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History

■ MS-DOS 1.0 was released in August 1981,

and was updated until April 1994 when it
BASIC MS-DOS 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
~ Dharma Raj Poudel CMD and get DOS.

Introduction
File Manipulation

The role of DOS is to interpret commands that

the user enters via the keyboard. DIR - Lists files and subdirectories
• Wildcard Characters ? *
EDIT - creates a new file or modifies an existing file
These commands allow the following tasks to be COPY - copies a file or a group of files
executed: XCOPY - copies all files in a directory (and its subdirectories)
file and folder management DEL or ERASE - deletes a file or a group of files
UNDELETE - undeletes files
disk upgrades COPY (or XCOPY) plus DEL - moves files
hardware configuration DOSKEY - recalls commands
memory optimization RENAME or REN - renames files
TYPE - displays text files
program execution PRINT - prints a text file
COPY - used to create a file
ATTRIB - sets file properties
FC - compares two files

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Directory Manipulation
Basic Structure

MD or MKDIR - creates a directory

■ Most DOS commands use the same
CD or CHDIR - changes directory structure
PROMPT - changes the command prompt ■ Command Source Destination /Switch
TREE - displays the directory structure ■ The switch will give options to the command
RD or RMDIR - removes a directory ■ Example COPY A:\file.txt c:\ /v

REN - Renaming directories

■ /v will verify if the file copied correctly

PATH - creates a search path

The Help Switch /? MS-DOS Prompt

■ You can use the help switch with any command. It will give ■ The prompt in MS-DOS displays your current directory
you the command structure, and the availible switches.

■ 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.

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Relative and Absolute path

DOS Naming
Alternatively referred to as the file path and full path,
■ Characters like * + = | \ [ ] : ; “ < the absolute path contains the root directory and all
other subdirectories that contain a file or folder.
> , ? / cannot be used in DOS
names. absolute path
C:\Windows\calc.exe

Windows non absolute path (relative path)

calc.exe

Wildcard characters Basic Commands CD

■ Wildcard character will replace a single letter, ■ CD- Change directory

or word with a wild character ■ You use this command when you want to change the
directory.
■ * will replace any amput of characters, and ?
Will replace one. ■ Example: CD C:\DOS will bring you to the dos folder

■ 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:/

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Basic Commands CD.. And Basic Commands CLS

CD\
■ CD.. - brings you to the previous directory. ■ CLS Will clear the contents of the screen
■ Example: if you are in C:\DOS\FOLDER
CD.. Will bring you to C:\DOS

Basic Commands DIR Basic Commands COPY

■ DIR will display the contents of the folder ■ COPY will copy the file from one location to another
■ Example COPY A:\file.txt c:\ will copy the file from a:\ to c:\

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Basic Command XCOPY Basic Commands MOVE

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

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

Basic Command DEL Basic Command EDIT

■ DEL will delete a file or an empty directory from the drive ■ EDIT will open a text file

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Basic Commands REN Basic Commands MD/RD

■ REN will rename the file ■ MD is used to make a directory (folder) in MS-DOS.
■ Example : REN file.txt myfile.txt will rename the file.txt to ■ Example: MD myfolder will make a folder called myfolder in
myfile.txt 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.

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Attributes
The MORE Command
■ 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 PRINT Command The PROMPT Command

■ The PRINT Command in MS DOS is used to print the text files ■ The PROMPT is used to configure a DOS prompt into our
linking
■ Syntax :
– PRINT Filename
■ Syntax :
■ E.g.
– C:\ PROMPT Promptname
– PRINT File1.txt
■ E.g.
– PROMPT NCIT

Now, the Prompt will be as NCIT

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Removing unwanted Files

Checking the Date/Time command line.
Go to Run –> cmd. This should open the command
■ For checking the date from the system in MS prompt.
DOS, we use the DATE command. It returns the
current system date. Type g:\ where g is the USB drive letter.

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

■ Syntax : Type del autorun.inf. This will delete the autorun.inf

– C:\>DATE
DATE file.
■ E.g. C:\>DATE
DATE

F:\>edit test.txt

F:\>edit test.txt

F:\>copy con 123.docx

my name is indika rathninda^Z
1 file(s) copied.

F:\>edit 123.docx

F:\>dir>1234.txt

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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.

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The Old New Thing Concatenating Files Together in MS-DOS

Say you have two files (or twenty) named textfile1.txt and
The command processor CMD.EXE comes with a mini- textfile2.txt.
calculator that can perform simple arithmetic on 32-bit You want to create a new text file that combines the two.
signed integers:
While you could open each file up in your favorite editor
C:\>set /a 2+2 4 and copy and paste the text, this is time consuming and
C:\>set /a 2*(9/2) 8 error prone. A much easier way to accomplish this task is
C:\>set /a (2*9)/2 9 to use the copy command:
C:\>set /a "31>>2" 7
Note that we had to quote the shift operator since it >copy *.txt result.txt
would otherwise be misinterpreted as a "redirect stdout
and append" operator. This will take all the files with the extension .txt and
create a new text file called result.txt out of all of them.
For more information, type set /? at the command
prompt.

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.

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Removing All Short Cuts

Navigate to you pen drive/ flash drive by typing drive

letter.
Type “del *.lnk “and hit Enter on your keyboard.
Now type “attrib -s -r -h *.* /s /d /l” and hit enter.

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