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#name overview #whatis overview - DOS command line processing On DOS systems, command line processing is normally provided by command.com (or cmd.exe on NT systems). This is broadly equivalent to a Shell command interpreter on UNIX systems (e.g., /bin/sh), though it is much more limited in almost every way. The following list provides a summary of the main features of DOS command processing: Parameter Substitution Parameter substitution is delimited by percent characters (i.e. %var%). These substitutions occur anywhere on the command line, including within quoted strings. For example: set x=/usr/bin echo %x% is equivalent to: x=/usr/bin echo $x on a UNIX system. Within a quoted string, the % character can be escaped by typing %%. Command Substitution None provided (aka $(command) or `command` on UNIX systems). Arithmetic Substitution None provided (aka $((expression)) on UNIX systems). Quoting Command arguments are quoted on DOS using double-quote characters; single-quotes are not recognized. Within quoted strings, parameter substitutions still occur unless escaped. Double-quotes appearing literally in a quoted string can be escaped by preceding them with a backslash character. For example: grep "#include \"head.h\"" *.c will display lines from all C source files in the current directory containing the character sequence: #include "head.h" History Substitutions A command history mechanism is provided by the "doskey" program. This can be started from a batch file (e.g., autoexec.bat) or directly from the command line. Doskey provides a command macro capability, a command history mechanism, and command line editing. Type "doskey /?" for details. Line Continuation None. The DOS command interpreter executes the command line as soon as you hit Enter, irrespective of whether or not the input line is complete; that is, there is no equivalent of the PS2 line continuation prompt on UNIX. Input/Output Redirection DOS supports input redirection using the "<file" syntax, and output redirections using ">file" or ">>file". It does not support here-is files ("<<eof" on UNIX) or redirection of specific file descriptors (e.g., "2>&1" on UNIX), so stderr cannot be redirected. File Name Expansion On UNIX systems, file name expansion is performed by the Shell; on DOS systems, it is performed by the called program itself. The WinXs commands perform wild-card expansions on tokens appearing as file names, but not on those appearing as option arguments (see "man syntax" and "man filenames" for details). Other commands may expand file names differently. #name config #whatis config - configuring the command line tools The WinXs command line tools are made available by adding the appropriate WinXs directory to your environment search path. This is done by adding or modifing a call to the PATH command in the autoexec.bat file. For example, PATH c:\winxs\bin;c:\windows;c:\dos This identifies three directories that will be searched automatically when entering a command at the command prompt; namely, "c:\winxs\bin", "c:\windows", and "c:\dos". The exact nature of this command will vary from system to system, so you should check your current setting before making any changes. Note that "winxs" in the above example is the name of the directory where you installed WinXs. The command line tools are located in the "bin" subdirectory below this directory. #name syntax #whatis syntax - command line syntax All WinXs command line tools follow the same general syntax, i.e., name [options] [files] where name is the command name, options is one or more keyword options introduced by a hyphen, and files names one or more input files. Not all commands support both options and files, but where they are supported, the syntax that applies to them is always the same. Note that square brackets in a command line specification indicate an optional element; ellipsis (...) indicate that the previous command line element can be repeated any number of times. For example: foo [-abc] [-o file] [file ...] Identifies a mythical command named "foo", which will accept three single key options (-a, -b and -c), an option -o that is followed by a file name, and the names of zero, one or more input files. Generally, if no files are specified, input is taken from the standard input stream. Output is almost always written to the standard output stream unless redirected. Because of this use of standard input and standard output, the WinXs commands can be used freely in command pipelines. For example, nl -ba -nrz -s# file1 | sort -rn | sed "s/^[0-9]*#//" will reverse the lines in a text file (file1) and write the results to standard output (normally the console). #name options #whatis options - specifying command options Command options are introduced by a hyphen (-), which may be followed by one or more keys. Keys can be specified collectively after a single hyphen, or they can be specified individually. For example, the following invocations of the foo command are considered equivalent: foo -abc foo -ab -c foo -a -bc foo -a -b -c The order in which option keys are specified is not generally significant, unless the key is defined to be followed by a value (e.g., [-o file]). In this case, the value must immediately follow the key, which may or may not be separated by one or more blanks (space or tab). So, for example, foo -o outfile foo -ooutfile are again treated as equivalent. Note, however, that any other option following a value must be introduced by another hyphen, as in: foo -o outfile -a Note also that file name expansion (see the next section) is not performed on option values, so file names appearing as option values cannot contain wild-card characters. #name filenames #whatis filenames - file name expansion The WinXs command line tools provide automatic file name expansion for names appearing in the [file] element of a command line. The following wild-card characters are recognised: * Any character or group of characters. ? Any single character. So, for example: foo -a *.txt will expand to all file names in the current directory with a .txt extension. foo -a ../*.txt will expand to all file names in the parent directory with a .txt extension Note that the WinXs tools accept either the DOS separator character (\) in file names, or the UNIX separator character (/). Path names appearing in command lines may be relative (e.g., ../../foobar) or absolute (e.g., c:\winxs\*.txt), but only file name elements may contain wild-card characters. (Note. On Windows 95, specifying "*" on its own will expand to a list of all files in the selected directory. On Windows 3.x, this will expand to a list of files with no extensions. Use "*.*" on Windows 3.x to select all files.) #name cat #whatis cat - concatenate files cat [-su] [-v[te]] [file ...] cat accepts the following options: -s Does not produce an error message on failure -u Does not buffer output -v Displays all characters, including those that are unprintable. When displaying unprintable characters, ^c is used for the control characters, and \xxx for 8-bit characters (where xxx represents the octal value of the character). -t Displays tabs as ^I. -e Displays a $ character at the end of each line. cat writes its output to standard output, and reads its input from standard input if no file is specified. #name cksum #whatis cksum - write file checksums and sizes cksum [file ...] cksum calculates a cyclic redundacy check (CRC) for each input file, which it writes along with the size of the file (in bytes) to standard output. Standard input is used if no file operands are specified on the command line. Typically, this utility is used to check the integrity of files received from other systems; that is, the CRC of a file should be the same on both systems. #name cmp #whatis cmp - compare binary files cmp [-s] file1 file2 cmp accepts the following options: -s Does not produce an error message on failure. The exist status can be used to determine the success or otherwise of the command (i.e., 0 = files are identical, 1 = files are different, 2 = failure). #name col #whatis col - filter reverse line feeds col [-bfpx] [-t tabstop] [file ...] col accepts the following options: -b Filter backspaces. -f Allow forward half-line feeds. -p Ignore unknown escapes. -t tabstop Sets the number of column positions for tab conversion (default 8). -x No space to tab conversion. col writes its output to standard output, and reads its input from standard input if no file is specified. #name comm #whatis comm - select or reject lines common to two files comm [-123] file1 file2 comm accepts the following options: -1 Suppress the output of lines unique to file1. -2 Suppress the output of lines unique to file2. -3 Suppress the output of lines common to both files. comm reads file1 and file2, which should be sorted alphabetically, and produces three columns of output; lines only in file1, lines only in file2, and lines common to both files. Any or all of these columns can be suppressed. #name compress #whatis compress - compress data in a file or files compress [-cd] [file ...] compress accepts the following options: -c cat output. Normally compress will compress the named files in place. If this option is specified, the output is written to standard output instead. -d Decompress. The input files are uncompressed rather than compressed. If file is not specified, the input is read from standard input and the output is written to standard output. #name cp #whatis cp - copy files cp [-fip] source_file target_file cp [-fip] source_file ... directory cp -R [-fip] source_file ... directory cp -r [-fip] source_file ... directory cp accepts the following options: -f If a target_file exists, remove it before attempting to copy the source_file. This includes removing Read-only files. -i If a target_file exists, prompt the user for confirmation before attempting the copy operation. Whether or not this option is specified, source_file will not be copied if the target_file is Read-only. Use the -f option to force a copy in this case. -p In addition to copying the data of source_file, also copy the file mode, access time and modification time. If this option is not specified, the mode of the target file will be set to read and write, and the file access times will be set to the time at which the copy took place. -R Copy file hierarchies. When this option is set, and if source_file identifies a directory, the entire directory structure rooted at source_file will be copied to the target directory. -r Same as -R. In the first form, source_file is simply copied to target_file, neither of which can identify a directory. The target file will be created if it does not already exist. In the second form, where neither -R or -r is specified, each of the source_files is copied to the target directory. It is an error if any source_file is a directory, if the target directory does not exist, or if the target is not a directory. In the third and fourth forms, where -R or -r is specified, the cp utility will copy each source_file to the target directory, creating the target directory if it does not already exist. When -R or -r is specified, source_file can identify either a file or a directory. #name csplit #whatis csplit - split files based on context csplit [-s] [-f prefix] [-n number] file arg1 ... argn csplit accepts the following options: -s Suppress the output of file size messages -f Prefix. -n Number of digits in generated file names. #name cut #whatis cut - cut out selected fields from each line of a file cut -b list [-n] [file ...] cut -c list [file ...] cut -f list [-d delim] [-s] [file ...] cut accepts the following options: -b list Cut based on a list of bytes. List contains one or more comma or blank separated elements. Each element of the list has the form: low-high (cut from "low" byte to "high" byte), -high (cut from byte 1 to "high" byte), or low- (but from "low" byte to the last byte in each line). -c list Same as "-b list". -f list Cut based on a list of fields, where each input field is separated by the delim character (see "-d" below). Output fields will be separated by a single instance of delim. Lines with no field delimiters will be passed through intact, unless "-s" is specified. "list" has the same meaning as described above, except that "low" and "high" refer to field numbers (starting at 1) rather than bytes. -d delim Set the field delimiter to the character "delim" (tab by default). -n Ignored (reserved for future use). -s Suppress the output of lines with no delimiter characters. The cut utility will cut bytes (-b or -c option) or character delimited fields (-f option) from each line of one or more input files, concatenate them and write the results to standard output. Standard input is used if no files are specified on the command line. #name dd #whatis dd - convert and copy a file dd [bs=expr] [cbs=expr] [conv=value[,value...]] [count=n] [ibs=expr] [if=file] [obs=expr] [of=file] [seek=n] [skip=n] dd accepts the following operands: if=file Specifies the input file name (standard input by default). of=file Specifies the output file name (standard output by default). bs=expr Set input and output block size, which supersedes any settings of ibs= or obs=. "expr" can be: a decimal number, indicating bytes; a decimal number followed by k, indicating kilobytes; a decimal number followed by b, indicating 512-byte blocks; two or more decimal numbers separated by x, indicating the product of the specified values. ibs=expr Specify the input block size (default 512 bytes). obs=expr Specify the output block size (default 512 bytes). cbs=expr Specify the conversion block size for block/unblock conversions. skip=n Skip "n" input blocks before starting the copy. seek=n Skip "n" output blocks from the beginning of the output file before copying. count=n Copy only n input blocks" conv=value Where "value"s are comma-separated symbols from the following list: ascii convert input characters from EBCDIC to ASCII. ebcdic convert input characters from ASCII to EBCDIC. ibm convert input characters from ASCII to a different EBCDIC set. block treat the input as variable length records separated by newline characters, and convert each input record to a fixed length output record equal to the conversion block size, padding with space characters if necessary. unblock treat the input as fixed length records of conversion block size, and convert each input record to a variable length output record, removing spaces from the end of each input line as necessary. lcase map upper-case characters in the input to their corresponding lower-case character. ucase map lower-case characters in the input to their corresponding upper-case character. swab swap every pair of input bytes. noerror do not stop processing on input error. notrunc do not truncate the output file if it already exists. sync pad every input block to the size of the input block size, appending null bytes as necessary (or space characters if either block or unblock is specified). The dd utility copies the specified input file to the specified output file with possible conversions, using specific input and output block sizes. One input block is read at a time, conversions are applied (if any), and the block is written to the output in the specified block size. #name df #whatis df - report free disk space df [-kPt] [file ...] df accepts the following options: -k Use 1024-byte units, instead of the default 512-byte units, when writing space figures. -P Produce output in the portable format defined by POSIX (default). -t Include total allocated space figures in the output (default). The df utility writes out various information about the drives containing the indicated files, including: + Drive number (Filesystem). + Total disk space in 512-byte (default) or 1024-byte units. + Used disk space in 512-byte (default) or 1024-byte units. + Available disk space in 512-byte (default) or 1024-byte units. + Capacity in terms of the percentage of space used. + Mount point of the file-system. If no file operand is specified, statistics are produced for the current drive (This is different to the UNIX version of df, which produces statistics for all mounted drives. A similar effect is difficult to achieve on a DOS system, as DOS contains nothing equivalent to the UNIX mount table.) #name diff #whatis diff - compare files diff [-abei] [-CN] file1 file2 diff accepts the following options: -a Text file. Diff first attempts to determine if the files being compared are text files or binary files. If the latter, they are compared using the "cmp" utility. Setting this option forces a text file comparison. -b Ignore white-space in text file comparisons. -e Output differences in a form that is suitable as input to the "sed" utility. -i Ignore case in text file comparisons. -C Indicates the number of text lines that should be matched to re-synchronize file1 and file2 after a difference has been detected (default 3). This value can also be set via the DIFFC environment variable (e.g. "set DIFFC=3"). #name dos2unix #whatis dos2unix - convert text file from DOS to UNIX format dos2unix [-o output] file ... dos2unix accepts the following options: -o Normally dos2unix converts files in place. If this option is specified, and output names a file, all the input is converted and appended to the named file; if it names a directory, the input files are copied to the named directory and then converted. If file names a directory, this option must be specified and output must also identify a directory. #name dircmp #whatis dircmp - compare the contents of two directories dircmp [-rd] dir1 dir2 dircmp accepts the following options: -d Compare the contents of files with the same name using diff, and output a list indicating what must be changed in the two files to make them the same (see diff for more details). If this option is not specified, files with the same name are compared using cmp. -r Recursive. When this option is specified, dircmp compares the directory hierarchies rooted at dir1 and dir2, including all subdirectories and subfiles. The dircmp command line utility examines the directories specified by dir1 and dir2 and generates various tabulated information about their contents. Where the same file exists in both directories, or subdirectories if -r is specified, either a binary comparison will be performed, or diff will be invoked to perform the comparison if the -d option is specified. Where a file only exists in one directory or another, a line will be output giving the name of that file and the name of the directory in which it exists. dircmp uses the PATH environment variable to locate cmp and diff. If the WinXs "bin" directory has not been added to PATH, dircmp will not work correctly. #name du #whatis du - estimate file space usage du [-a | -s] [-ku] [file ...] du accepts the following options: -a List all files. -s Exclude sub-directories. -k Display file sizes in 1024 byte units, rather than the default 512 byte units -u Attempt to determine the size of file-system clusters and display file sizes in these units. This option also causes a space utilization figure to be displayed as a percentage of used space vs allocated space. By default, du displays the amount of file space allocated to each identified file or directory. If a directory is specified, du displays the amount of space allocated to the file hierarchy rooted at the specified directory and each of its subdirectories (unless -s is also specified); specifying -a causes the space allocated to all files in the directory hierarchy to be displayed. If the file argument is omitted, the current directory is used as the default. Output is always written to standard output. #name expand #whatis expand - convert tabs to spaces expand [-t tabstop] [file ...] expand accepts the following options: -t Tab length. expand writes its output to standard output, and reads its input from standard input if no file is specified. #name file #whatis file - determine file type file file ... The command line version of file attempts to determine file types using magic numbers only. #name find #whatis find - find files find path ... [expression] find accepts the following options: path Names one or more directories from which to begin searching for files that match expression. Expression An expression is made up of primaries and operators that are matched against all files and directories in the directory hierarchy named by path (see below for details). The find command line utility will recursively descend the directory hierarchy starting at the directory specified by path, and find files that match the criteria specified by expression. find builds expression from a set of primaries and operators. The first argument that begins with a '-' (minus sign), '!' (the NOT operator), or '(' (left parenthesis) is interpreted as the start of expression. Operators Primaries can be combined with the following operators, presented in order of decreasing precedence: ( expression ) True if expression is true. Parenthesis are used for grouping primaries, for example: find . ( ( -name tmp -o -name temp ) -prune ) -o -print will print the names of all files in the directory hierarchy starting from the current directory, except for files in directories named "tmp" or "temp". Without the parenthesis, nothing would be printed. ! expression The unary NOT operator, which negates the following primary. expression [-a] expression Conjunction of primaries. The AND operator is implied by the juxtaposition of two primaries or made explicit by the -a operator. The second expression will not be evaluated if the first expression is false. expression -o expression Alternative primaries. With the OR operator, the second expression will not be evaluated if the first expression is true. Note that the AND and OR operators are considered to have equal precedence and group from left to right. Primaries The following primaries are supported: -name pattern This primary will evaluate as true if the last element of the file name being examined matches pattern, which is a file name pattern possibly containing DOS wild- card characters. For example: find . -name *.c -o -name *.h will match (and print the names of) all files containing the extensions ".c" or ".h". Note that primaries and expressions appearing on the command line must be separated by at least one white-space character (space or tab). -newer file This primary will evaluate as true if the file being examined was modified more recently than file. file is only evaluated once, when the command is first invoked. -prune This primary always evaluates as true. Its effect is to cause find not to descend the current path name if it is a directory. If -depth is also specified, -prune has no effect. -perm mode The mode argument is used to check for specific file modes, and can be one of "r" (read-only file) or "w" (read and write file). Thus to check for all read- only files on the current drive, use: find / -perm r Note that path names can be specified using either backslash or forward slash characters. -size [+/-]n This primary will evaluate as true if the size of the current file matches n bytes as follows: -n True if the current file is smaller than n bytes. +n True if the current file is larger than n bytes. n Trues if the size of the current file is exactly n bytes. n can be followed by the letter 'k' to indicate kilobytes, or the letter 'm' to indicate megabytes. Otherwise n is assumed to represent bytes. To find all files on drive C larger than 1 megabyte, use any of the following commands: find c:/ -size +1024000 find c:/ -size +1024k find c:/ -size +1m -type type This primary will evaluate as true if the current file matches type, which can be one of "f" (file) or "d" (directory). To list all the directories below the current working directory, use a command of the form: find . -type d -mtime [+/-]n This primary will evaluate as true if the current file modification time matches n as follows: -n True if the current file modification time is less than n days old. +n True if the current file modification time is more than n days old. n True if the current file modification time is exactly n days old, where n is measured in 24- hour periods (e.g., 0=today, 1=yesterday, etc.). n can be followed by the letter 'h' to indicate hours, or the letter 'm' to indicate minutes. Otherwise n is assumed to represent days. To check for all files on the current drive that have been modified in the last 24 hours, use the command: find / -mtime -1 -exec utility [argument ...] ; This primary will invoke the utility named by utility with the indicated arguments. The end of the primary must be punctuated by a ; (semi-colon), separated from the last argument by one or more space characters. A utility name or argument containing only the characters {} will be replaced by the current path name. For example: find . -name *.c -exec ls -l {} ; will search for all files with the suffix ".c" and call the ls utility for each one, passing the current path name as the input file name to ls. This primary returns true if utility returns a zero exit status; otherwise it returns false. -ok utility [argument ...] ; This primary is equivalent to -exec, except that find will display the command line before executing it, and request affirmation that it is to be executed. -print This primary always evaluates to true and causes the current path name to be written to standard output. -depth This primary always evaluates to true and causes descent of the directory hierarchy to be done so that all directory entries are acted on before the directory itself. By default, the directory itself is acted on first, followed by the entries in that directory. To see the difference this primary makes, run the following two commands and note the different output: find / find / -depth If no expression is present, -print will be used as the expression. Also, if the given expression does not contain one of the primaries -print, -exec or -ok, the given expression will, in effect, be replaced by: ( expression ) -print #name fmt #whatis fmt - simple text formatter fmt [-j] [-b|C|c|i] [-w width] [file ...] fmt accepts the following options: -j Justify text. -b Block paragraphs. -C Centred paragraphs. -c Crown paragraphs. -I Indented paragraphs. -w Line width. fmt writes its output to standard output, and reads its input from standard input if no file is specified. #name fold #whatis fold - break lines in text files fold [-bs] [-w width] [file ...] fold accepts the following options: -b Measure line widths in bytes. Otherwise, line widths are measured in column positions, after tab, backspace and carriage return processing. -s Break lines at the last blank character (space or tab) within width column positions (or bytes). -w Line width in column positions (or bytes). The default, if this argument is not specified, is 80. fold writes its output to standard output, and reads its input from standard input if no file is specified. #name grep #whatis grep - search a file or files for a pattern grep [-E|-F] [-cilnqsvx] [-f pattern_file]... -e pattern... [file ...] grep [-E|-F] [-cilnqsvx] [-e pattern]... -f pattern_file... [file ...] grep [-E|-F] [-cilnqsvx] pattern... [file ...] grep accepts the following options: -E Reserved for future use. -F Match using fixed strings. Regard each pattern as a fixed string instead of a regular expression. -c Write only a count of selected lines. -e Add pattern to the list of patterns to be matched against the input. Use this option to specify multiple patterns on the command line. -f Read one or more patterns from pattern_file and add them to the list of patterns to be matched against the input. -i Ignore case. -l Write only the names of files containing matching lines to standard output. Path names are written once per file searched. -n Display line numbers. -q Quiet. Exit with zero status if input line is matched. No output is written. -s Suppress the writing of error messages. -v Display unmatched lines. -x Match only input lines that use all the characters in the line to match an entire fixed string or regular expression. If no -e or -f option is present, the first argument after the options is assumed to contain a pattern for matching against the input. grep writes its output to standard output, and reads its input from standard input if no file is specified. #name head #whatis head - display the first part of a file head [-s number] [-n lines] [file ...] head accepts the following options: -s Skip number input lines. -n Display lines (default 10) from the start of each input file. head writes its output to standard output, and reads input from standard input if no file is specified. #name join #whatis join - join files join [-a N | -v N] [-e string] [-o list] [-t char] [-1 field] [-2 field] file1 file2 join accepts the following options: -a N Write an output line for each unpairable line in file "N", where "N" can be 1 or 2, in addition to the default output. If both "-a1" and "-a2" are specified, all unpairable lines are output. -e string Replace empty output fields with "string" in the list selected by "-o". -o list Construct the output line as defined by "list", each element of which specifies either "0" (the join field) or "file.field", where "file" is the file number (1 or 2) and "field" is an integer field number (starting at 1). Elements in list can be separated by commas or blanks. -t char Use character "char" as the field separator for both input and output. By default, the input field separator is one or more blank characters; the output field separator is a single space character. When "- t" is specified, each appearance of "char" is regarded as significant. -v N Instead of the default output, produce only a line for each unpairable line in file number "N". If both "- v1" and "-v2" are specified, all unpairable lines are output. -1 field Join on the "field"th field of file 1 (field 1 by default). -2 field Join on the "field"th field of file 2 (field 1 by default). The join utility performs an equality join on fields within file1 and file2. By default, the first field of each input line is used as the join field, where field1 of file1 is compared with field1 of file2. When the join fields compare equal (i.e., they are paired), the default output consists of the join field, the remaining fields from file1, followed by the remaining fields from file2, with each field being separated by a single space character. file1 and file2 should be sorted alphabetically. #name ls #whatis ls - list directory contents ls [-CFLRadlmprtx1] [file ...] ls accepts the following options: -C Write multi-column output with entries sorted down the columns. -F Write a slash character (/) immediately after each name that is a directory. -L Display long file names exactly as they appear in filestore (32-bit version only). -R Recursively list sub-directories as they are encountered. -a Write out all directory entries. By default, entries beginning with a dot (.) are not listed. -d List directory names rather than their contents. -R is ignored if -d is specified. -l Long format listing. This produces a separate line of output for each file, containing: file mode, owner name, group, file size (in bytes), date and time of last file update, file name. The file mode is defined as per UNIX, but note that the group and other permissions are artificial on a Windows system. The owner is always "root" on Windows, and the group is always 0. -m Stream output format; file names are listed across the screen, separated by commas. -p Same as -F. -r Reverse the sort order to get reverse collating sequence or oldest first. -t Sort by time modified (most recently modified first). This ordering is reversed if -r is also specified. (Warning. Time sorting can take a few seconds when listing directories containing a large number of files). -x Write multi-column output with entries sorted across the columns. This is the default listing mode if neither -C, -l, -x or -1 is specified, and the output device is the console. -1 (The number one.) Force single column output. For each operand that names a file (possibly containing wild-card characters), the ls command line utility writes the name of the file or files to standard output with any associated information requested by the options. For each operand that names a directory, ls writes the names of all files contained in that directory to standard output, again with any requested, associated information. If no files are specified, the contents of the current directory are written. If more that one file is specified, ls processes each file name as though each had been passed to a separate invocation of ls. If no options are specified, -x is assumed; that is, ls will produce a multi-column listing with entries sorted across columns. #name man #whatis man - display command information man [-k] name ... man accepts the following options: -k Interpret name as a keyword. The man utility searches a database containing a summary of the WinXs command line utilities for instances of name. Each resulting line is written to standard output. If -k is not specified, man writes information about each of the utilities identified by the name operands. This information is written to standard output, which can be redirected if required. #name mv #whatis mv - move files mv [-fiRr] source_file target_file mv [-fiRr] source_file ... directory mv accepts the following options: -f Overwrite the target file if it already exists, without prompting for confirmation. Any previous occurrences of -i are ignored. -i Prompt for confirmation before overwriting an existing file. Any previous occurrences of -f are ignored. If neither -f or -i is specified on the command line, -i is assumed. -R Does nothing. This option is included for consistency with the cp utility. -r Same as -R. In the first form, mv simply moves source_file to target_file. This form is assumed when the final operand is a file, or when target_file does not identify an existing filestore object. In the second form, mv moves each file named by source_file to the target directory, which must exist; that is, the target directory will not be created by the mv utility. In this form, source_file can identify either a file or a directory. In the case of a directory, the entire directory structure rooted at source_file will be moved. In addition to moving the data of a file, mv also duplicates the mode of the file and its current access/modification times. #name nl #whatis nl - line numbering filter nl [-b type] [-v startnum] [-i incr] [-s sep] [-w width] [-n format] [file ...] nl accepts the following options: -b Specifies which lines should be numbered, where type can be one of a (number all lines), t (number non- blank lines only), n (no line numbering), or pString. In the latter case, String is a regular expression; only matching lines are numbered. The default type is t. -v The initial value used to number lines (default 1). -i The line number increment value (default 1). -s The character or characters used to separate the line number from the text line. The default is a single tab character. -w The width of a line number in columns (default 6). -n The line numbering format, where format can be one of ln (left justified), rn (right justified), or rz (right justified with leading zeros). nl writes its output to standard output, and reads its input from standard input if no file is specified. #name od #whatis od - dump files in various formats od [-v] [-A addr_base] [-j skip] [-N count] [-t type_string] [file...] od accepts the following options: -A addr_base Specifies the input base. The addr_base option is a single character, which can be one of 'd' (decimal), 'o' (octal) or 'x' (hexadecimal). The default is '-A o'. -j skip Jump over 'skip' bytes from the beginning of the input. The od utility will jump over the first 'skip' bytes of the concatenated input. By default the 'skip' option is interpreted as a decimal number. With a leading 0 it is treated as an octal number; with a leading 0x or 0X it is treated as a hexadecimal number. 'skip' can be followed by the character 'b' indicating 512 byte blocks should be skipped, by a 'k' indicating kilobytes blocks, or by a 'm' indicating megabyte blocks. -N count Format no more than 'count' bytes of input. By default 'count' is interpreted as a decimal number. With a leading 0 it is interpreted as an octal number; with a leading 0x or 0X it is treated as a hexadecimal number. The characters 'b', 'k' and 'm' can be appended to 'count' with the effects described above. -t type_string Specifies one or more input types. 'type_string' consists of a type specification character followed by an optional qualifier. The valid type specification characters are 'a' (interpret bytes as 7-bit characters in the ISO/IEC 646:1991 International Reference Version standard), 'c' (interpret bytes as 8-bit characters), 'd' (decimal numbers), 'f' (floating point numbers), 'o' (octal numbers), 'u' (unsigned decimal numbers), or 'x' (hexadecimal numbers). The type specification characters 'd', 'f', 'o', 'u' and 'x' can be followed by an optional decimal qualifier specifying the number of bytes to be transformed (e.g. '-t x4' indicates 4-byte hexadecimal values). The type specification character 'f' can also be followed by the characters 'F', 'D' or 'L', indicating float, double and long double types respectively. The type specification characters 'd', 'o', 'u' or 'x' can be followed by the characters 'C', 'S', 'I' or 'L', indicating char, short, int or long types respectively. The default setting is '-t o2'. -v Write all input data. Without this option, groups of output lines that have identical content are only output once, followed by a line containing a single asterisk character (*). The od utility copies each input file to standard output, transforming the input data according to the output types specified by the options. Input is read from standard input if no files are given on the command line. #name paste #whatis paste - concatenate corresponding or subsequent lines from files paste [-s] [-d list] [file ...] paste accepts the following options: -d list "list" is a blank or comma separated list of elements. Each element in list specifies a character to use to replace newline characters in the input. An element can be an ordinary character, or one of \n (newline), \t (tab), \\ (backslash) or \0 (empty string). The list is circular; that is, when the list is exhausted, the first element from the list is reused. When -s is specified, the list is reset at the start of each new input file; when -s is not specified, the list is reset at the start of each new line. If -d is not specified, a tab character is used by default. -s Concatenate all the lines of each input file in command line order. Otherwise, concatenate successive lines from each of the input files (that is, the first line of output will contain line1 from file1, the first element from "list", the first line from file2, etc.). The paste utility concatenates the corresponding lines from its input files (-s not specified), or it concatenates successive lines from each input file (-s specified). The newline character of every line, except the line from the last input file (or the last line from each file if -s is specified), is replaced by the next character in the "-d list". If no files are specified on the command line, or if "-" is specified, input is read from the standard input. Output is always written to standard output. #name pg #whatis pg - display file page-by-page pg [options] [file ...] pg accepts the following options: -Num Change window size (default 24 lines). -pString Use String as the command prompt (default ":"). +Num Start displaying the file at line number Num (default 1). +String Start displaying the file at the first line containing the regular expression identified by String. The pg utility is a filter that allows files to be displayed one screenful at a time. Each screen is followed by a prompt. If you press the carriage-return key, another page of the file is displayed. Other command options are described below. This utility is intended as an alternative to the MORE.EXE program delivered with all DOS systems. It provides forward and backward file movement commands, text searching, and can be used at the end of a pipeline to peruse command output. The following commands can be issued at the command prompt: PAGE_DOWN forward one screen PAGE_UP back one screen DOWN_ARROW forward one line UP_ARROW back one line RIGHT_ARROW forward one half screen LEFT_ARROW back one half screen HOME start of file END end of file h help q or Q quit [+-N]\n Nth next page n next file p previous file Nw or Nz set window size to N lines s savefile save current file in savefile /pattern/ search forward for pattern ?pattern? search backward for pattern !command execute command #name rm #whatis rm - remove files and directories rm [-fiRr] source_file ... rm accepts the following options: -f Remove source_file from the system without prompting for confirmation. Any previous occurrences of the -i option are ignored. -i Prompt for confirmation before removing source_file from the system. Any previous occurrences of the -f option are ignored. If neither -f or -i is specified on the command line, the -i option is assumed. -R Remove the file hierarchy identified by source_file, including all files and subdirectories of source_file and source_file itself. When this option is specified, source_file can identify either a file or a directory. Otherwise, if neither -R or -r is specified, source_file can only identify a file. -r Same as -R. If source_file is either "." or "..", rm will write a diagnostic message to the console and proceed to the next operand (if any). Be especially careful of the classic "rm -rf *" use of this utility, which will delete everything in the current directory, all its subdirectories, and all their contents. The effects of this command are irreversible. #name sdiff #whatis sdiff - list file differences side-by-side sdiff [-ls] [-w width] file1 file2 sdiff accepts the following options: -l List all lines from file1 but only list lines from file2 that differ or are not present in file1. -s List differences only, introducing each set of differences as per the diff utility. -w width Set the line width to "width" characters (default 80). The sdiff utility calls "diff -b" to determine the differences between file1 and file2. It then processes the output so that file1 and file2 are listed side-by-side, with difference marks appearing in the margin between the two columns of output. A "|" character in this margin indicates lines that are different, a "<" indicates extra lines in file1, and a ">" indicates extra lines in file2. The default output writes all the lines from both files. Output is always written to standard output. #name sed #whatis sed - stream editor sed [-n] script [file ...] sed [-n] [-e script] ... [-f script-file] ... [file ...] sed accepts the following options: -n Suppress the default output. -e Add the editing command specified by script to the end of the script of editing commands. Use this option to specify multiple editing commands on the command line. -f Read one or more editing commands from script_file and add them to the end of the editing script. If file is not specified on the command line, sed reads its input from standard input. The output is always written to standard output. #name sort #whatis sort - sort or merge text files sort [-bdfimnru] [-k keydef] [-t char] [-o output] [file ...] sort accepts the following options: -b Ignore leading blanks when determining the starting and ending positions of a restricted sort key. -d Dictionary ordering. -f Fold character case. -i Ignore non-printing characters. -m Merge only. Assumes the input files are already sorted. -n Sort numerically. -r Reverse sort order. -u Unique. Suppress all but one in each set of lines that have equal sort keys. -k keydef specifies a restricted sort key. -t Use char as the field separator character. -o Write output to the file named by output, rather than to standard output. The command line version of sort sorts the lines of all named files together and writes the result to standard output, or output if the -o option is specified. #name split #whatis split - break a file into fixed size pieces split [[-l count]|[-b n[k|m]] [file [suffix]] split accepts the following options: -l Split file into one or more files each containing count lines. -b Split file into n byte chunks, nb 512-byte chunks, nk kilobyte chunks, or nm megabyte chunks. The generated files will have names beginning at file.suffix. If file is not specified on the command line, input will be taken from standard input and output files will be named xaa, xab, etc.. #name strings #whatis strings - find printable strings in a file strings [-n number] [-t format] [file ...] strings accepts the following options: -n Specifies the minimum string length in bytes (default 4). -t Each string is written to the output preceded by its byte offset. The format is a single character d (the offset will be written in decimal), o (the offset will be written in octal), or x (the offset will be written in hexadecimal). strings writes its output to standard output, and reads its input from standard input if no file is specified. #name tail #whatis tail - display the last part of a file tail [-f][-n lines] [file ...] tail accepts the following options: -f Monitor a file as it grows. Every second, tail wakes up and displays any new data added to the end of the file. This flag is ignored if reading from a pipe. Use Ctrl-C to terminate the command when this flag is specified. -n Display lines (default 10) from the end of each input file. tail writes its output to standard output, and reads input from standard input if no file is specified. #name tee #whatis tee - duplicate standard input tee [-a] [file ...] tee accepts the following options: -a Append the output to files rather than overwriting them. The tee utility copies standard input to standard output, making a copy in zero or more files. #name touch #whatis touch - change file modification time touch [-acm] [-r ref_file | -t time] file... touch accepts the following options: -a Reserved for future use. -c Normally, touch will create file if it does not already exist. Specifying -c overrides this behaviour and file will not be created. -m Reserved for future use. -r ref_file Use the modification time of ref_file instead of the current time. -t time Use the specified time instead of the current time, where time is a decimal number of the form: [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.SS]. The two digit sequences represent: CC The first two digits of the year (century). YY The second two digits of the year. MM The month of the year [01-12]. DD The day of the month [01-31]. hh The hour of the day [00-23]. mm The minute of the hour [00-59]. SS The second of the minute [00-61]. CC and YY are optional. If neither is given, the current year is assumed. If YY is specified but CC is not, YY values in the range [69-99] are assumed to refer to the 20th century (i.e., 19YY), YY values in the range [00-68] are assumed to refer to the 21st century (i.e., 20YY). Note that on only dates between Jan 1, 1980 and Jan 1, 2036 are supported on Windows systems. The results of specifying any date outside this range are unspecified. If neither -r or -t is specified, the modification time of file will be set to the current time. #name tr #whatis tr - translate characters tr [-c] string1 string2 tr -d [-c] string1 tr -s [-c] string1 tr accepts the following options: -c Complement string1. -d Delete characters in string1. -s Squeeze characters in string1. If neither -d nor -s is specified, tr will replace all input characters identified in String1 with the corresponding character in String2. The input is always read from standard input, and the output is always written to standard output. #name uncompress #whatis uncompress - restore a compressed file to its original state compress -d [-c] [file ...] compress accepts the following options: -c cat output. Normally the named files are uncompressed in place. If this option is specified, the output is written to standard output instead. If file is not specified, the input is read from standard input and the output is written to standard output. #name uniq #whatis uniq - report or filter out repeated lines in a file uniq [-c|-d|-u] [-f fields] [-s char] [infile [outfile]] uniq accepts the following options: -c Precede each output line with a count of the number of times the line occurred in the input. -d Suppress the writing of lines that are not repeated in the input. -f field Begin the comparison of adjacent lines in the input starting at the specified field number (default 1). A field is regarded as a maximal string of non-blank characaters, where a blank character is defined as <tab> or <space>. If this option specifies more fields than are present in an input line, a null string is used for comparison. -s chars Ignore the first "chars" characters when doing comparisons. If -f is also specified, ignore the first "chars" characters after the first "fields" fields. -u Suppress the writing of lines that are repeated in the input. The uniq utility reads an input file comparing adjacent lines, and writes one copy of each line to the output. If infile is not specified, standard input is read; output is written to outfile, or standard output if outfile is not specified. #name unix2dos #whatis unix2dos - convert UNIX to DOS text file format unix2dos [-o output] file ... unix2dos accepts the following options: -o Normally unix2dos converts files in place. If this option is specified, and output names a file, all the input is converted and appended to the named file; if it names a directory, the input files are copied to the named directory and then converted. If file names a directory, this option must be specified and output must also identify a directory. #name uudecode #whatis uudecode - decode a binary file uudecode [input-file] If input-file is not specified, uudecode will read its input from standard input. Output is always written to standard output. #name uuencode #whatis uuencode - encode a binary file uuencode [input-file] unix-name If input-file is not specified, uuencode will read its input from standard input. Output is always written to standard output. #name wc #whatis wc - count words, lines and bytes in a file wc [-lw] [-c | -m] [file ...] wc accepts the following options: -l Count lines -w Count words -c Count bytes -m Count characters If no options are specified, lines, words and bytes are counted by default. The output is written to standard output. Input is taken from standard input if file is not specified. #name whence #whatis whence - interpret command name whence [-v] name ... whence accepts the following options: -v List all possible paths to 'name'. The whence command accepts one or more command names and shows how these names will be interpreted by the command interpreter. That is, it lists the full pathname of each input command, complete with its extension. If the '-v' option is specified, whence lists all instances of 'name'. For example, the command: > whence -v find might produce the output: find is C:\WINXS32\BIN\find.exe find is C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\find.exe indicating that the command will be executed from "C:\WINXS32\BIN\find.exe", and also that there is another find command located in "C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\find.exe". This second command is effectively hidden unless the full pathname is specified. To change the above order of commands, you can modify the PATH variable to change the directory search order. #name xargs #whatis xargs - construct argument lists and execute a command xargs [-ipqtx] [-I replstr] [-n number] [-s size] [utility [args ...]] xargs accepts the following options: -I replstr Insert mode. "utility" will be executed for each line of input, replacing "replstr" in "args" with the contents of the input line. -i Equivalent to "-I {}" -n number Limit the number of arguments in each invocation of utility to "number". -p Prompt mode. Prompt for confirmation before each invocation of utility. -q Quote mode. When insert mode is specified, quote each instance of "replstr" in args after substitution. You should use this option if the input contains file names that may contain spaces. -s size Limit the command length to "size" bytes. -t Enable trace mode. Each generated command will be displayed prior to invocation. -x Terminate the command if a generated command line containing "number" arguments will not fit into "size" bytes. The xargs utility contructs a command line consisting of "utility", followed by "args", followed by as many arguments read from standard input as will fit into the specified "number" and "size" constraints. The constructed command is then executed. By default, "size" is limited to 512 bytes; "number" is unlimited. Alternatively, if insert mode is set (-I or -i specified), utility is invoked for each line read from standard input, taking the entire input line as a single argument. Each instance of "replstr" in "args" is replaced by the contents of the input line. If "utility" is not specified on the command line, "echo" is set by default.