ECHO
Internal – DOS 2.0 and above
- Displays messages, or turns command-echoing on or off.
ECHO [ON | OFF] ECHO [message] Type ECHO without parameters to display the current echo setting.
EDIT
External – MS-DOS 5.0 and above
- Starts the MS-DOS editor, which creates and changes ASCII files.
EDIT [[drive:][path]filename] [/B] [/G] [/H] [/NOHI] [drive:][path]filename Specifies the ASCII file to edit. /B Allows use of a monochrome monitor with a color graphics card. /G Provides the fastest update of a CGA screen. /H Displays the maximum number of lines possible for your hardware. /NOHI Allows the use of a monitor without high-intensity support.
PC DOS 6.1 and later use the E editor.
EDLIN
External – DOS 1.0 and above
- Line-oriented text editor.
EDLIN [drive:][path]filename [/B] /B Ignores end-of-file (CTRL+Z) characters.
EDLIN originated as an external command in 86-DOS.
EJECT
External – PC DOS 5.02 and above
- Ejects the media from a drive.
EJECT [drive:]
EJECT is only included with PC DOS versions.
EMM386
External – DOS 5.0 and above
- Turns on or off EMM386 expanded memory support.
EMM386 [ON | OFF | AUTO] [W=ON | W=OFF] ON | OFF | AUTO Activates or suspends EMM386.EXE device driver, or places it in auto mode. W=ON | OFF Turns on or off Weitek coprocessor support.
EMM386.EXE must be loaded as a device driver in CONFIG.SYS in order to use this command.
EXE2BIN
External – DOS 1.0 and above
- Converts .EXE (executable) files to binary format.
EXE2BIN [drive1:][path1]input-file [[drive2:][path2]output-file] input-file Specifies the .EXE file to be converted. output-file Specifies the binary file to be created.
EXIT
Internal – DOS 2.0 and above
- Quits the COMMAND.COM program (command interpreter).
EXIT
FASTOPEN
External – DOS 3.3 to DOS 6.3
- Decreases the amount of time needed to open frequently used files and directories.
FASTOPEN drive:[[=]n] [drive:[[=]n][ ...]] [/X] drive: Specifies the hard disk drive you want Fastopen to work with. n Specifies the maximum number of file locations Fastopen retains in its filename cache. /X Creates the filename cache in expanded memory.
FC
External – DOS 3.3 and above
- Compares two files or sets of files and displays the differences between them.
FC [/A] [/C] [/L] [/LBn] [/N] [/T] [/W] [/nnnn] [drive1:][path1]filename1 [drive2:][path2]filename2 FC /B [drive1:][path1]filename1 [drive2:][path2]filename2 /A Displays only first and last lines for each set of differences. /B Performs a binary comparison. /C Disregards the case of letters. /L Compares files as ASCII text. /LBn Sets the maximum consecutive mismatches to the specified number of lines. /N Displays the line numbers on an ASCII comparison. /T Does not expand tabs to spaces. /W Compresses white space (tabs and spaces) for comparison. /nnnn Specifies the number of consecutive lines that must match after a mismatch.
FDISK
External – DOS 2.0 and above
- Configures a hard disk for use with DOS.
FDISK [/STATUS] /STATUS Displays the status of the fixed disk drive
FIND
External – DOS 2.0 and above
- Searches for a text string in a file or files.
FIND [/V] [/C] [/N] [/I] [/S] "string" [[drive:][path]filename[ ...]] /V Displays all lines NOT containing the specified string. /C Displays only the count of lines containing the string. /N Displays line numbers with the displayed lines. /I Ignores the case of characters when searching for the string. /S Search subdirectories also. "string" Specifies the text string to find. [drive:][path]filename Specifies a file or files to search. If a pathname is not specified, FIND searches the text typed at the prompt or piped from another command.
/S is only available in PC DOS 7. Also PC DOS 7 allows the use of wildcards
in filenames while prior versions do not.
FOR
Internal – DOS 2.0 and above
- Runs a specified command for each file in a set of files.
FOR %variable IN (set) DO command [command-parameters] %variable Specifies a replaceable parameter. (set) Specifies a set of one or more files. Wildcards may be used. command Specifies the command to carry out for each file. command-parameters Specifies parameters or switches for the specified command. To use the FOR command in a batch program, specify %%variable instead of %variable.
FORMAT
External – DOS 1.0 and above
- Formats a disk for use with DOS.
FORMAT drive: [/V[:label]] [/Q] [/U] [/F:size] [/B | /S] [/C] FORMAT drive: [/V[:label]] [/Q] [/U] [/T:tracks /N:sectors] [/B | /S] [/C] FORMAT drive: [/V[:label]] [/Q] [/U] [/1] [/4] [/B | /S] [/C] FORMAT drive: [/Q] [/U] [/1] [/4] [/8] [/B | /S] [/C] /V[:label] Specifies the volume label. /Q Performs a quick format. /U Performs an unconditional format. /F:size Specifies the size of the floppy disk to format (such as 160, 180, 320, 360, 720, 1.2, 1.44, 2.88). /B Allocates space on the formatted disk for system files. /S Copies system files to the formatted disk. /T:tracks Specifies the number of tracks per disk side. /N:sectors Specifies the number of sectors per track. /1 Formats a single side of a floppy disk. /4 Formats a 5.25-inch 360K floppy disk in a high-density drive. /8 Formats eight sectors per track. /C Revert to less conservative handling of bad blocks.
/Q and /U are only available in DOS 5 and above. /C is only available in DOS 6 and above.