DOS is an abbreviation for Disk Operating System and refers to the PC operating system. This operating system works as a medium between user and computer system, and between hardware and software too.
It is a character based, single user, single tasking, standalone operating system.
It can perform following task-
1) Management of Hardware and control devices such as keyboard, mouse, monitor, printer and scanner.
2) File system management for managing files and directories.
3) Memory management (storage device) and allocation of memory to various programs.
4) Management of the programs (kernel, UI and API) and their execution.
Many DOS options and / or enhancements are available, including MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System), FreeDOS and DR-DOS.
DOS commands are small programs and instructions that are made to perform a particular task. Every DOS command works differently. It is difficult to work on the computer without these commands. In DOS, there are many types of commands and they are classified into two types -
(1) Internal Commands
(2) External Commands
Internal Commands : These commands enter into computer memory during computer booting and are part of shell. There is no external file in the computer to read internal command.These commands are not in the form of any files, therefore neither they can be viewed nor can be edited or detected.
For example most commonly used internal commands : DIR, MD, CD, TIME, DATE, COPY, COPY CON, TYPE etc.
External Commands : These are commands that are not in-built in DOS and are not part of shell, they are only loaded in memory when they are invoked. These commands are present in the form of files and mostly are in exe, bat and com extensions ,therefore they can be viewed, copied, changed or deleted.
For example most commonly used external commands : XCOPY, FORMAT, COPY, PRINT, SYS, EDIT, TREE, SORT, PROMPT etc.
1) CD/CHDIR (Change Directory) command is used to displays or change directories in DOS. CHDIR is the alternative name of CD command. examples
cd
cd ..
cd c:windows
2) CLS (CLRSCR) command is used to clear the contents of the terminal screen or console. examples
cls
3) COPY command is used to copy complete file from one location to another. It is also used to make copies of existing files. examples
copy test.bat c:windows
copy *.txt c:
4) DATE command is used to display the system date and prompts the user to enter a new date. examples
date
date /t
5) DEL (ERASE) command is used to permanently delete one or more files from the computer. examples
del test.txt
del *.txt
del *
6) DIR The dir command provides a list of available files in the current and or parent directory. examples
dir
dir /p
dir /a
dir d*
7) EDIT is a full-screen text editor, which is used to view, create and modify text files. examples
edit myfile.txt
8) HELP command provides help about DOS commands. examples
help
help dir
help date
date /?
9) MOVE command is used to move one or more files or directories from one location to another. It also used to renames the files or directories. examples
move test.txt d:win
move d* d:win
move test.txt d: ewtest.txt
10) REN command is used to rename files and directories from the original name to a new name. unlike the move command, this command can not be used to rename subdirectories, or rename files across drives and can not specify a new drive or path for the destination of the renamed file. examples
ren *.txt *.doc
ren test.txt newtest.txt
ARP command is used to display and modify the Address Resolution Protocol(ARP) cache, which is a simple mapping of IP addresses to MAC addresses.
ARP is also useful when diagnosing duplicate IP assignment problems. examples
arp -a
FINGER command allows you to view information about users logged onto a remote computer, that may include their email address, full name, when last time user logged in and read their e-mail etc. examples
finger -l user@localhost
HOSTNAME command displays the name of the current host. examples
hostname
IPCONFIG command allow you to configure network interfaces and view information about them.This command can be used to verify a network connection as well as to verify your network settings. examples
ipconfig
ipconfig /all
PATHPING command utility enables a user to find network latency and network loss. Also that provides useful information about network latency and network loss at intermediate hops between a source address and a destination address. examples
pathping www.microsoft.com
PING command is one of the most commonly used and known command. It allows the user to ping another IP address or computer/host name. It can help to determine whether the network is able to communicate with the network or not. examples
ping www.google.com
ping -a 74.125.24.104
NBTSTAT command displays protocol statistics and current TCP/IP connections. examples
nbtstat -a www.webiwip.com
NET command is used to manage, set, view and determine network settings. examples
net view
net config
NETSTAT command is used to display the TCP/IP network protocol statistics and information. examples
netstat
netstat -a
NSLOOKUP command enables a user to look up an IP address of a domain or host on the network. examples
nslookup www.facebook.com
ROUTE command enables to view and modify the IP route table of the computer. examples
route print
TRACERT / TRACEROUTE command helps determine network related issues or slowdowns. It is similar to ping command but can provides details of how a network packet travels and whether it may fail or slow down. It can help to determine the computer, router, switch or other network device which probably causes your network issues. examples
tracert -d www.google.com
Batch files are special files with extension bat or cmd, which are often called scripts file that allows us to automate the task. Batch files contains a list of commands that are always executed together and in sequence, because we run the batch file as "command" instead of running each command individually.
We can create a batch file by using any text editor like the Notepad and by entering some lines of commands, and to save the file with an extension BAT or CMD.
To Run a batch file it require double clicking on it and it can also be run via command prompt or the windows start-Run line.
Example
Open the new text file and enter the following text in it and saved the file as "mybat.bat"-
@ECHO ON
REM This is an example of BAT file output.
@ECHO OFF
REM what we have...
Dir
This batch file contains two remarks i.e. "REM" which are used to provide notes or message by either the author or for the user of the file. Everything wrriten between the @ECHO On and off commands is displayed on the screen during the script's execution. After the second remarks/REM, there is a simple DOS "Dir" command which provide the lists the contents of the current directory.
Note that the individual commands or comments are separated by newlines which runs sequentially after double clicking on mybat.bat batch file.
Copy is used to make a copy of a file. With this command, we can copy or append files with the same name or a new name in the current directory or any other location.
Examples-
copy a.txt b.txt
copy a.txt c.txt
copy a.txt+b.txt c.txt
copy c.txt d:
Copy con is also called copy console, it is used to write file. We can not use copy con to edit the file. After write in the file, CTRL Z is required to save and exit .
Examples-
copy con do.bat
@echo off
cls
echo This batch file does absolutly
echo nothing but print this line.
^z
Autoexec.bat (Automatic execute batch) is a special plain-text batch file that is executed after system boot.
with this help, we can run commands, programs and batch files automatically at the time of startup or booting of the system, by adding them to this file.
Config.sys is a configuration file and it is executed during system boot.
It contains commands and instructions to load device drivers, lastdrive, shell, devicehigh, buffers etc. It also used to load programs in memory to manage memory,hardware, keyboard, mouse, printer, and other peripherals.
Config.sys is editable text file and it can be edit in any text-editing program.
After executing the command of the config.sys file, the autoexec.bat file is executed.
The full form of DOS is Disk Operating System. This operating system works as a medium between user and computer system, and between hardware and software too.