesystem. People who use the
ext2 filesystem can try the command e2undel .
ver
An internal DOS command, that reports the DOS version presently running, and since MS-DOS
5, whether DOS is loaded high. The corresponding command to report the Windows version is
winver.
Options: DOS 5 and later
/r : revision level, also shows whether DOS is loaded high
/? : shows command line help.
Value returned:
MS-DOS up to 6.22, typically derive the DOS version from the DOS kernel. This may be
different from the string it prints when it starts.
PC DOS typically derive the version from an internal string in command.com (so PC DOS
6.1 command.com reports the version as 6.10, although the kernel version is 6.00.)
DR-DOS reports whatever value the environment variable OSVER reports.
OS/2 command.com reports an internal string, with the OS/2 version. The underlying
kernel here is 5.00, but modified to report x0.xx (where x.xx is the OS/2 version).
Windows 9x command.com report a string from inside command.com. The build version
(e.g. 2222), is also derived from there.
Windows NT command.com reports either the 32-bit processor string (4nt, cmd), or under
some loads, MS-DOS 5.00.500, (for all builds). The underlying kernel reports 5.00 or 5.50
depending on the interrupt. MS-DOS 5.00 commands run unmodified on NT.
The Winver command usually displays a Windows dialog showing the version, with some
information derived from the shell. In windows before Windows for workgroups 3.11,
running winver from DOS reported an embedded string in winver.exe.
verify
Enables or disables the feature to determine if files have been correctly written to disk.
If no parameter is provided, the command will display the current setting.
[10]
ver i f y [ on| of f ]
xcopy
Copy entire directory trees.
Xcopy is a version of the copy command that can move files and directories from one location to
another.
xcopy directory [ destination-directory]
Equivalent to the Unix command cp when used with - r parameter.
See also
Command Line Interface
DOS
List of Unix utilities
References
1. ^ John Angermeyer et al (ed), Tricks of the MS-DOS Masters, Howard W. Sams, 1987, ISBN 0-672-
22525-5 pp. 139-143
2. ^ http://www.computerhope.com/choicehl.htm
3. ^
a b
http://www.drdos.com/dosdoc/usergeng/07ugch7.htm
4. ^
a b c
EasyDOS Command Index (http://www.easydos.com/dosindex.html)
5. ^ DR DOS 6.0 User Guide. Digital Research. 1991.
6. ^ http://www.computerhope.com/modehlp.htm
7. ^ http://www.computerhope.com/msdhlp.htm
8. ^ Karp, David Aaron; Tim O'Reilly, Troy Mott (2005). Windows XP in a nutshell
(http://books.google.com/books?id=5_UoYcmkvncC) . Nutshell handbook (2 ed.). O'Reilly Media, Inc..
p. 422. ISBN 9780596009007. http://books.google.com/books?id=5_UoYcmkvncC. Retrieved 2010-11-
26.
9. ^ Microsoft on "sort" (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc722869.aspx)
10. ^ http://www.csulb.edu/~murdock/verify.html
External links
Command Reference (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754340.aspx) :
Microsoft TechNet Database "Command Reference"
The MS-DOS 6 Technical Reference on TechNet (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/cc749839.aspx) contains the official Microsoft MS-DOS 6 command reference
documention.
DR-DOS 7.03 online manual (http://www.drdos.com/dosdoc/)
MDGx MS-DOS Undocumented + Hidden Secrets (http://www.mdgx.com/secrets.htm)
There are several guides to DOS commands available that are licenced under the GNU Free
Documentation License:
The FreeDOS Spec (http://fd-doc.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php) at SourceForge is a
plaintext specification, written in 1999, for how DOS commands should work in FreeDOS
MS-DOS commands (http://www.computerhope.com/msdos.htm)
A Collection of Undocumented and Obscure Features in Various MS-DOS Versions
(http://www.textfiles.com/hacking/MICROSOFT/dosundoc.txt)
networking commands (http://computerwurld.blogspot.com/2010/07/windows-cmd-
command-prompt-list.html)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_MS-
DOS_commands&oldid=460820881"
Categories: MS-DOS/Windows Command Prompt commands DOS commands
Microsoft lists Computing commands
This page was last modified on 15 November 2011 at 19:06.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional
terms may apply. See Terms of use for details.
Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit
organization.

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Contents

1 Resident and transient commands

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