Section 10.1. DOS Commands


10.1. DOS Commands

You should know the following basic DOS commands to be able to complete some of the solutions in this book and get by in the world of Windows.

This, however, should not be considered a comprehensive list of all DOS commands and their options. See Windows XP in a Nutshell (O'Reilly) for a more thorough reference, not only on the Command Prompt, but on all of the various utilities included with Windows XP that use the Command Prompt.

The commands shown here are in constant width, and any parameters (the information you supply to the command) are in constant width italic. It doesn't matter which case you use when you type them in the command prompt (DOS, like Windows, is not case-sensitive). If there is more than one parameter, each is separated by a space:


attrib attributes filename

Changes the attributes of a file or folder. The four attributes are R for read only, S for system, A for archive, and H for hidden.

In Explorer, you can right-click a file or group of files and select Properties to change the attributes; attrib is the DOS counterpart to this functionality. In addition, attrib lets you change the S (system) attribute, something Explorer doesn't let you do. Here are some examples:

attrib +h myfile.txt

  • This turns on the H parameter for the file myfile.txt, making the file hidden.

attrib -r "another file.doc"

  • This turns off the R (read-only) parameter for the file another file.doc (note that quotation marks are used because of the space in the filename).

Type attrib /? for additional options.


cd foldername

Changes the working directory to foldername. If the prompt indicates you are in C:\Windows and you want to enter the c:\Windows\System32 folder, type cd system32. You can also switch to any folder on your hard disk by including the full path of the folder. Type cd .. to go to the parent folder. Type cd by itself to display the current directory.

To switch to another drive, just type the drive letter, followed by a colon (:). For example, type a: to switch to the floppy drive.


cls

Clear the display and empty the buffer (the history of output accessible with the scrollbar.)


copy filename destination

Copies a file to another directory or drive, specified by destination. This is the same as dragging and dropping files in Explorer, except that the keyboard is used instead of the mouse. For example, to copy the file myfile.txt (located in the current working directory) to your floppy drive, type copy myfile.txt a:\. Type copy /? for additional options.


del filename

Deletes a file. For example, in order to delete the file myfile.txt, type del myfile.txt. This is not exactly the same as deleting a file in Windows, because the file will not be stored in the Recycle Bin. The advantage of the DOS variant is that you can more easily and quickly delete a group of files, such as all the files with the .tmp extension: del *.tmp. Type del /? for additional options.


dir name

Displays a listing of all the files and directories in the current working directory. Use cd to change to a different directory, or type dir c:\files to display the contents of C:\Files without having to first use the cd command. Type dir /p to pause the display after each page, useful for very long listings. You can also specify wildcards to filter the results; type dir *.tmp to display only files with the .tmp filename extension. Type dir /? for additional options.


echo text

Displays the specified text, text, on the screen, See "Variables and the Environment," later in this chapter.


exit

Closes the Command Prompt window. In most situations, you can just click the close button [x] on the upper-right corner of the Window, but the exit command works just as well.


md foldername

Stands for make directory. This command creates a new directory with the name foldername. The command will have no effect if there's already a directory or file with the same name.


move filename destination

Is the same as copy, except that the file is moved instead of copied. Type move /? for additional options.


rd foldername

Stands for remove directory. This command removes an existing directory with the name foldername. The command will have no effect if the directory is not empty. To remove a directory and all of its contents, use deltree.


ren oldfilename newfilename

Renames a file to newfilename. This is especially useful, because you can use the ren command to rename more than one file at oncesomething Explorer doesn't let you do. For example, to rename hisfile.txt to herfile.txt, type ren hisfile.txt herfile.txt. To change the extensions of all the files in the current working directory from .txt to .doc, type ren *.txt *.doc. Type ren /? for additional options.


set [ variable=[ string]]

When used without any arguments, displays a list of active environment variables (described in Section 10.2.1, later in this appendix). The set command is also used to assign data to environment variables.


TYPE filename

Displays the contents of a text file. Type type filename | more to display the file and pause between each page of information rather than display the whole file at once.

Using Long Filenames in the Command Prompt

Unlike the DOS window in Windows 9x/Me, the Windows XP Command Prompt fully supports long filenames. However, given the nature of the command line, there are times when specifying long filenames will cause a problem. Specifically, if the file or folder name you're typing contains a space, you may need to enclose the filename in quotes.

Say you wish to rename a file named my stuff.txt to her stuff.doc. Instinctively, you might type:

ren my stuff.txt her stuff.doc

However, this won't work, since the ren command believes that you've typed four parameters. Instead, you'll need to use quotation marks, like this:

ren "my stuff.txt" "her stuff.doc"

Now, this isn't always the case. For example, if you want to use the cd command to change the current working directory to Program Files, like this:

cd Program Files

the Command Prompt is smart enough to interpret this correctly, and no quotation marks are needed.




    Windows XP Annoyances For Geeks
    Fixing Windows XP Annoyances
    ISBN: 0596100531
    EAN: 2147483647
    Year: 2003
    Pages: 97
    Authors: David A. Karp

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