Command Prompt - Revision history

NKF: /* Extra Stuff */ Crossed off a few to-do's

2009-04-13T02:41:44Z

Extra Stuff: Crossed off a few to-do's

← Older revision		Revision as of 02:41, 13 April 2009
Line 487:		Line 487:
	== Extra Stuff ==		== Extra Stuff ==
	More stuff that could be added.		More stuff that could be added.
	*Batch files
	*Utterly Horrible Commands That You Should Never Use Unless You Know What You're Doing
	*What can you do with all this in the context of playing X-Com? And more		*What can you do with all this in the context of playing X-Com? And more

NKF: /* File Management */

2009-04-13T02:39:29Z

File Management

← Older revision		Revision as of 02:39, 13 April 2009
Line 132:		Line 132:
	== File Management ==		== File Management ==

	This section briefly goes over making directories (to store your files), removing directories and several ways you can manipulate your files: copying, moving, renaming, deleting. Along with '''cd''', which was mentioned earlier, these ~~command~~ make up ~~the~~ core set of basic commands that are used to manage files and folders.		This section briefly goes over making directories (to store your files), removing directories and several ways you can manipulate your files: copying, moving, renaming, deleting. Along with '''cd''', which was mentioned earlier, these make up a core set of basic commands that are used to manage files and folders.

	Note that most of the file manipulation commands can make use of wildcards - but examples on how to use them (and their results) will not be covered here. Only the basic operations will be mentioned.		These commands are also not necessarily confined to the Dos Console. In fact, many if not all of them, particularly in their extended names (mkdir, rmdir, chdir, etc) , are present in other operating systems that operate via a console, such as Linux and Unix - if perhaps differing in syntax.

			Note that most of the file manipulation commands can make use of wildcards - but examples on how to use them (and their results) will not be covered here in great detail. Only the basic operations will be mentioned.

	These commands are also not necessarily confined to the Dos Console. In fact, many if not all of them, particularly in their extended names (mkdir, rmdir, chdir, etc) , are present in other operating systems that operate via some console, such as Linux and Unix - if perhaps differing in syntax.

	=== Making/Removing directories ===		=== Making/Removing directories ===

NKF: /* File Manipulation */ Added md, rd, copy, move, ren and del

2009-04-13T02:37:05Z

File Manipulation: Added md, rd, copy, move, ren and del

@@ Line 130: / Line 130: @@
 What are the benefits of running programs this way, besides our ability to use parameters? Well, say we ran UFO under Windows, and the game jumped up on the screen, but then crashed right away - Windows shuts it down, and it's gone, not on your screen anymore. But what if we ran it via the Command Prompt? Sure, it'll still most likely crash, but now any information it might have given us when it did so is left on the screen for us to read! This makes solving the problem much, much easier.
-== File Manipulation ==
+== File Management ==
-<i>The use of the "copy", "move" and "del" commands. This section still to come.</i>
+This section briefly goes over making directories (to store your files), removing directories and several ways you can manipulate your files: copying, moving, renaming, deleting. Along with '''cd''', which was mentioned earlier, these command make up the core set of basic commands that are used to manage files and folders.
 == File Paths/Locations  ==

NKF: Added wild cards and brief intro to batch files

2009-04-12T23:48:23Z

Added wild cards and brief intro to batch files

Show changes

NKF: /* Piping */ Changed to redirection and expanded examples to cover all three types

2009-04-12T05:50:10Z

Piping: Changed to redirection and expanded examples to cover all three types

← Older revision		Revision as of 05:50, 12 April 2009
Line 130:		Line 130:
	<i>The use of the "copy", "move" and "del" commands. This section still to come.</i>		<i>The use of the "copy", "move" and "del" commands. This section still to come.</i>

	== ~~Piping~~ ==		== Redirection ==

	~~This~~ section ~~just~~ briefly ~~mentions~~ what ~~piping~~ is and what you can do with it. ~~You would probably rarely ever find an occasion to use piping~~, ~~but are mentioned for completeness.~~		Though you may never need to use this for every day use, this section will briefly mention what redirection is and what you can do with it. To put it in simple terms, it's redirecting output (text on the screen or a file) to somewhere else (a file, the printer, etc).

	~~Piping allows you to redirect~~ text to ~~another source, such as~~ a ~~text~~ file.

	Try this command from the command prompt:		Try this command from the command prompt:

	dir > dirlist.txt		dir > dirlist.txt

	Nothing will appear to happen. ~~In the first instance, do~~ a plain dir immediately afterwards. Notice that there'll be a new file in the directory called dirlist.txt. Open it. Surprise! The directory listing you didn't see has now ended up in this file. Feel free to delete it afterwards.		Nothing will appear to happen. Do a plain dir immediately afterwards. Notice that there'll be a new file in the directory called dirlist.txt. Open it. Surprise! The directory listing you didn't see has now ended up in this file. It may even include a 0 byte copy of dirlist.txt. Don't worry - this happened only because the file came into existence before it was populated. Feel free to delete it afterwards.

	Here's another exciting variation that hides text output. This can be very handy when working with batchfiles that run other programs but you don't want their text to be displayed.		Here's another exciting variation that hides text output. This can be very handy when working with batchfiles that run other programs but you don't want their text to be displayed.

	dir > nul		dir > nul

	What happens? Nothing appears, you just get thrown right back to a clear command prompt.		What happens? Nothing appears, you just get thrown right back to a clear command prompt.

	Note that nul is nul, not null. Passing a null would create a file could null. nul is a special character that Dos treats as nothingness. Oblivion. Nowhere. So by piping the output of a dos program to nul, nothing appears on the console. Be aware that some console programs aren't always affected by this.		Note that nul is nul, not null. Passing a null would create a file could null. nul is a special character that Dos treats as nothingness. Oblivion. Nowhere. So by piping the output of a dos program to nul, nothing appears on the console. Be aware that some console programs aren't always affected by this.

			Please note that this is not the same as using the ''@'' symbol or ''Echo off'' to hide the sequence of commands that are processed through a batch file.

	(In C jargon, these programs also use stderr rather than just stdout. If you really want these high priority-messages to go the same place as the normal messages, tie stderr to stdout like this:		(In C jargon, these programs also use stderr rather than just stdout. If you really want these high priority-messages to go the same place as the normal messages, tie stderr to stdout like this:

	dir 2>&1 > dirlist.txt		dir 2>&1 > dirlist.txt
	dir 2>&1 > nul		dir 2>&1 > nul

	)		)

	In another instance, ~~piping~~ can also be used to pass the output of one program to another. Go to your X-COM directory and see if the readme.txt file is present. Enter the following line:		In another instance, redirection can also be used to pass the output of one program to another. This is done by way of piping with the ''\|'' symbol. Go to your X-COM directory and see if the readme.txt file is present. Enter the following line:

	type readme.txt		type readme.txt
Line 165:		Line 165:
	type readme.txt \| more		type readme.txt \| more

	~~Just a~~ quick overview of "more~~" - it~~'s a command in dos that lets you display text one screen at a ~~time. Use ctrl+c to break out it at any~~ time.		A quick overview of the two commands ''type'' and ''more''.

			Type dumps the contents of the file you specify directly onto the screen.
			More is a command in dos that lets you display text one screen at a time.

	You'll now have the screen pause after each page full. Just press the space bar to continue, or press ctrl+c to break out of it. You normally use it like any other dos command, but piping it this way is merely an alternate method of doing it.		You'll now have the screen pause after each page full. Just press the space bar to continue, or press ctrl+c to break out of it. You normally use it like any other dos command, but piping it this way is merely an alternate method of doing it.

	This is actually a rather primitive method of displaying a text file, but quick if you just want to dump the contents onto the screen quickly rather than open a text editor.		This is actually a rather primitive method of displaying a text file, but quick if you just want to dump the contents onto the screen quickly rather than open a text editor.

			Another method of performing the last example is to use input redirection.

			First make a text file and populate it with the following lines:
			ball
			dog
			cat
			apple
			dog

			Let's call it list.txt. Notice that there is indeed a second dog.

			After making the file, enter:

			sort < list.txt

			Very briefly, sort will reorder the text that's in list.txt so that each line is in alphanumerical order. You should see:

			apple
			bal
			cat
			dog
			dog

			This is only displayed on the screen. What if you wanted to save this output to a file called sortlist.txt? We do this:

			sort < list.txt > sortlist.txt

			Now let's get <s>stupid</s> brave and combine all three. First a quick introduction to ''find'', which we'll be using in the next example.

			Find takes a string as a parameter and then searches through the file (or files) for all instances of lines that contain the string you specified and then dumps the line(s) onto the screen.

			Anyhow, let's say we want to go through the readme.txt file in your XCOM directory and get all the lines that have the instance of the word "UFO", then you want to sort all the lines and then save the result into a text file called ufolines.txt. You can do all this at once by using:

			find "UFO" < readme.txt \| sort > ufolines.txt

			While the above is a very clumsy way of doing this, and possibly very prone to mistakes, it still demonstrates how they can all be thrown together.

			Coincidentally, the contents of ufolines.txt, assuming you were testing this line on X-COM UFO's readme file, should read:

			INSTALL.BAT C:\UFO
			installation, run the setup program in your UFO directory.
			UFO runs in protected mode so it does not require an expanded memory

			There are many more exciting things you can do with redirection , but this article only covers the basics, and they would be beyond the scope of this article.

	== Paths ==		== Paths ==

Zaimoni at 15:57, 11 April 2009

2009-04-11T15:57:13Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:57, 11 April 2009
Line 148:		Line 148:
	What happens? Nothing appears, you just get thrown right back to a clear command prompt.		What happens? Nothing appears, you just get thrown right back to a clear command prompt.

	Note that nul is nul, not null. Passing a null would create a file could null. nul is a special character that Dos treats as nothingness. Oblivion. Nowhere. So by piping the output of a dos program to nul, nothing appears on the console. Be aware that some console programs aren't always affected by this.		Note that nul is nul, not null. Passing a null would create a file could null. nul is a special character that Dos treats as nothingness. Oblivion. Nowhere. So by piping the output of a dos program to nul, nothing appears on the console. Be aware that some console programs aren't always affected by this.

			(In C jargon, these programs also use stderr rather than just stdout. If you really want these high priority-messages to go the same place as the normal messages, tie stderr to stdout like this:

			dir 2>&1 > dirlist.txt
			dir 2>&1 > nul

			)

	In another instance, piping can also be used to pass the output of one program to another. Go to your X-COM directory and see if the readme.txt file is present. Enter the following line:		In another instance, piping can also be used to pass the output of one program to another. Go to your X-COM directory and see if the readme.txt file is present. Enter the following line:

NKF: Finally added a brief section on piping

2009-04-10T05:21:44Z

Finally added a brief section on piping

@@ Line 132: / Line 132: @@
 == Piping ==
-<i>The option to divert the output of a command to a text file. This section still to come.</i>
+This section just briefly mentions what piping is and what you can do with it. You would probably rarely ever find an occasion to use piping, but are mentioned for completeness.
 == Paths ==
@@ Line 182: / Line 212: @@
 <i><b>Need notes about:</b>
-[[DosBox]] (another Dos VM that can emulate old hardware)
+[[DosBox]] (another Dos VM that can emulate old hardware) - many (but not all) of MS-Dos simpler commands like dir and cd are emulated in. It doesn't recognize every variation of some basic commands, but you can get around this.
 MoSlow (a program that causes programs to run slower on too-fast machines)
@@ Line 190: / Line 220: @@
 == Extra Stuff ==
 More stuff that could be added.
-<pre>
+*Filename wildcards (* and ?)
-Filename wildcards (* and ?)
+*Batch files
-Batch files
+*Utterly Horrible Commands That You Should Never Use Unless You Know What You're Doing
-Utterly Horrible Commands That You Should Never Use Unless You Know What You're Doing
+*What can you do with all this in the context of playing X-Com? And more

Bomb Bloke at 01:44, 17 June 2006

2006-06-17T01:44:28Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 01:44, 17 June 2006
Line 98:		Line 98:
	So, that's how we go backwards in our directory structure. But, what if we'd gone into lots and lots of subfolders, and we wanted to go all the way back, quickly? Well, the command <b>cd \</b> sends you back to "C:\", no matter where you are. Unless you're on another drive, that is, in which case you'd go to "D:\", "A:\", or whatever was appropriate.		So, that's how we go backwards in our directory structure. But, what if we'd gone into lots and lots of subfolders, and we wanted to go all the way back, quickly? Well, the command <b>cd \</b> sends you back to "C:\", no matter where you are. Unless you're on another drive, that is, in which case you'd go to "D:\", "A:\", or whatever was appropriate.

	To change drives, you ~~use~~ the ~~command~~ <b>cd d:</b> (if you wanted to change to D:), <b>cd a:</b> (if you wanted to change to A:), and so forth. If you don't have a drive, or if a drive requires a disk to be inserted before you can change to it, you'll be told so and your position won't change.		To change drives, you only need to type in the drive name. For example, <b>d:</b> (if you wanted to change to D:), <b>a:</b> (if you wanted to change to A:), and so forth. If you don't have a drive, or if a drive requires a disk to be inserted before you can change to it, you'll be told so and your position won't change.

	Change back to the root of your C: by running the commands <b>cd c:</b> and then <b>cd\</b>. Note that the space between "cd" and it's parameter isn't required unless you're changing drives, or in another circumstance I'll get to later.		Change back to the root of your C: by running the commands <b>c:</b> and then <b>cd\</b>. Note that the space between "cd" and it's parameter isn't required unless you're changing drives, or in another circumstance I'll get to later.

	Where's your copy of UFO installed to? Let's change to that directory. In my case, I have a few copies littered about my drive, but the primary one is "C:\Games\X-Com I - UFO - Enemy Unknown (Gold)" That's a bit of a mouthful to type, so I can get there in stages.		Where's your copy of UFO installed to? Let's change to that directory. In my case, I have a few copies littered about my drive, but the primary one is "C:\Games\X-Com I - UFO - Enemy Unknown (Gold)" That's a bit of a mouthful to type, so I can get there in stages.
Line 173:		Line 173:

	Otherwise the two above actions will have an identical effect.		Otherwise the two above actions will have an identical effect.

			== Long Filenames ==

			<i>Early versions of FAT supported filenames made up of a maximum of eight characters, with a three letter extention. FAT32/NTFS supports much longer filenames, however, DOS programs still need to stick to the eight character rule. Notes as to how to deal with this still to come.</i>

	== Extra Tools ==		== Extra Tools ==

NKF: /* Paths */

2006-06-16T22:01:26Z

Paths

@@ Line 134: / Line 134: @@
 <i>The option to divert the output of a command to a text file. This section still to come.</i>
-== Path Command ==
+== Paths ==
-<i>The ability to run programs from anywhere on the drive without typing full pathes. This section still to come.</i>
+When you type in a command, the OS goes through a sequence of searches in order to find the name of the file, or command that you typed in.
 == Extra Tools ==

NKF: /* Booting To DOS - added a bit about boot disks*/

2006-06-16T14:12:57Z

Booting To DOS - added a bit about boot disks

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:12, 16 June 2006
Line 16:		Line 16:

	NT based systems do not have access to Real DOS - However, as of XP's improved DOS VM, they don't really need it.		NT based systems do not have access to Real DOS - However, as of XP's improved DOS VM, they don't really need it.

			If your computer has been configured to first boot from the floppy drive before booting from the hard drive, you can boot to pure dos by way of a boot disk. A boot disk is simply the minimum encessary operating system kernel along with the DOS user interface.

			When you start your computer with such a disk, you will not have access to Windows or its other facilities.

			Boot disks were originally in use to allow you to boot up your computer in alternate configurations. You could load up the CD-ROM and sound drivers with one boot disk, or you could use another boot disk and boot up your computer with the barest minimum settings. But this was mainly because computers in the old days were severely limited with what they could do. You often had to make your system as lean and mean as possible by dropping or adding different drivers and system settings to optimise your system in different ways.


			Boot disks aren't a bad option if you have an older computer and are running one of the earlier incarnations of Windows, such as 95 and 98. However, todays computers have advanced so much since then, and particularly with more recent operating systems, you shouldn't need to use them for normal every day use.

			The main disadvantage of a boot disk is that you are required to leave the boot disk in the floppy drive all the time and floppy drive read speeds tend to be very slow. Every time you go back to the command prompt, the computer will want to access the files on the boot disk. This can get tedious. Fast. And you were prevented from using the primary floppy drive.

			If you're clever and point the COMSPEC parameter to the command.com or cmd.com on the hard drive you will remove the need for the operating system from accessing the floppy drive constantly. Don't worry if that last bit sounds like gibberish - this needn't be covered, but a mention of parameters may come in later in relation to the DIR command and its dircmd parameter for setting the default look of your directory listing.

	== Accessing The Microsoft DOS VM ==		== Accessing The Microsoft DOS VM ==