Working with the Command-

Line Interface
Chapter 14

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 Overview

• In this chapter, you will learn to

– Explain the operation of the command-line

interface

– Execute fundamental commands from the

command line

– Manipulate files and folders from the command line

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 Historical/Conceptual

• IBM invented the PC in the late ’70s but

needed an operating system
– Digital Research had an OS but turned them down
– IBM went to a small company (Bill Gates at
Microsoft) that had created BASIC
– Microsoft had never written an OS but accepted
the challenge
• Gates found an OS called Quick-and-Dirty-Operating-
System (QDOS) and purchased it from the person who
wrote it
• Microsoft released it as MS-DOS V 1.1 (Microsoft Disk
Operating System)
• MS-DOS 6.22 ultimately released in 1994
• DOS used a command-line interface

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 IT Technician

CompTIA A+
Technician

Deciphering the Command-Line

Interface

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 Command-Line Interface (CLI)

• How does a command-line interface

work?
– Begins with a prompt indicating the computer is
ready to do something

– Type in a command and press ENTER

– The command is executed

– A new prompt is displayed—ready for the next

command

– CLI executes commands like the Windows GUI

• In CLI, type the command and press ENTER
• In GUI, point and click to execute commands

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 Accessing the Command Line

• In Windows 2000 use the Run dialog box

– Start | Run
– Type cmd

• You may also access the command line

through the Start | All Programs menu

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 The Command Prompt

• The command prompt is always focused

on a specific folder
– Any commands operate on the files and folders in
the folder in which you are focused
– You must first focus on the drive and folder where
you want to work

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 Filenames and File Formats

• Each program or piece of data is stored

as a file on the drive
• Filenames have two parts
– Filename
• In DOS, up to 8 characters long
– Extension
• In DOS, up to 3 characters long
• Optional
• The filename and extension are
separated by a dot
– Called the 8.3 naming system
• These characters may not be used
/\[]|÷+=;,*?
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
 Filenames and Formats

• Windows does not restrict the filename

to 8.3 (can be up 255 characters)
– To be backward-compatible with DOS you need to
follow the 8.3 standard
– Windows creates two filenames for every file to
ensure backward-compatibility

• The extension tells the computer the

type of file
– .exe, .doc, .xls

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 File Formats

• All files written in binary format

• American Standard Code for Information

Interchange (ASCII) used for text
– Universal file format
– Defines 256 8-bit characters

• Unicode
– Uses 16-bit code to cover every character for the
most common languages

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 ASCII Character Chart

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 Drives and Folders

• At boot, Windows assigns partitions and

a drive letter
– Floppy drives are usually assigned A: or B:
– Hard drive partitions may be assigned C: to Z:
– CD-ROM drives are named after hard drives

• Windows uses a hierarchical directory

tree
– Files are put into groups called folders
• In DOS we call folders directories
– The root directory is at the beginning of the
hierarchical structure with folders underneath

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 Folders and Files

• Folders and files must be unique

– Can’t be the same name in the same folder

• C:\ represents the root directory of C

• To describe a subfolder, add the name of

the folder
– C:\TEST

• The location of a file is called the path

– The path of C:\test\file.txt is C:\test

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 Directory Tree

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 Mastering Fundamental Commands

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 Structure: Syntax and Switches

• The command line requires the exact

syntax for each command

• Type the name of the command and

desired or allowed switches

– Switches modify the behavior of the command

– Multiple switches may be allowable

– DIR /W /P
Displays the directory in wide mode and one page
at a time

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 Help

• Help with any command is readily

available in one of three ways
– HELP gives a one-line description of each
command
– HELP command gives specific help for the
command
– Command /? gives specific help for the command

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 DIR Command

• The DIR command lists the contents of a

particular directory
– The DIR/W command lists only the filenames

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 DIR Command Switches

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 Directories: CD Command

• The CD (or CHDIR) command is used to

change the focus to a different directory

• The CD\ command is used to return to

the root directory

• CD .. Goes up one directory

• To switch between drives, type the drive

letter followed by a colon
– C:
– D:

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 Making and Removing Directories

• The MD (or MKDIR) command is used for

creating a directory

• The DEL command is used for deleting

files, and the RD (RMDIR) command is
used for deleting directories and
subdirectories

• The DELTREE command is used for

deleting directories containing files and
subdirectories

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 Running a Program

To run a program:
– Change the DOS focus to the directory where the
program is stored
CD C:\Program Files\My Program

– Type the filename with or without its extension and

press ENTER
Setup.exe

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 Working with Files

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 Working with Files

• Attributes (H, R, S, A) are special values

assigned to a file
– Hidden: hides the file
– Read-only: protects a file
from being deleted or modified
– System: identifies system files
– Archive: identifies files that
have not been backed up

• The ATTRIB.EXE program is used to

inspect and change file attributes

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 Attrib

• Attrib can be used to change the

attributes

– Use + to add attribute

- Use – to remove attribute

Attrib +R AILOG.TXT Makes it read only

Attrib –H AILOG.TXT Makes it no longer hidden

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 Working with Files

Wildcards:
– Wildcards are special characters that enable
commands to act on more than one file at a time
– The * represents any number of characters
– The ? represents a single character

DIR *.TXT Lists all files that end in .TXT

DIR *.?XT Lists all files that end in XT

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 Working with Files

• REN command is used to rename files

• DEL and ERASE commands are used to

delete files

• COPY command is used for making a

copy of the file in a new location

• MOVE command is used for moving the

file to a new location

• XCOPY command is used for working

with multiple directories

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 Mike’s Five-Step COPY/MOVE
Process

1. Point the command prompt to the

directory containing the files to be
copied or moved
C:\> CD \DOCS
2. Type COPY or MOVE and a space
C:\DOCS> COPY
3. Type the name(s) of the file(s) to be
copied/moved and a space
C:\DOCS> COPY *.doc
4. Type the path of the new location for
the files
C:\DOCS> COPY *.doc c:\Steam
5. Press ENTER
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
 Working with Batch Files

• Batch files are text files that store a

series of commands
– One command on each line
– Batch files use the .BAT extension
– Batch files may be edited with any text editor
• Notepad
• EDIT
– Batch files get their own type of icon

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 EDIT

• EDIT is a command-line command that

starts a basic text editor

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 Creating a Batch File

• Using EDIT, type in some commands on

their own line (such as cd:\ and Dir)

• Save the file with a .BAT extension

– C:\test.bat

• Launch a command prompt and run the

batch file
C:\> CD \
C:\> Test.bat

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 Additional Commands

• Some additional commands are

– VER shows the current version of Windows

– ECHO tells the batch file to put text on the screen

– TYPE displays the contents of a batch file on

the screen

– SET display settings that Windows has loaded

by default

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 ECHO Command

• ECHO will display text on the screen

• ECHO OFF turns off the display of text on

the screen

• @ at the beginning of a line prevents

displaying the command, but not the
result of the command

• @ECHO OFF is frequently used in batch

files to “clean up” the appearance when
the batch file is run

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 SET and PATH Commands

• SET will display the list of settings that

Windows loads by default

• Programs (and batch files) are run from

the location where the prompt is
– If the program is not located in the current folder,
you receive an error message
– To tell your command to look in other places, use
the PATH command
• PATH by itself lists the current list of places to look for
a program
• PATH= location; location; location; … will add locations

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 Beyond A+

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 Using Special Keys

• F1 function key brings back the previous

command one letter at a time

• F3 function key brings back the entire

command at once

• The DOSKEY command stores a list of all

previously typed commands and can be
accessed by using the up arrow key
– Type DOSKEY
– Windows XP/2000 automatically starts the program

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 COMPACT Command

• COMPACT
– Displays or alters the compression state of files
– compact /c

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 CIPHER Command

• CIPHER
– Displays or alters the encryption state of files
– /e specifies encryption operation
– /a says to apply it to the files as well as the
directory

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved