List of MS-DOS commands

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 into the
command interpreter, others existed as external commands on disk. over the several generations of 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.
contents
acalc · append · assign · attrib · backup · basic, basica and gw-basic · break · call ·
chcp · chdir or cd · chkdsk · choice · cls · command · comp · copy · ctty · date ·
debug · defrag · del or erase · deltree · dir · diskcomp · diskcopy · doskey · drvlock ·
dynaload · e · echo · edit · edlin · eject · emm386 · exe2bin · exit · fastopen · fc · fdisk ·
find · for · format · goto · graftabl · graphics · help · if · interlnk · intersvr · join ·
keyb · label · loadfix · loadhigh or lh · mem · mirror · mkdir or md · mode · more ·
move · mscdex · msd · nlsfunc · path · pause · power · print · prompt · qbasic ·
qconfig · recover · rem · rename or ren · replace · restore · rexx · rexxdump ·
rmdir or rd · scandisk · set · setver · share · shift · smartdrv · sort · subst · sys ·
time · tree · truename · type · undeleting · unformat · ver · verify · vol · xcopy ·
see also · external links
command processing
the command interpreter for dos runs when no application programs are running. when an application exits, if the
transient portion of the command interpreter in memory was overwritten, dos will reload it from disk. some
commands are internal and built into command.com, others are external commands stored on disk. 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.
external 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
drive or on the command path set in the command interpreter.
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, 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.
the command interpreter preserves the case of whatever parameters are passed to commands but the command names
themselves and filenames are case-insensitive.
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.
list of dos commands
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acalc
external - pc dos 7
calculates the value of a mathematical expression.
acalc [/t[:]format] expression
/t specifies the output format type
format d=decimal (default) b=binary o=octal x=hexadecimal
a=all (decimal, binary, octal, and hexadecimal)
expression specifies a valid numeric expression.
numbers prefixed with b , o , and x are assumed to be binary, octal,
and hexadecimal respectively. decimal numbers are not prefixed.
append
external - dos 3.3 and above
allows programs to open data files in specified directories as if they were in the current directory.
append [[drive:]path[ ...]] [/x[:on | :off]] [/path:on | /path:off] [/e]
append
[drive:]path specifies a drive and directory to append.
/x:on applies appended directories to file searches and
application execution.
/x:off applies appended directories only to requests to open files.
/x:off is the default setting.
/path:on applies appended directories to file requests that already
specify a path. /path:on is the default setting.
/path:off turns off the effect of /path:on.
/e stores a copy of the appended directory list in an environment
variable named append. /e may be used only the first time
you use append after starting your system.
type append to clear the appended directory list.
type append without parameters to display the appended directory list.
assign
external - dos 2.0 and above
further information: drive letter assignment
redirects requests for disk operations on one drive to a different drive.
assign [x[:]=y[:][...]]
assign /status
x specifies the drive letter to reassign.
y specifies the drive that x: will be assigned to.
/status displays current drive assignments.
type assign without parameters to reset all drive letters to original
assignments.
attrib
external - dos 3.0 and above
displays or changes file attributes.
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attrib [+r | -r] [+a | -a] [+s | -s] [+h | -h] [[drive:][path]filename] [/s]
+ sets an attribute.
- clears an attribute.
r read-only file attribute.
a archive file attribute.
s system file attribute.
h hidden file attribute.
/s processes files in all directories in the specified path.