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Table Of Contents  CertiGuide to A+ (A+ 4 Real)
 9  Chapter 1: What are Operating Systems and How Do They Work?
      9  CDI System Commands

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The CD Command
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 The Prompt Command
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The DIR Command

Typing DIR and pressing return will display a list of every file stored in the current directory, which is the CDI equivalent of viewing a folder listing in Explorer. Various parameters are available to change the information displayed by the DIR command, the most common and useful of which is the “/P” switch. This instructs the DIR command to display only one page of directory listings, and then pause the display until a key is pressed – useful for directories with large amounts of files.

At the bottom of every directory, listing a summary paragraph is displayed, detailing the number of files in the directory and the total disk space they consume.

Figure 177: Summary of Directory Information

 

Figure 178: Using the /P (Pause) Switch on the Dir Command

 

DIR has many useful options, so it is worthwhile reviewing the help output of the “/?” switch. In many cases it is possible to combine switches on one command.

Just using the DIR command to list the entire contents of directories has limited uses, so wildcards can be used to modify the output. They are used in exactly the same way as the Explorer’s GUI search feature; just specify a partial pattern and use an asterisk to allow the DIR command to match the rest. A second, less used wildcard is available by using a question mark in place of unknown characters. Whereas a single asterisk will pattern match any number of characters, a question mark will only pattern match one character.

Some examples of patterns and files they match are shown in Table 6.


Table 6: Dir Command – Search Switches

Pattern

Matches

Comp*.doc

CompTIA.doc, Computers.doc

Comp?.doc

Comp1.doc, CompA.doc

Comp*.*

CompTIA.doc, Computers.txt

Comp?.*

Comp1.doc, CompA.txt

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