Windows.XP.in.a.Nutshell.1002005.2Ed [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

6.4. Alphabetical Reference to DOS Commands

Most

of the following commands are not standalone applications (like those
listed in Chapter 4), but rather internal
functions of the Command Prompt (cmd.exe)
application. This restricts their use only to the Command Prompt
application. (They won't be recognized by the
Address Bar or by Start
Run.) Some items that are standalone programs, but are normally used
only in the Command Prompt window, such as
xcopy.exe and move.exe, are
listed here rather than in Chapter 4.

cd or chdir

Display the name of or change the current working directory (folder).

Syntax

cd [/d] [directory]

chdir [/d] [directory]

Description

With no arguments, cd displays the full pathname
of the current directory. Given the pathname of an existing
directory, it changes the current directory to the specified
directory.

If directory is on a different drive (for
example, if the current directory is c:\dream
and you type cd d:\nightmare), the current working
directory on that drive is changed, but the current working drive is
not. To change the current drive, use the /d
parameter, or simply type the letter followed by a colon, by itself,
at the prompt (see the examples below).

Pathnames can be absolute (including the
full path starting with the root) or relative to the current
directory. A path can be optionally prefixed with a drive letter. The
special paths .. and ... (and so on) refer to the parent and
grandparent of the current directory, respectively.

Examples

If the current drive is C:, make
c:\temp\wild the current directory:

C:\>cd \temp\wild
C:\temp\wild>

Note how the current working directory is displayed in the prompt. If
the current directory is c:\temp, all that is
necessary is:

C:\temp>cd wild
C:\temp\wild>

Change to the parent directory:

C:\more\docs\misc>cd ..
C:\more\docs>

Change to the root directory of the current drive:

C:\Windows\Desktop\>cd \
C:\>

Change to another drive:

C:\>cd /d d:\
D:\>

or simply:

C:\>d:
D:\>

Notes

The chdir and cd commands are
functionally identical.
The "current working
directory" only has meaning in the current Command
Prompt session and any other Command Prompts or applications launched
from that window. If you open a new Command Prompt window, it will
start over with it's default (set in the properties
of the Windows Shortcut).
The current directory is shown in the prompt; see "prompt", later in this chapter, for
information on changing the information displayed.

cls

Clear the DOS window and buffer, leaving only the command
prompt and cursor.

Description

Type cls at the prompt to clear the screen and the
screen buffer (see Section 6.1,
earlier in this chapter), which is useful for privacy concerns or
simply reducing clutter.

The difference between using cls and simply
closing the current Command Prompt window and opening a new one, is
that your working environment (such as the current directory) is
preserved with cls.

cls is also useful in complex batch
filesfor clearing the screen after one set of interactions or
command output. The name cls (Clear Screen) refers
to the old days when DOS owned the whole screen.

copy

Copy one or more files to another location.

Syntax


copy source destination

copy [/a | /b] source [/a | /b] [+ source [/a | /b] 
[+ ...]] [destination [/a | /b]] [/v] [/y | /-y] 
[/d] [/z]

Description

copy makes a complete copy of an existing file. If
another file by the same name exists at
destination, you will be asked if you want
to overwrite it.

Omit the destination to copy the specified files to the current
working directory. If the file (or files) to be copied is in a
different directory or on a different disk, you can omit the
destination filename. The resulting copy or copies will have the same
name as the original.

You can use the special device name con (or
con:) in place of either the source or destination
filename to copy from the keyboard to a file (or from a file to the
screen).

copy accepts the following parameters and options:

Specifies that the file to copy is in ASCII format

Specifies that the file to copy is a binary file

Verifies that new files are written successfully by comparing them
with the originals

Suppresses prompting to confirm you want to overwrite an existing
destination file

/-y

Enables prompting to confirm you want to overwrite an existing
destination file with the same name (default)

Allow the new file to be decrypted (NTFS volumes only)

Copies networked files in restartable mode

Examples

Copy the file temp.txt from
C:\ to d:\files (all three
examples do the same thing):

C:\>copy c:\temp.txt d:\files\temp.txt
C:\>copy c:\temp.txt d:\files
C:\>copy temp.txt d:\files

The third sample above works here because the source file is located
in the current director. Here's another way to do
it:

C:\>d:
D:\>cd \files
D:\files>copy c:\temp.txt

Copy all the files from the directory
d:\Cdsample\Images to the current directory,
giving the copies the same names as the originals:

C:\>copy d:\cdsample\images\*.* 
C:\>
copy d:\cdsample\images\*.*  .

Copy the file words.txt in the current directory
to d:\files, renaming it
morewords.txt:

C:\>copy words.txt d:\files\morewords.txt

Copy all of the files in the current directory to
d:\files (all three examples do the same thing):

C:\>copy *.* d:\files
C:\>copy .\*.* d:\files
C:\>copy . d:\files

Notes

The copy command is easier to use, but
xcopy (discussed later in this chapter) is more
powerful and flexible.
It is also possible to use the copy command to
concatenate (combine) files. To concatenate files, specify a single
file for the destination, but multiple files for the source (using
wildcards or file1 +file2
+file3 format):
```
copy mon.txt+tue.txt+wed.txt report.txt
```
You can specify a relative or absolute path (including disk names
and/or UNC paths) or use a simple filename. When concatenating, if no
destination is specified, the combined files are saved under the name
of the first specified file.
When attempting to concatenate files, copy expects
ASCII files by default, so in order to concatenate binary files, you
need to use the /b option. The reason for this is
that binary files typically contain one or more bytes outside the
normal ASCII printable range (i.e., 32 through 127).
The con device (console) can also be used in
conjunction with copy. To create a new text file
by typing its contents directly, first enter:
```
C:\>copy con mystuff.txt
```
then type the text to be saved into the file. When
you're done, type Ctrl-Z and press Enter. All text
typed from the keyboard in this example is then saved as
mystuff.txt.
Here's how to copy the contents of the file
mystuff.txt to the screen (see also "type"):
```
C:\>copy mystuff.txt con 
```
Binary file copy is assumed for normal copying, but the
/b option should be used when appending one binary
file to another, as in:
```
C:\>copy file1+file2 newfile /b
```
By default, when concatenating, both source and destination files are
assumed to be ASCII format, since binary files can seldom be usefully
concatenated due to internal formatting.
You can substitute a device (e.g., COM1) for either the source or the
destination. The data is copied in ASCII by default.
copy doesn't copy files that are
bytes long; use xcopy to copy these files.
copy, move, and
xcopy will prompt you before overwriting an
existing file, unless you specify a command line parameter
instructing them to do otherwise. To change the default, set the
copycmd environment variable to /y.
To restore the default behavior, set copycmd to
/-y. See "set" for details.

date

Display or set the system date.

Syntax

date [/t | date]

Description

Date is essentially a holdover from the very early
days of DOS when the user was required to enter the system date and
time every time the computer was started. Now it's
essentially included as a way to set the data from the command line;
the preferred method is to use Control Panel

Date and Time.

If you type date on the command line without an
option, the current date setting is displayed and you are prompted
for a new one. Press Enter to keep the same date.

Date accepts the following options:

date

Specifies the date. Use the

mm-dd- [

yy ]

yy format. Values for

yy can be from 80 through 99; values for

yyyy can be from 1980 through 2099. Separate
month, day, and year with periods, hyphens, or slashes.

Displays the current date without prompting for a new one.

Notes

The date format depends on settings in Control Panel
Regional and Language
Options.
Windows records the current date for each file you create or change.
This date is listed next to the filename in the
dir directory listing.
The date display format for most applications can be changed in
Control Panel Regional
and Language Options
Regional Options tab
Customize, but this doesn't affect the output of the
DOS date command.

Syntax

del [/p] [/f] [/s] [/q] [/a:attributes] filename

erase [/p] [/f] [/s] [/q] [/a:attributes] filename

Description

The del command is used to delete one or more
files from the command line without sending them to the Recycle Bin.

The del options are:

filename

Specifies the file(s) to delete. If you do not specify the drive or
path, the file is assumed to be in the current directory. You can use
standard * and ? wildcards to
specify the files to delete.

Prompts for confirmation before deleting each file.

Forces deletion of read-only files.

Delete specified files in all subdirectories (when using wildcards).

Quiet mode; do not prompt if filename is
*.*.

/a :attributes

Selects files to delete based on attributes (read-only, hidden,
system, or archive). See "Attrib" in Chapter 4 for more information on attributes.

Examples

Delete the file myfile.txt in the current
directory:

C:\>del myfile.txt

Delete the file myfile.txt in the
c:\files directory:

C:\>del c:\files\myfile.txt

Delete all files with the pattern myfile.*
(e.g., myfile.doc,
myfile.txt, etc.) in the current directory, but
prompt for each deletion:

C:\>del c:\files\myfile.* /p

Notes

The del and erase commands are
functionally identical.
Using the del command to delete a file does not
move it to the Recycle Bin. In other words, you
can't get a file back once you use the
del command, unless you have a special
"unerase" disk recovery utility.

dir

Display a list of files and subdirectories in a directory (folder).

Syntax

dir [filename] [/b] [/c] [/d] [/l] [/n] [/p] [/q] [/s] [/w] [/x]

    [/4] [/a:attributes] [/o:sortorder] [/t:timefield]

Description

Without any options, dir displays the
disk's volume label and serial number, a list of all
files and subdirectories (except hidden and system files) in the
current directory, file/directory size, date/time of last
modification, the long filename, the total number of files listed,
their cumulative size, and the free space (in bytes) remaining on the
disk.

If you specify one or more file or directory names (optionally
including drive and path, or the full UNC path to a shared
directory), information for only those files or directories will be
listed.

Wildcards (* and ?) can be used to display a subset listing of files
and subdirectories.

dir accepts the following options:

/a :attributes

Display only files with/without specified attributes (using - as a
prefix specifies "not," and a colon
between the option and attribute is optional). See "Attrib" in Chapter 4 for more information on attributes.

Use bare format (no heading information or summary). Use with
/s to find a filename.

Display compression ratio of files on

Dblspace or

DrvSpace drives, assuming 16 sectors/cluster.

Same as /w, except files are sorted vertically.

Use lowercase.

List files in a "new" Unix-like
display, where filenames are shown on the right.

/o :sortorder

List files in sorted order (using - as a prefix reverses the order,
and a colon between the option and attribute is optional):

By date and time (earliest first)

By extension (sorted alphabetically)

Group directories first

By name (sorted alphabetically)

By size (smallest first)

Pause after each screenful of information; press any key to continue.

Display the owner of each file.

Include all files in all subdirectories, in addition to those in the
current directory.

/t :timefield

Control which time is used when sorting:

Created

Last accessed

Last modified (written)

Wide list format. File and directory names are listed in five columns
and are sorted horizontally. Use /d instead to
sort vertically.

Include the "short" 8.3 versions of
long filenames. For example, Sam's
File.txt has an alternate filename,
samsfi~1.txt, to maintain compatibilty with
older applications.

Display the listed years as four digits. By default, two-digit years
are displayed.

Examples

Display all files in the current directory:

C:\>dir

Display all files in the current directory that end with the
.txt extension:

C:\>dir *.txt

Display all files, listing years in four digits and pausing for each
screenful:

C:\>dir /4 /p

Display all files, sorted by date and time, latest first:

C:\>dir /o-d

Display only directories:

C:\>dir /ad

List all files on disk, sorted by size, and store output in the file
allfiles.txt:

C:\>dir \ /s /os > allfiles.txt

List the contents of the shared folder cdrom on
machine bubba:

C:\>dir \\bubba\cdrom

Notes

To change the default sort order, set the dircmd
environment variable to the same value you'd use
with the /o parameter. See "set" for details.

When using a redirection symbol (>) to send dir
output to a file or a pipe (|) or to send dir
output to another command, you may want to use /b
to eliminate heading and summary information.

dir filename
/b /s acts as a kind of
"find" command, which looks in all
subdirectories of the current directory. For example:

C:\>

dir readme.txt /b /s
C:\Windows\readme.txt
C:\Stuff\Misc\FAQ\readme.txt

Unfortunately, this usage doesn't work with
wildcards; you must specify an actual filename.

One of Windows
Explorer's weaknesses is that
there's no way to print a directory listing or save
a directory listing into a file. However, the dir
command with some clever redirects will do the job.
To print out a sorted directory listing
of all files in the Windows directory:
```
C:\>dir c:\windows /oa > lpt1 
```
To create a file containing the directory listing of the same
directory:
```
C:\>dir c:\windows /oa > c:\myfiles\windows.txt 
```
Actually, dir can be used to fix this weakness of
the Explorer. See
Windows 98 Annoyances
(O'Reilly) for details on how to give the Explorer a
Print-Dir facility.
Files and folders that are hidden (see "Attrib" in Chapter 4) will not show up in dir
listings by default. However, if you know the name of a hidden
directory, there's nothing stopping you from
displaying a listing of the contents in that directory.

echo

Display a string of text; turn
command echoing on or off.

Syntax

echo [on | off  | message]

Description

Echo is typically used with other commands or in a batch file to
display text on the screen. It's also used to
control command echoing from batch files.

The following options can be used with echo :

on | off

By default, each command in a batch file is echoed to the screen as
it is executed. Echo on and echo off toggles this feature. To turn echoing off without
displaying the echo off command, use
@echo off. The @ symbol in
front of any command in a batch file prevents the line from being
displayed.

message

Types the message you'd like displayed to the
console (screen).

Examples

To display an ordinary message, use the following:

echo Hello World!

To display a blank line, use one of the following (all equivalent):

echo.
echo,
echo"

(Note the absence of the space between the echo
command and the punctuation; you can also use a colon, semicolon,
square brackets, backslash, or forward slash.)

One handy use of echo is to answer
y to a confirmation prompt such as the one
del issues when asked to delete all the files in a
directory. For example, if you wanted to clear out the contents of
the \temp directory from a batch file, you could
use the following command:

echo y | del c:\temp\*.*

or even:

echo y | if exists c:\temp\*.* del c:\temp\*.*

This construct works because the pipe character takes the output of
the first command and inserts it as the input to the second.

Announce the success or failure of a condition tested in a batch file:

if exist *.rpt echo The report has arrived.

It's a good idea to give the user usage or error
information in the event that they don't supply
proper arguments to a batch file. You can do that as follows:

@echo off
if (%1) == ( ) goto usage
. . .
:usage
echo You must supply a filename.

Syntax

exit [/b] [exitcode]

Description

Typing exit has the same effect as closing the
Command Prompt window with the [x] button.

exit accepts the following options:

If exit is used from within a batch file, it will
close the current Command Prompt window. Specify
/b to exit the batch file but leave
cmd.exe running.

exitcode

Specifies a numerical "exit code"
number that is passed to the application or process that launched the
Command Prompt or started the batch file.
Exitcode is typically used when one batch
file runs another batch file and wishes to report to the
"parent" batch file whether
successful or not.

Notes

If you start a new Command Prompt session by typing
cmd in an open Command Prompt window,
exit will end that session. However, since the
"parent" session is still active,
the window won't close until you type
exit again.

find

\Windows\Command\find.exe

Search in one or more files for text.

To Launch

find [/v] [/c] [/n] [/i] [/offline] "string" [filename[ ...]]

Description

After searching the specified files, find displays
any lines of text that contain the string you've
specified for your search. find is useful for
searching for specific words (strings) in files, but
don't get it confused with Start
Search
For Files or Folders (See
"Windows Explorer" in Chapter 4), which is capable of searching for text,
files, directories, etc., and has many other capabilities that the
find command doesn't have.

The find options are:

"string"

The text to look for, enclosed in quotation marks.

filename

The file(s) in which to search. Although wildcards (*, ?) are not
supported, multiple filenames can be specified as long as they are
separated with commas. If filename is
omitted, find searches text typed at the prompt or
piped from another command via the pipe character
(|), as described in Section 6.3, earlier this chapter.

Displays only the count of lines containing the string.

Ignores the case of characters when searching for the string.

Displays line numbers with the displayed lines.

Displays all lines not containing the specified string.

/offline

Includes files with the offline attribute set (that otherwise would
be skipped).

Examples

Search for "redflag" in
myemployees.txt:

C:\>find "redflag" myexployees.txt

Count occurrences of the word
"deceased" in
myemployees.txt:

C:\>find /c "deceased" myexployees.txt

Search the current directory for the string
"cls" in all
.bat files and store the result in the file
cls.txt (note that >> rather than > is
necessary when redirecting the output of a for
loop):

C:\>for %f in (*.bat) do find "cls" %f >> cls.txt

Notes

You can search through multiple files by specifying each file to
search on the command line, but unfortunately, wildcards (* and ?)
are not accepted in the filename. To search for a string in a set of
files, however, it's possible to use the
find command within a for loop
structure. If redirecting for to a file, use
>> rather than > (see
the earlier example).
If a filename is not specified, find searches the
text input from the "standard"
source (usually the keyboard), a pipe, or a redirected file.
If you have a Unix background, you might be tempted to try something
like:
```
dir c:\ /s /b | find "chap"
```
to search the contents of all files with
"chap" in their names, but in fact,
all you'd be doing is running
find on the list of filenames, not on their
contents.
find won't recognize a string
that has a carriage return embedded in it. For example, if
"chapter" is at the end of the line
and "05" on the next,
find won't report a match on
"chapter 05."

md or mkdir

Create a new directory (folder).

Syntax

md [drive:]path

mkdir [drive:]path

Description

Windows XP, like its predecessors, uses a hierarchical directory
structure to organize its filesystem. On any physical disk, the
filesystem begins with the root directory, signified by a lone
backslash.

md and mkdir accept the
following option:

[drive:]path

Specifies the directory to create.

Examples

Create a subdirectory named harry in the current
directory:

C:\tom\dick>md harry

Create a new directory called newdir under the
c:\olddir directory:

C:\>md c:\olddir\newdir

If c:\olddir doesn't exist, it
will be created as well.

Create two new directories, c:\rolling and
c:\stones:

C:\>md rolling stones

Create a single new directory, c:\rolling
stones:

C:\>md "rolling stones"

(Enclose directory names in quotation marks to accommodate spaces).

Notes

The md and mkdir commands are
functionally identical.
You can also create new folders in Windows Explorer by going to File
New
Folder.
You may indicate an absolute or relative path for the path parameter.
When absolute, the new directory is created as specified from the
root directory. When relative, the directory is created in relation
to the current directory.

more

\windows\system32\more.com

Display the contents of a file with the output of another command,
but pause the display so that only one screen of text is shown at a
time.

Syntax

more /e [/c] [/p] [/s] [/tn] [+n] [filename]

more [/e [/c] [/p] [/s] [/tn] [+n]] < filename

{some other command} | more [/e [/c] [/p] [/s] [/tn] [+n]]

Description

more displays one screen of text at a time.
more is often used as a filter with other commands
that may send a lot of output to the screen (i.e., to read standard
input from a pipe or redirected file). Press any key to see the next
screenful of output. Press Ctrl-C to end the output before it is
done.

more accepts the following options:

filename

Specifies the name of a file to display.

Clears the screen before displaying file.

If the /e option is specified, the following additional extended
commands are available at the More prompt:

P n

Displays next n lines.

S n

Skips next n lines.

Spacebar

Displays next page.

Enter

Displays next line.

Displays next file.

Quits.

Shows line number.

Shows help.

Expands form-feed characters.

Squeezes multiple blank lines into a single line.

/t n

Expands tabs characters to n spaces
(default 8).

+ n

Starts display of the file at line n.

filename

Specifies the name of a file to display.

Examples

Display the contents of \Windows\readme.txt and
pause for each screenful of text (both of the following examples have
the same effect):

C:\>more c:\windows\readme.txt
C:\>type c:\windows\readme.txt | more

Keep the output of dir from scrolling off the
screen before you can read it:

C:\>dir c:\windows | more

Notes

Some commands (like dir) have a
/p option that
"pages" the output (i.e.,
dir | more is the same as
dir /p), but many do not.

Syntax

move [/y | /-y] filename[,...] destination

Description

move works like copy, except
that the source is deleted after the copy is complete.
Filename can be a single file, a group of
files (separated with commas), or a single file specification with
wildcards.

The move options are:

filename

Specifythe location and name(s) of the file or files you want to
move. Wildcards (*, ?) are supported.

destination

Specify the new location of the file. The destination parameter can
consist of a drive, a directory name, or a combination of the two.
When moving one file, destination may
include a new name for the file.

Suppress prompting to confirm creation of a directory or overwriting
of the destination. This is the default when move
is used in a batch file.

/-y

Cause prompting to confirm creation of a directory or overwriting of
the destination. This is the default when move is
used from the command line.

Examples

Move myfile.txt from the current directory to
d:\files:

C:\>move myfile.txt d:\files\

Same, but rename the file to newfile.txt:

C:\>move myfile.txt d:\files\newfile.txt

Change the name of the directory d:\files to
d:\myfiles:

D:\>move d:\files myfiles

Notes

copy, move, and
xcopy will prompt you before overwriting an
existing file, unless you specify a command line parameter
instructing them to do otherwise. To change the default, set the
copycmd environment variable to
/y. To restore the default behavior, set
copycmd to /-y. See "set" for details.

Syntax

path [path1][;path2][;path3][;...]

Description

When you type an executable filename at the command prompt (as
opposed to an internal DOS command), Windows starts by looking in the
current directory for a file that matches. If no matching file is
found, Windows then looks in a series of other foldersthese
folders are known collectively as the path or the command search
path.

The path statement is used to define additional
directories to be included while searching for files. The path
consists of a series of absolute directory pathnames, separated by
semicolons. No spaces should follow each semicolon, and there should
be no semicolon at the end of the statement. If no drive letter is
specified, all pathnames are assumed to be on the boot drive.

Type path without any arguments to display the
current command search path. The default path in Windows XP is
c:\windows\system32;c:\windows;c:\windows\system32\wbem.

When you type the name of a command, DOS looks first in the current
directory, and then in each successive directory specified in the
path. Within each directory, it will look for executable files by
their extension in the following order: .com,
.exe, .bat. Windows
searches your path for certain other file types (i.e.,
.dll or .ocx) as well, although most
cannot be executed from the command line (see Notes for more
information).

Examples

Specify the directories c:\Stuff and
d:\Tools in the path:

C:\>path c:\stuff;d:\tools

However, this will replace the path with these two folders. To add
these folders to the existing path, type the following:

C:\>path %path%;c:\stuff;d:\tools

Notes

The path is actually an environment variable and the
path command is merely a shortcut for the
following:
```
set path=%path%;c:\stuff;d:\tools
```
See "set", later in this
chapter, for more information environment variables and details on
setting global environment variables that don't
expire when the Command Prompt window is closed.
Unlike some earlier versions of Windows, XP recognizes long folder
names in the path (e.g., c:\Program Files). If
the folder name has a semicolon in it, you may still have to use the
short names equivalent (e.g., c:\PROGRA~1).
Type path ; to clear all search path settings and
direct Windows to search only in the current directory.
The order of directories in the search path is quite important. For
example, you might run MKS Toolkit, a set of third-party tools that
brings Unix functionality to Windows systems. MKS normally stores its
files in \MKSNT, but if you have the path set as
follows:
```
path=C:\;C:\MKSNT;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\Command
```
you won't be able to run a DOS command like
find without typing its full pathname because the
MKS find command will be found and executed first.
Windows also searches the path for Windows shortcuts, but the usage
might be nonintuitive. To launch a shortcut named Widget, for
example, you'd have to type
widget.lnk at the prompt.
All of the supported file types are specified in the
PATHEXT environment variable (see "set", later in this chapter). By
default, Windows searches the path for the following extensions:
.com, .exe, .bat, .cmd, .vbs, .vbe, .js, .jse,
.wsf, and .wsh.

prompt

Change the appearance of the prompt.

Syntax

prompt [text]

Description

Type prompt by itself (without
text) to reset the prompt to its default
setting.

The prompt options are:

text

Specifies a new command prompt. Text can
contain normal characters and the following special codes:

Carriage return and linefeed

Dollar sign ($)

Ampersand (&)

Pipe (|)

Left parenthesis (()

Current date

Escape character (ASCII code 27)used to provide extended
formatting

Right parenthesis ())

Greater-than sign (>), commonly known as the
caret

Backspace (erases previous character)

Less-than sign (<)

Current drive

Current drive and path

Equal sign (=)

Space

Current time

Windows version number

Examples

Specify the current drive and directory followed by the greater-than
sign (>)the default prompt in Windows
XP:

C:\>prompt $p$g

Specify the drive and directory on one line and the date, followed by
the greater-than sign (>) on another:

C:\>prompt $p$_$d$g

Specify the drive only, followed by the greater-than sign
(>), which was the default prompt on early
versions of DOS:

C:\>prompt $n$g

Notes

The current prompt setting is actually stored in the environment, and
the prompt command is merely a shortcut for the
following:

set prompt=$p$g

See "set", later in this
chapter, for more information environment variables and details on
setting global environment variables that don't
expire when the Command Prompt window is closed.

rd or rmdir

Remove (delete) a directory.

Syntax

rd [/s] [/q] path

rmdir [/s] [/q] path

Description

Unlike in Windows Explorer, files and folders are deleted
differently; if you try to use del to delete a
directory, it will simple delete all the files in the directory, but
the directory itself will remain. rd is used to
delete empty directories and, optionally, to delete directories and
all of their contents.

rd accepts the following options:

path

Specifies the directory to delete.

Removes all files and subdirectories of the specified directory.

Quiet mode; don't prompt when using
/s.

Examples

Delete the empty subdirectory called newdir
located in the c:\olddir directory:

C:\>rd c:\olddir\newdir

Delete the directory Online Services and all of
its contents within the current directory, c:\Program
Files:

C:\Program Files>rd /s "online services"

Note that quotes must be used with rd for folders
with spaces in their names.

Notes

The rd and rmdir commands are
functionally identical.
As a safety feature, attempting to delete a directory that is not
empty without including the /s option will display
the message, "The directory is not
empty."
rd with the /s option takes the
place of the deltree command found in earlier
versions of Windows, but no longer included in Windows XP.
If you try to delete the current directory, you'll
get the following error: "The process cannot access
the file because it is being used by another
process." In this case, you'll have
to change to a different directory first.

ren or rename

Rename a file or directory.

Syntax

ren [filename1] [filename2]

rename [filename1] [filename2]

Description

Use ren to rename any file or directory. Unlike
Windows Explorer, though, ren is capable of
renaming several files at once (via wildcards 8 and ?).

The ren options are:

[filename1]

The name of the existing file or directory.

[filename2]

The new name to assign the file or directory.

Examples

Rename myfile.txt to
file.txt:

C:\>rename myfile.txt file.txt

Rename chap 5.doc to sect
5.doc: (the following two methods are identical):

C:\>ren "chap 5.doc" "sect 5.doc"
C:\>ren chap?5.doc sect?5.doc

Each of these examples represent different ways to rename files with
spaces in their names. In addition to the standard quotation marks,
in certain circumstances, you can use wildcards to avoid the spaces
problem. Here, both chap 5.doc and
sect 5.doc have spaces in the fifth character
position, so the single wildcard character (?) can be used.

Rename the files chap1.doc,
chap2.doc, etc. to
revchap1.doc, revchap2.doc,
etc.:

C:\>ren chap*.doc revchap*.doc

ren can be a convenient way to rename the filename
extensions of several files at once, as well:

C:\>ren *.txt *.rtf
C:\>ren * *l
C:\>ren *.mpeg *.mpg

Notes

The ren and rename commands are
functionally identical.
You can't move files from on directory to another
with ren; use move instead.
The file's Last Modified date is not changed when
using ren.

Syntax

set [variable[=[string]]]

set /p variable=[promptstring]

set /a expression

Description

The

environment is a small portion of memory
devoted to the storage of a few values called environment variables.
set is used to manipulate environment variables
from the command line, but since the Command
Prompt's environment is reset when its window is
closed, the usefulness of set is fairly limited.

To affect more permanent changes to environment variables, go to
Control Panel System
Advanced tab
Environment variables.
This window should be fairly self-explanatory; the variables in the
upper listing are for the current user and variables in the lower
listing apply to all users. Some environment variables, such as the
Temp user variable, are assigned with respect to
other variables, like this:

%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temp

where %USERPROFILE% (note the percent signs
(%) on either side) signifies the
USERPROFILE variable, which represents the path of
the current user's home directory. See "path", earlier in this chapter,
for another example of this usage.

In addition to providing a simple means of interapplication
communication, environment variables are also useful for storing data
used repeatedly in a batch file (see Section 6.5, later in this chapter).

Type set without options to display all of the
current environment variables. Type set with only
a variable name (no equal sign or value) to display a list of all the
variables whose prefix matches the name.

The set options are:

variable

Specifies the variable name. When assigning a new variable, the case
used is preserved. But when referencing, modifying, or deleting the
variable, variable is case-insensitive. If
variable is specified by itself, its value
is displayed. If variable is specified by
itself with an equal sign, the variable is assigned an empty value
and deleted. Variable cannot contain
spaces.

string

Specifies a series of characters to assign to
variable. As stated above, this can
contain references to other variables by surrounding them with
preceding and trailing percent signs (%).

Specifies that variable will be assigned
by text input from the user, rather than
string. As stated above, this can contain
references to other variables with preceding and trailing percent
signs (%).

promptstring

The text prompt to display when using the /p
option.

Specifies that expression is a numerical
expression to be evaluated. If used from the command prompt,
set /a will display the final evaluated result of
expression, even if you include an
assignment operator (such as =) to assign a variable.

expression

When used with the /a option, expression
is a collection of symbols, numbers, and variables arranged so that
it can be evaluated by set. The following symbols
are recognized (in decreasing order of precedence):

( )

Parenthesis for grouping

Unary operators

Arithmetic operators (multiply, divide)

Arithmetic operators (add, subtract)

<< >>

Logical shift

Boolean "and"

Boolean "exclusive or"

Boolean "or"

= *= /= %= += -= &= ^= |= <<= >>=

Assignment

Expression separator

If you use /a with any of the boolean or modulus
operators, you need to enclose expression
in quotes. Any non-numeric strings in
expression are treated as environment
variable names, and their values are converted to numbers during
evaluation (zero is used for undefined variables); the percent signs
(%) are not used here.

Examples

Set the variable dummy to the string
"not much":

C:\>set dummy=not much

Set the dircmd variable,
which instructs the dir command (discussed earlier
in this chapter) to sort directory listings by size with the largest
first:

C:\>set dircmd=/s /o-s

Append the directory c:\mystuff to the path (see
"path", earlier in this
chapter); note how the path variable is used on the right side of the
equal sign so that its original contents aren't
lost:

C:\>set path=%path%;c:\mystuff

Set the prompt (see "prompt",
earlier in this chapter) to show the current time, followed by a
right angle bracket:

C:\>set prompt=$t>

Display the contents of the variable named dummy
(both of the following statements are equivalent):

C:\>set dummy
C:\>echo %dummy%

You can also reference environment variables with other commands:

C:\>set workdir=C:\stuff\tim's draft
C:\>cd %workdir%

Here the environment variable is used to store a long pathname for
quick navigation to a frequently used directory.

Display the values of all variables that begin with the letter H:

C:\>set h

Clear the value of an environment variable, dummy:

C:\>set dummy=

Prompt the user to enter text to be inserted into the dummy variable
(typically used in batch files):

C:\>set /p dummy=Enter text here>

Evaluate an arithmetic expression (the two following expressions are
not the same):

C:\>set /a 7+(3*4)
C:\>set /a (7+3)*4

The results of these two expressions, 19 and 40, respectively, will
be displayed. To assign the result to a variables, type the
following:

C:\>set /a dummy=7+(3*4)

Even though you're assigning the result variable,
the result will still be displayed (unless set is
executed from batch file). To suppress the output, type this:

C:\>set /a dummy=7+(3*4) > nul

In addition to any custom environment variables you may use, Windows
XP recognizes the following variables (many of which are already
defined):

ALLUSERSPROFILE

The location of the All Users folder, usually c:\Documents
and Settings\All Users.

APPDATA

The location of the Application Data folder, usually
c:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Application
Data.

COMMONPROGRAMfiles

The location of the Common Files folder, usually c:\Program
Files\Common Files.

COMPUTERNAME

The network name of the computer, set by going to Control Panel
System
Computer Name tab
Change.

COMSPEC

The location of the command prompt application executable,
c:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe by default.

COPYCMD

Whether the copy, move, and
xcopy commands should prompt for confirmation
before overwriting a file. The default value is
/-y. To stop the warning messages, set
copycmd to /y.

DIRCMD

Specifies the default options for the dir command.
For example, setting dircmd
to/p will cause dir to always
pause after displaying a screenful of output.

HOMEDRIVE

The drive letter of the drive containing the current
user's home directory, usually
c:, used with HOMEPATH.

HOMEPATH

Along with HOMEDRIVE, the path of the current
user's home directory, which is usually
\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%.

LOGONSERVER

The name of the computer as seen by other computers on your network,
usually the same as COMPUTERNAME preceeded by two
backslashes.

NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS

The number of processors currently installed, usually 1. In a
multiprocessor system, it can be 2 or 4.

Used to identify the operating system to some applications; for
Windows XP, OS is set to
"Windows_NT." You may be able to
"fool" an older program that is
programmed not to run on an NT system by changing this variable
temporarily.

PATH

The sequence of directories in which the command interpreter will
look for commands to be interpreted. See "path", earlier in this chapter.

PATHEXT

The filename extensions (file types) Windows will look for in the
directories listed in the path (see "path", earlier in this chapter).
The default is .COM,
.EXE, .BAT,
.CMD, .VBS,
.VBE, .JS,
.JSE, .WSF, and
.WSH

PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE

The type of processor; set to x86 for Intel-based
processors (such as the Pentium 4).

PROCESSOR_REVISION

A series of values used by the processor manufacturer to identify the
processor.

PROGRAMfiles

The location of the Program Files folder, usually
c:\Program Files.

PROMPT

The format of the command-line prompt, usually $P$G. See "prompt", earlier in this chapter,
for details.

SESSIONNAME

The name of the current command prompt session; usually
"Console."

SYSTEMDRIVE

The drive letter of the drive containing Windows, usually
C:.

SYSTEMROOT

The location of the Windows directory (or more specifically, the name
of the folder in which the \Windows\System32
folder can be found), usually c:\windows.

TMP

The location where many programs will store temporary files.
TEMP and TMP are two different
variables, but they should both have the same value; usually set to
c:\DOCUME~1\%USERNAME%\LOCALS~1\Temp (short name
used to maintain compatibility with older DOS programs).

USERDOMAIN

The name of the domain to which the computer belongs (set by going to
Control Panel-System-Computer Name-Change). If no domain is
specified, USERDOMAIN is the same as
COMPUTERNAME.

USERNAME

The name of the current user.

USERPROFILE

The location of the current user's home directory,
which should be the same as HOMEDRIVE plus
HOMEPATH, usually c:\Documents and
Settings\%USERNAME%.

WINDIR

The location of the Windows directory, usually
c:\windows.

Notes

Among the standard environment variables listed above, some represent
certain system folders (such as PROGRAMfiles).
These variables only reflect the corresponding settings in the
Registry (and elsewhere); changing them will only affect what is
reported to applications that use these variables; it
won't actually change where Windows looks for these
folders.

sort

\windows\system32\sort.exe

Sort text or the contents of text files in alphanumeric order.

Syntax

sort [/r] [/+n] [/m kilobytes] [/l locale] [/rec recordbytes]

    [/t [tempdir]] [/o outputfilename] [filename]

Description

The sort command sorts text on a line-by-line
basis. Each line of the input is ordered alphanumerically and output
to the screen (or optionally, stored in a file). By default, sorting
starts with the character in the first column of each line, but this
can be changed with the /+n option.
sort is often used in conjunction with either
pipes or output redirection (both discussed earlier in this chapter).
That is, you might want to sort the output of another command, and
you will often want to redirect the output to a file so that it can
be saved. sort takes the following options:

Reverses the sort order; that is, it sorts Z to A and then 9 to 0

/+ n

Sorts the file according to characters in column
n.

/m kilobytes

Specifies amount of main memory to allocate for the sort operation in
kilobytes. The default is 90 percent of available memory if both the
input and output are files, and 45 percent of memory otherwise. The
minimum amount of memory sort will use is 160 Kb; if the available
(or specified) memory is insufficient, sort will
split the operation up using temporary files.

/l locale

Overrides the system default locale (see Control Panel
Regional and Language
Options). The "C" locale yields the
fastest collating sequence, and in Windows XP, is the only choice.

/rec recordbytes

Specifies the maximum number of characters on a line (in a record);
the default is 4,096 and the maximum is 65,535.

/t tempdir

Specifies the location of the directory used to store temporary
files, in case the data does not fit in main memory (see the
/m option). The default is to use the system
temporary directory.

/o outputfilename

Specifies a file where the output is to be stored. If not specified,
the sorted data is displayed at the prompt. Using the
/o option is faster than redirecting output (with
the > symbol).

filename

The name (and optionally, full path) of the file to sort.

Examples

Display an alphabetically sorted directory (similar to
dir /o):

C:\>dir | sort

Sort the contents of a file, data.txt, and store
the sorted version in results.txt (the following
four examples are all equivalent, although the first is the most
efficient):

C:\>sort /o results.txt data.txt
C:\>sort data.txt > results.txt
C:\>sort /o results.txt < data.txt
C:\>type data.txt | sort > results.txt

Notes

The input to sort should be ASCII text, so that
each line can be considered a record of data.
Using the /+n parameter, the lines (records) of
the input text may be broken into fields, each beginning a fixed
number of characters from the start of the line, facilitating a sort
of third column.
Blank lines and leading spaces will be sorted. This can result in
many blank lines at the top of the sorted output; you may need to
scroll down in an editor to see nonblank lines.
If you do a lot of command-line sorting, you may want to get a
Windows version of the Unix sort utility
(available as part of the MKS Toolkit; http://www.mkssoftware.com/), which is much
more powerful. The Unix sort command lets you
define and sort on fields within the line, ignore upper- and
lowercase distinctions, and eliminate duplicate lines,
among

other things.

time

Display or set the system time.

Syntax

time [/t | time]

Description

Like date (discussed earlier in this chapter),
time is essentially a holdover from the very early
days of DOS when the user was required to enter the system date and
time every time the computer was started. Now it's
essentially included as a way to set the data from the command line;
the preferred method is to use Control Panel

Date and Time.

If you type time on the command line without an
option, the current time setting is displayed, and you are prompted
for a new one. Press Enter to keep the same date.

The time options are:

time

Sets the system time without a prompt. The format of
time is
hh:mm:ss
[A|P], where:

hh

Hours: valid values = 0-23

mm

Minutes: valid values = 0-59

ss

Seconds: valid values = 0-59

A|P

A.M. or P.M. (for a 12-hour format). If a valid 12-hour format is
entered without an A or P, A is the default.

Displays the current time without prompting for a new one.

Notes

The time format depends on settings in Control Panel
Regional and Language
Options.
Windows records the current time for each file you create or change.
This time is listed next to the filename in the
dir directory listing.
The time display format for most applications can be changed in
Control Panel Regional
and Language Options
Regional Options tab
Customize, but this doesn't affect the output of the
DOS time command.
To have Windows automatically synchronize the clock with an Internet
time server, go to Control Panel
Date and Time
Internet Time tab.

Syntax

type filename

Description

The type command is useful if you need to quickly
view the contents of any text file (especially short files).
type is also useful for concatenating text files,
using the >> operator.

Notes

If the file is exceptionally long, you can press Ctrl-C to interrupt
the display before it's finished.

Syntax

ver

Description

ver shows the version of Windows
you're using. You can also find the Windows version
at Control Panel System
General tab, but it
won't show you the revision number.

ver takes no options.

This undocumented option also displays the revision number, and
whether DOS is located in the high memory area (HMA; the same as
DOS=HIGH).

Notes

Windows XP is known internally as Windows NT
5.1.xxxx, where
xxxx is the build/revision number.

Syntax

xcopy source [destination] [/a | /m] [/d[:date]] [/p] [/s [/e]]

    [/v] [/w] [/c] [/i] [/q] [/f] [/l] [/g] [/h] [/r] [/t] [/u]

    [/k] [/n] [/o] [/x] [/y] [/-y] [/z] [/exclude:filenames]

Description

xcopy works like copy, but
provides more options and is often faster.

The xcopy32 options are:

source

Specifies the file(s) to copy; source must include
the full path.

destination

Specifies the location and/or name of new files. If omitted, files
are copied to the current directory.

Copies files with the archive attribute set, but
doesn't change the attribute of the source file
(similar to /m).

Continues copying even if errors occur.

/d :date

Copies only files changed on or after the specified date. If no date
is given, copies only those source files that are newer than existing
destination files.

Copies all directories and subdirectories (everything), including
empty ones (similar to /s.) May be used to modify
/t.

/exclude :filenames

Specifies a file (or a list of files) containing strings of text
(each on its own line). When any of the strings match any part of the
absolute path of the file to be copied, that file will be excluded
from being copied. Contrary to what you might expect,
filenames does not actually list the
filenames to exclude.

Displays full source and destination filenames while copying (unless
/q is specified); normally, only filenames are
displayed.

Allows the copying of encrypted files to a destination that does not
support encryption; otherwise, such files are skipped.

Copies hidden and system files also; normally files with the hidden
or system attributes are skipped (see "Attrib" in Chapter 4 for details).

If a destination is not supplied and you are copying more than one
file, assumes that the destination must be a directory. (By default,
xcopy asks if the destination is a file or
directory.)

Duplicates the attributes of the source files; by default,
xcopy turns off the read-only attributes (see
"Attrib" in Chapter 4 for details).

Displays files that would be copied given other options, but does not
actually copy the files.

Copies files with the archive attribute set, then turns off the
archive attribute of the source file (similar to
/a).

Copies files using short (8.3) file and directory names (for example,
PROGRA~1 instead of Program
Files). Use this feature to convert an entire branch of
files and folders to their short names.

Copies file ownership and ACL information.

Prompts you before creating each destination file.

Quiet mode; does not display filenames while copying.

Overwrites read-only files.

Copies directories and subdirectories, except empty ones (similar to
/e.)

Creates the directory structure, but does not copy files; does not
include empty directories unless /e is specified.

Copies from the source-only files that already exist on destination;
used to update files.

Verifies copied files by comparing them to the originals.

Prompts you to press a key before copying (useful in batch files).

Copies file audit settings (implies /o).

/y, /-y

Turns off or on (respectively) the prompt for overwrites existing
files.

Copies networked files in restartable mode.

The following are exit codes generated by xcopy,
and can be tested in batch file with ERRORLEVEL to
determine if the xcopy operation was successful:

All files were copied without errors.

No files were found to copy.

xcopy was terminated by Ctrl-C before copying was
complete.

An initialization error occurred. Such an error would generally be
caused by insufficient memory or disk space, or an invalid drive name
or syntax.

A disk-write error occurred.

Examples

Copy all the files and subdirectories, including any empty
subdirectories and hidden files, from c:\foobar
to the root directory of d:

C:\>xcopy \foobar d: /s /e /h

Notes

copy, move, and
xcopy will prompt you before overwriting an
existing file, unless you specify a command line parameter
instructing them to do otherwise. To change the default, set the
copycmd environment variable to
/y. To restore the default behavior, set
copycmd to /-y. See "set" for details.
In some earlier versions of Windows, there were to versions of
xcopy: xcopy.exe and
xcopy32.exe. In Windows XP, the
xcopy command is equivalent to the 32-bit
xcopy32.exe utility; there's no
equivalent to the old 16-bit xcopy.exe, however.
Use caution when using the /s or
/e options in conjunction with
/d or /u, as the results
may
be
unpredictable.

Windows.XP.in.a.Nutshell.1002005.2Ed [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

6.4. Alphabetical Reference to DOS Commands

Syntax

Description

Examples

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To Launch

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