#windows command line

Windows Terminal now with settings GUI

Microsoft’s Windows Terminal 1.7 is now available as a stable release, the build version of 1.8 as a preview. One of the new features in version 1.7 is a user interface with which users can adjust settings. To do this, click the Settings button or enter Ctrl+, a. If you prefer JSON to change the settings, you can still use this. There are adjustments to opt-in single instancing and window remote…

Command Processor Commands

Programming element Description ATTRIB This command displays or changes the attributes of a file. CALL This command calls one batch program from another. CHDIR, CD This command displays the name of the current directory, or changes the current directory. CLS This command clears the screen. COPY This command copies one or more files to another directory. DATE This command displays or sets the date. DIR This command displays the files and subdirectories that a directory contains. ECHO This command displays a message, or sets whether or not the command processor echoes the commands that the user enters. ERASE, DEL This command deletes one or more files. EXIT This command exits the command processor shell. GOTO This command directs the command processor to a labeled line in a batch program. HELP This command displays a list of available commands. IF This command performs conditional processing in batch programs. MKDIR, MD This command creates a directory. MOVE This command moves files from one directory to another directory. net This command performs network-related operations. PATH This command displays or sets a search path for executable files. PAUSE This command suspends the processing of a batch program. PROMPT This command changes the prompt for the command processor. PWD This command prints current directory path. REM This command records comments in a batch file. RENAME, REN This command renames a file or files. RMDIR, RD This command removes a directory. SET This command sets or removes an environment variable, or displays the values of all of the environment variables. SHIFT This command changes the position of replaceable parameters in a batch file. START This command starts a separate window that runs a specified application or command. TIME This command displays or sets the system time. TITLE This command sets the title of the command processor window. TYPE This command displays the contents of one or more text files.

Command Processor Shell

For many devices, including those without a display, Microsoft® Windows® CE .NET includes a command processor shell (Cmd.exe) that is similar to Command.com in Windows 95 and Cmd.exe in Microsoft Windows NT®. The command processor shell is a command-line-driven shell that provides console input and output, and a limited number of commands. The following line shows the syntax for calling the command processor shell.

CMD [[/C | /K] string]

Parameters

/C

Carries out the command specified by string and then exits the command processor shell.

/K

Carries out the command specified by string but allows the command process shell to remain active.

string

Specifies a command that you want to run. The supported commands can be found in the Command Processor Commands topic.

Remarks

To obtain help with using the command processor, type help cmd at the prompt. Windows CE allows you to write simple batch (.bat) files that use any of the supported commands. You can redirect standard input or standard output data from or to a file respectively by using the less than (<) or greater than (>) characters. You can pipe data to another command by using the pipe (|) character. The syntax of the command line supported by the command processor is as follows.

COMMAND [OPTIONS] [[2]>[>] file1] [< file2] [{&, |} COMMAND...]

The following table describes the different elements of the command line.

Element Description COMMAND Specifies the name of the command that you want to execute. OPTIONS Specifies any parameters that you want to use for the command. For more information about the parameters available for each command, see the documentation for the command that you want to use. > Redirects text output of a command or program to a file. 2> Redirects error output of a program to a file. >> Appends text output of a program to a file. 2>> Appends error output of a program to a file. < Reads text input of a command or program from a file. & Separates two or more commands executed sequentially. | Separates two or more commands, but output of all commands except the last is sent as the input for the subsequent command. file1 Specifies the name of a file that receives the output of the command. file2 Specifies the name of a file provides the input for the command.

Note   The Windows CE command processor does not require you to place quotes around names that contain spaces.

The Windows CE command processor also does not support redirection in between command line arguments. Characters that redirect input or output should appear after all of the arguments in the command line.

The Command Prompt program allows you to work in an environment that looks more like a traditional operating system as opposed to the icon based Windows environment. In Command Prompt, you will use your keyboard. You won't use your mouse at all. Command Prompt works at a lower level than Windows. This means that you will have more control over the machine. The disadvantage is that it is less user-friendly. You will need the command prompt in COS 126 to compile and execute your Java programs. Learning the Command Prompt also provides a gradual transition to Unix and Linux systems, which are prevalent in science, engineering, and industry. To launch Command Prompt select Start -> Runand type cmd in the box. The Command Prompt shows up as a black terminal window. The command prompt should look something like:

C:\>

This is where you type commands. The boldface type below (that follows the command prompt) is what you should type as you work through this tutorial. Windows does not care if you use upper or lower case. That means that command cd is the same as CD. It also means that, in Windows, file HelloWorld.java is the same as helloworld.java. This is NOT true in the system to which you will be submitting your files. Be very careful!!!

Some Useful Commands

javac:  To compile a Java program, use the javaccommand. Your program should compile without any errors or warnings (or if there are warnings be absolutely sure that they do not indicate a flaw in your program). 

C:\>javac HelloWorld.java

java:  To run a successfully compiled Java program, use the java command.

C:\>java HelloWorld

more:  Display the contents of a file one screenful at a time.

C:\>more HelloWorld.java

exit:  Exit the Command Prompt program and close the terminal window.

C:\>exit

Working with Files and Directories

You can also use Command Prompt commands to organize files into a directory hierarchy. These commands are equivalent to corresponding commands that you access via the Windows point-and-click interface. It is useful to be familiar with both interfaces for managing files.

dir:  To view the contents of a directory, type dir. This command will list all the files and directories within the current directory. It is analogous to clicking on a Windows folder to see what's inside.

C:\> dir Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is C8C7-BDCD Directory of C:\ 10/26/2004 01:36 PM 0 AUTOEXEC.BAT 10/26/2004 01:36 PM 0 CONFIG.SYS 02/10/2005 01:36 PM 126 HelloWorld.java 12/09/2004 12:11 AM DIR Documents and Settings 02/10/2005 08:59 PM DIR introcs 11/02/2004 08:31 PM DIR j2sdk1.4.2_06 12/29/2004 07:15 PM DIR Program Files 01/13/2005 07:33 AM DIR WINDOWS 3 File(s) 126 bytes 5 Dir(s) 32,551,940,096 bytes free

There are 7 items in this directory. Some of them are files, like HelloWorld.java. Others are directories, like introcs.

cd:   It is frequently useful to know in which directory you are currently working. In order to find out, type cd at the command prompt.

C:\> cd C:\

To change directories, use the cd command with the name of a directory.

C:\> cd introcs

Now, the command prompt will be:

C:\introcs>

To see what is in this directory type:

C:\introcs> dir Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is C8C7-BDCD Directory of C:\introcs 02/10/2005 08:59 PM DIR . 02/10/2005 08:59 PM DIR .. 02/03/2005 11:53 PM 126 HelloWorld.java 01/17/2005 01:16 AM 256 readme.txt 2 File(s) 382 bytes 2 Dir(s)

To return to the previous directory, use the cd command, but this time followed by a space and two periods.

C:\introcs> cd .. C:\>

mkdir: To create a new directory, use the command mkdir. The following command creates a directory named hello, which you can use to to store all of your files associated with the Hello World assignment.

C:\introcs> mkdir hello

To see that it actually worked, use the dir command.

C:\introcs> dir Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is C8C7-BDCD Directory of C:\introcs 02/10/2005 08:59 PM DIR . 02/10/2005 08:59 PM DIR .. 02/11/2005 02:53 PM DIR hello 02/03/2005 11:53 PM 126 HelloWorld.java 01/17/2005 01:16 AM 256 readme.txt 2 File(s) 382 bytes 3 Dir(s)

move: Now, move the two files HelloWorld.java and readme.txt into the hello directory using the move command.

C:\introcs> move HelloWorld.java hello C:\introcs> move readme.txt hello C:\introcs> dir Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is C8C7-BDCD Directory of C:\introcs 02/10/2005 08:59 PM DIR . 02/10/2005 08:59 PM DIR .. 02/11/2005 02:53 PM DIR hello 0 File(s) 0 bytes 3 Dir(s)

The two files are no longer visible from the current directory. To access the two files, change directories with the cd command. Then use the dir command to see what is in this new directory.

C:\introcs> cd hello C:\introcs\hello> dir Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is C8C7-BDCD Directory of C:\introcs\hello 02/10/2005 08:59 PM DIR . 02/10/2005 08:59 PM DIR .. 02/03/2005 11:53 PM 126 HelloWorld.java 01/17/2005 01:16 AM 256 readme.txt 2 File(s) 382 bytes 2 Dir(s)

You can also use move to rename a file. Simply specify a new filename instead of a directory name. Suppose you accidentally messed up the upper and lower case and had saved HelloWorld.java as helloworld.java. Use two move commands to fix it.

C:\introcs\hello> dir Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is C8C7-BDCD Directory of C:\introcs\hello 02/10/2005 08:59 PM DIR . 02/10/2005 08:59 PM DIR .. 02/03/2005 11:53 PM 126 helloworld.java 01/17/2005 01:16 AM 256 readme.txt 2 File(s) 382 bytes 2 Dir(s) C:\introcs\hello> move helloworld.java temp.java C:\introcs\hello> move temp.java HelloWorld.java C:\introcs\hello> dir Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is C8C7-BDCD Directory of C:\introcs\hello 02/10/2005 08:59 PM DIR . 02/10/2005 08:59 PM DIR .. 02/03/2005 11:53 PM 126 HelloWorld.java 01/17/2005 01:16 AM 256 readme.txt 2 File(s) 382 bytes 2 Dir(s)

It takes two moves because Windows won't let you move to an already existing filename and, to Windows, helloworld.java is the same as HelloWorld.java.

copy:  To make a copy of a file, use the copy command. The following command creates a backup copy of our HelloWorld.java program. This is especially useful when you modify a working program, but might want to revert back to the original version if your modifications don't succeed. 

C:\introcs\hello> copy HelloWorld.java HelloWorld.bak C:\introcs\hello> dir Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is C8C7-BDCD Directory of C:\introcs\hello 02/10/2005 08:59 PM DIR . 02/10/2005 08:59 PM DIR .. 02/03/2005 11:53 PM 126 HelloWorld.java 01/17/2005 01:16 AM 256 readme.txt 2 File(s) 382 bytes 3 Dir(s)

del:  Subsequently, you might want to clean up useless files. The del command deletes a file. 

C:\introcs\hello> del HelloWorld.bak C:\introcs\hello> dir Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is C8C7-BDCD Directory of C:\introcs 02/10/2005 08:59 PM DIR . 02/10/2005 08:59 PM DIR .. 02/03/2005 11:53 PM 126 HelloWorld.java 01/17/2005 01:16 AM 256 readme.txt 2 File(s) 382 bytes 3 Dir(s)

WARNING: When you revise a file in jEdit, the jEdit program will automatically save a backup copy of your original file in the same directory. The name of the backup file will be the name of the original file with a ~ at the end. When you submit your program be careful to submit HelloWorld.java and not HelloWorld.java~ which is an old version of the file and has the wrong name.

wildcards:  You can also apply the copy, del, and movecommands to several files (or directories) at once. To create a new directory called loops, and copy all of the files in the hello directory C:\introcs\hello\into this newly created directory type:

C:\introcs> mkdir loops C:\introcs> copy c:\introcs\hello\* loops

Here the * matches all files in the C:\introcs\hello directory. It copies them to your newly created loops directory.

Redirection

Two important abstractions in Command Prompt are standard input and standard output. By default standard input is your keyboard, and standard output is your computer screen. For example, in Assignment 1, we write a program CenterofMass.java that reads input using StdIn.java and writes output using System.out.println(). To run our program, the user types the command "java CenterofMass" and enters double type values in triplets: xposition yposition mass from the keyboard. The results appear in the terminal window.

C:\introcs\loops> java CenterofMass 0 0 10 1 1 10 0.5 0.5 20

Redirecting standard input.As an alternative, we can create a file that consists of the same six input numbers. Using a text editor (like jEdit), create a file named input.txt, and type in the six numbers. After saving the file in the loops directory, type the following command to verify that you entered the integers correctly:

C:\introcs\loops> more input.txt 0 0 10 1 1 10

Then to read the integers from the file instead of the keyboard, we use the redirection symbol "<".

C:\introcs\loops> java CenterofMass < input.txt 0.5 0.5 20

This produces exactly the same result as if the user had typed the numbers, except that the user has no opportunity to enter numbers from the keyboard. This is especially useful for two reasons. First, if there are lots of input values (there are over 700 inputs for Assignment 2) it would be tedious to retype them in each time we run our program.  Second, it allows programs to be automated, without waiting for user interaction. This means that your grader can process your homework programs without typing in the input values by hand each time.

Redirecting standard output. Similarly it is possible to redirect the output to a file instead of to the screen. Continuing with the same example, if we want to save the output permanently, we can use the output redirection symbol '>'. 

C:\introcs\loops> java CenterofMass > output.txt 0 0 10 1 1 10

The user still types in the input values from the keyboard, but instead of sending the output to the screen, it is sent to the file named output.txt. Note that all printf output is sent to the file, even the statement that tells the user what to do. Be careful, if the file output.txt already exists, it will be overwritten. (To append use '>>' instead.)

phoenix.Princeton.EDU% more output.txt

Redirecting standard input and standard output. It is often useful to use both redirection operations simultaneously.

C:\introcs\loops> java CenterofMass < input.txt > output2.txt

After executing this command, no output appears on the screen, but the file output2.txt now contains exactly the same data as output.txt above.

  Piping

Another useful abstraction is piping.  Piping is when the output of one program is used as the input of another program. For example, suppose we want to view the output of a program, but there is so much that it whizzes by on the screen too fast to read. (The program RandInts.java prints out a bunch of random integers.) One possible way to accomplish this is to type the following two commands.

C:\introcs> java RandInts > temp.txt C:\introcs> more < temp.txt

Note that more will work by redirecting the file temp.txt to standard input (as is done here) or by simply using the filename (as is done at the beginning of the document). Instead, we could do this in one line using the pipe symbol '|'

C:\introcs> java RandInts | more

This is often useful when debugging a program, especially if your program goes into an infinite loop and you want to see the first few values that it prints.

No. You don't need to check the sticker on the back of your (windows) 'box  anymore.

If you want to know the serial number, run the following command at the prompt: