FreeDOS Help (hhstndrd 1.0.5 en)

FreeDOS Help (hhstndrd 1.0.5 en)

Other installed languages Welcome to FreeDOS Help. For information on using Help, press F1 or click on Help on Help with the mouse.

 Alias            Defrag          For            (Modecon)       (Setver)
 Append           Del             Format          More            Share
 Apropos          Deltree         Graftabl        Move            Shsucdx
 Assign           Dir             Graphics       (Mscdex)         Sort
 Atapicdd.sys     Dirs            Help            Nansi           Subst
 Attrib           Diskcomp        Himem           Nlsfunc         Swsubst
 Backup           Diskcopy        History         Path            Sys
 Callver          Display         Join            Pause           Tdsk
 Cd              (Doskey)         Kc              Print           Tickle
 Cdd              Edit            Keyb            Printer.sys     Time
 CDRcache         Edline          Keyman          Prompt          Tree
 Chcp             Emm386          Label           Popd            Type
 Chdir            Erase           LBAcache        Pushd           Udma.sys
 Chkdsk           Exe2Bin         Lh              Rd              Undelete
 Cls              Exit            Listxdef        Ren             Ver
 Command          Fasthelp        Loadfix         Rename          Verify
 Comp             Fc              Loadhigh        Restore         Vol
 Copy             Fdapm           Md              Rmdir           Whatis
 CtMouse          Fdhelp          Mem             Replace         Xcopy
 Ctty             Fdisk           Mkdir          (Scandisk)       Xkeyb
 Date             Fdxms           Mkeyb           Scankbd
 Debug            Find            Mode            Set

 Batch File Commands              Config.sys Commands

 Beep      Goto                   Buffers      Lastdrive
 Call      If                     Country      Menu
 Choice    Pause                  Device       Menucolor
 Echo      Rem                    Devicehigh   Menudefault
 For       shift                  Dos          Rem
                                  Driveparm    Screen
                                  Echo         Shell
                                  Fcbs         Stacks
                                  Files        Version
                                  Install

FreeDOS Help (hhstndrd 1.0.5 en)

Miscellaneous

   The display code page information pack, CPIDOS.
   The keyboard layout pack, KPDOS.
   The Autoexec.bat file.
   Installing a Mouse.
   Bootfix

   Authoring Resources
   Other Ways of Getting Help

Principal author: Robert Platt.
Last modified date: 1st July 2004.

  A history of the HTML documentation
  Acknowledgements

Copyright © 2003-04 Robert Platt
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; (respecting that any documents included but covered under any other license shall be treated seperately and the terms of such documents shall neither alter nor be altered by the terms of this document); with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled:
"GNU Free Documentation License".

FreeDOS is a trademark of Jim Hall.

How to use FreeDOS Help

How to use FreeDOS Help

Using the Mouse

Topic Links are highlighted in Yellow.

Click on a Link to see more on that topic.

Click on the scroll-bar to scroll the page up and down.

Quit Help by clicking on "exit" at the top of the screen.

More navigation is provided at the bottom of the screen.

How to use FreeDOS Help

Using the Keyboard

Use the arrow keys to highlight a topic, then press enter.

Page Up and Page Down scroll the help information.

Alt+X exits help. (Alt+F4 works too)

Alt+Left Arrow goes back a topic. (Escape, Alt+B and Backspace work too)

Alt+Right Arrow goes forward a topic. (Alt+F works too)

Alt+C returns to the contents page.

F1 gives this help screen.

There are also other ways of scrolling the help information on screen. Home and End move to the very top and bottom of the document. Holding Alt while pressing the up and down arrow keys scrolls the help gradually.

How to use FreeDOS Help

Understanding Help Topic "Syntax"

On most help topics you will see something like this:

   command required [optional] [/switch] [/A|/B]

Here is an explaination of the different parts of this line:

   command
   This is the name of the command

   required
   Anything that follows the command name, which is not in
   square brackets, [ and ], is a required parameter.
   The command will report an error if you don't give this
   information.

   [optional]
   options are written in square brackets, [ and ]. These change the
   way the command runs. The square brackets aren't meant
   to be typed when the command is used.

   [/switch]
   Options that begin with a / are called switches. The / symbol is
   actually typed when the switch is used.

   [/A|/B]
   When there is a | symbol, this means there is a choice between
   two options. Either /A or /B is allowed, but not both.
   The | isn't meant to be typed when the command is used.

How to use FreeDOS Help

Other Ways of Getting Help

1. Most commands will describe their function and options, by using /? on them at the command line. For example:

   dir /?

2. The command fasthelp. This is a clone of MS-DOS fasthelp. If you can't find what you are looking for in help, it may be in fasthelp, or vice versa.

3. The commands Whatis and Apropos

4. The doc subdirectory in the DOS directory contains many of the detailed manuals for various FreeDOS programs.

5. Visit the FreeDOS website, www.freedos.org

Copyright © 2003-4 Rob Platt
This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

alias

alias

Creates an alias for use on the command line.

   alias [aliasword[=definition]]

alias

Usages

   alias
   displays a list of the current aliases, if any.

   alias aliasword=definition
   creates the alias

   alias aliasword=
   removes this alias

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

defrag

Optimises a disk by defragmenting the file system.

   defrag [/C] [drive:] [{/F|/U}] [/Sorder[-]] [/B] [/X] [/A] [/FO]

Options

   drive:
   This is the drive letter of the drive you wish to defragment. For instance:
          defrag c:

   /C
   Defrag will not use its menu-driven user interface if you use this option. It
   will communicate through the command line instead.
   You must use the [drive:] option, as described above, when you use
   the /C switch.

   /F
   With this option, defrag will perform a full optimisation by making sure
   that all files are at the beginning of the disk, with no gaps in between.

   /U
   With this option, defrag will unfragment the files, but gaps may be left
   between files.

   /Sorder[-]
   Defrag will sort files into the given order:
             N  by Name (alphabetic)            E by Extension (alphabetic)
             D  by Date & time (earliest first) S by Size (smallest first)
   Postfix the order with a hyphen - to sort descending.

   /B
   Reboots the computer after defrag completes the optimisation.

   /X
   Forces defrag to exit as soon as it completes the optimisation.

   /A
   With this option, defrag will give an audible warning before taking action.

   /FO:
   For use with the /C option, this tells defrag to give a more full
   output of information.

What is disk fragmentation?

When files are deleted, or made smaller, this leaves gaps in the data stored on the disk. If a file is created, or increases in size, it will go in the gaps, but if this space isn't big enough, the file will be continued elsewhere on the disk. After many such operations the file data can become very scattered. This fragmentation process slows down file access.

Fragmentation is a normal process on DOS disks.

When should I use defrag?

Use defrag occasionally, or after you have performed a very large file restructuring task.

Copyright © 2003-4 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

for

for

Runs a command for each file in a set of files.

   for %variable in (set) do command [options]
   for %%variable in (set) do command [options]

The first format is for use on the command line, the second is for use in batch files.

for

Options

  %variable or %%variable
  A name for the parameter that will be replaced with each file name.

  (set)
  The set of files.
  Wildcards * and ? may be used.

  command
  The command to run for each file.

  options
  These options are passed to the command.

for

Example

Displays all the text files in the current directory, one after another:

    for %f in (*.txt) more %f

for

See Also

batch files

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

modecon

modecon

Modecon has been deprecated. Use mode instead.

This file copyright © 2003 Aitor SANTAMARIA MERINO
Henrique PERON
This file is part of FreeDOS HTML Help, and is covered under its terms, see index.htm.

setver

setver

FreeDOS uses callver and version=. Note that these do not exactly replicate the functionality of setver.

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

append

append

Enables programs to open data files in specified directories as if the files were in the current directory.

append

Syntax

  APPEND [[drive:]path[;...]] [/X[:ON|:OFF]] [/PATH:ON|/PATH:OFF] [/E]
  APPEND ;

append

Options

  [drive:]path[;...]
  Drive and directory to append.

  /X[:ON]
  Extends APPEND to searches and command execution.

  /X:OFF
  Applies APPEND only to requests to open files.  This is the default
  setting.

  /PATH:ON
  Searches appended directories for file requests that already include a
  path.  This is the default setting.

  /PATH:OFF
  Switches off /PATH:ON.

  /E
  Stores the appended directory list in the environment.  /E may be used
  only in the first invocation of APPEND. You can not include any paths on
  the same command line as /E.

  APPEND ; clears the list of appended directories.
  APPEND without parameters displays the list of appended directories.

append

Copyright

  © 2004 Eduardo Casino, under the terms of the GNU GPL, Version 2

append

Notes

  Do not use APPEND with Windows or 32 bit extenders.

  APPEND installs itself as an internal command after its first execution.
  Second and successive invocations MUST exclude file path and extension.

append

See Also

path

Copyright © 2004 Eduardo Casino
This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

del, erase

del, erase

Deletes files.

   del [d:][path]file [options]
   erase [d:][path]file [options]

del, erase

Options:

  d:path\file
  A file to delete.  A period may be used to specify all files in the
  current directory, and is the same as *.*

  /p
  Prompt before deleting the file.

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

format

format

Format a hard drive or floppy disk.

   format d: [options]

Warning: while format supports FAT32, running under Win98 to create FAT32 does not work well.

format

Options

  d:
  The hard drive or floppy disk to format.

  /D
  Gives very detailed information, for debugging and for bug
  reports.

  /V:label
  Assign this label to the formatted disk.

  /Q
  Do a quick format.  This clears the FAT and root directory, but does
  not erase the disk.

  /U
  Do an unconditional format.

  /F:size
  Format the disk to a specific size. This can only be used with
  floppy disks. Valid values are:
    160 | 160k | 160kb
    Format to 160kb.

    180 | 180k | 180kb
    Format to 180kb.

    320 | 320k | 320kb
    Format to 320kb.

    360 | 360k | 360kb
    Format to 360kb.

    720 | 720k | 720kb
    Format to 720kb.

    1200 | 1200k | 1200kb | 1.2 | 1.2m | 1.2mb
    Format to 1.2MB.

    1440 | 1440k | 1440kb | 1.44 | 1.44m | 1.44mb
    Format to 1.44MB.

    2880 | 2880k | 2880kb | 2.88 | 2.88m | 2.88mb
    Format to 2.88MB.

  /B
  Reserve space to make a bootable disk. This cannot
  be combined with /S.

  /S
  Make a system disk (copy files to make it bootable.)

  /T:tracks
  Specify the number of tracks on the disk.

  /N:sectors
  Specify the number of sectors.

  /1
  Format a single-sided disk.

  /4
  Format a 5-1/4 inch 360KB DSDD disk on a 1.2MB drive.

  /8
  Format a 5-1/4 inch disk with 8 SPT.

format

/Z Options

   /Z:longhelp
   Gives detailed, technical usage information.

   /Z:seriously
   Suppresses the confirmation request when you use format with a hard disk.

   /Z:mirror
   Saves the unformat "mirror data", without
   formatting the disk.

   /Z:unformat
   Unformats the disk, if the mirror data is fresh.

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

more

Displays a text file or the output of a command one screen at a time.

  more < [d:][path]file
  command | more

Options

  d:path\file
  A text file that you want to display.

  command
  A command whose output you will pipe to the more program.

Examples

1.

   mode < c:\config.sys

2.

   fdisk /dump | more

See Also

sort

type

Copyright © 1998-2003 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file How2Lice.nse for copying conditions.

share

share

Shares large files with other programs.

   share [options]

Options

  /F:size
  Sets the size, in bytes, for file sharing information. Default is 2048.

  /L:nn
  Sets the number of files that can be locked at once. Default is 20.

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

Whatis, Apropos

Whatis, Apropos

Clone of the Linux "whatis" and "apropos" commands for FreeDOS.

    whatis [program]
    apropos subject

Type WHATIS without giving a [program] name to get a one line desciption of all the external programs and utilities in your FreeDOS installation. Internal commands are not displayed.

Type WHATIS with a [program] name to get a one line description of that program.

Use APROPOS to find programs that are apropriate for the given subject.

Whatis, Apropos

Example

    APROPOS disk

Will display a list of disk utilities.

Whatis, Apropos

Notes

WHATIS and APROPOS base their help on the lsm files stored in the APPINFO directory.

The first time it is run, WHATIS/APROPOS builds a database and stores it in the help directory in the FreeDOS installation. This database can be recreated by using:

    WHATIS /B

Additional options are:

    /S[path]
    A non-default path to the .lsm files (instead of appinfo in the FreeDOS directory)

    /D[path]
    A non-default location for the database (instead of help in the FreeDOS directory)

Whatis, Apropos

See Also

Fasthelp

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt
This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

deltree

deltree

Delete an entire directory tree, including subdirectories.

   deltree [options] [d:]path

Where d:\path is the directory tree to be deleted. Note that several directory trees can be deleted:

   deltree [options] [d:]path1 [d:]path2 ...

deltree

Options

N.B. To use these options, they must come before the first path. Otherwise, they will be ignored.

  /y
  Deletes without asking for confirmation.

  /v
  Reports the number of files and subdirectories deleted, and their
  total size.

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

graftabl

graftabl

Loads the extended character set for CGA graphics modes.

   graftabl

graftabl

See Also

   chcp
   display

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

move

move

   move file1 [file2 file3 ...] targetdir

Moves one or more files to the target directory.

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

shsucdx

shsuCDx

   shsucdx [/D:driver[,drive][,unit],[maxNumDrives]] [switches]

The driver-to-DOS extender for CD drives. Use this (and a CD driver) so that CD drives can be accessed from DOS.

shsucdx

Options

   driver
   The alias of the CD driver, which is specified when the driver
   is loaded. See below, Loading a CD driver.

   drive
   The first CD drive will be assigned to this drive letter, then
   subsequent drive letters will be used for any other CD drives
   that are detected.

   unit
   Selects the first drive unit of those detected to be assigned to a
   drive letter. This is a number from 0 to 99.

   maxNumDrives
   shsucdx will not assign more than this many drives to drive letters.

Switches:

   /C
   Uses conventional instead of high memory

   /U
   Unloads the shsucdx driver from memory

   /˜  Toggle tilde operation
   /˜+ Switch tilde operation on
   /˜- Switch tilde operation off
   Filenames on CD drives can be longer than DOS names, which
   are restricted to 8 plus 3 for the extension. Shsucdx takes
   the first 8 characters before the dot, and the first 3 after,
   and discards the rest.
   With tilde operation ON, shsucdx will use tildes to distinguish
   between long file names that would have the same name when
   shortened to an 8.3 DOS filename.

Note that shsucdx will only detect drives that are compatible with the specified driver.

shsucdx

Where can I get a CD driver from?

For IDE CD-ROM drives (most common) FreeDOS includes ATAPICDD.SYS (still in the development stage though). You may have a driver on your CD Drive's installation disk, or on the manufacturer's website. There are also various clone and generic drivers on the internet.

shsucdx

Loading a CD driver

You will need to load the driver in your config.sys file before using it with shsucdx. For example:

   DEVICE=MYCDDRV.SYS /D:SHSU001

Please refer to your driver's instructions for details on installation.

SHSU001 is the driver alias that will be given to shsucdx. It can be any alphanumeric name between 1 and 8 characters long.

shsucdx

See Also

For more information, see readme.cdx

Copyright © 2003-4 Rob Platt
This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

assign

assign

      assign [options] [d:=d:]
      assign /status

Reassigns disk operations from one drive to another. For example, to reassign disk operations for drive A: to drive B:

  assign B:=A:

or

  assign B=A

assign

Options

  /status
  Displays the current assignments.

  /M
  Attempts to use Upper Memory, instead of conventional memory,
  to store the ASSIGN.

  /U
  Uninstalls a previous ASSIGN command

  /shadow
  Makes ASSIGN's presence in memory difficult to detect.
  Subsequent uses of ASSIGN will issue a warning if the /shadow
  option isn't used (but still performs the command).

assign

Notes

If no drives are named, and /status or /u are not used, then assign is reinstalled (clearing all previous drive assignments).

assign

See Also

join

subst

swsubst

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall
This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

dir

dir

Displays the contents of a directory.

   dir [d:][path][file] [options]

dir

Options

  d:path\file
  A specific file to display.

  /p
  Displays one page of the listing at a time.

  /w
  Displays the listing in wide format.

  /a[:attribs]
  Displays only the files and directories with the specified
  attributes.  Default is /a:hsdar.  You may use the following for
  attribs:
    h | -h
    Hidden files.  -h for files that are not hidden.

    s | -s
    System files.  -s for files that are not system files.

    d | -d
    Directories.  -d for files.

    a | -a
    Files with the archive bit.  -a for files without the archive bit.

    r | -r
    Read-only files.  -r for files that are not read-only.

  /o[:order]
  Displays the listing in the specified order. You may use the
  following to specify the sort order:
    a | -a
    Sort alphabetically A-Z.  -a to sort Z-A.

    e | -e
    Sort by extension A-Z.  -a to sort by extension Z-A.

    d | -d
    Sort by date and time.  -d to sort in reverse order.

    s | -s
    Sort by size, smallest-biggest.  -s to sort biggest-smallest.

    g | -g
    Group directories first.  -g to group directories last.

  /s
  List every occurrence in all subdirectories.

  /b
  Bare format. Lists one name per line.

  /L
  Displays names in lowercase.

dir

Notes

To customise the default appearance for dir, use the DIRCMD environment variable. For instance:

   set DIRCMD=/w/p

To override something set in DIRCMD, use a hypen on that switch at the command line. (for example /-w)

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

graphics

graphics

Allow the Prt Sc (Print Screen) key to print graphics screens.

   graphics type [options]

graphics

Printer types

You can use the following for type:

   HPPCL
   PCL
   EPSON              Works with many impact/ribbon printers
   ESC/P
   POSTSCRIPT
   PS
   LASERJET
   LASERJETII
   QUIETJET
   QUIETJETPLU
   HPDEFAULT
   DESKJET
   RUGGEDWRITER
   RUGGEDWRITERWIDE

Some of these are equivelent, such as POSTSCRIPT and PS.

The following types are not yet supported:

   IBM PC color ribbon printer (color1, color4, color8)
   IBM convertible thermal printer
   IBM graphics printer, proprinter and quietwriter.

graphics

Options

   /B
   Use CGA background color

   /R
   Reverse colors: use black as white and white as black.

   /LCD
   /PRINTBOX:LCD
   /PRINTBOX:STD
   Ignored (not yet supported).
   These will allow you to set a screen width-to-height ratio other than
   4:3, which is currently always assumed.

graphics

See Also

graphics, graphpin, graph-hp. Graphics uses these programs internally.

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

mscdex

mscdex

FreeDOS uses shsucdx

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

sort

sort

Sorts a file or input for displaying.

   sort [d:][path]file [options]
   command | sort [options]

The file for input is not modified.

sort

Options

  /R
  Sort in reverse order.

  /+n
  Begin sorting at column n in each line of text.  Default=1.

  /N
  Enables National Language Support, so that messages will be
  displayed according to the setting of the LANG environment variable.
  Use the set command to set LANG.

sort

Examples

1. Displays the current directory in alphabetical order:

       dir |sort

2. Sorts a file and writes it to another file:

       sort unordered.txt > ordered.txt

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

atapicdd.sys

atapicdd.sys

Generic driver for IDE CD-ROM (ATAPI). Still under development.

   device=[drive][path]atapicdd.sys [options]

atapicdd.sys

Options

   /D:name
   Sets the device name to name
   Default value: FDCD0000

   /N:x
   Sets the number of devices to look for to x.
   Default value: 1

atapicdd.sys

See Also

shsucdx.htm

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

dirs

dirs

Displays the directory stack.

   dirs

dirs

See Also

pushd, popd

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

ansi, nansi

ansi, nansi

A console enhancing driver. FreeDOS uses Nansi.

Copyright © 2003-4 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

subst

subst

Substitutes a path with a drive letter.

  subst [d: [d:]path]
  subst d: /D

subst

Options

  /D
  Deletes this substituted drive.

subst

See Also

assign

join

swsubst

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall
This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

attrib

attrib

View or change the file attributes for a set of files.

      attrib [options] [[d:][path]file]

attrib

Options

  +r | -r
  Sets the read-only attribute.  -r clears it.

  +a | -a
  Sets the archive attribute.  -a clears it.

  +s | -s
  Sets the system attribute.  -s clears it.

  +h | -h
  Sets the hidden attribute.  -h clears it.

  /s
  Acts on subdirectories, too.

attrib

Notes

If no file is specified, then the attributes for all files in the current directory are changed (or simply displayed if none of the above specifiers are used.)

The archive attribute is set when a file is modified. Backup utilities can clear the attribute to indicate that the file has been backed up.

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

diskcomp

diskcomp

Compares the contents of two floppy disks, track by track

   diskcomp [d: [d:]] [options]

diskcomp

Options

  d:
  The drive letter for a floppy disk.  If only one drive letter is
  given, assume the working drive (if a floppy drive.)  If no drive
  letters are given, assume both are the working drive (if a floppy).
  If both drives are the same, diskcomp will read one floppy at a
  time, and you will need to swap floppies.

  /1
  Compare only the first sides of the disks, even if double-sided
  disks.

  /8
  Compare only the first 8 sectors per track.

  /40
  Compare only the first 40 tracks

  /b
  Forces diskcomp to user the BIOS to access the floppy disk drive.
  (The BIOS is slower, but might be required for compatibility on some
   machines.)

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

himem

himem

Device driver for XMS and higher memory.

   device=c:\fdos\bin\himem.exe [options]

himem

Options

/NUMHANDLES=n Sets the number of memory handles that will be obtainable by programs. Default is 32 Minimum is 8 Maximum is 128 /VERBOSE Gives extra information during installation. Useful for bug reports. /NOABOVE16 Tells himem not to attempt to detect XMS memory above 64MB, i.e. only use the lower 64MB. /TEST Test memory and XMS implementation.

Copyright © 2004 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

nlsfunc

nlsfunc

Adds NLS (national language support) functionality. This command is not available in FreeDOS yet.

   nlsfunc [[d:][path]file]

nlsfunc

Options

  d:path\file
  The full path to a file containing NLS information.
  If no file is given, nlsfunc will select its own default.

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

swsubst

Combines subst with join with enhanced options.

usage: %s [option] [command]

If swsubst is used without specifying a command, the CDS table is displayed.

Options

   /#: view the statistic of JOIN'ed drives in the CDS table
   /!: like /#; initialize the JOIN-flag, if it differs
   /f: view non-printable characters hexadecimal
   /a: view the CDS table after the command
   /k: create the pathes mentioned within the command
   /t: like /k, in SUBST check only, if path exist
   /_: dump all attributes within the CDS table
   /o=#: use this backslash offset, do not calculate itself
   /x=??: List of drive letters to be ignored while a ::label: search

Commands

   -: initialize all SUBST'ed and JOIND'ed drives
   --: initialize all non-networked drives
   dr [-]path: like %s dr [-]path
   /u dr [-]path: substitute dr to point to path
   /j dr [-]path: join dr into path
   /d dr | dr /d | dr - : initialize drive dr (& break SUBST/JOIN)
   /s dr1 dr2: swap dr1 and dr2
   /n [dr1 dr2]: swap unit numbers of the same device driver (Std.: floppies)
   /w dr: set ERRORLEVEL to the drive letter of dr
   /m [-]path: create path including all leading up-directories
   /c [-]path: like /m, then chdir into it
   dr:[+-=]{off,on,phys,net,join,subst,hidden}: set drive flags directly
   /q dr:[+-]{phys,net,join,subst,hidden}: query the drive flags

See Also

assign

join

subst

Copyright © 1995 Steffen Kaiser
This document is under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
See COPYING

Backup, Restore

Backup, Restore

Back up files, and restore such backups.

These commands are not yet available in FreeDOS.

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt
This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

diskcopy

diskcopy

Copy the contents of a floppy disk to a second floppy. Also creates, copies and restores floppy disk image files.

  diskcopy source destination [options]

If the source and/or destination is a drive, for example "a:" then it is treated as a floppy disk, otherwise it is treated as an image file.

The source and destination can be the same drive; diskcopy will first copy from the source, and then prompt you to swap floppy disks. Then it will write to the destination.

diskcopy

Options

  /1
  Doesn't do anything in FreeDOS diskcopy.
  In other versions of DOS, this copied the first side only.

  /v
  Verify that the data is copied correctly.

diskcopy

Notes

Diskcopy uses the Linux rawrite format for its image files. Therefore the image files from Diskcopy can be used by Rawrite and vice versa.

Diskcopy cannot read from or overwrite Linux floppy disks. It can, however, write a Linux floppy image to a DOS disk.

diskcopy

Example

   diskcopy a: a:

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall
This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

history

history

Displays the history of commands entered at the command line, or changes the maximum size of this history.

   history [size]

If size is not specified, then the history is listed. Otherwise, it is set to the given size.

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

path

path

The list of paths which FreeDOS will search for commands and programs run from the command line.

   path [pathlist]

Use path without specifying a path list, to view the current setting.

path

Options

   pathlist
   sets the list of paths. Seperate the paths with semicolons (;)

path

Examples

   path c:\fdos\bin;c:\util

   path %path%;c:\games

The second example adds c:\games to the existing list, preserving the previously set paths.

path

Notes

Some commands are internal to FreeDOS. However, many are in the \bin directory so you may wish to have this directory on the path list (as in the first example above).

The paths of any frequently used programs can be put on the path list for convenience.

When a program or external command is entered at the command prompt, FreeDOS looks for it in the current directory and then in each of the paths specified by the path command.

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

sys

sys

Make a floppy disk or hard disk bootable.

  sys [[d:]path] d: [bootsect [BOTH]] [BOOTONLY] [switches]

sys

Options

  [[d:]path]
  The (optional) location of the system files.
  If not given, the current directory is assumed.

  d:
  The drive to make bootable.

  bootsect
  The name of file, to which the 512-byte boot sector image
  will be written.
  (the drive's real boot sector won't be
   written to unless BOTH is used.)

  BOTH
  The new boot sector will be written to the image file
  and to the actual drive boot sector.

  BOOTONLY
  With this option the boot sector (or image) will be updated,
  but the kernel and command.com will
  not be copied to the destination.

Switches:

  /K filename
  Gives the filename of the kernel file to be copied. This option
  is only required when the kernel is not called "kernel.sys"

  /L segment
  The load segent, in hexadecimal, to use. The default is 60.

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

callver

callver

Sets the FreeCOM command interpreter version number

   callver x.xx

where x.xx is the version number; each x can be any digit from 0-9.

callver

See Also

version=

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

display

display

Provides codepage management capabilities for the default console driver.

   display <devname>[:]=(<hardwaretype>,[{n|(n1,[n2,]...)}],[{m|(m,k)}])

In versions prior to 1.0, DISPLAY does not load as an standard device driver
yet, but as an executable (hence do not load it with DEVICE= in CONFIG.SYS).

To communicate with DISPLAY, use MODE CON CODEPAGE command with CPI files.

display

Options

   devname         In version 1.0 or later, the name of the console device
                   which is going to be expanded (usually CON). The colon is
                   optional.
                   In versions prior to 1.0, any valid name for a device
                   driver.
   hardwaretype    The identifier of the hardware display adapter type. It
                   may also determine the number of subfonts to use. Valid
                   types are

                      EGA      EGA or VGA adapters (automatic detection of
                               subfonts)

                      LCD      LCD display adapters (needing only one subfont)
                      EGA 8

                      EGA 14   EGA adapters (2 subfonts)

                      VGA      VGA adapters (or compatible) (3 subfonts)

   n, n1, n2,...   Numbers for the codepage numbers of the hardware codepages.
                   You probably have one, with codepage number 437.
                   Adapters with more than one hardware codepages may require
                   additional software (such as ARABIC.COM/HEBREW.COM)

   m               Number of buffers that you want to specify to prepare
                   codepages (default is 1)

   k               Number of subfonts that you can optionally determine
                   (always equal or higher than the number of subfonts that
                   your hardware adapter needs)

display

Example

      DISPLAY CON=(EGA,437,1)

   You specify that you have an EGA/VGA adapter, with hardware codepage 437,
   and request only 1 buffer, in order to minimise resident memory footprint.

      DISPLAY CON=(EGA 14,(437,650),3)

   You have an EGA adapter (with 2 subfonts per codepage), and have two
   hardware codepages available, numbers 437 and 650, and specify three
   buffers to prepare software codepages.

display

See Also

   printer.sys
   mode
   chcp
   graftabl

This file copyright Š 2003
Aitor SANTAMARIA MERINO
This file is part of FreeDOS HTML Help, and is
covered under its terms, see
index.htm

join

join

Joins a drive to a directory.

   join d: d:path
   join d: /D

join

Options

  d:
  The drive letter you want to set up.

  d:path
  The full path which will be assigned to the drive.

  /D
  Delete this join definition.

join

See Also

assign

subst

swsubst

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall
This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

pause

pause

Suspend execution of whatever you are doing, and wait for a keystroke.

  pause

pause

See Also

batch files

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

tdsk

tdsk

   device=tdsk.exe size [[s_sector [files [s_cluster]]]] [options]

Creates a RAM disk. Part of memory is set aside to act like a disk drive. Because memory is much faster than a real disk drive, RAM disks are very fast, but anything stored on them will be lost when the machine is restarted or switched off.

tdsk

options

   Size
   the size of the RAM disk, from 8 to 65534 (in Kilobytes).

   [[s_sector [files [s_cluster]]]]
   Advanced. The size of the sectors, root and clusters
   on the disk.
   Valid values for sector are 32,64,128,256,512,1024,2048.
   Files (in the root direcotry) can be from 1 to 65534.
   Clusters can vary from 1 to 255 (some systems are restricted
   to 1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128)

   /E
   Makes tdsk use XMS memory

   /A
   /X
   Makes tdsk use EMS memory

   /C
   Makes tdsk use conventional memory (not ideal, so it is generally only
   recommended for systems without EMS/XMS or if you are having problems
   with EMS/XMS memory.)

By default, tdsk tries to use XMS, or EMS, before trying to use conventional memory.
Most modern computers have XMS.

tdsk

Why use a RAM disk?

Many programs create temporary files, which will be stored in a temporary directory specified by an environment variable:

   set temp=c:\temp

Temporary files are deleted when a program exits anyway. So one of the main uses of RAM disks is to hold this temporary directory. This increases such programs' performance.

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

cd, chdir

cd, chdir

Changes the current directory.

  cd [d:][path]
  chdir [d:][path]

Changes drive d:'s currrent directory to path.

If no drive is specified, then the current drive is assumed. If no path is specified, the current directory is displayed.

cd, chdir

Notes

To change to the root directory (e.g. C:\), type:

  cd \

To go "up" a level in the directory tree, type:

  cd ..

cd, chdir

See Also

md, mkdir

rd, rmdir

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall
This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

doskey

doskey

In some versions of DOS, this extends the basic keyboard functionality of the command line interpreter.

There is no need for Doskey in FreeDOS, which has such features built into the command interpreter.

doskey

See Also

Alias

History

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt
This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

KC

KC

 KEY language Keyboard descriptor files compiler

 KC takes a source keyboard language descriptor file (in KEY language) and
 converts it into a bare KeybCB or a KL file to be used with FD-KEYB.

 Please read the accompaining documentation to know more about the KEY
 language and the output formats.

 Syntax

   KC   <sourcefilename> [<targetfilename>] [/B]
   KC   /?

 Options

   sourcefilename   The name of the source file, in KEY language, to be
                    compiled.
                    If extension is omitted, KEY extension is appended
                    automatically
   targetfilename   The name of the KL file to be written (unless /B is used)
                    If extension is omitted, KL extension is appended
                    automatically
   /B               [Bare] Creates a bare binary KeybCB image, instead of a
                    KL file
   /?               Shows fast help

 Examples

  KC  FR

  Compiles FR.KEY into FR.KL

  KC  SP.KEY  SP.KCB /B

  Compiles SP.KEY into a bare keyboard control block SP.KCB

 Copyright:

  KC 1.0 is distributed under the GNU-GPL 2.0 license or later.
  KC 1.0 is copyright by Aitor Santamaria Merino.
  KC documentation by Aitor Santamaria Merino.

 See Also:
   KEYB

This file copyright Š 2004
Aitor SANTAMARIA MERINO
This file is part of FreeDOS HTML Help, and is
covered under its terms, see
index.htm

print

print

Print a file in the background, while you run other DOS commands.

   print [options] [[d:][path]file] [[d:][path]file] [...]

print

Options

  d:path\file
  The file that you want to print.

  /D:device
  Specify the name of the device to print to. If not given, Print
  will use the default LPT: device.

  /B:size
  Set the size of the buffer, in bytes, in the range 512-16384. The
  default is 512.

  /U:ticks
  The number of clock ticks, in the range 1-255, that Print is to wait
  for the printer to become available before printing the job.

  /M:ticks
  The maximum number of ticks for sending a single character to the
  printer, in the range 1-255.

  /S:ticks
  The number of clock ticks, in the range 1-255, for the background
  spooler process. The default is 8.
  Larger numbers will speed up printing but slow down other DOS programs.

  /Q:nn
  The number of files that will be allowed in the print queue, in the
  range 1-32. The default is 10.

  /T
  Remove all files in the print queue. Terminates the job that is
  currently being printed.

  /C
  Cancel jobs in the print queue.
  If this is used with a list of file names, only those files
  are removed from the queue. If this is used alone, all jobs
  are cancelled (although the current job isn't terminated.)

  /P
  Add a file to the print queue. If this precedes a list of files,
  only those files are printed.
  You may use /P and /C together on the same command line.

If no options are given to Print, only files, /P is assumed. If no options and no files are provided, print displays the contents of the print queue.

Copyright © 1998-2003 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

Tickle

Tickle

Gives extra speed to floppy disk drives.

    tickle

NB: LBAcache or a similar cache utility must be set up for floppy disk drives first. For instance, use LBAcache FLOP. Otherwise disk operation will be slowed down.

Tickle

Notes

Tickle takes about 10k of memory.

Tickle

See Also

LBAcache

Copyright © 2004 Rob Platt
This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

cdd

cdd

Changes both the current drive and its current directory.

  cdd [drive:][path]

If no path is specified, then only the current drive is changed.

If no drive is specified, then this command acts just like cd.

cdd

See Also

cd, chdir

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall
This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

edit

edit

Starts the DOS editor.

   edit [[d:][path]file] [options]

edit

Options

  [[d:]path]file]
  Specifies the file(s) to be opened. Wildcards * and ? can be used.

  /B
  Use a black-and-white (mono) display.

  /H
  Display using the highest video/text resolution available.

edit

More Information

Edit has a comprehensive help system built in.

edit

Limitations

Edit cannot currently open files greater than 64k in size.

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

Keyb

Keyb

 Keyboard localization BIOS extension for FreeDOS.
 KEYB can be considered as a keyboard driver which intercepts the keyboard
 management BIOS routines in order to adapt non-US keyboards to the system,
 and provides other facilities.
 (NOTE: KEYB is not a proper device driver, and is not loaded with DEVICE=
 in CONFIG.SYS; you run it as a resident program instead).

 Required data is read from a keyboard layout data file, a KL file.

 A keyboard layout is identified by two labels, a string label, which is
 mandatory (usually a two letter string, such as GR, FR or SP), and an
 optional numeric identifier to distinguish different variants.

 Syntax

   KEYB <Layout_name>[,[<CP>][,<filename>]] [/ID:<id#>] [/Dx] [/E] [/I] [/9]
   KEYB [/U]
   KEYB [/?]

 Options

   Parameterless KEYB will show information on the currently loaded KEYB.

   LayoutName    string identifier

   /ID:nnn       Specifies the numeric identifier nnn

   CP            Codepage in which you want KEYB to start (if omitted,
                 DISPLAY.SYS and the system are checked)

   filename      The KL file that contains the information for the given layout
                 If it is omitted, then <LayoutName>.KL is tried

   /E            Specifies that the keyboard is an AT enhanced keyboard
                 (this switch is incompatible with /9)

   /9            Specifies that int9h management services must be activated
                 (this switch is incompatible with /E)

   /I            Forces the installation over an already existing keyboard driver

   /Dx           Sets the decimal separator character to x

   /U            Unloads a KEYB previously loaded in memory

   /?            Shows the fast help

 Notes

  You can program FreeDOS so that keyboard is  configured  at boot time
  by means of AUTOEXEC.BAT.
  Append the command line into your AUTOEXEC.BAT to do this.

  You can create your own customized layout files by using the compiler tool KC.
  Alternatively, you cana use a standard already made KL data file from the KL
  file package. (See references below).

 Examples

  KEYB SP,858

  Loads KEYB with the layout for the Spanish distribution and codepage 858

  KEYB GR,,GR.KL /E

  Loads the German keyboard layout for KEYB, explicitely informing KEYB that
  we are using an enhanced keyboard.
  Use this if KEYB cannot identify the presence of an enhanced keyboard.

 Copyright:

  KEYB2.0 is distributed under the GNU-GPL 2.0 license or later.
  KEYB2.0 is copyright by Aitor Santamaria Merino.
  KEYB documentation by Aitor Santamaria Merino.

 See Also:
   Display
   KC

This file copyright Š 2003
Aitor SANTAMARIA MERINO
This file is part of FreeDOS HTML Help, and is
covered under its terms, see
index.htm

printer.sys

printer.sys

Provides codepage management capabilities for a printer driver.

   printer <devname>[:]=(<hardwaretype>,[{n|(n1,[n2,]...)}],[m])

This driver has not yet a binary form, because no specific printer hardware
management has been yet added (you can compile both PRINTER.SYS or DISPLAY.SYS
from the sources of display).

printer.sys

Options

   devname         Name of the printer port device which is going to be
                   expanded, such as PRN or LPTx. The colon is optional.
   hardwaretype    The identifier of the hardware display adapter type. It
                   may also determine the number of subfonts to use.
                   There are not supported types yet.

   n, n1, n2,...   Numbers for the codepage numbers of the hardware codepages.

   m               Number of buffers that you want to specify to prepare
                   codepages (default is 1)

printer.sys

Example

   When PRINTER.SYS has some hardware support, you'll be able to do:

      PRINTER PRN=(IBMPro,437,1)

   You specify that you have an IBM Proprinter compatible printer, with
   hardware codepage 437, and request only 1 buffer, in order to minimise
   resident memory footprint.

printer.sys

See Also

   display
   chcp

This file copyright Š 2003
Aitor SANTAMARIA MERINO
This file is part of FreeDOS HTML Help, and is
covered under its terms, see
index.htm

time

time

Displays/Changes the system time.

   time [newtime{A|P}]
   time /T

If no new time is given, the current time is displayed and you are prompted for a new time.

time

Options

  newtime
      hh:mm
      hh:mm:ss
      hh:mm:ss.ss
  The time to set for your system.
  'hh' is the hour on a 12 or 24 hour clock.
  'mm' is the minute.
  'ss.ss' is seconds and hundredths of seconds.

  A | P
  Set the time to AM or PM if using a 12 hour clock.

  /T
  displays the time without prompting for a new setting.

time

Notes

When prompted for a new time, press enter to accept the current setting without changing it.

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

CDRcache

CDRcache

CD drive cache program. Improves drive performance.

Requires XMS memory, and at least a 386 computer.

In config.sys, either

    device=cdrcache device name cachesize
or
    devicehigh=cdrcache device name cachesize

Load CDRcache after loading your CD-ROM device driver (usually atapicdd.sys).

CDRcache

Parameters

    device
    The same name of the device that you previously loaded with your CD-ROM
    device driver.

    name
    A new name which you will pass to shsucdx in
    the autoexec.bat

    cachesize
    Specifies the cache buffer size in kilobytes. The
    cache is stored in XMS memory.
    Minimum value is 128
    Maximum value is 65280

    Values below 100 are valid for compatibility with previous
    versions of CDRcache. Below 100, sizes are interpreted as
    multiples of 0.25MB.

CDRcache

Controlling the driver after loading

Use:

    echo command > name

Where name is the parameter passed to CDRcache (see above).

Command is:

  F      - Flush the cache
  S      - show Statistics
  I      - show statistics with extra technical Information
  C      - Clear statistics
  Q      - Quiet mode
  N      - Normal verbosity
  V      - Verbose/trace mode
  0      - stop caching
  1      - continue caching (after stop for instance)
  ?      - show help text

CDRcache

Examples

In config.sys:

   DEVICE=c:\fdos\bin\Atapicdd.sys /D:FDCD0000
   DEVICE=c:\fdos\bin\CDRcache.sys FDCD0000 CDRCACH$ 2048

then in autoexec.bat:

   c:\fdos\bin\shsucdx /D:CDRCACH$

This allocates a 2048KB (2MB) cache buffer for a single IDE CD drive.

CDRcache

See Also

LBAcache
Tickle

Copyright © 2004 Rob Platt
This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

EDLINE

The edline program is a small line editor, written for FreeDOS as a functional clone of the old MS-DOS program edlin. It differs from edlin in that first, it's free software, and second, the user interface is slightly different in a few places. The reason for the difference is so that the user does not have to type in control characters mandated by edlin's syntax.

   edline [file]

Opens the file (if specified) for editing. If no file is specified, edline begins with a blank document.

Edline's Internal Commands

   \a
   alert

   \b
   backspace

   \e
   escape

   \f
   formfeed

   \t
   horizontal tab

   \v
   vertical tab

   \"
   double quote

   \'
   single quote

   \.
   period

   \\
   backslash

   \xXX
   where X is a hex digit (0-9, a-f, A-F) - hexadecimal constant

   \OOO
   where O is an octal digit (0-7) - octal constant

   \^C
   control character

Syntax

In the following command lists, brackets [ ] represent optional constructs. The # symbol represents a line number, which is either a string of digits, a period representing the current line, a dollar sign ($) representing the last line in the file, or a line number added or subtracted from another line number, so that

   .,.+1p

prints the current line and the succeeding line.

A dollar sign in the following lists represents a string of characters. They may be enclosed in either single or double quotes and may contain the following escape sequences:

# - EDIT A SINGLE LINE

The edline program outputs the single line indicated by the number, and the next inputted line replaces the outputted line in the file.

a - APPEND

This command is equivalent to $+1i .

[#],[#],#,[#]c - COPY A RANGE OF LINES

This command copies a block of consecutive lines to another location in the buffer. The parameters are:

The first line you want to copy (default =3D = current line)

The last line you want to copy (default =3D current line)

The line before which you want to insert the block of lines

The number of times you want to copy the block (default =3D 1)

After edline copies lines, you may use the l (list) command to see the correctly renumbered lines.

[#][,#]d - DELETE A BLOCK OF LINES

This command deletes a block of consecutive lines. The parameters are the first and last line of the block to be deleted.

If you omit the second parameter, it deletes only the line specified in the first parameter. If you omit the first parameter, it deletes the block from the current line to the line specified in the second parameter (be sure to include the comma). Omitting both parameters causes the current line to be deleted.

e filename - SAVE AND QUIT

This command is equivalent to:

   w filename

followed by

   q

[#]i - INSERT = MODE

This command enters insert mode. Its parameter is the line number before which you want to insert lines.

While inserting, escape sequences such as those above are legal to type in. To exit insert mode, type a period (.) on an otherwise blank line (if you need a line with just a period, escape it).

After exiting insert mode, the line after the inserted text becomes the current line unless the insertion was appended to the end of the text, in which case the last line of the text becomes the new current line.

[#][,#]l - LIST LINES

This command lists lines of text on the screen. If you omit the first parameter, the command starts showing text beginning with 11 lines of text before the current line. Omitting the second parameter shows a page of text beginning with the line specified in the first parameter. Omitting both shows one page of text starting at 11 lines before the current line. In all cases, if the number of lines is larger than the number of lines in a page, the program will prompt after each page of lines.

[#],[#],#m - MOVE BLOCK

This command moves a block of text to the line before the number specified in the third parameter. It is similar to copying, then deleting the original block.

[#][,#]p - = PAGE

This is similar to l except that the default page starts with the current line instead of 11 lines before.

q - QUIT

Self-explanatory.

[#][,#][?]r$,$ - REPLACE STRING

This command replaces all occurrences of the first string with the second between the two lines specified. An omitted first parameter starts the replacing at the line after the current line; an omitted second parameter stops the replacing at the last line of the file.

The question mark sends a confirmation message before replacement.

[#][,#][?]s$ - SEARCH FOR SUBSTRING This command searches for the first line containing the substring specified. Omitting the first parameter causes the search to start on the current line; omitting the second causes the search to stop at the end of the file.

The question mark causes the search to send a confirmation message. Saying no to the confirmation message continues the search; saying yes ends it.

The current line will be reset to the line where the search ended if it was successful.

[#]t filename - TRANSFER FILE

This command causes the contents of the file to be inserted before the line number specified. If the line number is omitted, the default is the current line.

[#]w filename - WRITE FILE

This command causes the first number of lines specified by the parameter to be written to the file specified. If the parameter is omitted, it will write all the lines=20 in the buffer to the file.

Copyright 2003 Gregory Pietsch
This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

XKeyb

 Extended keyboard driver for FreeDOS.
 XKeyb contains the keyboard driver and several other keyboard utilities.

   XKEYB    Keyboard driver, configure a keyboard for a layout other than
            standard US layout (codepage 437).
            Program keys to produce strings to the keyboard buffer.
            Enables the XKEYB-API, with which you can associate  routines
            to key events.
   XKEYBRES Reduced version of XKEYB (with a smaller executable size)  to
            increase the probabilities to be  loaded  into  upper  memory
            (with loadhigh).
   SCANKBD  Scans a keyboard layout into a configuration file.
   KEYMAN   Keyboard macro recorder.
   LISTXDEF Lists the keyboard layout plus the macro definitions.

 Syntax:

   XKEYB [/Xnn] [/Q] [/U] <Layout_file>
   XKEYBRES [/Xnn] [/Q] [/U]

   OPTIONS

   /Xnn                 Allocate nn bytes of memory for Extension Strings
                        (macros).
   /Q                   Suppress the output of LIST paragraphs from
                        the configuration file.
   /U                   Remove the resident copy of XKEYB from memory
                        (if installed).
   <Layout_File>        Layout and codepage  specific  file, such  as
                        GR.KEY or SP.KEY .
                        A path may be included, and the extension may  be
                        omitted.
                        KEY files  are  searched  in  current  directory,
                        XKEYB program directory  and  %PATH%  environment
                        string.

 Note: XKEYBRES does not admit the parameter <layout_file> but XKEYB will
 load the information into XKEYB or XKEYBRES if either of them is already
 present in memory.

 You can program FreeDOS so that keyboard is configured at boot  time  by
 means of AUTOEXEC.BAT. Append the command line into your AUTOEXEC.BAT to
 do this.

 Country                                 Layout                  Codepages

 Argentina                               (Latin America)         -
 Australia                               (US)                    -
 Austria                                 (Germany)               -
 Belgium                                 be                      850, 858
                                         be-cp437                437
 Bosnia-Herzegovina                      ba                      852
                                         ba-cp850                850, 858
 Brazil                                  br274                   850, 858
                                         br274437                437
 Canada                                  cf                      850, 858
                                         cf-cp863                863
 Chile                                   (Latin America)         -
 Colombia                                (Latin America)         -
 Croatia                                 hr                      852
                                         hr-cp850                850, 858
 Czech Republic (Qwertz)                 cz                      852
                                         cz-cp850                850, 858
 Denmark                                 dk                      850, 858
                                         dk-cp865                865
 Ecuador                                 (Latin America)         -
 Finland                                 su                      850, 858
                                         su-cp437                437
 France                                  fr, fr120               850, 858
                                         fr-cp437, fr120437      437
 Germany                                 gr                      850, 858
                                         gr-cp437                437
 Hungary                                 hu208                   852
                                         hu208850                850, 858
 Italy                                   it, it142               850, 858
                                         it-cp437, it142437      437
 Latin America                           la                      850, 858
                                         la-cp437                437
 Mexico                                  (Latin America)         -
 Netherlands                             nl                      850, 858
                                         nl-cp437                437
 New Zealand                             (US)                    -
 Norway                                  no                      850, 858
                                         no-cp865                865
 Poland                                  pl214                   852
                                         pl214850                850, 858
 Portugal                                po                      850, 858
                                         po-cp860                860
 Slovakia (Qwertz)                       sk                      852
                                         sk-cp850                850, 858
 Slovenia                                si                      852
                                         si-cp850                850, 858
 South Africa                            (US)                    -
 Spain                                   sp                      850, 858
                                         sp-cp437                437
 Sweden                                  sv                      850, 858
                                         sv-cp437                437
 Switzerland (French)                    sf                      850, 858
                                         sf-cp437                437
 Switzerland (German)                    sg                      850, 858
                                         sg-cp437                437
 UK                                      uk, uk168               850, 858
                                         uk-cp437, uk168437      437
 US                                      us                      437, 858
 Venezuela                               (Latin America)         -

 Example:
 To use a German keyboard when your KEYBOARD.SYS file is in the DOS
 directory on drive C, type the following command:

 xkeyb gr

 or alternatively you can use the formula

 LOADHIGH  XKEYBRES /Q
 XKEYB GR

 that will load XKEYBRES into upper memory (if upper memory is available).

 Notes:
 There are countries listed above for which there are not  layouts
 such as Argentina, Australia and Austria but they are listed here
 because they are mentioned on MS-DOS© documentation.

 There is a reference to Ireland on MS-DOS© v6.2x  documentation
 which actually points to the UK layout. There is an irish  layout
 available at the Full Layout Pack.

 There are references to Canada (English) and Canada (French)  but
 actually both of them point to the same layout.

 The bosnian, croatian and slovenian layouts are all the same.
 They match the "YU" layout found at MS-DOS© v6.x which presents
 a dead key with cedilla and diaresis below the <ESC> key.

 The modern "YU" layout refers to the Serbian Latin keyboard which
 presents a deadkey with cedilla and tilde below the <ESC> key and
 is available on the Full Layout Pack only.

 "-cp437" layouts are provided for CGA monitors and only when that
 codepage is listed as primary or secondary for a layout according
 to the major industry specifications. For instance, the brazilian
 layout can work with "850, 437" on MS-DOS©.
 Due to cp437 limitations, there are labeled characters on several
 keyboards that won't be echoed.

 SCANKBD and LISTXDEF:

 Syntax:

   SCANKBD
   LISTXDEF

   SCANKBD scans current keyboard layout (XKEYB or other keyboard driver)
   to the configuration file, generating a .KEY compatible file.
   LISTXDEF lists the XKEYB layout and all the macro definitions to console.

  Most probably you would like to do

  LISTXDEF > MYFILE.KEY

  to save all your macro definitions.

 KEYMAN:

   KEYMAN is an interactive macro recorder for use with XKEYB.

   XKEYB must be resident in memory before KEYMAN can be installed.

   Once installed, press F11 to pop up the KEYMAN window. Enter  a  macro
   by pressing the key to  assign  the  macro  to  (eg. CTRL-D), then the
   keystrokes to be assigned to the macro, then F11 again to save it.

   You can delete macro keystrokes using the BACKSPACE  key. To  enter  a
   BACKSPACE keystroke in the macro, use <ALT>-<Keypad 8>.

   To change the Hotkey (F11 by default), pop up the KEYMAN window, press
   the hotkey again, then press the new hotkey.

   LISTXDEF.EXE can be used to save recorded macros  as  a  configuration
   file.

 Please, refer to XKEYB.TXT for further information.

 Copyright:

 XKEYB is distributed under the GNU-GPL 2.0 license or later.
 XKEYB is copyright by Dietmar Hohmann and Aitor Santamaria Merino.
 XKEYB layout packs are developed by Henrique Peron.
 XKEYB documentation was started by Ben Berry  and  maintained  by  Aitor
       Santamaria Merino and Henrique Peron.

 See Also:
   Chcp

This file copyright © 2002-2003
Aitor SANTAMARIA MERINO
Henrique PERON
This file is part of FreeDOS HTML Help, and is
covered under its terms, see
index.htm

prompt

Changes the way the command prompt appears.

   prompt [string]

Use path without specifying a string, to return it to its default appearance.

Special Character Codes

The following character sequences can be used to customise the command prompt:

  $$   $
  $_   line break
  $B   |
  $D   the date
  $E   ASCII Escape character
  $G   >
  $H   Backspace
  $L   <
  $N   the current drive
  $P   the current drive and directory
  $Q   =
  $T   the time
  $V   the name or version of the command shell

Examples

   prompt $p$g

This is the same as the default setting.

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

Tree

Graphically displays the directory [folder] structure of a given drive or path. Optionally includes filelist in display.

Usage:

 Syntax: TREE [d:][path] [/F] [/A]
   d:path
       The drive and path to start from.  If no path is given, start
       from the current directory.
   /F  Display the names of files in each directory.
   /A  Use ASCII characters to visually represent the directory
       structure.

   /?  Display help and exit.

 Additional Options in FreeDOS pdTree: (Not available in standard Tree.)
   /V  Display version information and exit.
   /S  Shortnames only (uses short, ie alternate, filename when exists).
       DOS version only, disables use of LFN API for findfirst/next.
   /P  Pause after each page.
       On error obtaining current console size, defaults to 80x25 screen,
       otherwise attempts to use current console size.  Note: DOS version
       [under NT console] limited to standard video mode sizes,
       ie. only 22,25,28,43, or 50 rows [depending on current console height].
       Pause option ignored if output is redirected to file or piped to
       another program, such as  tree | more  or  tree > myfile.txt.
   /Dx Display additional information.
       /Da  show file and directory attributes  (See also /Dh option)
            D directory (only shown for directory entries)
            0 sparse file (only displayed for file entries)
            A archive
            C compressed
            E encrypted
            S system
            H hidden
            R read-only
            M reparse {mount} point (only shown for directory entries)
       /Df  show filesize
            Only useful if /F also specified.  For files less than 1MB, sizes
            are shown in bytes, otherwise size is shown in KB.
            Win32 only: supports filesizes > 4GB
       /Dh  enables showing hidden and system directory and file entries.
       /Dr  display results (file and subdirectory count) after each one.

       Using /F /Da /Dh provides information similar to attrib /S /D.
       Using /F /Df /Dr provides results similar to dir.
   /On Sort output, where n is F (filesize), N (name), E (extension).
       Output is sorted provided enough memory is available, otherwise
       output is unsorted to avoid aborting due to out of memory errors.
       Not Yet Implemented!
   /U  Use Unicode (UTF-8) characters [Experimental].
       This option is useful for displaying results in a WinNT GUI program.
       This feature is intended for use when redirecting to a file (or other
       process).  A BOM (Byte Order Mark) signature is the first character
       output if no errors occur.  [As output is UTF-8, the BOM is only used
       to indicate data is Unicode in UTF-8 format and not to mark byte
       order.]  Can not be used with the /A option (rightmost one takes
       precedence).  Unicode directory and file names will only be displayed
       correctly when using Windows NT (when Unicode Win32 APIs are available)
       if the corresponding name can not be converted to current ANSI charset.
       The DOS version does not attempt to map from extended characters
       properly, so results for extended ASCII (>127) characters will most
       likely be incorrect.  As such, the /U option may be removed from
       the DOS executables.

Examples:

To display the complete directory hierarchy of drive C and pause
after each screenful, run tree specifying C: as the start path and
pipe its output to the more command:

tree C:\ | more

When using pdTree, the above example may also be achieved using:

tree C:\ /p

To display the directory hierarchy of a subdirectory and have the
output only use standard ASCII characters (such as for printing or
sending to someone who may view it without DOS line/box drawing character
support), specify the subdirectory and the /A switch:

tree ASUBDIR /a

To display the structure of a directory tree and the files within
each directory, add the /F switch:

tree /f | more

To get a listing of all files and directories, with file sizes and attributes,
along with summary of how many in each directory, maintaining Unicode
names, and for review with a utf-8 compatible text viewer:

tree /f /dh /df /da /dr /u \ > myfiles.txt

Copyright: This document is public domain, only public domain additions will be accepted.
Thus this document may be freely copied, etc. but no warranty, claim of correctness, nor fitness for any purpose is given.
KJD 2003,2004

chcp

chcp

Changes the code page.

  chcp [nnn]

chcp

Options

  nnn
  Change to this code page.

      437  US
      850  Multi (Latin I)
      852  Slavic (Latin II)
      860  Portuguese
      863  Canadian-French
      865  Nordic

chcp

Usage

To use chcp

   1. specify the location of COUNTRY.SYS with the country command
   2. load the NLSFunc program (using install.)
   3. use chcp at any time to change the code page.

chcp

Notes

If no code page is specified, the current code page is displayed.

Any program that started before the new code page was assigned may continue to use the original code page. (This excludes COMMAND.COM, which will be aware of code page changes.)

chcp

See Also

country

nlsfunc

mode

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall
This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

emm386

emm386

The Expanded Memory Manager. This needs to be loaded in the config.sys

   DEVICE=drive:path\emm386.exe [options]

emm386

Options

   NOEMS
   Do not enable expanded memory

   NOVCPI
   Do not use VCPI (must be used with NOEMS

   FRAME=hhhh
   Set the location of the page frame.
   Default is address E000.

   EMM=size
   Set the amount of expanded memory to create, in Kilobytes.
   The default is 8MB.

   VDS
   Experimental
   Enables Virtual DMA Services

   X=hhhh:hhhh
   Set a memory range for memory mapped devices
   E.g. X=D000-D800

   I=hhhh:hhhh
   Use memory that is reserved for some devices
   E.g:
       I=A000-AFFF
       I=B000-B7FF

   /VERBOSE
   detailed output when emm386 is loaded.

Copyright © 2003-4 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

label

label

Assign a disk label to a drive.

   label [d:] [label]

label

Options

  d:
  The drive to assign a label.  If missing, the current drive
  is assumed.

  label
  The label to assign to the drive.  If missing, label prompts you
  for it.

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

pushd, popd

pushd, popd

   pushd [directory]
   popd

pushd is a lot like cd, except that it stores the current directory before changing it. Later on, popd can be used to restore it. pushd can be used several times, storing a stack of directories.

Using pushd without specifying a directory will store the current directory, but not change it.

pushd, popd

Example

this command            changes the current directory to:
============            ================================
cd c:\fdos\bin                    c:\fdos\bin
pushd c:\games                     c:\games
pushd c:\utils                     c:\utils
popd                               c:\games
popd                              c:\fdos\bin

pushd, popd

See Also

dirs

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

type

type

Displays the contents of a text file.

  type [d:][path]file

type

See Also

more

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

LBAcache

LBAcache

Hard disk cache program. Improves drive performance.

Requires XMS memory, and at least a 386 computer.

To install:

    device=lbacache [options]           (In config.sys)
    devicehigh=lbacache [options]       (In config.sys)
    loadhigh lbacache [options]         (In autoexec.bat, on command line)
    lbacache [options]                  (In autoexec.bat, on command line)

The last usage can also be used with LBAcache after loading.

LBAcache

Options - when loading

    BUF size
    Sets cache size, in multiples of 256k.
    Default is 8  (x256k = 2MB)
    Maximum is 99 (x256k = 24.75MB)
    Minimum is 0  (try to use as much as possible)

    DRV list
    Select hard disks to cache. The default is to cache
    all disks, which are detected automatically.
    List consists of consecutive numbers with no spaces
    in between. These numbers can be:
          0    C:
          1    D:
          ...
          7    J:
    For example
          DRV 027
    Will cache the first (C:), third (E:) and
    eighth (J:) drives.

    FLOP
    Caches the floppy disk drive(s). Use tickle
    to speed floppy disks up even further.

LBAcache

Options - after loading

    INFO
    Shows information and statistics about your cache(s)

    SYNC
    Synchronises cache data. LBAcache currently
    only read caches, so this option only empties the
    caches.

    STOP
    Closes the caches and frees XMS. The driver will also
    be uninstalled unless it was loaded in config.sys.

LBAcache

Examples

    LBACACHE

Just running the command without options will read cache all your hard disks (if available through the BIOS) with the default cache buffer size.

    LBACACHE buf 20 flop

This will read cache all hard disks and floppy disks, with 5MB of memory for the cache buffer.

    LBACACHE info

Shows information about your caches.

LBAcache

See Also

Tickle

Copyright © 2004 Rob Platt
This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

udma.sys

udma.sys

An Ultra-DMA controller. See UDMA.txt in the FreeDOS DOC directory

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

chkdsk

chkdsk

Checks a drive for errors, and optionally attempt to fix them. It also gives a detailed analysis of the disk's size and structure.

        Chkdsk [volume:] [/f] [/d <files>] [/r] [/s] [/v]

chkdsk

Options

   volume:
   The disk, drive or partition that you wish to check, for instance:
        chkdsk a:
   Would check the A drive. If no volume is given, the current drive
   is assumed.

   /f
   Tells chkdsk to attempt to fix any errors.

   /d <files>
   This will list the level of fragmentation for each file. If many
   files are very fragmented then disk operation can be slow. You can
   defragment your disk drive with defrag.
   This option also lists the file attributes for each file, see
   attrib for more information about file
   attributes.

   /r
   Scans for and attempts to recover data

   /s
   Tells chkdsk not to check the drive, but only to display the
   drive analysis.

   /v
   This lists the files as they are being checked. Note that this
   can slow things down, especially if there are many files.

chkdsk

See Also

Bootfix

Copyright © 2003-4 Rob Platt

This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered
under its terms: see index.htm

exe2bin

exe2bin

Converts EXE programs to binary format. This is a software developer's tool.

   exe2bin [d:][path]file.exe [d:][path]file.bin

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

loadhigh, lh

loadhigh, lh

Load a program into high memory.

   loadhigh [d:][path]file [options]
   lh [d:][path]file [options]

loadhigh, lh

Options

  d:path\file
  The program to load into high memory.

  options
  These are the options to the program that you are loading.

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

rmdir, rd

rmdir, rd

Removes a directory.

   rmdir [d:]path
   rd [d:]path

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

undelete

undelete

Attempts the recovery of deleted files.

   undelete [directory] [options]

Where [directory] is the location where the file to be undeleted is. If no directory is given, the current working directory is assumed.

There are also more advanced undelete options:

   undelete /action source destination [size]

See below for details of the advanced actions and parameters.

undelete

Options

   /ALL
   Undelete ALL files in the given directory without prompting for each file

   /LIST
   Lists files that can be undelete without prompting to undelete; no action
   is taken.

undelete

Advanced Actions

   /SYSSAVE
   Saves a copy of the given source, which can be:
      fat1    the FAT (file allocation table), 1st copy
      fat2    the FAT (file allocation table), 2nd copy
      boot    boot sector (part of drive used to start the computer)
      root    root directory

   /FOLLOW
   Looks for a (possibly deleted) file starting at the source cluster
   and saves data to the destination file. The output of DIRSAVE
   helps you to find the right cluster number.

   /DIRSAVE
   Like FOLLOW, but saves a directory to a file. The source
   directory must be given by absolute path starting with \ OR by cluster
   number. Also shows a technical directory listing on the screen.

undelete

Other Parameters in the advanced actions

  source
  The exact nature of the source depends upon the action (see above) but
  it is always on the current working drive.

  destination
  The file which will store the recovered data.
  Cannot be on the current drive.

  size
  Optional.
  Overrides the autodetected size (which is sometimes too big).
  The value should be given as the number of:
    - clusters (for action FOLLOW)
    - sectors (for action DIRSAVE)

undelete

Using Undelete

1. Finding undeleteable files and directories:

Run undelete in DIRSAVE mode. You will see deleted directory entries specially marked, and you will see their cluster numbers on the screen. You can redirect screen output to a file, for example:

   undelete DIRSAVE \ x:rescued.dir >logfile

Where logfile will contain the screen output.
If you have the FreeDOS utilites installed on your system, you could use something like one of the following instead:

   undelete DIRSAVE \ x:rescued.dir | tee logfile
   undelete DIRSAVE \ x:rescued.dir | tee logfile | more

These will display the information on screen as well as store it in the logfile.

2. Recovering an undeleteable file

Find the starting cluster of the file using DIRSAVE, as explained above. Then use FOLLOW on that cluster, for example:

   undelete FOLLOW 1234 x:rescued.bin

would save the contents of the deleted file starting on cluster 1234 to the file rescued.bin on drive x)

undelete

Advanced Uses

- Recovering from within deleted directories
Run DIRSAVE on an existing directory to find the starting cluster of the deleted directory. Then run DIRSAVE on that cluster to find deleted files and directories within the deleted directory... and so on with successive cluster numbers as required.)

- Recovering partially overwritten files
Use FOLLOW on the existing new files and override the size value (in clusters, undelete tells you how big a cluster on the current drive is when you start undelete). So, if you have accidentally overwritten a long file "OLD" with a short new file "NEW":

find the cluster number of "NEW"

give the size of "OLD" when using FOLLOW

The recovered output will begin with the contents of "NEW" but should contain the not-overwritten end of "OLD" as well, hopefully.

- Using undelete to "mirror" important drive data
If your filesystem gets completely broken, you can try to write back the important data saved by SYSSAVE. The saved information is to be stored on a seperate disk. You may also wish to use the mirror command, which is simpler to use but stores the saved information at the end of the disk.

Run undelete in SYSSAVE mode for all 4 sources: fat1, fat2, boot, root

Keep the files in a safe place

- Restoring the "mirror" data
This may be necessary in some cases of disk disaster.
WARNING: This is for experts, repair-men and very desperate people only! Doing this incorrectly or unnecessarily could make things worse!

Glue the 4 sources together in the order "boot fat1 fat2 root" to reconstruct the first part of your partition, starting with the first sector.

you could use debug (w command) to restore this info

You can also merge saved and existing data with a hex editor.

undelete

See Also

Mirror
Unformat

Copyright © 2003 Eric Auer
This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

cls

cls

Clears the screen.

   cls

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

exit

exit

Exits the current command shell.

   exit

exit

See Also

command

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

rename, ren

rename, ren

Re-name a file or set of files.

   rename [d:][path]file1 file2
   ren [d:][path]file1 file2

rename, ren

Options

  d:path\file1
  The source file, the original file that needs to be renamed.

  file2
  The new name for file1.  You may not include a path.

You can use wildcards (* and ?) to specify a set of files. If you use wildcards in file1, you must use wildcards in the same position in file2.

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

ver

ver

Displays FreeDOS version information. By default, only the version of the command shell (FreeCOM) is reported.

   ver [options]

ver

Options

   /R
   Shows the Kernel and DOS version numbers.

   /W
   FreeCOM Warranty.

   /D
   FreeCOM distribution information.

   /C
   FreeCOM acknolwedgements section. Lists contributors.

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall
This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO.
See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

command

command

Starts a new command shell.

   command [[d:]path] [device] [options]

A new instance of FreeCOM will be created.

command

Options

  d:path
  The drive and path where the shell is to look for the transient part
  of the program.  This is usually only needed to set the COMSPEC.

  device
  An alternate device for all i/o.

  /e:nnnnn
  The environment size, in bytes, in the range 160-32768.  This number
  will be rounded up the nearest 16 bytes.  The default is 256.

  /p
  Makes the shell permanent, so the EXIT command does not exit the
  shell.

  /c {string}
  Executes the command in {string}, then exits.

  /msg
  Loads any error messages that might be stored on disk into memory.

command

See Also

Exit

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

fasthelp, fdhelp

fasthelp, fdhelp

Fasthelp clone for FreeDOS. Displays help on topic, Linux man-pages style.

    fasthelp [topic]

Type

    fasthelp

to see the list of topics.

fasthelp, fdhelp

Notes

Use the HELPPATH and LANG environment variables to specify the location and language of the help files respectively. The default path is ../help and default language is EN (english).

There is also the PAGER environment variable, which can be used to set an alternative program for displaying text help files. Calls to fasthelp will divert text files to the PAGER program.

See Set for more information on setting environment variables.

An identical command is fdhelp

fasthelp, fdhelp

See Also

Whatis and Apropos

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

loadfix

loadfix

Loads an exepacked program.

   loadfix [d:][path]file [options]

loadfix

Options

  d:path\file
  The exepacked program to load.

  options
  These are the options to the exepacked program that you are loading.

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

verify

verify

Turns file verification on or off. This tells DOS to check that files are correctly written to disk.

  verify [ON | OFF]

verify

Options

  ON | OFF
  Turn file verification on or off.

If no options are given, display the status of file verification.

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

comp

comp

Compares two files.

   comp [d:][path]file [d:][path]file [options]

comp

Options

  /d
  Displays the differences in decimal format.  Default is hex.

  /a
  Displays the differences using characters.

  /L
  Displays the line number for the differences that occur.

  /n=nnn
  Compares the first nnn lines of both files, even if the files are of
  difference size.

  /c
  Ignores case (default is case sensitive).

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

fc

fc

Compares two files or sets of files, displaying the differences between the two.

   fc [d:][path]file1 [d:][path]file2 [options]

Compares file1 to file2.

fc

Options

  /A
  Displays the first and last lines of differences only

  /B
  Compares binary files

  /C
  Ignore case

  /L
  Compare text files

  /LBn
  Set the maximum number of consecutive different ASCII lines to n

  /Mn
  Set the maximum number of differences between binary files
  to report, before aborting.
  The default value is 20.
  Use 0 to allow an unlimited number of differences.

  /N
  Display the line numbers (text files only)

  /S
  Scan files in subdirectories as well

  /T
  Does not convert tabs into spaces for comparison

  /W
  Pack white space (tabs, spaces) for text comparison

  /X
  Do not show context lines in text comparison

  /nnn
  Set to nnn lines the minimum number of consecutive matching
  lines for comparison resynchronization

fc

Notes

FC defaults to binary mode for files .EXE, .COM, .SYS, .OBJ, .BIN and .LIB.

By default the binary compare stops after 20 differences but that value can be modified through the /M switch. /M0 means "unlimited differences". /M is interpreted as /M0.

A design limitation of this program is that, in the text mode file comparison, only the first 32765 lines are compared; the remaining lines are ignored. The line length is virtually unlimited.

Copyright © 1999 Maurizio Spagni This file is covered under GNU General Public License version 2 (or at your option) any later version.
See COPYING

vol

vol

Displays the volume label of a disk.

   vol [d:]

vol

Options

  d:
  The drive to display the volume label.

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

copy

copy

Copy one or more files.

  copy [/A|/B] [d:][path]file [[/A|/B] +[d:][path]file] [...] [dest] [/V] [/Y]

copy

Options

  d:path\file
  The name of a file to copy.  This is the source.

  dest
  The name of destination file(s) or directory.  If the
  dest filename contains a *, then this is replaced by that part of
  the filename with the same part as the source.

  /A
  Copies an ASCII file.  If this precedes a filename in a list of files,
  then from this file on, copy as ASCII files.

  /B
  Copies a binary file.  This is the default. If this precedes a
  filename in a list of files, then from this file on, copy as binary
  files.

  /V
  Verifies that the files are written correctly.

  /Y
  Suppresses the overwrite confirmation message; existing files with the
  same name at the destination will be overwritten.

copy

Notes

Copy won't copy directories or files that are of zero length. To copy either of these, use xcopy

The COPYCMD environment variable can be set to make /Y the default:

   set COPYCMD=/Y

To cancel the /Y for a particular copy command, use /-Y at the command line.

The COPYCMD variable also affects the xcopy command.

copy

See Also

Xcopy

Diskcopy

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall
This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

fdapm

fdapm

Advanced Power Management tool.

    fdapm command

fdapm

Commands

Commands do not need to have - or / at the beginning.

APMoff   - turn off BIOS APM savings, go full speed
APMbios  - enable standard BIOS APM savings
APMdos   - use resident handler for DOS and BIOS savings
HELP     - display this help screen
INFO     - show information about APM status
STATS    - show statistics of resident handler

STANDBY  - flush caches and enter stand-by mode
SUSPEND  - flush caches, stop IDE disks, enter suspend mode
POWEROFF - flush caches, stop IDE disks, power off VGA and system
VGAoff   - 'turn off' VGA (DPMS screen saver)
VGAon    - turn on VGA again
HOTboot  - reboot using int 19h (just reload kernel - may crash!)
WARMboot - perform a classical warm reboot (skips BIOS tests)
COLDboot - perform a (quite) cold boot (with BIOS tests)

Copyright © 2004 Eric Auer This file is covered under the GNU General Public Lincense 2. Taken from the program output with command HELP.

mkdir, md

mkdir, md

Creates a directory.

   mkdir [d:]path
   md [d:]path

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

ctmouse

ctmouse

Installs the CuteMouse mouse driver.

   ctmouse [options]
   LOADHIGH ctmouse [options]

ctmouse

Options

  /P       - force PS/2 mouse mode
  /S[c[i]] - force serial mouse mode at COM port c (c=1-4, default is COM1)
             with IRQ line i (i=2-7, default is IRQ4 for COM1/3 and IRQ3
             for COM2/4)
  /Y       - prevent Mouse Systems mode
  /V       - reverse search: find PS/2 after serial mouse
  /3       - force 3-button mode (for Microsoft and PS/2 mice only)
  /R[h[v]] - horizontal/vertical resolution (h,v=0-9; missing option R, no
             arguments or 0 as argument after R mean auto resolution,
             missing
             second argument means same value as for first argument)
  /L       - left hand mode (default is right hand mode)
  /B       - cancel run if mouse services already present
  /W       - prevent loading TSR into UMB
  /U       - uninstall driver
  /?       - show this help

ctmouse

Notes

ctmouse2 is a new branching of CuteMouse which supports the mouse wheel. It provides a wheel API (application programmer's interface), so that FreeDOS programs can use the mouse wheel.

Visit the CuteMouse website at http://cutemouse.sourceforge.net
Copyright © 1997-2004 Nagy Daniel
This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

mem

mem

Displays the amount of memory installed, and the amount available.

   mem [options]

mem

Options:

  /d
  Lists device drivers in memory

  /f
  Full information on memory blocks

  /u
  Display the programs that are loaded in memory.

  /e
  Full information on expanded memory

  /x
  Full information on extended memory

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

FreeDOS REPLACE command

Replaces files in the destination directory with files from the source directory that have the same name.

   REPLACE [drive1:][path1]filename [drive2:][path2] [/switches]

Options

  [drive1:][path1]filename    Specifies the source file or files.
  [drive2:][path2]            Specifies the directory where files are to be
                              replaced.
  /A    Adds new files to destination directory. Cannot use with /S or /U
        switches.
  /H    Adds or replaces hidden and system files as well as unprotected
        files.
  /N    Preview mode - does not add or replace any file.
  /P    Prompts for confirmation before replacing a file or adding a source
        file.
  /R    Replaces read-only files as well as unprotected files.
  /S    Replaces files in all subdirectories of the destination directory.
        Cannot use with the /A switch.
  /W    Waits for you to insert a disk before beginning.
  /U    Replaces (updates) only files that are older than source files.
        Cannot use with the /A switch.

(C)opyright 2001 by Rene Ableidinger This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 as published by the Free Software Foundation. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.

xcopy

xcopy

Copies files and directories, including subdirectories.

   copy {d: | [d:]path} [d:][path] [options]

xcopy

Options

  {d: | d:path}
  The source to copy from.  This must be either a drive or a full
  path.

  d:path
  The destination to copy to.  If not present, xcopy
  assumes the working directory.

  /A
  Only copy files with the Archive bit set.

  /M
  Only copy files with the Archive bit set, and turn off the A bit.

  /H
  Also copies hidden and system files.

  /D
  The destination is a directory. Cannot be used with /F.

  /F
  The destination is a file. Cannot be used with /D

  /N
  Same as /Y.

  /P
  Prompt for confirmation before each file.

  /Q
  Doesn't report the filenames of copied files.

  /R
  Allow read-only files to be overwritten.

  /S
  Copy subdirectories, except empty ones.

  /E
  Copy subdirectories, even if empty.

  /V
  Verify each file as it is written to disk.

  /W
  Wait before copying any files. Presents a prompt, which you
  must first acknowledge.

  /Y
  No prompting for confirmation of overwriting files.

xcopy

Notes

The COPYCMD environment variable can be set to make /Y (or /N) the default:

   set COPYCMD=/Y

To cancel the /Y for a particular xcopy command, use /-Y at the command line.

The COPYCMD variable also affects the copy command. Use /Y to change the way both copy and xcopy behave. Use /N, which copy ignores, to change only the way xcopy behaves.

xcopy

See Also

Copy

Diskcopy

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall
This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

ctty

ctty

Changes the terminal device for your DOS session.

   ctty device

ctty

Options

  device
  The device to use.  Valid devices are prn, lpt1, lpt2, lpt3, con,
  aux, com1, com2, com3, com4.

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

fdisk

fdisk

Creates partitions on a hard disk.

   fdisk [options]

FDisk can be used in two ways:

Without options. FDisk provides an interactive menu.

With options.

Note that an exception is that the /MONO option is used with the interactive menu mode.

fdisk

options

General Notes on the Options

partitions, partition types and drives are all specified by numbers.

sizes are specified in Mega Bytes, or as a percentage if followed by ,100.
For example 50 would be 50MB and 50,100 would be 50%.

fdisk

Partition Table Modification

/AUTO [drive]
   Automatically partitions the hard disk with FAT16 partitions.

/ACTIVATE:partition [drive]
   Sets this partion active

/CLEAR [drive]
   Erases the partitions

/CLEARALL [drive]
   Erases the partitions and the Master Boot Record.

/DELETE {/PRI | /EXT | /LOG:partition | /NUM:partition} [drive]
   Deletes a partition (primary, extended, logical)

/DEACTIVATE [drive]
   Removes the active status from the active partition on this drive.

/EXT:size [ {/LOG:size [/SPEC:type]} | {/LOGO:size [/SPEC:type]} ] [drive]
   Creates an Extended DOS Partition.
   Sizes are in megabytes, or a percentage if size,100 is written.
   Use /LOG to create a logical partition, and /LOGO to
   create a FAT16 logical partition, in the extended
   partition
   Use /SPEC to specify the partition type number.

/MODIFY:partition,type [drive]
   Sets the partition type.

/MOVE:source_partition,dest_partition [drive]
   Moves the entry, in the primary partition table, from
   source_partition to dest_partition.

/PRI:size [/SPEC:type] [drive]
   creates a primary partition

/PRIO:size [/SPEC:type] [drive]
   creates a FAT16 primary partition

/SWAP:first_partition,second_partition [drive]
   swaps two partition entries.

fdisk

Master Boot Record Modification

/AMBR [drive]
   Writes the MBR stored in the "boot.mbr" file to the drive.

/MBR [drive]
   Writes the MBR to the specified drive.

/RMBR [drive]
   Removes the MBR from the specified drive

/SMBR [drive]
   Downloads the MBR into a file called "boot.mbr".

fdisk

Getting Hard Disk Information

/DUMP
   Displays all the information about all possible hard disks.

/INFO [/TECH] [drive]
   Displays partition information on the specified drive

Legacy FDisk options

/ACTOK
   Skips integrity checking.

/CMBR drive
   Creates the Master Boot Record.

/FPRMT
   Prompts for FAT32/FAT16 in interactive mode.

/Q
   Keeps the system from rebooting after you exit FDisk.
   (Note:  FDisk will not reboot after you exit unless
   rebooting is enabled in the "fdisk.ini" file.)

/STATUS
   Displays the current partition layout

/X
   Inhibits use of LBA partitions.

fdisk

Others

/REBOOT
   Forces a reboot.

/MONO
   Use the monochrome text mode in interactive FDisk.

/XO
   Enable extended options.

fdisk

See Also

format

Copyright © 2003 Brian E. Reifsnyder
This file is covered under the GNU GPL license V2
See COPYING

scandisk

scandisk

Scandisk has been deprecated. Use chkdsk instead.

Copyright © 2003-4 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

date

date

Displays/changes the system date.

   date [newdate]
   date /D

If no new date is given, the current date is displayed and you are prompted for a new date.

date

Options

  newdate
      dd-mm-yy or dd-mm-yyyy
      dd/mm/yy or dd/mm/yyyy
      dd.mm.yy or dd.mm.yyyy
  The new date for your system.
  Values for the day, month, and year may be seperated by periods, hyphens,
  or slashes. Either a 4-digit or 2-digit year may be used.

  /D
  Displays the date without prompting for a new setting.

date

Notes

If a 2-digit year is specified, then years from 00-79 are assumed to mean 2000-2079. Years from 80-99 are assumed to mean 1980 - 1999.

When prompted for a new time, press enter to accept the current setting without changing it.

date

See Also

time

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

fdxms

fdxms

Extended memory driver for FreeDOS.

      DEVICE=drive:path\fdxms.sys [options]
      DEVICE=drive:path\fdxms286.sys [options]

Fdxms is for 386+ computers. Fdxms286 is for 286 computers.

fdxms

Options

 NUMHANDLES=
 Sets the number of XMS handles. Default is 32. Minimum
 is two (not much use of XMS without any handles!) and
 maximum is currently 1024. Each handle takes 5 bytes
 (FDXMS.SYS) or 9 bytes (FDXXMS.SYS).

  BIOS
  Makes FDXMS to always call the BIOS through INT15
  instead of using its own protected mode switching.

  PS
  Changes to the particular A20 handling necessary on
  PS/2 machines.

  GEODE
  Removes delays while changing the A20 line. Reported
  to help FDXMS to work on National Semiconductor's
  Geode GX1 processor.

  DELAY=
  Number of calls to the delay routine after changing
  the A20 line. If you receive the error message "Unable
  to switch A20 address line", try setting it to a big
  value (say 4000) and see if it helps. Then fine tune
  it as you want as low a value as possible for
  speed. Default is 1. Maximum is 65535 and 0 maps to
  65536.

Copyright © 2003 Martin Stromberg This file is covered under the terms of the GNU GPL license v2.
COPYING

mkeyb

mkeyb

A compact keyboard driver.

   mkeyb code

Remaps the keys as required in certain countries.
Uses approximately 500 bytes (depending on country).

mkeyb

Locations

  code    location               Code Page Requirement
======================================================
   BE     Belgium
   BR     Brazil
   BX     Brazil (extended)
   DK     Denmark
   FR     France
   GR     Germany
   GRC    Germany (with COMBIs)
   HE     Hebrew
   IT     Italy
   LA     Latin America
   NL     Netherlands
   NO     Norway
   PL     Poland
   PO     Portugal
   RU     Russia                         866
   SF     Swiss (French)
   SG     Swiss (German)
   SP     Spain                          850
   SU     Finland
   SV     Sweden
   UK     United Kingdown

mkeyb

Note

mkeyb automatically loads itself as high as possible - it is therefore not necessary to use LOADHIGH

mkeyb

See Also

Chcp

Xkeyb

Copyright © 2003 Tom Ehlert
This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

Debug

Debug

The debugger.

      Debug [[drive:][path]file.ext [testprog arguments]]

This is a relatively advanced DOS tool but has many uses. For instance, it can be used to:

find bugs in programs

create programs from assembly code

inspect and edit binary files.

Debug

Options

   [drive:][path]file.ext
   The name of the executable you wish to debug.
   It doesn't have to be an executable - it could be a
   binary or text file.
   Since it can be any file, the file extension has to be specified.

   testprog arguments
   These arguments will be passed to the executable that is being
   debugged as command line options, if and when it is run.
   See Program Execution below for more information on running
   executables.

Once Debug is started, the Debug command prompt is displayed. Enter Q to quit Debug, and ? to display the list of Debug commands.

Debug

General notes on Debug

Debug uses hexadecimal (base 16).

Memory addresses are displayed in segment:offset form, e.g. 0D00:0100. The last four hexadecimal digits, which specify the offset from the segment, can go from 0000 to FFFF, a range of 64 Kilobytes.

Executables with the .com extenstion have all their data and code in one segment. Hence for .com files, you can usually just write the offset when specifying memory addresses in Debug commands. Debug will assume the program segment. The same is also true of text/binary files that are <64K long.

To specify a memory range, seperate two addresses with a comma.

Debug

Differences between FreeDOS Debug and other versions

For those who have used Debug before but are migrating from a different version of DOS, the following document has been prepared: debug.doc

Debug

Debug's commands

quit
  Q

help
  ?

Debug

Inspecting and Editing Memory

compare
  C range address

  Compares two memory ranges, displaying the differences.
  Only the starting address of the second range is required, Debug will
  assume the second range will be the same size as the first.
  For instance
       C 100,110 200
  will compare the range 100,110 to 200,210.

dump
  D [range]

  Displays the contents of a memory range. If no range is specified, dump
  will display 128 bytes, starting where the last dump finished or at the
  beginning of the loaded file.

enter
  E address [list]

  Write over part of memory, beginning at address, with the list of bytes.
  To enter a string of text characters, enclose the text in double quotes.
  For instance
       E 100 "Hello!"

fill
  F range list

  Write over a memory range with a repeating list of bytes. For instance,
  to set a memory range to zero, you might put
       E 100,110 0
  and to set a memory range to "brumbrum":
       E 100,107 "brum"

move
  M sourcerange destaddress

  Copies the range sourcerange into another range that begins at
  destaddress.

search
  S range list

  Searches for all occurences of the list of bytes in the specified range.
  The starting address of each occurence is displayed.

Debug

Calculating Numbers in Hexadecimal

hex
  H value1 value2

  Displays two numbers, the first being value1+value2, the second being
  value1-value2.

Debug

Loading and Saving Files

load program or file
  L [[drive:][path]progname [arglist]]

Set Name
  N [[drive:][path]progname [arglist]]

  Set the name for the current file/prgoram

Write program or file
  W

  Writes the current program/file to disk. Use N to change the name
  if you do not wish to overwrite the original file.

Debug

Assembling and Disassembling

assemble
  A [address]

unassemble
  U [range]

80x86 mode
  M[setting]

  Sets the CPU (processor) mode: the setting is in the range 1-6.
  1 is for 80186, 2 for 80286 etc.
  If no setting is specified, the current setting is displayed
  This setting is reset when Debug quits.

FPU mode
  MC
  MNC
  Sets whether the floating point maths coprocessor is present or not.
  Use MC to set it to present, MNC to set it to present.
  Use M to enquire about the current setting.

Debug

Program Execution

go
  G [=address] [breakpoints]

  Begins execution of the loaded program or the machine code
  at the specified address.
  Execution is suspended at the breakpoint addresses, allowing you
  to inspect memory etc.

proceed
  P [=address] [count]

  Proceeds with execution in steps.

register
  R [register [value]]
  display all CPU registers, or display/set a particular register.

trace
  T [=address] [count]

Debug

Port I/O

input
  I port

output
  O port byte

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

find

find

Displays lines in a text file that contain a string.

   find [options] string [[d:][path]file1] ...

find

Options

  /V
  Inverts the search: displays lines that do NOT contain the string.

  /C
  Only displays a count of the matching lines.

  /N
  Displays line numbers.

  /I
  Ignore case during the comparison.

  [[d:][path]file1] ...
  Specifies the file(s) you wish to search.
  Note:If you do not specify a file, find will take input
  from the console. Type Ctrl-Z to finish.

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

mode

mode

    mode [device][options]

Configures and sets the state for various hardware devices, and more:

CON        Console
LPT        Parallel Ports
COM        Serial Ports
PARK       Parks the hard drive
DELAY      Sets the keyboard auto-repeat rate
SWITCHAR   change DOS command line option switch character (usually /)

CAPSLOCK   State of the Caps lock key
NUMLOCK    State of the Num lock key
SCRLOCK    State of the SCroll lock key

mode

CON (Console)

This controls the display driver, which must be installed first. MODE CON allows you to set your screen's "codepage". This is useful because each codepage lets you display different characters. For mode information on codepage see the codepage information pack.

Usage:

   MODE CON[:] CODEPAGE
   Shows the active codepage and other information about the current
   status of DISPLAY and the codepage buffers.

   MODE CON[:] CODEPAGE REFRESH
   Refreshes the active codepage to hardware (in case it has been
   accidentaly destroyed)

   MODE CON[:] CODEPAGE PREPARE ((nnn) filename)
   Prepare codepage nnn from the specified file.
   The format of the files are .cpi and they are usually stored in C:\FDOS\CPI.
   For instance, codepage 860 is in EGA9.CPI. So you might use:
         MODE CON: CODEPAGE PREPARE ((860) c:\fdos\cpi\ega9.cpi).
   See the codepage information pack for information
   about the available codepages and cpi files.

   MODE CON[:] CODEPAGE SELECT=nnn
   Activate codepage nnn, which must have been previously prepared with
   PREPARE.

Note: The word CODEPAGE can be abbreviated to CP.

mode

Other MODEs

For more information on the various features, go to mode.txt

mode

See Also

display chcp graftabl

Copyright © 2003-4
Aitor SANTAMARIA MERINO
Henrique PERON
Rob PLATT
This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

set

set

Sets an environment variable

   set [variable[=value]] [/C]

set

Usages

   set
   displays a list of the current environment variables.

   set variable=value
   sets this environment variable to the given value

   set variable=
   removes the variable from the environment

set

Options

   /C
   Normally, set converts the variable name to upper case. Use /C to retain the
   case that you use (only works for new variables.)

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

batch files

batch files

Batch files contain a sequence of DOS commands. By running the batch file, this sequence is run. This can be used to save time, so that a set of commands does not have to be typed out in full at the DOS prompt each time.

Batch files are text files, but with the .bat file extension. They can be created or edited with a text editor such as edit.

To run a batch file, simply type its name at the DOS prompt, with or without the .bat extension:

   c:\autoexec.bat
   foo
   foo.bat

A very important batch file, autoexec.bat, is run automatically when FreeDOS starts

batch files

Commands designed for batch files

Some commands are especially designed for use in programming batch files:

   beep       makes a beeping sound
   call       runs another batch file
   choice     prompts the user to make a choice
   echo       print a message, turn batch file display on/off
   for        for loop (repeat commands)
   goto       continue running from somewhere else in the batch file
   if         if condition (choose between two sets of commands)
   pause      waits for user to press a keyt
   rem        expanatory remarks for the programmer
   shift      shifts the numbering of batch file parameters

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

config.sys

config.sys

FreeDOS reads the config.sys file at startup to configure the DOS system. It is read before the autoexec.bat file is run.

There is a special set of commands for use in the config.sys file.
DOS prompt and batch file commands generally cannot be used in config.sys.

config.sys

Making config.sys interactive with ! and ?

Config.sys lines that begin with ! will be processed even when single stepping.

   !files=20

Lines that begin with ? will be queried: the user will be asked for confirmation before that line is run.

   ?device=MAYBE.SYS

See also the menu config.sys command.

config.sys

See Also

Buffers      Install
Country      Lastdrive
Device       Menu
Devicehigh   Menudefault
Dos          Rem
Driveparm    Screen
Echo         Shell
Fcbs         Stacks
Files        Version

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt
This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

beep

beep

Makes a beeping sound.

   beep

beep

See Also

batch files

Copyright © 2003 Robert Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

goto

goto

go to another part of the batch file

   goto label

The batch file will jump to the label and continue running from there.

Use goto with the if command to control the flow of batch files.

goto

See Also

batch files
if

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt
This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

buffers

buffers

This is a config.sys command. It tells FreeDOS how many disk buffers it should allocate.

   buffers=p[,s]

where p is the number of primary disk buffers, in the range 1-99.

buffers

Options

   s
   The number of secondary disk buffers, in the range 1-8.

buffers

Usage

The default setting depends on the amount of conventional memory your system has:

Memory (KB)                Primary Buffers           Secondary Buffers
----------------------------------------------------------------------
    < 128                           3                         1
  128 - 255                         5                         1
  256 - 511                        10                         1
  512 - 640                        15                         1

Increasing the number of buffers can improve the speed of programs that work with a large number of files, but also uses up more memory resources.

buffers

See Also

config.sys

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

lastdrive

lastdrive

This is a config.sys command. Sets the last letter to which a drive can be assigned.

   lastdrive=L

where L is the last letter that will be available.

By default, FreeDOS will set L high enough for all floppy drives and detectable hard drive partitions, plus one for a CD or other drive.

You may want to set L higher if you wish to use more than one drive that FreeDOS cannot detect automatically (CD drives, zip drives etc.)

Setting L higher than necessary wastes a small amount of memory.

lastdrive

Example

   lastdrive=z

lastdrive

See Also

config.sys

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

call

call

Runs a batch file from within a batch file.

    call [/S|/N] [drive:][path]filename [batch parameters]

call

Options

  filename
  The batch file to be called.

  [batch paramaters]
  These are passed on to the batch file being called

  /S
  Forces the swapping of FreeCOM

  /N
  Prevents the swapping of FreeCOM.

call

Notes

When the called batch file is complete, the processing of the original batch file resumes.

Batch files can be run directly from another batch file without the call command, but processing of the original batch file will not be resumed.

call

See Also

batch files

Copyright © 2003 Robert Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

if

if

Runs a command but only if a given condition is satisfied.

   if [not] errorlevel number command [options]
   if [not] string1==string2 command [options]
   if [not] exist [d:][path]filename command [options]

if

Options

   not
   With this, the command will be run if the condition is false.
   (Without this, the command will be run if the condition is true.)

   command
   This command that will be run if the condition is satisfied.

   options
   These will be passed to the command if it is run.

if

Conditions

   errorlevel number
   DOS Programs return a number when they exit, which sometimes contains
   information on whether the program was successful.
   If the last program to exit returned the given number, then the condition
   is true.

   string1==string2
   If the two strings of characters are equal, then the condition is true.

   exist [d:][path]filename
   If the given file is there, then the condition is true.

if

See Also

batch files

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

country

country

Sets the international behavior of DOS.

   country=nnn[,[mmm][,[d:][path]file]]

country

Options

  nnn
  The country code, as shown in the table below.

  mmm
  The code page, as shown in the table below.
  If not specified, a code page will be chosen automatically.

  d:path\file
  The pathname to a country-information file.
  If not specified, the file 'COUNTRY.SYS' is used instead.

country

Country Codes

In the table:

HH means a 24hr-clock hour

hh a 12hr-clock hour.

X means AM and PM are appended

                                             format for
       Locale      nnn        mmm        date         time
===============================================================
US                 001      437, 850   mm/dd/yyyy  hh:mm:ss.ssX
Canadian French    002      863, 850   yyyy-mm-dd  HH:mm:ss,ss
Latin America      003      850, 437   mm/dd/yyyy  hh:mm:ss.ssX
Russia             007      866, 437   dd.mm.yyyy  HH:mm:ss,ss
Netherlands        031      850, 437   dd-mm-yyyy  HH:mm:ss,ss
Belgium            032      850, 437   dd-mm-yyyy  HH:mm:ss,ss
France             033      850, 437   dd-mm-yyyy  HH:mm:ss,ss
Spain              034      850, 437   dd-mm-yyyy  HH:mm:ss,ss
Hungary            036      850, 852   yyyy-mm-dd  HH:mm:ss,ss
Yugoslavia         038      850, 852   yyyy-mm-dd  HH:mm:ss,ss
Italy              039      850, 437   mm/dd/yyyy  HH.mm.ss,ss
Switzerland        041      850, 437   mm.dd.yyyy  HH,mm,ss.ss
Czechoslovakia     042      850, 852   yyyy-mm-dd  HH:mm:ss,ss
UK                 044      850, 437   dd/mm/yyyy  hh:mm:ss.ssX
Denmark            045      850, 865   dd-mm-yyyy  HH:mm:ss,ss
Sweden             046      850, 437   yyyy-mm-dd  HH.mm.ss,ss
Norway             047      850, 865   mm.dd.yyyy  HH:mm:ss,ss
Poland             048      850, 852   yyyy-mm-dd  HH:mm:ss,ss
Germany            049      850, 437   dd.mm.yyyy  HH:mm:ss,ss
Argentina          054      850, 437   dd/mm/yyyy  hh:mm:ss.ssX
Brazil             055      850, 860   dd/mm/yyyy  HH:mm:ss,ss
International
    English        061      850, 437   mm/dd/yyyy  HH:mm:ss.ss
Portugal           351      850, 860   dd-mm-yyyy  HH:mm:ss,ss
Finland            358      850, 437   dd.mm.yyyy  HH:mm:ss,ss

country

See Also

config.sys

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Appendices. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

menu

menu

Displays a menu.

   menu [text]

menu

Usage

Use menudefault to set a time delayed default option.

Lines that begin with 1? will only be processed if the user presses 1.

Lines beginning with 23? will be loaded if the user presses either 2 or 3.

menu

Example

   MENU Please Select Configuration:
   MENU
   MENU Option 0    basic stuff only
   MENU Option 1    CD-ROM
   MENU Option 2    TROUSERS
   MENU Option 3    CD-ROM and TROUSERS

   13? DEVICE=CDROM.SYS /D:CDDRIVE1
   23? DEVICE=TROUSERS.SYS

   0?  ECHO Warning: basic stuff only!

menu

Using with autoexec.bat

The environment variable CONFIG is set to the menu option value. Therefore %CONFIG% can be used in the autoexec.bat in conjunction with the if command. For instance:

   IF "%config%"=="1" SHSUCDX /D:CDDRIVE1

menu

See Also

menucol
menudefault
config.sys

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

choice

choice

Suspend processing, and wait for the user to press a valid key.

   choice [options] [text]

choice

Options

  /C[:]choices
  Specifies allowable keys. Default is YN

  /N
  Do not display choices and ? at end of prompt.

  /S
  Treat choices as case sensitive.

  /T[:]c,nn
  Specify the default choice `c' after `nn' seconds of no response.

  text
  Prompt string to display (Default=none.)

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

device, devicehigh

device, devicehigh

Loads a driver into memory.

   device=[d:][path]file [options]
   devicehigh=[d:][path]file [options]

device loads the driver into conventional memory, whereas devicehigh loads the drive into high memory.

device, devicehigh

Options

  d:path\file
  The driver to load.

  'options'
  These are options to the driver program, not to the 'device'
  command.

device, devicehigh

See Also

config.sys

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Appendices. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

menucolor

menucolor

Use before the menu config command, to create a full screen menu which supports the arrow cursor keys.

   menucolor foreground[,background]

Where foreground and background can be one of the following numbers, to specify the menu color:

     0      Black
     1      Blue
     2      Green
     3      Cyan
     4      Red
     5      Magenta
     6      Brown
     7      Light Gray

And the following colors can also be used on but for the foreground only:

    8       Dark Gray
    9       Light Blue
   10       Light Green
   11       Light Cyan
   12       Light Red
   13       Light Magenta
   14       Yellow
   15       White

menucolor

See Also

menu
menudefault
config.sys

Copyright © 2004 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

echo

echo

Used to print messages to the screen, and turn batch file displaying on or off.

   echo [on|off]
   echo message

echo

Usage 1

   echo [on|off]

With echo on, command lines in the batch file are displayed as they are run. With echo off they are hidden. This does not affect the output of the command itself.

If echo is used on its own, the status of whether echo is on or off is displayed.

echo

Usage 2

   echo message

Displays the given message.

echo

Notes

Commands can also be suppressed by beginning them with the @ symbol. For example:

   @rem this line won't output a single thing.

echo

See Also

batch files

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt
This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

rem

rem

Used to make remarks in batch files.

   REM [my remark...]

FreeDOS ignores everything on a REM line.

Use remarks to add explanatory notes to your batch files, and to disable command lines in batch files.

rem

Example

   REM run a pretend program called thing.exe:
   thing

   REM FreeDOS won't run the following line:
   REM DEL thing.exe

rem

See Also

batch files

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

menudefault

menudefault

Sets a time delayed default option for a config.sys menu.

   menudefault=defaultoption,delay

where the delay is in seconds.

menudefault

Example

   MENU Choose Wisely:
   MENU
   MENU 0)    normal stuff
   MENU 1)    alternative stuff

   MENUDEFAULT=0,5

The menu will wait 5 seconds. If no key is pressed in this time, option 0 is selected automatically.

menudefault

See Also

menu
menucol
config.sys

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

shift

shift

Used to shift the replaceable batch file parameters

   shift [down]

Using down, %0 takes the value that %1 took, and so on.

Otherwise, %2 takes the value that %1 took, etc.

shift

Options

See Also

batch files

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt
This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

dos

dos

Tell the DOS kernel how to load itself.

   dos=high|low[,umb|noumb]
or
   dos=[high|low,]umb|noumb

dos

Options

  dos=high
  Tells DOS to load itself into high memory.
  You must first load a high memory manager.

  dos=low
  Tells DOS to load into conventional memory.

  dos=umb
  Tells DOS to keep a link between UMA and conventional.

  dos=noumb
  Tells DOS not to keep a link between UMA and conventional.

dos

See Also

config.sys

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Appendices. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

rem

rem

Used to make remarks in the config.sys file.

   REM [my remark...]

FreeDOS ignores everything on a REM line.

Use remarks to add explanatory notes to the config.sys, and to disable lines in the config.sys file so that they won't run.

rem

Example

   REM Set the last drive letter available:
   lastdrive=z

   REM I don't want to use this driver any more:
   REM DEVICE=FOO.SYS

rem

See Also

config.sys

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

driveparm

driveparm

Defines parameters for block devices.

   driveparm=[options]

driveparm

Options

  /d:nnn
  The physical drive number, in the range 0-255. 0=A:

  /c
  Use this if the drive can detect when the door is open/closed.

  /f:n
  The drive type, corresponding to:
    0=160/180k or 320/360k
    1=1.2M
    2=720k (the default)
    3=[not defined]
    4=[not defined]
    5=hard disk
    6=tape
    7=1.44M
    8=R/W optical
    9=2.88M

  /h:nn
  The number of heads, in the range 1-99.

  /i
  Use this if the disk is a 3.5-inch drive

  /n
  Use this if the disk is a non-removable disk

  /s:nn
  The number of sectors, in the range 1-99

  /t:nn
  The number of tracks per side

driveparm

See Also

config.sys

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Appendices. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

screen

screen

Sets the number of lines of text on screen

   screen=code

screen

Codes

   0x11       28 lines
   0x12       43/50 lines

screen

See Also

config.sys

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

echo

echo

Prints a message to the screen.

   echo message

echo

See Also

config.sys

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

shell

shell

Tells FreeDOS what command shell to run.

   shell=[d:][path]file [options]

shell

Options

  d:path\file
  The command shell to run. For example, C:\COMMAND.COM

  'options'
  These are passed to the command shell.

shell

See Also

config.sys

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Appendices. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

fcbs

fcbs

Sets the number of File Control Blocks.

   fcbs=nnn

fcbs

Options

  nnn
  The number of File Control Blocks, in the range 1-255
  The default value is 4.

fcbs

Notes

Most modern applications do not need File Control Blocks.

fcbs

See Also

config.sys

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Appendices. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

stacks

stacks

Adds stacks to handle hardware interrupts.

   stacks=nn,nnn

stacks

Options

  nn
  The number of stacks in the range 8-64, and 0.

  nnn
  The size of each stack, in bytes, in the range 32-512.

stacks

See Also

config.sys

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Appendices. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

files

files

This is a config.sys command. It tells FreeDOS how many files it should be able to have open simulataneously.

   files=n

where n is the number of files, in the range 8-255.

The default setting is 8, but a good number for most modern systems is 20. Some programs may need a higher setting to function correctly; such programs will usually give the value that is needed in their documentation.

files

Example

   files=20

files

See Also

config.sys

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

version

version

A config.sys command. Tells FreeDOS what version of DOS to report.

   version=x.y

Where x and y are numbers (they each can have one or more digits).

The default value is 5.0

version

Notes

This command does not change the FreeCOM version number as reported by running

   ver

However, the DOS version number is changed, as reported in:

   ver /R

version

Example

  version=6.2

version

See Also

Ver
config.sys

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall
This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Appendices. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

install

install

Runs a TSR program (a program that stays in memory), without an environment, instead of using something like LH or LOADHIGH.

   install=[d:][path]file [options]

install

Options

  d:path\file
  The TSR to run

  options
  These are the options which will be passed to the TSR. They are not options for
  the 'install' command.

install

See Also

config.sys

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Appendices. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

CPI files (Code Page Information) Pack - DOS codepages

 This package contains Codepage Information Files with DOS codepages,
 which are of DISPLAY type.

 Below is the list of those files and the codepages they contain:

EGA.CPI

437   - DOS United States
850   - DOS Latin-1
858*  - DOS Latin-1 with Euro
852** - DOS Latin-2 (Eastern European)
853   - DOS Latin-3 (Southern European)
857** - DOS Latin-5 (Turkish)

*  The Euro version provides the Euro sign instead of the small dotless "i".
** This version follows IBM© standards, i.e. it provides the Euro sign
   in a codepoint which is left blank on their respective MS-DOS©
   versions.

EGA2.CPI

850  - DOS Latin-1
858  - DOS Latin-1 with Euro
775  - DOS Latin-7 (Baltic)
859  - DOS Latin-9 (= cp858 plus full french and estonian)
1116 - DOS Estonian
1117 - DOS Latvian

EGA3.CPI

771   - DOS Lithuanian and Russian (KBL)
772*  - DOS Lithuanian and Russian
855   - DOS Cyrillic-1
872** - DOS Cyrillic-1 with Euro
866   - DOS Cyrillic-2 (Russian)
808** - DOS Cyrillic-2 with Euro

*  Codepage 772 is identical to IBM© codepage 1119.
** The Euro versions provide the Euro sign instead of the international currency sign.

EGA4.CPI

1125    - DOS Cyrillic Ukrainian
848*    - DOS Cyrillic Ukrainian with Euro
1131    - DOS Cyrillic Belarusian
849*    - DOS Cyrillic Belarusian with Euro
61282** - DOS Latvian and Russian ("RusLat")

* The Euro versions provide the Euro sign instead of the international currency sign.
** Five-digit codepages are non-standard.

EGA5.CPI

737  - DOS Greek-2
851  - DOS Greek
869* - DOS Greek
850  - DOS Multilingual Latin-1
858  - DOS Multilingual Latin-1 with Euro

* This version follows IBM© standards, i.e. it provides the Euro sign
  in a codepoint which is left blank on their respective MS-DOS©
  versions.

EGA6.CPI

858   - DOS Multilingual Latin-1 with Euro
113   - DOS Yugoslavian
899   - DOS Armenian
59829 - DOS Georgian
60853 - DOS Georgian with capital letters

EGA7.CPI

858   - DOS Multilingual Latin-1 with Euro
60258 - DOS Cyrillic Azeri (Latin)
58210 - DOS Cyrillic Azeri (Cyrillic)
58152 - DOS Cyrillic Kazakh with Euro
59234 - DOS Cyrillic Tatar
62306 - DOS Cyrillic Uzbek

EGA8.CPI

770  - DOS Baltic
773  - DOS Latin-7 (Baltic - old standard)
774* - DOS Lithuanian
775  - DOS Latin-7 (Baltic)
777  - DOS Accented Lithuanian
778  - DOS Accented Lithuanian

* Codepage 774 is identical to IBM© codepage 1118.

EGA9.CPI

850 - DOS Latin-1
858 - DOS Latin-1 with Euro
860 - DOS Portugal
861 - DOS Icelandic
863 - DOS Canadian French
865 - DOS Nordic

EGA10.CPI

667   - DOS Polish
668   - DOS Polish (polish letters on cp852 codepoints)
790   - DOS Polish Mazovia
991   - DOS Polish Mazovia with Zloty sign
867   - DOS Czech Kamenicky
57781 - DOS Hungarian

 Notes:

 Cp858 provides the Euro sign in place of the small dotless "i" found on
 cp850. All the rest between them is the same.

 Cp808, cp848, cp849 and cp872 provide the Euro currency sign instead of
 the international currency sign available respectively at cp866, cp1125,
 cp1131 and cp855. All the rest between them is the same.

 Please refer to the README.TXT file in what concerns the use of 5-digit
 codepages.

See also:
 DISPLAY

 Copyright:

 CPIDOS is distributed under the GNU-GPL 2.0 license or later.
 CPIDOS is developed and copyright by Henrique Peron.

This file copyright © 2004
Henrique Peron
This file is part of FreeDOS HTML Help, and is
covered under its terms, see
index.htm

KPDOS v1.1 - Keyboard Layout Pack for DOS codepages

KPDOS contains keyboard layout files to be used with KEYB.
Please refer to KEYB documentation on how to use the files.
There are also special instructions concerning the japanese
file, available at the KPDOS documentation.

To use the files, please download KPDOS11X.ZIP.
To edit the sources so to be recompiled by KC, please download KPDOS11S.ZIP.

The official FreeDOS tool to make one of the files below to work with one of
its possible codepages is MODE.

To use MODE, DISPLAY must already be running.

All the CPI files in this list are the ones available at the CPIDOS package.

Country/Region                      File     Codepages                  CPI
--------------                      ----     ---------                  ---

A

Albania (No deadkeys)               sq       852, 858, 850, 437         EGA
        (Deadkeys)                  sq448    852, 858, 850, 437         EGA
Argentina                           la       858, 850, 437              EGA
Armenia (**)                        hy       899, 858                   EGA6
Australia                           us       858, 850, 437              EGA
Austria (*)                         gr       858, 850, 437, 852         EGA
Azerbaijan (**)                     az       60258, 58210, 858          EGA7

B

Belarus                             bl       849, 1131                  EGA4
                                             872, 855                   EGA3
                                             858, 850                   EGA
Belgium                             be       858, 850, 437              EGA
                                             859                        EGA2
Bosnia & Herzegovina                ba       852, 858, 850              EGA
                                             113                        EGA6
Brazil (ABNT layout)                br       858, 850, 437              EGA
       (US layout)                  br274    858, 850, 437              EGA
Bulgaria (101-key)                  bg       872, 855                   EGA3
                                             858, 850                   EGA
         (102-key)                  bg241    872, 855                   EGA3
                                             858, 850                   EGA

C

Canada (Standard)                   cf       858, 850, 863              EGA9
       (Dual-layout)                cf445    858, 850, 863              EGA9
       (Legacy)                     cf501    858, 850, 863              EGA9
Chile                               la       858, 850, 437              EGA
Colombia                            la       858, 850, 437              EGA
Croatia                             hr       852, 858, 850              EGA
                                             113                        EGA6
Czech Republic (101-key, prog.)     cz       852, 858, 850              EGA
                                             867                        EGA10
               (Standard)           cz243    852, 858, 850              EGA
                                             867                        EGA10

D

Denmark                             dk       858, 850, 865              EGA9

E

Ecuador                             la       858, 850, 437              EGA
Esperanto (US layout)               eo       853, 858, 850, 437         EGA
          (UK standard)             eo166    853, 858, 850, 437         EGA
Estonia                             et       775, 859, 858, 850, 1116   EGA2

F

Faeroe Islands                      fo       858, 850, 861              EGA9
Finland                             su       858, 850, 437              EGA
                                             859                        EGA2
France (Standard)                   fr       858, 850, 437              EGA
                                             859                        EGA2
       (Comma on Numeric Pad)       fr120    858, 850, 437              EGA
                                             859                        EGA2

G

Georgia (**)                        ka       59829, 60853, 858          EGA6
Germany (Standard) (*)              gr       858, 850, 437, 852         EGA
        (Dual-layout)               gr453    858, 850, 437              EGA
Greece (319)                        gk       869, 737, 851, 858, 850    EGA5
       (220)                        gk220    869, 737, 851, 858, 850    EGA5
       (101-key)                    gk459    869, 737, 851, 858, 850    EGA5

H

Hungary (101-key)                   hu       852, 858, 850              EGA
                                             57781                      EGA10
        (102-key)                   hu208    852, 858, 850              EGA
                                             57781                      EGA10

I

Iceland (101-key)                   is       858, 850, 861              EGA9
        (102-key)                   is161    858, 850, 861              EGA9
Ireland                             ir       858, 850, 437              EGA
Italy (Standard)                    it       858, 850, 437              EGA
      (Comma on Numeric Pad)        it142    858, 850, 437              EGA

J

Japan                               jp       932                        ---

K

Kazakhstan (**)                     kk       58152, 858                 EGA7
Kyrgyzstan (**)                     ky       58152, 858                 EGA7

L

Latin America                       la       858, 850, 437              EGA
Latvia (Standard)                   lv       775, 1117                  EGA2
                                             770, 773                   EGA8
                                             61282                      EGA4
       (Dual-layout)                lv455    775, 1117                  EGA2
                                             770, 773                   EGA8
Lithuania (Standard, LST 1582)      lt       775                        EGA2
                                             771, 772                   EGA3
                                             770, 773, 774, 777, 778    EGA8
          (Dual-layout)             lt456    775, 773                   EGA8
          (101-key, prog.)          lt210    775, 770, 773, 774         EGA8
          (Azerty)                  lt211    775, 770, 773, 774         EGA8
          (Baltic)                  lt212    775, 770, 773, 774         EGA8

M

Macedonia (FYROM)                   mk       872, 855                   EGA3
                                             858, 850                   EGA
Malta (US layout)                   mt       853, 858, 850, 437         EGA
      (UK standard layout)          mt166    853, 858, 850, 437         EGA
Mexico                              la       858, 850, 437              EGA
Mongolia (**)                       mn       58152, 858                 EGA7

N

Netherlands (102-key)               nl       858, 850, 437              EGA
New Zealand                         us       858, 850, 437              EGA
Norway                              no       858, 850, 865              EGA9

P

Philippines                         tl       858, 850, 437              EGA
Poland (101-key, prog.)             pl       852, 858, 850              EGA
                                             667, 668, 790, 991         EGA10
       (102-key)                    pl214    852, 858, 850              EGA
                                             667, 668, 790, 991         EGA10
Portugal                            po       858, 850, 860              EGA9

R

Romania (Standard)                  ro       852, 858, 850              EGA
        (Qwerty)                    ro446    852, 858, 850              EGA
Russian Federation (Standard)       ru       808, 866, 872, 855         EGA3
                                             858, 850                   EGA
                   (Typewriter)     ru443    808, 866, 872, 855         EGA3
                                             858, 850                   EGA

S

Scotland                            gd       858, 850, 437              EGA
Serbia & Montenegro (Deadkey)       sr       872, 855                   EGA3
                                             858, 850                   EGA
                    (No deadkey)    sr450    872, 855                   EGA3
                                             858, 850                   EGA
Slovakia                            sk       852, 858, 850              EGA
                                             867                        EGA10
Slovenia                            si       852, 858, 850              EGA
                                             113                        EGA6
South Africa (***)                  us       858, 850, 437, 853         EGA
Spain                               sp       858, 850, 437              EGA
Sweden                              sv       858, 850, 437              EGA
                                             859                        EGA2
Switzerland (French)                sf       858, 850, 437              EGA
            (German)                sg       858, 850, 437              EGA

T

Turkey (Qwerty)                     tr       857, 858, 850, 853         EGA
       (Non-standard)               tr440    857, 858, 850, 853         EGA

U

Ukraine (101-key)                   ur465    848, 1125, 849, 1131       EGA4
                                             858, 850                   EGA
        (102-key)                   ur       848, 1125, 849, 1131       EGA4
                                             858, 850                   EGA
        (Tatar) (**)                tt       59234, 858                 EGA7
UK (Standard) (*)                   uk       858, 850, 437, 852         EGA
   (Alternate)                      uk168    858, 850, 437              EGA
US (Standard)                       us       858, 850, 437              EGA
   (International)                  ux       858, 850, 437              EGA
   (Dvorak)                         dv       858, 850, 437              EGA
   (Left-Hand Dvorak)               lh       858, 850, 437              EGA
   (Right-Hand Dvorak)              rh       858, 850, 437              EGA
Uzbekistan (**)                     uz       62306, 858                 EGA7

V

Venezuela                           la       858, 850, 437              EGA

(*) Layout enhanced upon request to type polish letters when used with cp852.

(**) Layout enhanced to type the Euro sign (through <AltGr> + <E>)
     when used with cp858; the language to which this keyboard refers
     must be typed with the primary codepage (the first on each line)
     which, on its turn, does not provide that sign.

(***) US keyboard with cp853: <AltGr> + <N> = afrikaans article 'n .

 Copyright:

 All programs below are distributed under the GNU-GPL 2.0 license or later.
 KPDOS and CPIDOS are developed and copyright by Henrique Peron.
 KEYB and KC are developed and copyright by Aitor Santamaria Merino.
 MODE is developed and copyright by Eric Auer.
 DISPLAY is developed and copyright by Aitor Santamaria Merino.

 See also:
 CPIDOS
 KEYB
 KC
 MODE
 DISPLAY

This file copyright © 2004
Henrique Peron
This file is part of FreeDOS HTML Help, and is
covered under its terms, see
index.htm

autoexec.bat

autoexec.bat

A batch file that is run automatically when DOS starts.

autoexec.bat

See Also

Batch Files

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

mouse

mouse

FreeDOS uses the ctmouse mouse driver.

Copyright © 2003 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

bootfix

bootfix

A bootsector testing and fixing tool.

   boofix [/d] drive:

Where drive is the drive you wish to check and possibly fix.

bootfix

Options

  /d
  Displays information on screen about the boot sector,
  including a hexadecimal readout.

bootfix

Example

   bootfix /d c: >dump.txt

Will dump the information to a file called dump.txt.

bootfix

See Also

Chkdsk

Copyright © 2004 Rob Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

The Authors' Resources

A guide to writing for HTML Help A guide to the tags supported by HTML Help

The TO-DO list for the HTML documentation

A history of the HTML documentation

Acknowledgements

Copyright © 2003 Robert Platt
This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

History of HTML Help Documentation

   FreeDOS Help (hhstndrd 1.0.5 en)
   Directory structure support further improved and simplified.
   Added help file for append.
   Fixed link to "Other ways of getting help" on contents page.
   Added a little more explanation to the edit command helpfile.

   FreeDOS Help (hhstndrd 1.0.4 en)
   * International support provided. Directory restructured
   to make it easier for translators and to allow multiple
   languages on one system.
   Hence the help files renamed to hhstndrd 1.0.4 en.
   * Dramatic update of many files, plus the addition of
   new ones for LBAcache, CDRcache, Bootfix, Himem, etc.
   * Aitor and Henrique Peron's contributions:
    Updated display.htm, replaced cpi.htm with cpidos.htm
    Added kpdos.htm and kc.htm.

   Editor: Robert Platt. Released: 16th May 2004

   FreeDOS Help (hhstndrd 1.0.3)
   HTML Viewer 5.3.1 fixes many long-standing bugs,
   non of them major, as well as addressing some
   issues introduced with the zip support in viewer 5.3.
   Also, a searchbox has been added to the viewer.

   Added explanation of zip support to writing.htm

   FreeDOS Help (hhstndrd 1.0.2)
   Included HTML Viewer 5.3
    (Provides support for compressed help in zipfiles)
   Updated files for country/keyboard by Henrique and Aitor
      (CPI, XKeyb, Keyb, Display, Modecon, Printer)
   Fixed links in batch/index.htm
   Fixed links in cnfigsys/index.htm
   Editor: Robert Platt. Released: 04 March 2004

   FreeDOS Help (hhstndrd 1.0.1)
   Added help for the config.sys commands:
     - echo
     - menu
     - menudefault
     - screen
   Added help for:
     - atapicdd.sys
     - callver
     - display
     - loadfix
     - modecon
     - graftabl
     - (setver)
     - scankbd, keyman, listxdef (utilities of xkeyb)
   Removed obsolete.htm.
   Made corrections to:
     - graphics
     - mirror
     - undelete
     - unformat
   Henrique and Aitor updated xkeyb.htm
   Included the HTML Viewer 5.2.1
   Editor: Robert Platt. Released: 17 July 2003

   FreeDOS Help (hhstndrd 1.0)
   First release of this HTML Help System.
   Included the HTML Help Viewer 5.2
   Editor: Robert Platt. Released: 12 June 2003

Copyright © 2003 Robert Platt This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

Acknowledgements

It would have been impossible to have created the help files without contributions, advice, and the documenting already done by others. I've taken every effort to observe copyright, but I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank:

   Eric Auer
   Eduardo Casino
   Joe Cosentino
   Nagy Daniel
   Ken J Davis
   Tom Ehlert
   Jim Hall
   Steffen Kaiser
   Kristaps Kaupe
   Aitor Santamaria Merino
   Henrique Peron
   Brian E Reifsnyder
   Maurizio Spagni
   Martin Stromberg

The zip support is based on code by Gilles Vollant, and the ZLIB compression library. See www.zlib.org for the home page of this impressive open source library.

Regards,

Rob

Copyright © 2003 Robert Platt
This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

FreeDOS Help (hhstndrd 1.0.5 en)

FreeDOS Help (hhstndrd 1.0.5 en)

Other installed languages Welcome to FreeDOS Help. For information on using Help, press F1 or click on Help on Help with the mouse.

 Alias            Defrag          For            (Modecon)       (Setver)
 Append           Del             Format          More            Share
 Apropos          Deltree         Graftabl        Move            Shsucdx
 Assign           Dir             Graphics       (Mscdex)         Sort
 Atapicdd.sys     Dirs            Help            Nansi           Subst
 Attrib           Diskcomp        Himem           Nlsfunc         Swsubst
 Backup           Diskcopy        History         Path            Sys
 Callver          Display         Join            Pause           Tdsk
 Cd              (Doskey)         Kc              Print           Tickle
 Cdd              Edit            Keyb            Printer.sys     Time
 CDRcache         Edline          Keyman          Prompt          Tree
 Chcp             Emm386          Label           Popd            Type
 Chdir            Erase           LBAcache        Pushd           Udma.sys
 Chkdsk           Exe2Bin         Lh              Rd              Undelete
 Cls              Exit            Listxdef        Ren             Ver
 Command          Fasthelp        Loadfix         Rename          Verify
 Comp             Fc              Loadhigh        Restore         Vol
 Copy             Fdapm           Md              Rmdir           Whatis
 CtMouse          Fdhelp          Mem             Replace         Xcopy
 Ctty             Fdisk           Mkdir          (Scandisk)       Xkeyb
 Date             Fdxms           Mkeyb           Scankbd
 Debug            Find            Mode            Set

 Batch File Commands              Config.sys Commands

 Beep      Goto                   Buffers      Lastdrive
 Call      If                     Country      Menu
 Choice    Pause                  Device       Menucolor
 Echo      Rem                    Devicehigh   Menudefault
 For       shift                  Dos          Rem
                                  Driveparm    Screen
                                  Echo         Shell
                                  Fcbs         Stacks
                                  Files        Version
                                  Install

FreeDOS Help (hhstndrd 1.0.5 en)

Miscellaneous

   The display code page information pack, CPIDOS.
   The keyboard layout pack, KPDOS.
   The Autoexec.bat file.
   Installing a Mouse.
   Bootfix

   Authoring Resources
   Other Ways of Getting Help

Principal author: Robert Platt.
Last modified date: 1st July 2004.

  A history of the HTML documentation
  Acknowledgements

Copyright © 2003-04 Robert Platt
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; (respecting that any documents included but covered under any other license shall be treated seperately and the terms of such documents shall neither alter nor be altered by the terms of this document); with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled:
"GNU Free Documentation License".

FreeDOS is a trademark of Jim Hall.

unformat

unformat

Attempt to unformat a disk.

   unformat [d:] [options]

Information from Mirror may aid unformat.

unformat

Options

  d:
  The drive to attempt recovery.

  /J
  Checks that data from Mirrpr
  is present and matches the disk information.

  /U
  Attempts to unformat a disk without Mirror.

  /L
  List every file and directory that might be recovered.

  /TEST
  Simulate a recovery, but do not attempt to recover the disk.

  /P
  Print the output on LPT1:

  /PARTN
  Attempt to recover the partition table.

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

graphics, graphpin, graph-hp

graphics-ps, graphpin, graph-hp

You can use graphics instead.

   graph-ps [options]
   graphpin [options]
   graph-hp [options]

Use graph-ps for PostScript-compatible printers.

Use graphpin for Epson-compatible dot-matrix printers.

Use graph-hp for HP-comatible PCL printers.

graphics, graphpin, graph-hp

Options

  /I
  Prints the image colours reversed

  /B
  Prints the background in color, if possible

  /R
  Random dithering. Cannot be used with graph-ps

  /C
  Compatibility mode (reduced resolution)

  /E
  Economy mode (ink saving)

  /2
  use LPT2 (default is LPT1)

  /3
  use LPT3 (default is LPT1)

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall
This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

mirror

mirror

Mirrors information about the disk, such as the boot sector, file allocation table and root directory.

  mirror d:  [/PARTN]

The information is stored at the end of the disk. This can be recovered if necessary using unformat.

mirror

Options

  d:
  The drive that you want to be able to recover later using unformat.

  /PARTN
  Backs up partition table information to a:\partnsave.fil

Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO. See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.

Writing for the HTML Help System

Contributions are very welcome. If you wish to make a contribution to the HTML Help System, please contact the maintainer:

   worldwiderobatyahoo.co.uk

The structure of the \help directory

\help\index.htm
  Lists the help languages installed on the system.
  Loaded automatically if LANG is not set to an available language
  and English (EN) not installed.

\help\%LANG%\index.htm
  HELP will load this by default.
  %LANG% is the language selected by setting the LANG environment
  variable. If LANG isn't set, EN is assumed.

\help\%LANG%\help.htm
  HELP will load this when the user presses F1 or clicks
  on "Help on Help".

\help\docinfo\bi\nls\%LANG%.bi
  Stores bookshelf files, for use with Aitor's bookshlf tool, to
  create the language index (\help\index.htm)

Creating compressed help files

You should use for your compressed file set a name such as:

  \help\...\[name]\[name].zip
  If you wish to compress your help files, they should be in the
  zip format. They should have the same filename as the directory
  they are stored in, and the zip extension. For instance:

        \help\en\myhelp\myhelp.zip

  The index.htm can be inside the zip file, but help and bookshlf
  will both work better if it is not.

  Directory structures are allowed within the zip file. However,
  encryption and some of the older and more obscure compression
  methods are not supported.

Creating modified versions of the help files

Use a distinct title on the title page (often index.htm) in any modified versions. This is to avoid any confusion or conflicts, and most importantly, is necessary under the GNU Free Documentation License part 4A. In addition to changing the title, please update the history, list of authors etc, in accordance with section 4 of the GNU Free Documentation License.

If the file set is meant to describe a new or modified package, or if the file set undergoes a fundamental change (e.g. a translation), then it is best to use a distinct subdirectory name, as expained in "The structure of the \help directory" above. This is simply a matter of doing a find and replace on the subdirectory name in index.htm, and is well worth it.

For example, a streamlined version of the "hhstndrd" file set might be called "hhmicro". This would be the name of the subdirectory, and the title in index.htm might be:

   FreeDOS Help (hhmicro 1.0)

It is reasonable to change only the version number (rather than the name and directory "hhmicro") when releasing updates.

Creating or adding new files

It is advised that the following license message be put at the end of any new help files (unless it is going to be a stand alone file, not included in a help file set):

   ...
   <hr>
   <address>
   <b>Copyright &copy; 2003
   <a href="mailto:myemail@address.com">My Name</a></b><br>
   This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is
   covered under its terms, see
   <a href="../index.htm">index.htm</a>
   </address>
   </body>
   </html>

Providing an email is entirely optional; if you load your help files onto a website, then email addresses can be subjected to spamming.
The terms are the GNU Free Documentation License.

Editing file stored in a zip

You may wish to unzip the html files so that they can be read with another browser, or to edit them. Zip files usually take priority over uncompressed files; if you want to make sure that help reads an edited, uncompressed version of a file, you should replace or delete the original version inside that zip.

Testing help files

The reference browsers for testing help files are:

the FreeDOS HTML Help Viewer (help.exe)

Netscape Navigator.

Creating tables

Unfortunately, help does not support table tags. Use the preformatting tags <pre> </pre> for tables of information.

General tips

Press F5 or Ctrl+R to refresh the file being displayed by Help. The effects of changes to the file can be seen immediately. Useful when editing help files in a windows-type environment.

To use HTML Help Viewer to view files that aren't yet integrated into the file set, the help path override switch can be used:

    help /O[drive:][path]filename[.htm]

or if relative to the /HELP folder:

    help /L[subdirs]filename[.htm]

See also

Tags supported by HTML Help
Back to Authoring Resources

Copyright © 2003-4 Robert Platt
This file forms part of The FreeDOS HTML Help Documentation, and is covered under its terms: see index.htm

HTML Help Viewer 5.3.2 - Supported Tags

This document describes the subset of HTML supported by Help.

<!-- --> Comment. All tags and text within the comment are ignored by HTML Help.

<A>
Help fully supports the HREF and NAME attributes, except that:

Links to other files can only be relative, not absolute. So HREF="..\foo.htm" works but HREF="C:\foo.htm" does not

Double quotation marks "" must always be put around filenames and bookmarks e.g. HREF="foo.htm" but not HREF=foo.htm

references to web and email addresses are ignored.

DOS-style (8.3) filenames should be used.

<B>
Bold text is displayed in bright white.

<BODY>
Indicates the beginning of the text to be displayed.

<BR>
Line break.

<CODE>
Code is just displayed as Bold text (in bright white).

<EM>
Emphasised text, like italicised text, is displayed using the color magenta (a shade of purple).

<H1>
Help puts this header 1 text in bold and puts a thick line underneath it.

<H2>, <H3>
Header 2 and 3 text is put in bold, and a new paragraph is started.

<HEAD>
HTML header.

<HR>
Creates a horizontal rule along the screen. Only a horizontal rule without any attributes is supported at present.

<HTML>
Denotes a HTML file.

<I>
Italicised text is displayed using the color magenta (a shade of purple).

<LI>
A list object.

<OL>
At present, ordered lists are rendered as unordered lists. Embedded lists are not supported.

<P>
New paragraph.

<PRE>
Preformatted text

<STRONG>
Strong text, like bold text, is displayed as bright white.

<TITLE>
Does nothing - yet.

<TT>
TT text, like italicised text, is displayed using the color magenta (a shade of purple).

<UL>
Embedded lists are not currently supported.

Character Entities supported in HTML Help

Over 250 character entities are supported, including all Latin-1 entities. NCRs (Numeric Character References) and UTF-8 are also supported. However, help can only display those characters that are available in the currently active DOS codepage. For a list of codepages that help is 'aware' of, type "HELP /C" at the command prompt.

General Notes on HTML Help

Text is wrapped if it does not fit on the line.

Tags are case insensitive, so <A HREF="FOO.HTM"> is equivelent to <a href="foo.htm">.

The maximum size for a document is 64K.

Only short (8.3) file names are supported.

Help distinguishes between file types by filename extension. Therefore the .htm extension is recommended for HTML files.

Copyright © 2002-4 Robert Platt
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".