DEPARTMENT OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION

ANDHRA PRADESH

Name : Swathi K.N

Designation : Lecturer
Branch : Computer Engineering
Institute : Kamala Nehru Polytechnic For Women,Hyd.
Year : I year
Subject : Computer Fundamentals and Office
Automation
Subject Code : CM-105
Topic : DOS & Windows Operating System
Duration : 100 minutes
Sub. Topic : Internal commands
Teaching Aids : PPT, Images, Animation.

CM105.29to30 1
 Objective:

On completion of this period, you would be able

to know:

Conventions used

Internal commands

CM105.29to30 2
 Recap

DOS commands are divided into

Internal Commands

External Commands

CM105.29to30 3
 Prerequisite:

What is meant by command

An instruction which is used to

communicate with a computer
system.

We call this instruction a command.

CM105.29to30 4
 Internal Commands

 Internal commands are built–in commands.

 These commands are in COMMAND.COM

program.

 This program is loaded with the operating

system into the memory during booting.

CM105.29to30 5
 Internal Commands (contd)

 And remains resident in the memory as long

as the computer is on.

 Hence they are always available to be

executed.

CM105.29to30 6
Convention used in Command descriptions
are:

 [] (BRACKETS)
Items within brackets are optional.

 DRIVE
It refers to the drive name.
Example: C: A: B: etc

CM105.29to30 7
Convention used in Command descriptions
are (contd):
 PATH
It refers to a directory name.
Syntax :[\drive_directory] [\directory…]\ directory

 PATHNAME
It mentions the files that are to be referred in
the path. It is used to locate a file.
Syntax : [\drive_directory] [\directory…] \filename

CM105.29to30 8
Convention used in Command descriptions
are (contd):
 SWITCHES

These switches control MS – DOS

commands. They should always begin with a
forward slash (/).

Example: /p /w etc.

CM105.29to30 9
Convention used in Command descriptions
are (contd):
 WILDCARDS

If we want to carry out a task for a group of

files whose names have something in common,
we can use wildcard characters to specify
groups of files.

CM105.29to30 10
 Wild characters
DOS recognizes two wildcard characters:

 Asterisk(*) – represents one or more characters

that a group of files has in common.

 Question mark(?) – represents a single

character that a group of files has in common.

CM105.29to30 11
 Examples of wildcards

 *.txt : All files with .txt extension

Examples are letter.txt, july.txt, and
message.txt.

 report.* - All files named report with any

extension.
Examples: report.txt, report.let and
report.wri.

CM105.29to30 12
 Examples of wildcards (contd)

 M*.* : All files beginning with the letter M

regardless of extension.
Example are march.xls, memo.txt and
madhavi.lvu

 ???.* : all files having 3 or less characters

with or without any extensions.
Examples are sun.bmp, son.bm and ab.x

CM105.29to30 13
 Internal Commands

 CLS- Clears the screen, takes the cursor to the

top left and the system Prompt appears at top
left.

 VER – It displays the MS-DOS version.

 DEL/ERASE [drive:] pathname – It deletes the

specified file or files. The wildcards (* and ?) can
be used with del command to delete more than
one file at a time.

CM105.29to30 14
 Internal Commands (contd)

 VOL [drive] – It displays the disk volume label

which is optionally declared at the time of
formatting.

Example:
C:\>VOL A :

Result
Volume in drive A is DBASEIII
Volume Serial Number is 0909-07BE
CM105.29to30 15
 Internal Commands (contd)

 PROMPT [[text] [$character]…] – It changes the

MS-DOS command prompt. $ character prompts
are below :

$t Current time $l <

$d Current date $q =
$n Drive letter $$ $
$p Directory $e Escape
$v Version number $g >
$h Backspace
$_ Return-Linefeed

CM105.29to30 16
 Internal Commands (contd)

 DATE [mm- dd- yy] - It displays or sets the date.

Example:
C>DATE

Result:
Current date is FRI 21-04-07
Enter the new date (mm- dd- yy): 20-04-08
Now the current date will be SUN 20-04-08

CM105.29to30 17
 Internal Commands (contd)

 TIME [hours : minutes : seconds . Hundredths]

It allows to enter or change the time of the

system and see the current time.

To type a new time, the valid values are hours is

0-23, minutes is 0-59, seconds is 0-59 and
hundredths of seconds 0-99.

CM105.29to30 18
 Internal Commands (contd)

Example1
C>TIME

Result
Current time is 1:28:40.51
Enter the new time : 11:07:51.21
Now the current time will be ’11:07:51.21

CM105.29to30 19
 Internal Commands (contd)

Example2
C>TIME 12:07:59
C>TIME

Result
Current time is 12:07:59
Enter the new time :

CM105.29to30 20
 Internal Commands (contd)

 PATH [drive:] [path] [;[drive:] [path]…]

It sets a command search path for programs not

in the current directory.

The above command is used to search more

than one path by specifying several paths
separated by semicolons.

CM105.29to30 21
 Internal Commands (contd)

 DIR [drive:] [pathname] [/p] [/w] – To list the files

in a directory. Wildcards can also be used with
Dir command.

Example1
C>DIR

Result
Volume in drive C is DOS400
CM105.29to30 22
 Internal Commands (contd)

Directory of C:\vinay
. <dir> 1-11-90 1:05
.. <dir> 1-09-90 13:05
BASIC EXE 67520 19-12-90 2:13
BUDGET BAS 814 1-01-91 1:45
FINAN90 BAS 3456 7-07-90 7:34
5 File (s) 4329472 bytes free

CM105.29to30 23
 Internal Commands (contd)

Example2
C>DIR/W

Result
Selects wide display and lists up to files lines
per line.

CM105.29to30 24
 Internal Commands (contd)

Example3
C>DIR/P

Result
Selects page mode and makes the directory
display to pause once the screen is filled.
To resume scrolling the display any key can
be pressed.

CM105.29to30 25
 Internal Commands (contd)

 TYPE [drive] filename – It displays the contents

of a text file on the screen.

Example:
C>TYPE message.dat>PRN

Result
It sends the contents of file “message.dat” to
the printer.
CM105.29to30 26
 Internal Commands (contd)

 COPY [drive:] [pathname] [drive:] [pathnamr2] –

It copies one or more files to another location.

COPY pathname1 + pathname2 […]pathname..

It appends the files. Wildcards can also be used
with copy command.

CM105.29to30 27
 Internal Commands (contd)

Example1
C>copy bpay.rpt basicpay.rpt

Result
It copies a file named ‘bpay.rpt’ in the same
drive as
another name called ‘basicpay.rpt’

CM105.29to30 28
 Internal Commands (contd)

Example2
C>copy BPAY.RPT A:PROLL.RPT

Result
It copies a file bpay.rpt from current drive C
to drive A named as proll.rpt.

CM105.29to30 29
 Internal Commands (contd)

Example3
C>COPY *.rpt + ref.txt summary.doc

Result
the above copy command combines all *.rpt
files and ref.txt files and stores in filename called
summary.doc

CM105.29to30 30
 Internal Commands (contd)

 MKDIR/MD [drive:] path – This command

creates required directory

Example
C>MKDIR letters

Result
It the above example, the command is used
to create a directory named letters.
CM105.29to30 31
 Internal Commands (contd)

 CHDIR/CD [path] – It changes the current

directory for the specified directory.

Example
C>CHDIR division

Result
The above command changes the working
directory to the directory called ‘division’.
CM105.29to30 32
 Internal Commands (contd)
 RMDIR/RD [drive:] path – It removes a directory
from a directory structure.

Example
C>RMDIR varsham

Result
The above command is used to remove the
directory named varsham.
Before removing the directory entirely, the
directory should be empty.

CM105.29to30 33
 Summary

In this class, we have learnt about

Internal commands – COPY, DEL,

DIR, TYPE, CD, MD, RD, MODE,
PATH, DATE, TIME, COPY CON etc.

CM105.29to30 34
 Frequently Asked Questions

1. List any four DOS internal commands.

3. What is DOS internal command?

5. Explain any four internal commands in DOS.

CM105.29to30 35
 Quiz

 Internal commands are _________

Answer: built in commands

CM105.29to30 36
 Quiz

 The instructions which are used to communicate

with the computer system.
a. instructions
b. commands
Answer: b

CM105.29to30 37