DOS Command Reference

Toka-DOS has two types of command. The internal commands (DIR, COPY, DEL, and the others) are part of COMMAND.COM, and are always available. The external commands are the programs in C:\DOS (XCOPY, MEM, ATTRIB, and the others). Each external command is a file. Most of them come from FreeDOS with a Toka-DOS name, and General Simulation Works wrote some of them. This page lists the internal commands first. It then describes each external command and its switches. Where the behavior in Toka-DOS is different from the usual behavior, this page says so.

Internal commands

These commands are part of COMMAND.COM. They are not files on the disk. The shell holds them in memory. Thus they are available at the C:\> prompt and in a batch file, even before PATH is set, and even if C:\DOS is absent. Add /? to a command to see its full help.

Some commands have a short name and a long name with the same function: MD/MKDIR, RD/RMDIR, CD/CHDIR, DEL/ERASE, REN/RENAME, and LH/LOADHIGH.

Files and directories

Command Syntax What it does
COPY COPY [/A\|/B] source [+ src ...] [dest] [/V] [/Y\|/-Y] Copy files. src1+src2 joins two files into one. /A ASCII, /B binary, /V verify, /Y overwrite with no question, /-Y ask first.
DEL / ERASE DEL [path]file [/P] [/V] Delete files. Wildcards are permitted. /P asks about each file. /V lists the deleted files.
REN / RENAME REN [path]oldname newname Change the name of a file or a directory.
TYPE TYPE [path]file Print a text file on the screen.
DIR DIR [path][file] [/P] [/W] [/A[:attrs]] [/O[:order]] [/S] [/B] [/L] List the files. /P one page at a time, /W wide, /S include the subdirectories, /B names only, /A select by attribute, /O sort. DIR puts the directories first and sorts by name, unless you give a different order. /O:U gives the order on the disk. The DIRCMD variable sets the defaults.
MD / MKDIR MD [drive:]path Make a directory.
RD / RMDIR RD [drive:]path Remove an empty directory.
CD / CHDIR CD [drive:][path] Show or change the current directory. CD - returns to the previous directory.
CDD CDD [drive:][path] Change the current directory and the current drive together.
TRUENAME TRUENAME [path] Show the full path of a name.
VOL VOL [drive:] Show the volume label and the serial number of a disk.

Batch files and scripts

Command Syntax What it does
ECHO ECHO [ON\|OFF] / ECHO message / ECHO. Print a message, or set the command echo to on or off. ECHO. prints an empty line.
REM REM [comment] A comment line in a batch file or in CONFIG.SYS. (TITLE is a synonym. DOS has no window title.)
IF IF [NOT] ERRORLEVEL n cmd / IF [NOT] a==b cmd / IF [NOT] EXIST file cmd Run cmd when the condition is true. IF /I ignores the letter case in a text comparison.
FOR FOR %v IN (set) DO cmd Do cmd for each item in set. Write %%v in a batch file.
GOTO GOTO label Go to a :label line in a batch file.
CALL CALL [path]file [args] Run a different batch file, and then return.
SHIFT SHIFT [DOWN] Move the %1 %2 ... batch parameters along by one.
PAUSE PAUSE [message] Wait for a keypress. The message is "Press any key to continue...".
EXIT EXIT Leave this shell. The boot shell starts with /P, thus it ignores EXIT.

Environment and shell

Command Syntax What it does
SET SET [/P] [/C] [var[=value]] Show, set, or clear an environment variable. /P reads the value from the user. SET var with no value removes the variable.
PATH PATH [dir[;...]] Show or set the program search path.
PROMPT PROMPT [text] Change the prompt. The default is $P$G.
ALIAS ALIAS [name[=]string] Show, set, or remove a command alias.
VER VER [/R] [/W] [/D] [/C] Show the version. /R adds the kernel details. /W, /D, and /C show the warranty, the redistribution terms, and the contributors.
DATE DATE [/D] [date] Show or set the date. /D does not ask for a value.
TIME TIME [/T] [time] Show or set the time. /T does not ask for a value.
CHCP CHCP [nnn] Show or set the active code page.
VERIFY VERIFY [ON\|OFF] Set the verify-after-write function to on or off.
BREAK BREAK [ON\|OFF] Set the extended Ctrl+C check to on or off.
CLS CLS Clear the screen.
BEEP BEEP Sound the speaker.
CTTY CTTY device Move the console input and output to a different device, for example COM1.

How to load a program high

Command Syntax What it does
LH / LOADHIGH LH [path]file [args] Load a program into an upper memory block. It needs TOKAEMM UMBs. If no block is free, it does a normal load.
LOADFIX LOADFIX [path]file [args] Load a program above the first 64 KB. Use it for an old program that fails there with "Packed file corrupt".

History and the directory stack

Command Syntax What it does
DOSKEY DOSKEY The command recall and edit functions in the shell. Up and Down recall a previous line. Tab completes a file name.
HISTORY HISTORY [size] Show the command history, or change the size of its buffer.
PUSHD PUSHD [path] Put the current directory on a stack. It can also change to path.
POPD POPD Return to the directory that PUSHD put on the stack last.
DIRS DIRS Show the directory stack.

Help and diagnostics

Command Syntax What it does
? ? List each internal command.
WHICH WHICH command... Show the program that a command name runs.
LFNFOR LFNFOR [ON\|OFF] Set the long-filename expansion in FOR to on or off.
MEMORY MEMORY Report the internal memory use of the shell. This is not MEM, the external memory report.

External commands

The remainder of this page describes the programs in C:\DOS, one in each section. They are on the PATH. Thus you can run them by name from any directory.

XCOPY

XCOPY copies files and directory trees. The Toka-DOS XCOPY is project code, and not a FreeDOS binary. Its behavior agrees with the documented behavior of XCOPY. It has fewer switches than the MS-DOS XCOPY.

XCOPY source [destination] [/S] [/E] [/P] [/V] [/W] [/Y] [/-Y]
Switch Effect
/S Copy the directories and the subdirectories, but not the empty ones.
/E Copy the subdirectories, including the empty ones. This includes /S.
/P Ask <file> (Y/N)? before it makes each destination file.
/V Verify each write. It sets the DOS verify-after-write flag for the run.
/W Print "Press any key to begin copying..." and wait before the copy.
/Y Overwrite an existing destination file with no question.
/-Y Ask before it overwrites an existing file. This is also the default.

These switches are not available: /C, /D, /H, /K, /N, /O, /T, /U, /L, /Z.

The MS-DOS XCOPY asks "(F = file, D = directory)?" when the type of the destination is not clear. The Toka-DOS XCOPY does not ask. It uses /S, /E, or a wildcard source with more than one file to select between a file and a directory.

Exit codes: 0 success, 1 no file found, 4 initialization error (incorrect usage, insufficient memory, or an incorrect path), 5 disk write error.

MEM

MEM reports the memory use. Toka-DOS adds a category display. It also changes the function of /P from the FreeDOS MEM.

MEM [/P] [/FULL] [/DEBUG] [/PAGE] [...]

By default, MEM shows a memory map of four lines and 79 columns after the numeric summary. Conventional memory, upper memory, and extended memory come one after the other, in light blue, light cyan, and light green. In each colored range, ▓ (CP437 B2) is memory in use, and ░ (CP437 B0) is free memory.

On the standard 64 MiB Izarra3000, the map gives 3 cells to conventional memory, 2 cells to upper memory, and 311 cells to extended memory. Each of the 316 cells is approximately 207 KiB. The summary shows 640 KiB of conventional memory, the full 384 KiB upper region, and 64,512 KiB in the row with the name Extended (XMS). The upper category covers the full address region from A0000 to FFFFF, with the video memory and the ROMs. With its default EMS frame, TOKAEMM can allocate 96 KiB there. Under NOEMS, the UMB space increases to 160 KiB.

There is no separate EMS row, and there is no EMS partition. XMS blocks, VCPI pages, and EMS pages all come from one extended pool. Thus the Extended (XMS) row has a star, and a footnote says that the manager simulates EMS from XMS as necessary. MS-DOS 6.22 with EMM386 uses the same convention.

In the FreeDOS MEM, /P is only a prefix of /PAGE, which stops after each screen. That MEM needs /FULL or /DEBUG for the size and the segment of each program.

In Toka-DOS, MEM /P shows each program in memory, with its size and its segment, one screen at a time. The headings Conventional Memory Detail and Upper Memory Detail show the position of each block. /P does not print the default summary, so that the program table stays on the screen at the end. Use MEM /P /SUMMARY to add the numeric summary and the memory map. /FULL and /DEBUG continue to operate alone.

ATTRIB

ATTRIB shows or changes the file attributes.

ATTRIB { options | [path\][file] | /@[list] }
Option Effect
+H / -H Set or clear the Hidden attribute.
+S / -S Set or clear the System attribute.
+R / -R Set or clear the Read-only attribute.
+A / -A Set or clear the Archive attribute.
/S Process the files in all of the directories below the given path.
/D Process the directory names for a wildcard argument.
/@ Process the files in the given list file, or in the standard input.

A comma before a file name (,file) clears all of the attributes together. The MS-DOS ATTRIB has the same behavior, although its documentation does not give it.

CHOICE

CHOICE asks for a keypress and returns it as an exit code. Use it in a batch file.

CHOICE [/B] [/C[:]choices] [/N] [/S] [/T[:]c,nn] [text]
Switch Effect
/B Sound the speaker when the prompt appears.
/C[:]choices The permitted keys. The default is yn.
/N Do not print the list of choices after the prompt text.
/S Obey the letter case in the comparison.
/T[:]c,nn Select key c automatically after nn seconds, if the user presses no key.

MORE

MORE shows text one screen at a time.

command | MORE [/T4]
MORE [/T4] file...
MORE [/T4] < file

/T1 to /T9 set the tab width. The default is 4. Space shows the next screen. N moves to the next file. Q stops the program.

FIND

FIND looks for an exact string in text.

FIND [/C] [/I] [/N] [/V] "string" [file ...]
Switch Effect
/C Print only the number of lines with a match.
/I Ignore the letter case.
/N Show the line number with each match.
/V Print the lines that do not contain the string.

Exit codes: 0 if FIND found one match or more, 1 if it found no match, and 2 for a usage error.

DELTREE

DELTREE deletes a directory and all of its contents.

DELTREE [/Y] [/V]

Warning: DELTREE deletes the files permanently. You cannot recover them.

Without /Y, DELTREE asks Y/N for each item before it deletes anything. The MS-DOS DELTREE does the same. /Y deletes without the questions. /V reports the item counts and the totals at the end.

LABEL

LABEL makes, changes, or deletes the volume label of a disk.

LABEL [drive:][label] [/?]

If you give no label, LABEL asks for one. If you then give an empty label, LABEL asks you to confirm the deletion of the existing label.

MOVE

MOVE moves a file, or changes the name of a directory.

MOVE [/Y | /-Y] source1[,source2[,...]] destination
Switch Effect
/Y Overwrite an existing destination file with no question.
/-Y Ask before it overwrites a file. This is the default, unless COPYCMD gives a different value.
/V Verify each file as MOVE writes it to the destination.
/S Use the source as a directory, without a wildcard. Use it to move a full tree. The usage text of MOVE does not list this switch, but the switch operates.

The COPYCMD environment variable can hold /Y, /N, or /-Y. It then changes the default overwrite behavior, as it does for COPY and XCOPY.

SORT

SORT sorts text line by line, from the standard input to the standard output.

SORT [/R] [/+num] [/A] [/?] [file]
Switch Effect
/R Reverse the sort order.
/+num Start the sort at column num. The first column is 1.
/A Sort in ASCII order, and not with the active country table.
/N Sort with the country-aware (NLS) collation. This is the default.

GSWMODE

GSWMODE is a General Simulation Works tool. It changes the CPU speed class of the GSW-586 from inside DOS. A restart is not necessary.

GSWMODE 386-slow | 386 | 486 | 586 [/T]

The letter case of a mode name is not important. With a correct mode, GSWMODE writes the related code to the mode port of the Lotura chipset. It saves the code in CMOS. It then shows:

GSWMODE: switched to <mode>, saved.

The speed stays after a restart, as if you set it in the Del setup panel. Add /T to change the speed for this session only. /T does not change the saved speed:

GSWMODE 386-slow /T
GSWMODE: switched to 386-slow for this session only.

Use /T to run one program at a different speed. Without /T, GSWMODE saves the speed, as the machine saves its other settings.

With no argument, or with an unknown argument, GSWMODE prints the usage text and both speeds. It changes nothing. The two values are different only after a /T:

Usage: GSWMODE 386-slow|386|486|586 [/T]
  The speed is saved and survives a reboot; /T applies it
  for this session only.
Current mode: 386-slow
Saved mode:   486

GSWMODE refuses the old 286 name. It shows this message:

CPU mode '286' was removed; use '386-slow'.

The Tab boot menu and the Del setup panel write the same CMOS byte. Thus all three controls agree about the speed at the next start.

UNHALT

UNHALT is a General Simulation Works tool. It makes the BIOS keyboard wait use a loop, and not a halt of the CPU.

UNHALT      use a loop while it waits for a key
UNHALT /H   halt while it waits (the default)
UNHALT /?   usage

A program can ask the BIOS for a keystroke (INT 16h) when no keystroke is available. The IzarraVM BIOS then halts the CPU until the next interrupt. It does not loop on the keyboard buffer. A keypress raises IRQ1 and starts the CPU immediately, thus the response is not slower. But the emulator does not interpret a loop that does no work.

A BIOS of the period could do either of these two things, thus both are correct. A program can detect the difference in two conditions:

  • The program masks the timer interrupt and the keyboard interrupt, and then waits for a key. No key can arrive, thus the program stops in both conditions. But a loop continues to read the keyboard buffer, and a halt has no interrupt to start the CPU again.
  • The program expects the time to increase smoothly during the wait, and not in steps of approximately 1/18 second.

These two conditions are not frequent. If a program operates incorrectly while it waits for input, run UNHALT first:

UNHALT
MYGAME

UNHALT /H sets the halt again, without a restart. The machine does not save this setting, and each reset starts with the halt. Put UNHALT in AUTOEXEC.BAT if a program needs the loop at each boot.

UNHALT changes the BIOS keyboard wait only. Toka-DOS does its own halt while DOS waits for input. To stop that halt, put IDLEHALT=0 in CONFIG.SYS and restart the machine.

SNDCTRL

SNDCTRL is the setup utility of the ReSonique II sound card. It changes the IRQ and the DMA of the card from inside DOS.

SNDCTRL                 full-screen configuration
SNDCTRL /S              show the current assignment and exit
SNDCTRL /B              two-row boot summary and exit (no CMOS writes)
SNDCTRL /B /T           boot summary with a tree-styled prefix
SNDCTRL /SBIRQ:n        Sound Blaster IRQ         2, 5, 7, 10
SNDCTRL /SBDMAL:n       Sound Blaster 8-bit DMA   0, 1, 3
SNDCTRL /SBDMAH:n       Sound Blaster 16-bit DMA  5, 6, 7
SNDCTRL /WSSIRQ:n       Windows Sound System IRQ  7, 9, 10, 11
SNDCTRL /WSSDMA:n       Windows Sound System DMA  0, 1, 3
SNDCTRL /MPU:nnn        MPU-401 port              300, 330
SNDCTRL /?              usage

With no argument, SNDCTRL draws a configuration screen. The arrow keys or Tab move between the values. Enter opens the list of values that the resource supports. F10 applies the values, and Esc cancels. A * marks a value that does not apply to that device. With a switch on the command line, SNDCTRL applies the switch and draws nothing.

/B prints a two-row boot summary: a heading, and then a line of values for both devices in the BLASTER style. It then exits. It does not write the mixer, CMOS, the environment, or AUTOEXEC.BAT. /T puts the tree connector of the Toka-DOS boot screen in front of that summary. /T has an effect only with /B. SNDCTRL /T alone opens the configuration screen.

A change moves both devices immediately, without a restart. SNDCTRL then saves the assignment in CMOS, changes BLASTER in the current environment, and writes the SET BLASTER line in C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT again. The full-screen display and the command line do the same operations.

The Sound Blaster and the Windows Sound System codec cannot share an IRQ line or a DMA channel. The full-screen lists do not show the resources that the other device holds. The command line refuses such a combination, and writes nothing.

The usual reason to run this utility is a game with a fixed IRQ in its code, which does not read BLASTER. The card uses IRQ 7 because almost all such games expect IRQ 7. But some of them need IRQ 5. See Why the Sound Blaster uses IRQ 7.

SNDMIXER

SNDMIXER sets the volume levels on the mixer of the ReSonique II card. The full-screen display has seven vertical faders, one for each source.

SNDMIXER                full-screen mixer
SNDMIXER /L             list the current levels
SNDMIXER /CFG file      restore the levels saved in a file
SNDMIXER /M n           MASTER      0 (mute) to 10 (full)
SNDMIXER /F n           FMSYNTH     OPL3 music
SNDMIXER /W n           WAVE        SB16 DSP and WSS codec
SNDMIXER /C n           CD-ROM      Red Book audio
SNDMIXER /I n           MIDI        wavetable synthesis
SNDMIXER /P n           PC speaker  four positions: 0 3 7 10
SNDMIXER /A n           AMP         output gain, same four positions
SNDMIXER /S             suppress all output
SNDMIXER /?             usage

Tab and the arrow keys select a fader. Up and Down move the fader. Home and End move it to the top and to the bottom of its travel. The digit keys set a level directly. On the six faders that decrease the level, the bottom is a mute. On AMP, which increases the level, the bottom is 0 dB, which is no gain. SNDMIXER writes each level to the hardware immediately.

Two buttons are at the bottom of the box, after the seven faders in the same Tab sequence:

  • Accept closes the mixer and keeps the new levels. It prints Settings applied.
  • Cancel sets the levels that were in effect when the mixer opened. Esc does the same.
  • Enter or Space operates the selected button. It does nothing when a fader is selected.
  • F10 saves the levels to C:\VOLCONF.CFG and exits. It is the only key that writes a file.

Each step is 4 dB. The volume registers of the card have 2 dB for each step, over a range of 62 dB. Ten fader positions at equal distances in the register range would put seven of them in the top 12 dB. Ten steps of 4 dB give ten positions that a listener can hear apart. Position 10 is the power-on level of the card, and position 0 is a mute.

The PC-speaker fader has four positions, and not ten, because the card gives that input two bits and not five. A value between two positions goes up to the next position. Thus a low setting does not become silence.

AMP is the output gain of the card (mixer registers 0x41 and 0x42). It is the one fader that adds level. It has the same four positions as the PC speaker, because that register is also two bits wide. But its positions increase the level: step 0 is 0 dB, step 3 is +6 dB, step 7 is +12 dB, and step 10 is +18 dB. Step 0 is the power-on setting. It is not a mute. It is the amplifier with no gain. A value between two positions goes up, as it does on the PC speaker.

Warning: gain above 0 dB can clip the signal. The mix keeps 6 dB of headroom after the mixer, which is sufficient for one leg at full scale. Step 3 uses that headroom. Steps 7 and 10 are more than the headroom, and a loud source will distort. The card has these positions, thus the fader has them. To make a quiet game louder, use AMP after MASTER is at 10.

A MIDI level of 0 writes the wavetable mute bit. It does not write a level of zero. On the wavetable, the card makes a level of zero the quietest audible step, and not silence. No other control in the machine reaches that leg. Without this behavior, a program that cleared the mixer registers would make MIDI silent for the remainder of the session, with no cause on the screen.

WAVE sets the two digital-audio paths together: the Sound Blaster DSP and the Windows Sound System codec. No program uses both at the same time, and they carry the same class of audio.

/CFG saves the levels to a file. The default AUTOEXEC.BAT sets them again at the next boot:

SNDMIXER /CFG C:\VOLCONF.CFG /S

/CFG alone reads the file and writes to the card. /CFG with a channel switch applies the switches, and then writes them into the file. /S stops all output, which keeps the boot screen clear. /S can be at any position on the command line.

F10 in the full-screen mixer always saves to C:\VOLCONF.CFG, which is the file that the boot line reads. /CFG is the boot-restore form, and it does not open the mixer. To keep the levels in a different file, use the command-line form: SNDMIXER /M 8 /F 6 /CFG C:\GAMES\QUIET.CFG.

The file is plain text. You can read it with TYPE, and you can change it with the EDIT editor. Each line has the form CHANNEL=step. The channel is MASTER, FMSYNTH, WAVE, CD, MIDI, SPEAKER, or AMP. Spaces around the = are permitted. A ; or a # starts a comment. The parser ignores a line that it does not recognize, and does not refuse the file. A channel that the file does not name keeps its current level.

The default file is in the root of C:, and not in C:\DOS, because C: is not always the Toka-DOS image. If you give IzarraVM a folder of games, that folder becomes C: and has no DOS directory. A save into a directory that does not exist fails. The root of a mounted drive always exists.

TOKAMOUS

TOKAMOUS is the General Simulation Works PS/2 mouse driver. It is a terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) program. It supplies the standard INT 33h mouse interface, which is Microsoft Mouse compatible. It also supplies the CuteMouse wheel extension.

TOKAMOUS [/T]

The driver installs itself and returns to the prompt. AUTOEXEC.BAT loads it with LH TOKAMOUS, which puts it in a TOKAEMM upper memory block when one is free. After the installation, it prints:

Toka-DOS mouse driver installed.

A DOS program then uses INT 33h to reach the driver. The functions include show and hide of the cursor, the position and the button state, the motion callbacks, and the wheel functions. Software finds the wheel functions with the CuteMouse AX=0x11 detection call.

/T (or -T) puts the tree connector of the Toka-DOS boot screen in front of the sign-on line:

├─> Toka-DOS mouse driver installed.

It is off by default.

Next