In previous article I talk about definition of command prompt and real life example of Command Line Interface (e.g Linux). Now, let’s see some common example of DOS commands. If you want to see full list of commands in DOS you can look up Command-line reference A-Z in official Microsoft Website.
Note: Where example files (e.g., file.ext, file1, file2), file extensions (.ext), directories (e.g., diry, diry1, diry2), commands (e.g., command), and drive letters (e.g., a:, b:, c:) are given, substitute the name of your own file, directory, command, or drive letter. Since DOS is not case sensitive, you can type these commands in either upper- or lowercase.
help |
List commands (only in DOS versions 5 or later). |
help command |
See help for the DOS command. |
command /? |
List switches for the DOS command. |
path=c:\windows ; c:\dos |
Specify in which directories DOS searches for commands or programs. |
prompt $p$g |
Make the DOS prompt display the current directory. |
dir |
List files in the current directory in one column. |
dir /w |
List files in five columns. |
dir /p |
List files one page at a time. |
dir *.ext |
List all files with an .ext extension. |
dir z???.ext |
List files with .ext extensions that have four letters and start with z (where z is a character of your choice). |
dir file.ext /s |
Search for the file.ext in the current directory and all subdirectories under the current directory; most useful if the current directory is the root (i.e., C:\ ). |
type file.ext |
View the contents of the text file file.ext. |
edit file.ext |
Use the DOS editor to edit the file file.ext. |
a: |
Change to the a: drive. |
md c:\diry |
Make a new subdirectory named diry in the c:\ directory. |
cd c:\diry |
Change to subdirectory diry. |
rd c:\diry |
Remove the existing subdirectory named diry. |
del file.ext |
Delete a file named file.ext. |
ren file1 file2 |
Rename file file1 to file2. |
copy file1 file2 |
Copy file file1 to file2. |
verify on |
Turn on verification of copy commands. |
verify off |
Turn off verification of copy commands. |
xcopy diry1 diry2 /s |
Copy all files and subdirectories in directory diry1 to diry2. |
xcopy diry1 diry2 /p |
Ask for confirmation of each file before copying it from diry1 to diry2. |
diskcopy a: b: |
Duplicate a disk using two floppy drives. |
diskcopy a: a: |
Duplicate a disk using the same floppy drive. |
format a: |
Format a floppy disk in drive a: . |
format a: /s |
Format a bootable floppy disk (include system files). |
backup c:\diry\*.ext a: |
Back up all files with the extension .ext in c:\diry\ to floppy drive a: . |
backup c:\ a: /s |
Back up the entire c: drive to floppy drive a: . |
restore a:\ c:\diry\*.ext |
Restore backed-up files with the extension .ext in drive a: to the c:\diry\ directory. |
restore a: c:\ /s |
Restore backed-up files and subdirectories from drive a: to c:\ . |
ver |
Check the version of DOS. |
time |
Check or correct the system time. |
date |
Check or correct the system date. |
cls |
Clear the screen. |
scandisk |
Scan and check drive c: for errors. ScanDisk replaces chkdsk (see below) on DOS version 6.0 and above (including Windows 95). |
chkdsk |
Check disk and memory usage of the current disk. |
chkdsk /f |
Fix errors reported by chkdsk. |
chkdsk file.ext |
Check a particular file. |
chkdsk a: |
Check a particular drive (in this case, a floppy in the a: drive). |
mem |
Check memory usage. |
This list was adapted from the August 1991 issue of PC World magazine
Further Reading:
Command-line reference A-Z: microsoft.com
Related entries: