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Bit of a historical question: MS-DOS
I've been trying to remember this, and I honestly can't remember it
anymore. In MS-DOS, where were the standard external commands located? The only thing I remember about MS-DOS was that the command.com was located in the root directory (along with autoexec.bat, config.sys, and the hidden files msdos.sys & io.sys). Slightly different names for the PC-DOS version, such as pcdos.sys & ibmio.sys, but otherwise identical. The standard external commands were those like chkdsk or xcopy, which weren't built into the command.com. Was there an MSDOS folder or something which contained these commands? Yousuf Khan |
#2
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Bit of a historical question: MS-DOS
From: "Yousuf Khan"
I've been trying to remember this, and I honestly can't remember it anymore. In MS-DOS, where were the standard external commands located? The only thing I remember about MS-DOS was that the command.com was located in the root directory (along with autoexec.bat, config.sys, and the hidden files msdos.sys & io.sys). Slightly different names for the PC-DOS version, such as pcdos.sys & ibmio.sys, but otherwise identical. The standard external commands were those like chkdsk or xcopy, which weren't built into the command.com. Was there an MSDOS folder or something which contained these commands? Yousuf Khan It depended upon the DOS falvour; PC/MS/DR. However it was always located in the PATH (%PATH%). -- Dave Multi-AV Scanning Tool - http://multi-av.thespykiller.co.uk http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp |
#3
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Bit of a historical question: MS-DOS
David H. Lipman wrote:
From: "Yousuf Khan" I've been trying to remember this, and I honestly can't remember it anymore. In MS-DOS, where were the standard external commands located? The only thing I remember about MS-DOS was that the command.com was located in the root directory (along with autoexec.bat, config.sys, and the hidden files msdos.sys & io.sys). Slightly different names for the PC-DOS version, such as pcdos.sys & ibmio.sys, but otherwise identical. The standard external commands were those like chkdsk or xcopy, which weren't built into the command.com. Was there an MSDOS folder or something which contained these commands? Yousuf Khan It depended upon the DOS falvour; PC/MS/DR. However it was always located in the PATH (%PATH%). I normally kept mine in the C:\DOS directory, and made sure both it and C:\$PROGDIR for all the programs were in the path. As long as all the program locations were in the path, it didn't really matter where they were. On a Toshiba laptop I had with DOS 3.3 in ROM when first booted from new, it showed all the DOS commands in C:\, with everything else on D:\, which was the Hard Drive, and the path was set to include D:\ by default. This worked fine until you found a program which was hard coded only to run from the C: drive, then I had to copy the contents of the ROM onto the HD, and disable the ROM in the BIOS, losing about half a megabyte of the 10 megabyte HD. I've still got the Toshiba DOS 6.xx extensions on floppy somewhere, along with install floppies for all MS-DOS versions except DOS 4. -- Tciao for Now! John. |
#4
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Bit of a historical question: MS-DOS
"Yousuf Khan" wrote in message
... I've been trying to remember this, and I honestly can't remember it anymore. In MS-DOS, where were the standard external commands located? The only thing I remember about MS-DOS was that the command.com was located in the root directory (along with autoexec.bat, config.sys, and the hidden files msdos.sys & io.sys). Slightly different names for the PC-DOS version, such as pcdos.sys & ibmio.sys, but otherwise identical. The standard external commands were those like chkdsk or xcopy, which weren't built into the command.com. Was there an MSDOS folder or something which contained these commands? Yousuf Khan As I recall, the default location for MS-DOS (at least v. 5 and 6.x) was at C:\DOS -- Glen Ventura MS MVP Oct. 2002 - Sept. 2009 CompTIA A+ |
#5
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Bit of a historical question: MS-DOS
Yousuf Khan wrote:
I've been trying to remember this, and I honestly can't remember it anymore. In MS-DOS, where were the standard external commands located? The only thing I remember about MS-DOS was that the command.com was located in the root directory (along with autoexec.bat, config.sys, and the hidden files msdos.sys & io.sys). Slightly different names for the PC-DOS version, such as pcdos.sys & ibmio.sys, but otherwise identical. The standard external commands were those like chkdsk or xcopy, which weren't built into the command.com. Was there an MSDOS folder or something which contained these commands? Before there was a hard drive (and using 5 1/4" floppies for instance), the external commands were on the floppy disk, Yousuf. If you needed one of those commands you had to have the floppy in the drive. The internal commands were in memory and available without the floppy in the drive. They were loaded at boot up time. If you had two floppy drives and wanted to do a diskcopy from A: to B: you had to have the DOS floppy inserted in a drive (A: was convenient because you could dispense with the path because you had booted up from A: and A: was part of the prompt), and execute diskcopy A: B: and the command (now copied into memory) would pause to allow removing the DOS floppy and inserting a floppy into A: (and B: for that matter). Those, of course, were the good old days. TomT |
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Bit of a historical question: MS-DOS
On Fri, 1 Jun 2012 17:26:07 -0400, "glee"
wrote: "Yousuf Khan" wrote in message ... I've been trying to remember this, and I honestly can't remember it anymore. In MS-DOS, where were the standard external commands located? The only thing I remember about MS-DOS was that the command.com was located in the root directory (along with autoexec.bat, config.sys, and the hidden files msdos.sys & io.sys). Slightly different names for the PC-DOS version, such as pcdos.sys & ibmio.sys, but otherwise identical. The standard external commands were those like chkdsk or xcopy, which weren't built into the command.com. Was there an MSDOS folder or something which contained these commands? Yousuf Khan As I recall, the default location for MS-DOS (at least v. 5 and 6.x) was at C:\DOS That's what I remember too, but at my age, I don't trust my memory g |
#7
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Bit of a historical question: MS-DOS
"Ken Blake" wrote in message
... On Fri, 1 Jun 2012 17:26:07 -0400, "glee" wrote: "Yousuf Khan" wrote in message ... I've been trying to remember this, and I honestly can't remember it anymore. In MS-DOS, where were the standard external commands located? The only thing I remember about MS-DOS was that the command.com was located in the root directory (along with autoexec.bat, config.sys, and the hidden files msdos.sys & io.sys). Slightly different names for the PC-DOS version, such as pcdos.sys & ibmio.sys, but otherwise identical. The standard external commands were those like chkdsk or xcopy, which weren't built into the command.com. Was there an MSDOS folder or something which contained these commands? Yousuf Khan As I recall, the default location for MS-DOS (at least v. 5 and 6.x) was at C:\DOS That's what I remember too, but at my age, I don't trust my memory g yes, well with MS-DOS, you need less memory anyway... lol |
#8
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Bit of a historical question: MS-DOS
On Fri, 1 Jun 2012 20:55:33 -0400, "glee"
wrote: "Ken Blake" wrote in message ... On Fri, 1 Jun 2012 17:26:07 -0400, "glee" wrote: "Yousuf Khan" wrote in message ... I've been trying to remember this, and I honestly can't remember it anymore. In MS-DOS, where were the standard external commands located? The only thing I remember about MS-DOS was that the command.com was located in the root directory (along with autoexec.bat, config.sys, and the hidden files msdos.sys & io.sys). Slightly different names for the PC-DOS version, such as pcdos.sys & ibmio.sys, but otherwise identical. The standard external commands were those like chkdsk or xcopy, which weren't built into the command.com. Was there an MSDOS folder or something which contained these commands? Yousuf Khan As I recall, the default location for MS-DOS (at least v. 5 and 6.x) was at C:\DOS That's what I remember too, but at my age, I don't trust my memory g yes, well with MS-DOS, you need less memory anyway... lol LOL from me too. I'm in the minority, but I love puns. |
#9
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Bit of a historical question: MS-DOS
On 01/06/2012 4:57 PM, David H. Lipman wrote:
From: "Yousuf I've been trying to remember this, and I honestly can't remember it anymore. In MS-DOS, where were the standard external commands located? The only thing I remember about MS-DOS was that the command.com was located in the root directory (along with autoexec.bat, config.sys, and the hidden files msdos.sys& io.sys). Slightly different names for the PC-DOS version, such as pcdos.sys& ibmio.sys, but otherwise identical. The standard external commands were those like chkdsk or xcopy, which weren't built into the command.com. Was there an MSDOS folder or something which contained these commands? Yousuf Khan It depended upon the DOS falvour; PC/MS/DR. However it was always located in the PATH (%PATH%). Yeah, I know it was always available in the path, but was there a default directory created to hold these commands? For some reason I'm thinking that there may have been a C:\SYS or SYSTEM folder or something? Or were they all placed into C:\ the root directory? Yousuf Khan |
#10
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Bit of a historical question: MS-DOS
TomT wrote:
Yousuf Khan wrote: I've been trying to remember this, and I honestly can't remember it anymore. In MS-DOS, where were the standard external commands located? The only thing I remember about MS-DOS was that the command.com was located in the root directory (along with autoexec.bat, config.sys, and the hidden files msdos.sys & io.sys). Slightly different names for the PC-DOS version, such as pcdos.sys & ibmio.sys, but otherwise identical. The standard external commands were those like chkdsk or xcopy, which weren't built into the command.com. Was there an MSDOS folder or something which contained these commands? Before there was a hard drive (and using 5 1/4" floppies for instance), the external commands were on the floppy disk, Yousuf. If you needed one of those commands you had to have the floppy in the drive. The internal commands were in memory and available without the floppy in the drive. They were loaded at boot up time. They had to originate from somewhere. Since you were using the command- line interpreter (command.com), the internal commands were inside the command-line interpreter (cd, rd, copy, pause, etc). So, yes, they were in memory because nothing runs unless it is in memory but they were not separate processes. They were inside the command.com process that was loaded into memory. They are called internal commands because they are defined internally in command.com. Internal commands (do not reside separately, are inside of command.com): break call chcp cd or chdir cls copy ctty date del or erase dir echo exit for goto if lh or loadhigh md or mkdir path pause prompt rem (only useful inside a batch file) ren or rename rd or rmdir set shift time type ver verify vol External commands (in a separate executable image file): ansi.sys append assign attrib backup basic (Gates & Allen original product sold to hobbyists) basica chkdsk choice command.com (see above for its internal functions) comp dblspace debug defrag deloldos deltree diskcomp diskcopy doskey dosshell drvspace edit edlin emm386 exe2bin expand extract fasthelp fastopen fc fdisk find format graftable graphics help interlnk intersvr join keyb label loadfix mem memmaker mirror mode more move mscdex msbackup msd nlsfunc pcpark power qbasic recover replace restore scandisk setver share smartdrv sort start subst sys tree undelete unformat xcopy xcopy32 This is not a comprhensive list. I'm sure that I missed some. Not all of the above internal/external commands are available in all versions of MS-DOS. This is a compendium of commands available across all versions of MS-DOS. There are commands available in OS/2 that were not available in MS-DOS or PC-DOS. The above list does not include non-Microsoft or non-IBM flavors, like DR-DOS (aka Concurrent PC-DOS, Novell DOS, Caldera OpenDOS, etc) or FreeDOS (aka PD-DOS); however, Yousuf specifically asked only about MS-DOS. Depending on how far back Yousuf wants to go, MS-DOS 1.0 came from Gates buying Seattle Computer's QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System). Seattle Computer was allowed to separately market their separate code branch as Seattle DOS (I don't have a list of internal and external commands for that OS). Yousuf never bothered to say WHICH version of MS-DOS in which he was interested. Also remember that Windows 9x was a *******ized arrangment of MS-DOS 16-bit kernel and Windows GUI/API & 32-bit kernel. There was a separate MS-DOS available in Win 9x/ME. You could literally exit the Win9x GUI and drop back into a real DOS-mode command-line interpreter (aka DOS shell). Default folders for external commands: MS-DOS 7 (Win9x): %windir%\COMMAND MS-DOS pre-7: C:\DOS MS-DOS pre-2.0: C: (since support for directories was added in 2.0) |
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