The document discusses internal commands in DOS. It defines internal commands as built-in commands that are loaded with the operating system into memory during booting and remain resident as long as the computer is on. It provides examples of common internal commands like DIR, COPY, DEL, TYPE, CD, MD, RD, and explains what each command does and provides sample syntax. The document also discusses conventions used in command descriptions and provides examples of using wildcards with commands.

1. Internal commands
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2. Objective
On completion of this period, you would be able
to know
Conventions used
Internal commands
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3. Recap
DOS commands are divided into
Internal Commands
External Commands
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4. Prerequisite
What is meant by command
An instruction which is used to
communicate with a computer system
We call this instruction a command
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5. Internal Commands
 Internal commands are built–in commands
 These commands are in COMMAND.COM
program
 This program is loaded with the operating
system into the memory during booting
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6. Internal Commands (contd)
 Remains resident in the memory as long as
the computer is on
 Hence they are always available to be
executed
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7. Convention used in Command descriptions
are
 [] (BRACKETS)
Items within brackets are optional
 DRIVE
It refers to the drive name.
Example: C: A: B: etc
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8. Convention used in Command descriptions
are (contd)
 PATH
It refers to a directory name
Syntax :[drive_directory] [directory…] directory
 PATHNAME
It mentions the files that are to be referred in
the path. It is used to locate a file
Syntax : [drive_directory] [directory…] filename
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9. Convention used in Command descriptions
are (contd)
 SWITCHES
These switches control MS – DOS
commands. They should always begin with a
forward slash (/)
Example: /p /w etc
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10. Convention used in Command descriptions
are (contd)
 WILDCARDS
If we want to carry out a task for a group of
files whose names have something in common,
we can use wildcard characters to specify
groups of files
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11. Wild characters
DOS recognizes two wildcard characters
 Asterisk(*) – represents one or more characters
that a group of files has in common
 Question mark(?) – represents a single
character that a group of files has in common
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12. Examples of wildcards
 *.txt : All files with .txt extension
Examples are letter.txt, july.txt, and message.txt
 report.* - All files named report with any
extension.
Examples: report.txt, report.let and report.wri.
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13. Examples of wildcards (contd)
 M*.* : All files beginning with the letter M
regardless of extension.
Example are march.xls, memo.txt and
madhavi.lvu
 ???.* : all files having 3 or less characters with
or without any extensions.
Examples are sun.bmp, son.bm and ab.x
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14. Internal Commands
 CLS- Clears the screen, takes the cursor to the
top left and the system Prompt appears at top
left
 VER – It displays the MS-DOS version
 DEL/ERASE [drive:] pathname – It deletes the
specified file or files. The wildcards (* and ?) can
be used with del command to delete more than
one file at a time
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15. Internal Commands (contd)
 VOL [drive] – It displays the disk volume label
which is optionally declared at the time of
formatting
Example:
C:>VOL A :
Result
Volume in drive A is DBASEIII
Volume Serial Number is 0909-07BE
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16. Internal Commands (contd)
 PROMPT [[text] [$character]…] – It changes the
MS-DOS command prompt. $ character prompts
are below
$t Current time $l <
$d Current date $q =
$n Drive letter $$ $
$p Directory $e Escape
$v Version number $g >
$h Backspace
$_ Return-Linefeed
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17. Internal Commands (contd)
 DATE [mm- dd- yy] - It displays or sets the date
Example:
C>DATE
Result:
Current date is FRI 21-04-07
Enter the new date (mm- dd- yy): 20-04-08
Now the current date will be SUN 20-04-08
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18. Internal Commands (contd)
 TIME [hours : minutes : seconds . Hundredths]
It allows to enter or change the time of the
system and see the current time
To type a new time, the valid values are hours is
0-23, minutes is 0-59, seconds is 0-59 and
hundredths of seconds 0-99
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19. Internal Commands (contd)
Example1
C>TIME
Result
Current time is 1:28:40.51
Enter the new time : 11:07:51.21
Now the current time will be ’11:07:51.21
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20. Internal Commands (contd)
Example2
C>TIME 12:07:59
C>TIME
Result
Current time is 12:07:59
Enter the new time :
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21. Internal Commands (contd)
 PATH [drive:] [path] [;[drive:] [path]…]
It sets a command search path for programs not
in the current directory
The above command is used to search more
than one path by specifying several paths
separated by semicolons
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22. Internal Commands (contd)
 DIR [drive:] [pathname] [/p] [/w] – To list the files
in a directory. Wildcards can also be used with
Dir command
Example1
C>DIR
Result
Volume in drive C is DOS400
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23. Internal Commands (contd)
Directory of C:vinay
. <dir> 1-11-90 1:05
.. <dir> 1-09-90 13:05
BASIC EXE 67520 19-12-90 2:13
BUDGET BAS 814 1-01-91 1:45
FINAN90 BAS 3456 7-07-90 7:34
5 File (s) 4329472 bytes free
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24. Internal Commands (contd)
Example2
C>DIR/W
Result
Selects wide display and lists up to files lines
per line
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25. Internal Commands (contd)
Example3
C>DIR/P
Result
Selects page mode and makes the directory
display to pause once the screen is filled
To resume scrolling the display any key can
be pressed
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26. Internal Commands (contd)
 TYPE [drive] filename – It displays the contents
of a text file on the screen
Example:
C>TYPE message.dat>PRN
Result
It sends the contents of file “message.dat” to
the printer
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27. Internal Commands (contd)
 COPY [drive:] [pathname] [drive:] [pathnamr2] –
It copies one or more files to another location
COPY pathname1 + pathname2 […]pathname..
It appends the files. Wildcards can also be used
with copy command
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28. Internal Commands (contd)
Example1
C>copy bpay.rpt basicpay.rpt
Result
It copies a file named ‘bpay.rpt’ in the same
drive as
another name called ‘basicpay.rpt’
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29. Internal Commands (contd)
Example2
C>copy BPAY.RPT A:PROLL.RPT
Result
It copies a file bpay.rpt from current drive C
to drive A named as proll.rpt
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30. Internal Commands (contd)
Example3
C>COPY *.rpt + ref.txt summary.doc
Result
the above copy command combines all *.rpt
files and ref.txt files and stores in filename called
summary.doc
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31. Internal Commands (contd)
 MKDIR/MD [drive:] path – This command
creates required directory
Example
C>MKDIR letters
Result
It the above example, the command is used
to create a directory named letters
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32. Internal Commands (contd)
 CHDIR/CD [path] – It changes the current
directory for the specified directory
Example
C>CHDIR division
Result
The above command changes the working
directory to the directory called ‘division’
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33. Internal Commands (contd)
 RMDIR/RD [drive:] path – It removes a directory
from a directory structure
Example
C>RMDIR varsham
Result
The above command is used to remove the
directory named varsham
Before removing the directory entirely, the
directory should be empty.
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34. Summary
In this class, we have learnt about
Internal commands – COPY, DEL,
DIR, TYPE, CD, MD, RD, MODE,
PATH, DATE, TIME, COPY CON etc.
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35. Frequently Asked Questions
1. List any four DOS internal commands
2. What is DOS internal command?
3. Explain any four internal commands in DOS.
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36. Quiz
 Internal commands are _________
Answer: built in commands
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37. Quiz
 The instructions which are used to communicate
with the computer system
a. instructions
b. commands
Answer: b
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