| del / erase | |
|---|---|
| The ReactOS del command | |
| Developer(s) | DEC, Microware, Microsoft, IBM, DR, Datalight, Novell, JP Software, ReactOS Contributors |
| Operating system | RT-11, OS/8, RSX-11, OpenVMS, DOS, OS-9, MSX-DOS, FlexOS, SISNE plus, OS/2, Windows, ReactOS, KolibriOS, SymbOS, DexOS |
| Platform | Cross-platform |
| Type | Command |
In computing, del (or erase) is a command in command-line interpreters (shells) such as COMMAND.COM , cmd.exe , 4DOS, NDOS, 4OS2, 4NT and Windows PowerShell. It is used to delete one or more files or directories from a file system.
The command is available for various operating systems including DOS, Microware OS-9, [1] IBM OS/2, [2] Microsoft Windows [3] and ReactOS. [4] It is analogous to the Unix rm command and to the Stratus OpenVOS delete_file and delete_dircommands. [5]
DEC RT-11, [6] OS/8, [7] RSX-11, [8] and OpenVMS [9] also provide the delete command which can be contracted to del. AmigaDOS [10] and TSC FLEX [11] provide a delete command as well.
The erase command is supported by Tim Paterson's SCP 86-DOS. [12] On MS-DOS, the command is available in versions 1 and later. [13] It is also available in the open-source MS-DOS emulator DOSBox.
Datalight ROM-DOS also includes an implementation of the del and erase commands. [14]
While Digital Research DR-DOS supports del and erase as well, it also supports the shorthand form era, which derived from CP/M. In addition to this, the DR-DOS command processor also supports delq/eraq. These are shorthand forms for the del/era/erase command with an assumed /Q parameter (for 'Query') given as well. [15]
THEOS/OASIS [16] and FlexOS [17] provide only the erase command.
In PowerShell, del and erase are predefined command aliases for the Remove-Item cmdlet which basically serves the same purpose.
>del filename >erase filename