In computing, the print
command provides single-user print spooling capability in a number of operating systems. It is roughly similar to that provided by the UNIX System V lp and BSD lpr print spooler systems.
The command is available in the DEC RT-11, [1] OS/8, [2] RSX-11, [3] TOPS-10, [4] and TOPS-20 [5] operating systems and also in DR FlexOS, [6] DR DOS, TSL PC-MOS, [7] Paragon Technology PTS-DOS, [8] SISNE plus, [9] IBM OS/2, [10] eComStation, ArcaOS, Microsoft Windows, FreeDOS, [11] Stratus OpenVOS, [12] AROS, [13] HP MPE/iX, [14] and OpenVMS. [15]
The FreeDOS version was developed by James Tabor and is licensed under the GPL. [16]
The command was introduced in MS-DOS/IBM PC DOS 2.0. [17] [18] DR DOS 6.0 includes an implementation of the PRINT
command. [19]
In early versions of DOS, printing was accomplished using the copy
command: the file to be printed was "copied" to the file representing the print device. [20] Control returned to the user when the print job completed. [21] Beginning with DOS 2.0, [22] the print
command was included to allow basic print spooling: the ability to continue to use the computer while printing occurred in the background, and the ability to create a queue of jobs to be printed. [23]
The print
command allowed specifying one of many possible local printer interfaces, [23] and could make use of networked printers using the net
command. [24] A maximum number of files and a maximum buffer size could be specified, and further command-line options allowed adding and removing files from the queue. [23] Margins, page lengths and number of copies could also be set, [25] as well as a parameter to adjust between favoring printing speed versus computer responsiveness. [23]
Users of the initial release of the print
command commented on the slow print speed and high resource usage, as well as the lack of support for the newly introduced subdirectories. [22] The command was among the first RAM-resident programs and was the first to achieve widespread use, with many users disassembling the binary in order to determine how RAM-resident programs should be written. [21]
In computing, dir
(directory) is a command in various computer operating systems used for computer file and directory listing. It is one of the basic commands to help navigate the file system. The command is usually implemented as an internal command in the command-line interpreter (shell). On some systems, a more graphical representation of the directory structure can be displayed using the tree
command.
fdisk is a command-line utility for disk partitioning. It has been part of DOS, DR FlexOS, IBM OS/2, and early versions of Microsoft Windows, as well as certain ports of FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, DragonFly BSD and macOS for compatibility reasons. Windows 2000 and its successors have replaced fdisk
with a more advanced tool called diskpart
.
In computing, touch
is a command used to update the access date and/or modification date of a computer file or directory. It is included in Unix and Unix-like operating systems, TSC's FLEX, Digital Research/Novell DR DOS, the AROS shell, the Microware OS-9 shell, and ReactOS. The command is also available for FreeDOS and Microsoft Windows.
In computing, share
is a command for DOS that allows software to perform file locks. Locking files became necessary when MS-DOS began allowing files to be accessed simultaneously by multiple programs, either through multitasking or networking.
The line-oriented debugger DEBUG.EXE
is an external command in operating systems such as DOS, OS/2 and Windows.
In computing, tree
is a recursive directory listing command or program that produces a depth-indented listing of files. Originating in PC- and MS-DOS, it is found in Digital Research FlexOS, IBM/Toshiba 4690 OS, PTS-DOS, FreeDOS, IBM OS/2, Microsoft Windows, and ReactOS. A version for Unix and Unix-like systems is also available.
In computing, which
is a command for various operating systems used to identify the location of executables. The command is available in Unix and Unix-like systems, the AROS shell, for FreeDOS and for Microsoft Windows. The functionality of the which command is similar to some implementations of the type command. POSIX specifies a command named command that also covers this functionality.
In computing, sys
is a command used in many operating system command-line shells and also in Microsoft BASIC.
In computing, ren
is a command in various command-line interpreters (shells) such as COMMAND.COM
, cmd.exe
, 4DOS, 4NT and Windows PowerShell. It is used to rename computer files and in some implementations also directories. It is analogous to the Unix mv
command. However, unlike mv
, ren
cannot be used to move files, as a new directory for the destination file may not be used. Alternatively, move
may be used if available. On versions of MS-DOS that do not support the move
command, the user would simply copy the file to a new destination, and then delete the original file. A notable exception to this rule is DOSBox, in which ren
may be used to move a file, since move
is not supported.
In computing, type is a command in various command-line interpreters (shells) such as COMMAND.COM
, cmd.exe
, 4DOS/4NT and Windows PowerShell used to display the contents of specified files on the computer terminal. The analogous Unix command is cat.
In computing, del
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.
In computing, find
is a command in the command-line interpreters (shells) of a number of operating systems. It is used to search for a specific text string in a file or files. The command sends the specified lines to the standard output device.
In computing, help
is a command in various command line shells such as COMMAND.COM
, cmd.exe
, Bash, qshell, 4DOS/4NT, Windows PowerShell, Singularity shell, Python, MATLAB and GNU Octave. It provides online information about available commands and the shell environment.
In computing, copy
is a command in various operating systems. The command copies computer files from one directory to another.
In computing, format
, a command-line utility that carries out disk formatting. It is a component of various operating systems, including 86-DOS, MS-DOS, IBM PC DOS and OS/2, Microsoft Windows and ReactOS.
In computing, choice
is a command that allows for batch files to prompt the user to select one item from a set of single-character choices. It is available in a number of operating system command-line shells.
In computing, diskcopy is a command used on a number of operating systems for copying the complete contents of a diskette to another diskette.
In computing, recover
is a primitive file system error recovery utility included in MS-DOS / IBM PC DOS versions prior to DOS 6.0 and a number of other operating systems.
In computing, diskcomp
is a command used for comparing the complete contents of a floppy disk to another one.
The command-line tool exe2bin
is a post-compilation utility program available on MS-DOS and other operating systems.