Command Prompt, also known as cmd.exe or cmd, is the default command-line interpreter for the OS/2, eComStation,

ArcaOS ArcaOS is an operating system based on OS/2, developed and marketed by Arca Noae, LLC under license from IBM. It was codenamed Blue Lion during its development. It builds on OS/2 Warp 4.52 by adding support for new hardware, fixing defects and l ...

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

( Windows NT family and Windows CE family), and

ReactOS ReactOS is a free and open-source operating system for amd64/i686 personal computers intended to be binary-compatible with computer programs and device drivers made for Windows Server 2003 and later versions of Windows. ReactOS has been noted a ...

operating systems. On Windows CE .NET 4.2,

Windows CE 5.0 Windows CE 5.0 (codenamed "Macallan") is a successor to Windows CE 4.2, the third release in the Windows CE .NET family. It was first released on July 9, 2004. Like its predecessors, Windows CE 5.0 is marketed towards the embedded device marke ...

and

Windows Embedded CE 6.0 Windows Embedded CE 6.0 (codenamed "''Yamazaki''") is the sixth major release of the Microsoft Windows embedded operating system targeted to enterprise-specific tools such as industrial controllers and consumer electronics devices like digital ...

it is referred to as the Command Processor Shell. Its implementations differ between operating systems, but the behavior and basic set of commands are consistent. is the counterpart of in DOS and Windows 9x systems, and analogous to the Unix shells used on Unix-like systems. The initial version of for Windows NT was developed by Therese Stowell.

Windows CE 2.11 Windows Embedded Compact, formerly Windows Embedded CE, Windows Powered and Windows CE, is an operating system subfamily developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows Embedded family of products. Unlike Windows Embedded Standard, which is base ...

was the first embedded Windows release to support a console and a Windows CE version of . The ReactOS implementation of is derived from FreeCOM, the FreeDOS command line interpreter.

Operation

interacts with the user through a

command-line interface A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invoking executables and pro ...

. On Windows, this interface is implemented through the Win32 console. may take advantage of features available to native programs of its own platform. For example, on OS/2 and Windows, it can use real pipes in command pipelines, allowing both sides of the pipeline to run concurrently. As a result, it is possible to redirect the

standard error stream In computer programming, standard streams are interconnected input and output communication channels between a computer program and its environment when it begins execution. The three input/output (I/O) connections are called standard input (stdin ...

. ( uses temporary files, and runs the two sides serially, one after the other.) Multiple commands can be processed in a single command line using the command separator . When using this separator in the Windows , each command must complete successfully for the following commands to execute. For example: C:\>CommandA && CommandB && CommandC In the above example, will only execute if completes successfully, and the execution of depends on the successful completion of . To process subsequent commands even if the previous command produces an error, the command separator should be used. For example: C:\>CommandA & CommandB & CommandC On Windows XP or later, the maximum length of the string that can be used at the command prompt is 8191 characters. On earlier versions, such as Windows 2000 or Windows NT 4.0, the maximum length of the string is 2047 characters. This limit includes the command line, individual environment variables that are inherited by other

processes A process is a series or set of activities that interact to produce a result; it may occur once-only or be recurrent or periodic. Things called a process include: Business and management *Business process, activities that produce a specific se ...

, and all environment variable expansions. Quotation marks are required for the following special characters: & < > ^ = ; ! ' + , ` ~

hite space Hite or HITE may refer to: *HiteJinro, a South Korean brewery **Hite Brewery *Hite (surname) *Hite, California, former name of Hite Cove, California *Hite, Utah, a ghost town *HITE, an industrial estate in Pakistan See also *''Hite v. Fairfax ' ...

Internal commands

OS/2

The following is a list of the Microsoft OS/2 internal

commands Command may refer to: Computing * Command (computing), a statement in a computer language * COMMAND.COM, the default operating system shell and command-line interpreter for DOS * Command key, a modifier key on Apple Macintosh computer keyboards * ...

: * break * chcp * cd *

chdir The command, also known as (change directory), is a command-line shell command used to change the current working directory in various operating systems. It can be used in shell scripts and batch files. Implementations The command has been ...

* cls * copy * date * del * detach * dir * dpath * echo * erase * exit *

for For or FOR may refer to: English language *For, a preposition *For, a complementizer *For, a grammatical conjunction Science and technology * Fornax, a constellation * for loop, a programming language statement * Frame of reference, in physic ...

goto GoTo (goto, GOTO, GO TO or other case combinations, depending on the programming language) is a statement found in many computer programming languages. It performs a one-way transfer of control to another line of code; in contrast a function ca ...

* if * md *

mkdir The mkdir (make directory) command in the Unix, DOS, DR FlexOS, IBM OS/2, Microsoft Windows, and ReactOS operating systems is used to make a new directory. It is also available in the EFI shell and in the PHP scripting language. In DOS, OS/2, ...

* path * pause *

prompt Prompt may refer to: Computing * Command prompt, characters indicating the computer is ready to accept input * Command Prompt, also known as cmd.exe or cmd, the command-line interpreter in some operating systems * Prompt (natural language), instr ...

* rd *

rem Rem or REM may refer to: Music * R.E.M., an American rock band * ''R.E.M.'' (EP), by Green * "R.E.M." (song), by Ariana Grande Organizations * La République En Marche!, a French centrist political party * Reichserziehungsministerium, in Nazi G ...

ren Ren or REN may refer to: Abbreviations * Orenburg Tsentralny Airport, IATA code REN, civil airport in Russia * Redes Energéticas Nacionais (REN), Portuguese company * Renanthera, abbreviated as Ren, orchid genus * Ringer equivalence number ( ...

rename Rename may refer to: * Rename (computing), rename of a file on a computer * RENAME (command), command to rename a file in various operating systems * Rename (relational algebra) In relational algebra, a rename is a unary operation written as \r ...

* rmdir * set *

shift Shift may refer to: Art, entertainment, and media Gaming * ''Shift'' (series), a 2008 online video game series by Armor Games * '' Need for Speed: Shift'', a 2009 racing video game ** '' Shift 2: Unleashed'', its 2011 sequel Literature * ''Sh ...

start Start can refer to multiple topics: *Takeoff, the phase of flight where an aircraft transitions from moving along the ground to flying through the air * Starting lineup in sports *Standing start, and rolling start, in an auto race Acronyms *St ...

* time *

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * Ty ...

* ver * verify *

vol Vol or Vols may refer to: * Vol (command), a computer operating system command * Vol (heraldry), a heraldic charge * Volatility (finance) * Volume (disambiguation) * Volunteer (Irish republican) * Nashville Vols, an American minor league baseball t ...

Windows NT family

The following list of internal commands is supported by on Windows NT and later: * assoc * break * call * cd *

* cls * color * copy * date * del * dir * dpath * echo * endlocal * erase * exit *

* ftype *

* if *

keys Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

* md *

* mklink (introduced in Windows Vista) * move * path * pause * popd *

* pushd * rd *

* rmdir * set * setlocal *

* time * title *

* ver * verify *

Windows CE

The following list of commands is supported by on Windows CE .NET 4.2, Windows CE 5.0 and Windows Embedded CE 6.0: * attrib * call * cd * chdir * cls * copy * date * del * dir * echo * erase * exit * goto * help * if * md * mkdir * move * path * pause * prompt * pwd * rd * rem * ren * rename * rmdir * set * shift * start * time * title * type In addition, the command is available as an external command stored in .

ReactOS

The ReactOS implementation includes the following internal commands: * ? * alias * assoc * beep * call * cd * chdir * choice * cls * color * copy * ctty * date * del * delete * delay * dir * dirs * echo * echos * echoerr * echoserr * endlocal * erase * exit * for * free * goto * history * if * memory * md * mkdir * mklink * move * path * pause * popd * prompt * pushd * rd * rmdir * rem * ren * rename * replace * screen * set * setlocal * shift * start * time * timer * title * type * ver * verify * vol

Comparison with COMMAND.COM

On Windows, is mostly compatible with but provides the following extensions over it: * More detailed error messages than the blanket " Bad command or file name" (in the case of malformed commands) of . In OS/2, errors are reported in the chosen language of the system, their text being taken from the system message files. The command can then be issued with the error message number to obtain further information. * Supports using of arrow keys to scroll through command history. (Under DOS this function was only available under DR DOS (through HISTORY) and later via an external component called .) * Adds rotating command-line completion for file and folder paths, where the user can cycle through results for the prefix using the , and for reverse direction. * Treats the caret character () as the

escape character In computing and telecommunication, an escape character is a character (computing), character that invokes an alternative interpretation on the following characters in a character sequence. An escape character is a particular case of metacharac ...

; the character following it is to be taken literally. There are special characters in and (e.g. "", "" and ", ") that are meant to alter the behavior of the command line processor. The caret character forces the command line processor to interpret them literally. * Supports delayed variable expansion with , allowing values of variables to be calculated at runtime instead of during parsing of script before execution (Windows 2000 and later), fixing DOS idioms that made using control structures hard and complex. The extensions can be disabled, providing a stricter compatibility mode. Internal commands have also been improved: * The command was merged into the command, as part of its switch. * and commands limit the scope of changes to the environment. Changes made to the command line environment after commands are local to the batch file. command restores the previous settings. * The command allows subroutines within batch file. The command in only supports calling external batch files. * File name parser extensions to the command are comparable with C shell. * The command can perform expression evaluation. * An expansion of the command supports parsing files and arbitrary sets in addition to file names. * The new and commands provide access past navigated paths similar to "forward" and "back" buttons in a web browser or File Explorer. * The conditional command can perform case-insensitive comparisons and numeric equality and inequality comparisons in addition to case-sensitive string comparisons. (This was available in DR-DOS, but not in PC DOS or MS-DOS.)

References

External links

* * * * * {{Windows commands Command shells OS/2 command shells Windows command shells OS/2 commands OS/2 files Windows commands Windows files Windows components