MS DOS Directory Commands for beginers 2

DOS Directory Commands

continue with previous tutorial

DELTREE

This command was added later as an external command. It will delete an entire subdirectory "tree", i.e. a subdirectory, plus all of the files it contains, plus all of the subdirectories it contains, and all of the files they contain, etc.,

all in one easy command. This makes it a dangerous command, because it can wipe out so much stuff so easily. It

even ignores file attributes, so you can wipe out hidden, read-only, and system files without knowing it.

You can even wipe out multiple trees by specifying them in the command:

C:\>deltree c:\letters c:\memos

This would wipe out both of these subdirectories in one command.

This is one of those commands where you really ought to think twice before you use it. It has its place, definitely.

We can remember how tedious it was to first go into each subdirectory, delete the individual files, check each subdirectory for contents, delete each subdirectory one at a time, then jump up one level and repeat the process.

DELTREE is a great timesaver when you need it. But I would never use it for ordinary maintenance because one false move can do so much damage.

DIR

This command displays the contents of a subdirectory, but it also can function like a search command, which many people do not realize. This is one of the most used

commands in all of DOS, and learning to use it properly is a great time saver.

DIR will display the contents of the current working subdirectory, or with an optional PATH argument it will display the contents of some other subdirectory. The real power of

the DIR command comes with all of the optional switches available to you.

You can display files in a variety of formats, for instance:

Switch	Purpose
/p	Will pause the screen when a full screen's worth of information has been displayed. You will see "Press any key to continue...", and press of a key will display one more screen. Great for searching those long lists.
/w	Will display the file names and subdirectory names in several columns (i.e. wide), but without any other details.
/b	Bare format, displays file names only, without any other information.

Next tutorial