Basic MS-DOS

History

MS-DOS 1.0 was released in August 1981, and was updated until April 1994 when it was replaced by Windows 95

All versions of windows still contain some type of DOS, in windows 95 and 98 you can go to run and type command to get to DOS prompt, in NT, 2000, and XP you can type CMD and get DOS.

The role of DOS is to interpret commands that the user enters via the keyboard.

These commands allow the following tasks to be executed:

file and folder management disk upgrades hardware configuration memory optimization program execution

Introduction

File Manipulation

DIR - Lists files and subdirectories• Wildcard Characters ? *

EDIT - creates a new file or modifies an existing fileCOPY - copies a file or a group of filesXCOPY - copies all files in a directory (and its subdirectories)DEL or ERASE - deletes a file or a group of filesUNDELETE - undeletes filesCOPY (or XCOPY) plus DEL - moves filesDOSKEY - recalls commandsRENAME or REN - renames filesTYPE - displays text filesPRINT - prints a text fileCOPY - used to create a fileATTRIB - sets file propertiesFC - compares two files

Directory Manipulation

MD or MKDIR - creates a directory

CD or CHDIR - changes directory

PROMPT - changes the command prompt

TREE - displays the directory structure

RD or RMDIR - removes a directory

REN - Renaming directories

PATH - creates a search path

Basic Structure

Most DOS commands use the same structure

Command Source Destination /Switch

The switch will give options to the command

Example COPY A:\file.txt c:\ /v

/v will verify if the file copied correctly

The Help Switch /?

You can use the help switch with any command. It will give you the command structure, and the availible switches.

MS-DOS Prompt

The prompt in MS-DOS displays your current directory

C:\dos\commands> means you are in that directory, and any command you use will apply to the current directory unless you specify a different one.

DOS Naming

Characters like * + = | \ [ ] : ; “ < > , ? / cannot be used in DOS names.

Alternatively referred to as the file path and full path, the absolute path contains the root directory and all other subdirectories that contain a file or folder.

absolute pathC:\Windows\calc.exe

Windows non absolute path (relative path)calc.exe

Relative and Absolute path

Wildcard characters

Wildcard character will replace a single letter, or word with a wild character

* will replace any amput of characters, and ? Will replace one.

Example: copy a:/*.txt c:/ will copy all text files to drive c:/

Example 2: copy a:/?????.txt c:/ will copy any 5 letter text file to c:/

Basic Commands CD

CD- Change directory

You use this command when you want to change the directory.

Example: CD C:\DOS will bring you to the dos folder

Basic Commands CD.. And CD\

CD.. - brings you to the previous directory.

Example: if you are in C:\DOS\FOLDER

CD.. Will bring you to C:\DOS

Basic Commands CLS

CLS Will clear the contents of the screen

Basic Commands DIR

DIR will display the contents of the folder

Basic Commands COPY

COPY will copy the file from one location to another

Example COPY A:\file.txt c:\ will copy the file from a:\ to c:\

Basic Command XCOPY

XCOPY can move files, directories, and whole drives from one location to another, It is more powerful then the copy command, and has a lot of switches.

Basic Commands MOVE

MOVE will move the file or directory from one location to another

Example: MOVE a:\file.txt c:\file.txt will move the file to the c:\ drive

Basic Command DEL

DEL will delete a file or an empty directory from the drive

Basic Command EDIT

EDIT will open a text file

Basic Commands REN

REN will rename the file

Example : REN file.txt myfile.txt will rename the file.txt to myfile.txt

Basic Commands MD/RD

MD is used to make a directory (folder) in MS-DOS.

Example: MD myfolder will make a folder called myfolder in current directory

RD is used for remove directory

Deleting folders and sub folders

Basic Command TREE

TREE shows you all of the folders and files in current directory like explorer in windows.

Attributes

Attributes are the properties of a file such as hidden, read-only, archive or system file.

In MS-DOS you can view/change attributes with the attrib command.

Example: attrib +r file.txt will make the file read-only.

The MORE Command

The PRINT Command

The PRINT Command in MS DOS is used to print the text files

Syntax : PRINT Filename

E.g. PRINT File1.txt

The PROMPT Command

The PROMPT is used to configure a DOS prompt into our linking

Syntax : C:\ PROMPT Promptname

E.g. PROMPT NCIT

Now, the Prompt will be as NCIT

Checking the Date/Time

For checking the date from the system in MS DOS, we use the DATE command. It returns the current system date.

Similarly, the TIME command returns the current time from the system.

Syntax : C:\>DATE

E.g. C:\>DATE

command line.Go to Run –> cmd. This should open the command prompt.

Type g:\ where g is the USB drive letter.

Now run the following command: attrib -h -r -s -a *.*. This will remove the attributes hidden, archive, system from all the files.

Type del autorun.inf. This will delete the autorun.inf file.

Removing unwanted Files

F:\>edit test.txt

F:\>edit test.txt

F:\>copy con 123.docxmy name is indika rathninda^Z 1 file(s) copied.

F:\>edit 123.docx

F:\>dir>1234.txt

Batch file

DOS, OS/2, and Windows, a batch file is a

type of script file, a text file containing a

series of commands to be executed by the

command line interpreter. A batch file may

contain any command the interpreter accepts

interactively at the command prompt.

The Old New Thing

The command processor CMD.EXE comes with a mini-calculator that can perform simple arithmetic on 32-bit signed integers:

C:\>set /a 2+2 4 C:\>set /a 2*(9/2) 8 C:\>set /a (2*9)/2 9 C:\>set /a "31>>2" 7 Note that we had to quote the shift operator since it would otherwise be misinterpreted as a "redirect stdout and append" operator.

For more information, type set /? at the command prompt.

Concatenating Files Together in MS-DOS

Say you have two files (or twenty) named textfile1.txt and textfile2.txt. You want to create a new text file that combines the two.

While you could open each file up in your favorite editor and copy and paste the text, this is time consuming and error prone. A much easier way to accomplish this task is to use the copy command: >copy *.txt result.txt

This will take all the files with the extension .txt and create a new text file called result.txt out of all of them.

Finding Text Inside Files in MS-DOS

Lets assume I have a group of text files and I need to find out quickly which one contains the string "Test" inside it. You can quickly accomplish this using the 'find' command like so: >find "Test" *.txt This will search the contents of all the text files in the current directory and return a list of all of them that contain the string "Test". This command is extremely useful for searching text files.