List of DOS commands

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A list of DOS commands for Microsoft's MS-DOS operating system follows. In versions 5 and later only, the user can get help by typing HELP at the shell prompt. (Before version 6, the help displayed by this command is very basic and not interactive.) In the interactive help of versions 6 and later, square brackets indicate optional parameters, while italicized items should be replaced with specific values.

In DOS version 5 or later, to get help on a dos command, at the dos prompt, type /? after the command name. For example, to get help for the xcopy command, type the following at the dos prompt:

c:\>xcopy /?

The operating system will not execute the command but instead display a help page on the command, in this case xcopy. To view this help page, see the xcopy entry on this page or click here.

In the list below, when a command can accept more than one filename, or a filename including wildcards (* and ?), it is said to accept a filespec parameter. Commands that can accept only a single filename are said to accept a filename parameter.

For most of the commands, the Unix equivalent is given. It should be noted that Unix commands typically provide ranges of functionality and flexibility that are not approached by the equivalent DOS command, so all comparisons are approximate. For example, the DOS commands copy and xcopy are said to be equivalent to the Unix cp command, but in reality cp has much greater power than both copy and xcopy combined.

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Contents 1 Commands 1.1 attrib 1.2 cd or chdir 1.3 cls 1.4 copy 1.5 copy device 1.6 del or erase 1.7 deltree 1.8 dir 1.9 echo 1.10 find 1.11 format 1.12 InterLnk 1.13 InterSvr 1.14 label 1.15 md or mkdir 1.16 more 1.17 move 1.18 msd 1.19 pcpark 1.20 rd or rmdir 1.21 rem 1.22 ren 1.23 sort 1.24 time and date 1.25 tree 1.26 truename 1.27 type 1.28 undelete 1.29 ver 1.30 xcopy 2 External links

Commands

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
  • A - Archived (used mainly by file archiving software)
  • H - Hidden
  • S - System
  • R - Read-only

attrib [+|-ahrs] [filespec]

Roughly equivalent to the Unix command chmod. In Linux, the command chattr also performs similar functions.

cd or chdir

Change current directory.

cd directory

Equivalent to the Unix command cd (with parameters), or pwd (without parameters).

cls

Clears the screen.

cls

Equivalent to the Unix command clear.

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.

copy filespec [destination]

Equivalent to the Unix command cp.

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.

copy device

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.

In Unix, this functionality is provided by the cat command. cat > filename (with ctrl+D to finish) would be equivalent to the DOS command copy con filename.

del or erase

Deletes files.

del filename
erase filename

Equivalent to the Unix command rm.

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.

deltree [/y] directory

deltree's functions are also performed by rm when the option -r is used (or -rf for the /y switch).

dir

Main article: Dir (DOS Command)

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

dir [options] [filespec]

Equivalent to the Unix command ls (the option -l is "long" list format, it works the opposite way from /w.)

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              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).

Equivalent to the Unix command echo.

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.

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.

Equivalent to the Unix command grep. The Unix command find performs an entirely different function; see tree.

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 is an undocumented feature. Adding it formats the drive without a confirmation prompt.

format [options] drive

Known as a joke among UNIX users of that time since every user on the machine could easily cause damage with just one command. Therefore, it was known in the UNIX community as "The big DOS timesaver".

Equivalent to the Unix command mkfs.

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.

No Unix equivalent.

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.

No Unix equivalent.

label

Changes the label on a logical drive, such as a hard disk partition or a floppy disk.

label drive

No Unix equivalent, as Unix does not use drive labels.

md or mkdir

Makes a new directory. The parent of the directory specified must already exist.

md directory

Equivalent to the Unix command mkdir.

more

Pages through the output so that you can view more than one screen of text.

command | more

Equivalent to the Unix commands more and less.

More may also be used as a filter.

more < inputfilename

move

Moves a file.

move filename newfilename

Equivalent to the Unix command mv.

msd

Main article: Microsoft Diagnostics

Provides detailed technical information about the computer's hardware and software.

msd

No Unix equivalent.

pcpark

Parks the hard disk(s) (stops their turning) in order to enable safe shutdown; only used on early versions.

pcpark

No Unix equivalent.

rd or rmdir

Remove a directory, which must be empty of files.

rd directory

Equivalent to the Unix command rmdir.

Note: To remove a directory that contains non-typeable characters, one can use a root path, an example being

rd \\.\z:\folder\remove

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.

rem > newfilename

In Unix, the # sign can be used to start a comment; the zero-length file can be achieved using various methods, such as the touch command or dd.

ren

Renames a file.

ren filename newname

In Unix, this function is performed by the mv command.

sort

A filter to sort lines in the input data stream and send them to the output data stream.

sort < inputfilename > outputfilename

Equivalent to the Unix command sort.

time and date

Set/display the date and time

date
time

Equivalent to the Unix command date.

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.)

tree [options] [directory]

Equivalent to the Unix command find.

truename

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 be C:\PROGRAMS\FISH.

This command was rarely, if ever, documented in DOS manuals.

This command is similar to the Unix whereis command, which, given an executable found in $PATH, would give a full path and name. The C library function realpath performs this function.

type

Display a file. The more command is frequently used in conjunction with this command, e.g. type long-text-file | more.

type filename

Equivalent to the Unix command cat.

undelete

Restores file previously deleted with del. By default all undeleted 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 use 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.

undelete [filespec] [/list|/all][/dos|/dt] 

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.

ver [/r]

Equivalent to the Unix command uname. However, in Linux uname may simply refer to the version of the kernel rather than the operating system itself, which is sometimes stored in a text file in /etc/name_version, or command lsb_release -a.

xcopy

Copy entire directory trees.

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.
 /I           If destination does not exist and copying more than one file,
              assumes that destination must be a directory.
 /Q           Does not display 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.

In Unix, this functionality is provided by the cp command.

External links

There are several guides to DOS commands available that are licenced under the GNU Free Documentation License:

• The FreeDOS HTML Help at fdos.org is a fully hypertext help system for FreeDOS commands, written in 2003/2004
• The FreeDOS Spec at SourceForge is a plaintext specification, written in 1999, for how DOS commands should work in FreeDOS

Wikibooks also has a guide to Microsoft Windows (as opposed to DOS) commands.

• MS-DOS commandsit:Lista di comandi di MS-DOS

pt:Lista de comandos do MS-DOS zh:MS-DOS命令列表