Internal DOS Commands

CD
CHCP
CLS
COPY
CTTY
CHDIR
DEL
MD
DATE
DIR
PATH PROMPT
ERASE
MKDIR
RD
SET
TIME
TYPE
VER
VOL
RMDIR
VERIFY LOCK UNLOCK LOADHIGH EXIT TRUENAME

BREAK

If you are a DOS novice just learning these commands I would recommend just scrolling
down the screen and reading about them all. Just remember the important ones like: DIR,
COPY, CD, and DEL. They will get you started.

DIR
This command gives a listing of most of the files and directories on a disk (Hard disk and
floppy disk). In DOS 3.3 and below, there are only 2 known switches:
/W - gives the directory listing wide across your screen without times, dates, and sizes
listed
/P - pauses the output of the DIR command if there are more files than can be listed on
your screen at once
You can use these two switches interchangeably with no problems.
With DOS 5 and up you have MANY other switches you can use also. I hope to list them
soon, although they don't do you much good.
UNDOCUMENTED: Use DIR followed by a comma to see EVERY file and directory,
even if they're hidden! (Or have their SYSTEM attribute set).
C:\>DIR,
Use DIR followed by 3 or more periods to see ONLY files and directories WITHOUT
any extension.

C:\>DIR....
These two tricks only work on DOS 5 to 6.22. They should work for DRDOS as well. To
view hidden and system files under DOS 7 (Windoze 95) use "DIR /A"

TYPE
This command will dump the contents of a text file to your screen. Example:
C:\>type bill.txt
Bills stuff document.
Bill has 2 things:
1 basket ball
1 used sock
C:\>
This should mostly be used on plain ASCII text files. While you can use TYPE to print
out an executable program to the screen, it will be a bunch of junk and you'll get a lot of
annoying beeps. TYPE will stop printing a file to your screen when it encounters an EndOf-File character. This can come in handy if you want to keep something secret. I explain
it on my SECRETS page. You can also get fancy and TYPE text files to things like your
printer or Modem if you like.
C:\>type file.txt > lpt1
C:\>type upload.doc > com2
Note: With ALL versions of MSDOS and PCDOS you cannot use TYPE with wildcards
(* and ?). BUT, under DRDOS 7 you can.

DEL and ERASE

DEL and ERASE do the exact same thing- why someone would type out ERASE every
time they wanted delete a file is beyond me. You can use wild cards with either command
without any problems. You can also use them in batch files easily.
TECH EXPLANATION: these commands don't destroy any data. They simply place the
HEX character E5 (In HEX, E5 makes 1 ASCII character) as the first letter in the file's
name and blank out that files place in the FAT. Don't confuse this with hiding a file - that
has to do with the files attribute setting. The DIR command ignores any file it finds
beginning with E5. If you delete a sensitive file on a diskette- but don't copy anything
back to the disk or over write it- that document is still EASILY accessible. That's how
UNDELETE and other utilities work. They DO look for files beginning with E5 (They
also have to track down which clusters the file was stored on). If you don't have a
program to over-write files, you can just copy a "safe" file of the SAME LENGTH over
top of it.

MD and MKDIR
This lets you Make a Directory, hence the MD (MKDIR is a hold over from UNIX style
OS's. If you switch between a UNIX OS and DOS, you may come to appreciate
MKDIR). You type MD followed by a file name. You can nest (Make a directory within
a directory) up to 16 directories on most DOS only systems (No Windoze). Some will let
you nest up to 32. On windoze 95 machines you can get 3 lines of directories in a DOS
box and 16 directories in MS-DOS mode. At this moment I really don't know where the
limitation comes from, as it appears to be limited by the length of the command line. But
I would think something other than the length of the command line would create the
limitation (Like the FAT or something). The shorter the directory name the more you can
nest. Anywho, it is good practice to separate your files and programs so everything is
organized.

CD and CHDIR
This command lets you change directories. Lets say you are at root (Just a "C:\>" prompt)
and you want to get into a directory named WINDOWS. Type the following:
C:\>cd windows
You will get a prompt like this:
C:\WINDOWS>
Now, wasn't that fun?! But wait, there's more! Oh know!! You need to get back to your
root directory, and quick! Type "CD.." and you will be magically transported back to
root. Ok, go back into any directory again. Now type DIR to see what is in there. You
will notice that there are two sub directories, one called "." and the other called "..". They
represent where you were and where you are. The "." is the directory you are in. ".."
represents the parent directory, or the directory this directory is in (Confused yet?! Hang
on, it'll get better the more you use it!). When you type "CD.." you are telling DOS to go
to the directory you where just in. If you type "CD." nothing will happen since you are in

that directory already. Pop quiz: what if you are about 7 directories in and you need to get
to root? Instead of typing CD.. seven times in a row, use "CD\". Another trick; lets say
that you are in your "C:\DOS>" directory and you want to get into "C:\GAMES\NES>"?
Use this:
C:\DOS>cd \games\nes
You will be sent directly into your NES directory within your GAMES directory.

COPY
This command obviously copies files to different spots on your disks. It does not remove
the source file after writing the new file. Usage:
C:\copy mystuff.doc A:
This example will copy "mystuff.doc" to your A: drive. Here's another example:
C:\copy mystuff.doc A:\stuff.doc
This copies "mystuff.doc" to the A: drive and renames it to "stuff.doc". Alright, say you
want to combine two plain text files into one big happy file. This will accomplish that:
C:\copy mystuff.doc+herstuff.txt C:\house\ourstuff.yea
This combines "mystuff.doc" and "herstuff.txt" with the + symbol into one file named
"ourstuff.yea" in the HOUSE directory. Any questions?
SWITCHES: /A /B /V
The switch /A treats a file like an ASCII text file. This means that if the file has an EndOf-File character in the middle of it everything up until the [E-O-F] character will be
copied. Anything after that will be chopped off.
The switch /B treats the file like a binary file and will copy EVERY THING up the
specified file length to the destination. If you have a an ASCII text file with an End Of
File maker in the middle of it, copy will cut off every thing after the End Of File marker.
Using the /B switch will ignore all control characters including End Of File markers.
Example: if you try to TYPE the COMMAND.COM file to examine its contents, it stops
early before you get to see anything interesting. Using the /B switch with copy we can
see the ENTIRE thing.
COPY /B COMMAND.COM CON
This chain of commands sends, without interruption on End Of File control characters,
the contents of COMMAND.COM to the CON device, which is your screen. It will beep
a lot and take a long time to all go by, but you will be able to see all of its error messages
and commands it will accept.

Switch /V makes COPY VERIFY if it correctly made a copy to the destination. I have
never used this and I don't ever plan too. Unless you are tracking suspicious virus activity
or you are dealing with bad media (Diskettes that are failing) you should never have to
use /V.

RD and RMDIR
RD will Remove a Directory. Use RD followed by the name of the directory you wish to
delete. You must empty the directory first or you will just get an error message from
DOS. Since DOS 5.00 there has been a nifty utility called DELETREE which doesn't
care if the directory has files in it.

VER
VER will tell you what version of DOS you are using. If you happen to be stuck with
widoz`95 VER will tell you some Windows version junk.
Undocumented: VER/R will tell you some more information like the revision letter and if
DOS is in HIGH memory or not. Should work with DOS 5 on up.

VOL
VOL will tell you the volume label of your hard drive or floppy disk. On DOS 5 and up it
will also give you a serial number too. This can come in handy for batchfile programming
if you need your INSTALL.BAT file to make sure the right disk is inserted in the disk
drive.

DATE
This command lets you set your systems date.
C:\>date
Current date is Wed 03-11-98
Enter new date (mm-dd-yy):
C:\>
You can just hit enter to not change it or you can specify a new system date. Not very
complicated. It can also be used in a batchfile to log the date and/or time if some
redirection is used.

TIME
This lets you set your systems time.
C:\time
Current time is 1:46:11.30p
Enter new time:
C:\>
You don't need to specify the time to the nearest millisecond like DOS displays it, an
hour and a minute will do. Notice the p at the end of the second line. That means it's P.M.
You MUST put a p at the end of your new time or else your computer will be set to A.M.
You can put an a there if you want an A.M. time, or you can just leave it blank.

PATH
The PATH is where DOS searches for programs. When you type the name of a program,
like FORMAT, DOS will look through it's list of INTERNAL COMMANDs. Since
FORMAT isn't an internal command DOS will then look through your current directory
for that programs name. If it doesn't find FORMAT in your current directory it will look
through all of the directories listed in your PATH environment variable. You can see
what your current PATH is by just typing PATH. You can also see it by using SET,
which lists ALL environment variables, of which PATH is one. Normally your
AUTOEXEC.BAT file will set your PATH statement, but you can create or modify it at
any time. Here's an example of how to view it:
C:\>path
PATH=C:\DOS;C:\WINDOWS;C:\UTIL;D:\GAMES;
C:\>
To change your path just use PATH followed by the new PATH directories. Notice the
semi-colon between directories, this separates entries. The equal sign is optional when
you are setting the PATH statement. Be careful, when you set the PATH you will replace
the previous one. If you want to keep what is already there you will need the following
batchfile, unless you retype the whole PATH string again.
@ECHO OFF
SET OLDPATH=%PATH%
SET PATH=%PATH%%1
SET OLDPATH=
You would use this as follows:
C:\>pathit.bat C:\BIN Where pathit.bat is your batchfiles name, and C:\BIN is the name
of the directory you wish to add. This is how this batchfile works: First, it saves your
current PATH as OLDPATH. Next it makes a new PATH starting with the old one, and
then appends the directories you list on the command line to the end. There CANNOT be
a space between the environment variable "%PATH%" and the command line switch

"%1". You also need to know if a semi-colon is already at the end of your current PATH
statement or not. If it is already there you can use the example as-is. If it ain't, you will
either need to put one in the batchfiles second line, or add one before the path of the
directory you are adding to your PATH. If you got lost with all this batchfile stuff you
should visit my batchfile page. It will explain almost all of this.

CTTY
This cryptic and rarely used command can have some security value. It defines the device
used to accept and display data (I.E. Your keyboard and monitor). If you set CTTY equal
to the NULL device you must reset the computer in order to regain access. You can use it
as the first line of your AUTOEXEC before it runs some sensitive programs that you
don't want a user to CTRL+C out of. After you run the program or batch commands you
can regain access to the system by having a CTTY CON statement at the end of your
AUTOEXEC. Example:
CTTY NULL
COPY C:\WINDOWS\SECURE\*.INI C:\WINDOWS
ECHO Y|DEL C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\*.*
CTTY CON
Other values you can substitute for NULL are: AUX, PRN, COMx, LPTx, and maby
some others I can't think of right now. The "x" in COMx and LPTx can be any valid
number for your system: COM1, COM3, LPT1, ect.

BREAK
This lets you control extended error checking. "Duh, what the heck does that mean?"
Well, if BREAK is ON it makes DOS check whether you are pressing CTRL+C or
CTRL+BREAK more often than it normally would. On an older machine this may slow it
down a bit too. To see if BREAK is ON or OFF just type BREAK at a command prompt.
C:\>break
BREAK is off
C:\>
You can turn BREAK on and off by using BREAK ON and BREAK OFF.

CLS
This command clears the screen. It also places your cursor at the top left-hand corner of
your screen (Also called the "home position"). Got it?

PROMPT
This is used to set your command prompt. If you use it by itself your prompt will change
to C>. Your prompt looks like this most of the time:
C:\>
You can change it by typing PROMPT followed by any text that you want as your new
prompt. There are also some switches you can add to spice up your boring old prompt.
$$ adds a $ to your prompt
$t states the time

$d
$p
$v
$n
$g
$l
$b
$q
$h
$e
$_

states the date

lists your current directory and drive letter
adds your DOS version (Or Windoze 95 version)
lists just your current drive
the > character
the < character
the | character
the = character
a backspace, it deletes the last letter of your prompt
the escape character, can be A LOT of fun
does a carriage return after listing your prompt

The most noteworthy of these are $P, $G, and $E. Just using $P$G will let you see your
current path and have a > to separate your prompt from your commands. $E lets you
enter escape sequences directly from a DOS prompt. You can set up key macros with it
as well as change your background and foreground colors and move the cursor position.
You can also add control characters to your prompt. Using PROMPT ^A (Where ^A is
CTRL+A) will make your DOS prompt a smiley face! Adding CTRL+G to your prompt
will make your computer beep after every command you give DOS. Here's an example:
C:\>prompt $E[32m^A$E[33m$G$E[0m
>
>
This may look like a lot of gibberish, but you just have to break it down. $E[32m is an
escape sequence that makes text green. ^A is CTRL+A (Our smiley face). $E[33m makes
text orange, and $G makes a > appear after our smiley face. The last $E[0m resets the
screen colors to the default (White on black).
MORE TO COME

CHCP
This is used to change the code page (Language, like Spanish or English) that your
keyboard, screen, and printer use. I only know English and have never had to use this
one. You must have the line COUNTRY=[path of country.sys file] in your config.sys
file. You may also need to run NLSFUNC before you an use CHCP too. Type CHCP at
your DOS prompt to see your current country code page, which is usually 437 or 850.
Don't expect any more info on this one from me!

SET
Set gives you control of environment settings. Environment settings are very handy in
batchfile programming. One very well known environment setting is your PATH. To use
it just type:
C:\>SET string1=string2
A decent example of use is listed under PATH. These strings can be letters, numbers,
words, environment variables, and command line switches but ABSOLUTELY NO
SPACES!!! (Visit my batchfile page for more on environment variables and command
line switches-substitution). In our example string1 is the variable we are creating from
scratch. String2 can be another "from scratch" variable or a preset variable like a
command line switch or an already existent environment variable.
Well, that's all I have time for now, I'll get more examples for using set when I have time.
Please feel free to email me if you need an answer.

VERIFY
This is more of an option rather than a command. When 'VERIFY' is turned on it double
checks every file after it writes it. This helps to prevent corruption. If a file is written to a
bad sector, VERIFY should detect it and relocate the file to a good part of the disk. The
only drawback is that this will slow down write actions on a disk (Or diskette). I've
played around a little with this, and found very little speed degradation with having
VERIFY set to ON.
Typing just VERIFY will show you whether it is turned on or off. To set it just use
VERIFY ON or VERIFY OFF respectively.

LOCK
This command is only available in DOS 7 for use with Windows 95/98. It 'locks' a disk
so DOS programs can have direct access to it (Without windows acting on its behalf
during disk access). It will warn you that corruption can occure if you use it. Heed that
warning. If you have a DOS program that must be run with the disk being 'locked' it is
probably pretty old and may not understand how to act with the windows 'enhancements'
on the disk. If you just have to still use that program I would recommend only using it on
machine running the version of DOS it was made for. Otherwise make a backup of your
system before you mess with it. To unlock a disk see UNLOCK in the next section.

UNLOCK
This unlocks a drive from direct disk access. See above, LOCK for more.

EXIT
This exits the current command shell. In windows it will close your DOS window.
(Unless you have more than one instance of command.com running). If you are at a real
DOS prompt (No windows in the background) nothing will happen.
If you start another instance of command.com (By typing 'COMMAND') then you will
have two shells running. Anything you do here will not affect the previous shell.
Example: if you change your path statement in a secondary shell, when you exit all your
environment variables will be lost and go back to what they where in the first shell's
environment.

LOADHIGH aka LH
This tries to load a program into high memory. (For the purpose of freeing up more
conventional memory.) LH is the same command as LOADHIGH. In order to use it you
MUST have the following:
DOS=UMB in your config.sys file
Himem.sys and Emm386.exe installed
It should especially be used with things like your mouse driver that are in memory the
whole time DOS is running.

TRUENAME
This is an undocumented command in MSDOS since version 5. The reason it's not
documented is that it doesn't work. The name would suggest it tells the fully qualified
name of a file (C:\dos\format.com versus just format.com). When you type just
TRUENAME it will show you your current directory and drive. If you add anything after
truename it will erroneously show it as an actual file or folder on your current drive.

WILDCARDS * and ?
coming soon...
This web page is copyrighted by Nathan Heald. Reproduction is allowed as long as this message is not
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