This article lists notable commands provided by the MS-DOS disk operating system (DOS), especially as used on an IBM PC compatible computer. Other DOS variants as well as the legacy Windows shell, Command Prompt (cmd.exe), provide many of these commands. Many other DOS variants are informally called DOS, but are not included in the scope of the list. The highly related variant, IBM PC DOS, is included. The list is not intended to be exhaustive, but does include commands covering the various releases.
Each command is implemented either as built-in to the command interpreter, COMMAND.COM, or as an external program. Although prevailing style is to write command names in all caps, the interpreter matches ignoring case.
Commands
APPEND
Sets the path to be searched for data files or displays the current search path. The APPEND command is similar to the PATH command that tells DOS where to search for program files (files with a .COM, . EXE, or .BAT file name extension).
The command is available in MS-DOS versions 3.2 and later.[1]
ASSIGN
Redirects requests for disk operations on one drive to a different drive. It can also display drive assignments or reset all drive letters to their original assignments.
The command is available in MS-DOS versions 3 through 5 and IBM PC DOS releases 2 through 5.[1]
ATMDM
Lists connections and addresses seen by Windows ATM
See also
- Category:Windows commands
- List of CONFIG.SYS directives
- Timeline of DOS operating systems
Further reading
External links
There are several guides to DOS commands available that are licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License:
- Command-Line Reference : Microsoft TechNet Database "Command-Line Reference"
- The MS-DOS 6 Technical Reference on TechNet contains the official Microsoft MS-DOS 6 command reference documentation.
- MDGx MS-DOS Undocumented + Hidden Secrets
- MS-DOS v1.25 and v2.0 source code
- The FreeDOS Spec at SourceForge is a plaintext specification, written in 1999, for how DOS commands should work in FreeDOS
References
- Running MS-DOS Version 6.22 (20th Anniversary Edition), 6th Revised edition Microsoft Press, 2003^
- MS-DOS choice command help retrieved 10 September 2014^
- Caldera DR-DOS 7.03 User Guide retrieved 10 September 2014^