Everything is stored on a disk as a file. I emphasize "everything" because the operating system (except for a brief bootstrap that resides on the 0th sector to start up the computer), all application programs, program data, and subdirectory information (such as file name, file location, file attributes, data/time of creation) are all stored as a file. The only exceptions are the file allocation table (FAT) and the main directory; these two items resides at the well-defined starting sectors on a disk.
A file is identified by its name, which we uniquely specify as:
d:\path\filename.ext
where
"d:" is the logical disk drive,Names for disk drive, subdirectory, and file (as well as commands) are all case insensitive in DOS. However, UNIX is case sensitive. Whereas UNIX separates subdirectory levels with a slash character "/"; DOS does it with a backslash character "\".
"path" is the directory,
"filename" is the part of the name (up to 8 characters in DOS) preceeding the period, and
"ext" is the file extension (up to 3 characters in DOS).
We cannot construct a file name with the following characters because of the special meaning associated with each of them in DOS. We may use all other characters, including @#$%&!_-(){}'`^~ and ASCII 128 through ASCII 255.
Invalid Characters in a DOS File Name:
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Char Description
--------------------------------------------------
]
[
+ combine files
/ qualifier
* wild card character (match any multiple characters)
? wild card character (match any 1 character)
< direct screen input from a file
> direct screen output to a file
, file separator
. file extension
; parameter terminator
: disk drive
" literal quote
=
\ root directory, subdirectory separator
| pipe
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In addition, the following file names are pre-assigned to certain devices.
(Colons are sometimes optional.) You can issue them in place of
traditional file names whenever file names are expected.
command >[d:][path]filename ... redirect output
command >>[d:][path]filename ... redirect output (append)
command <[d:][path]filename ... redirect input
By default, display is the standard output device, and keyboard
is the standard input device. In DOS, "con" serves as
this standard input and output device. For example, when
you issue the DOS command "dir", the computer displays
the results on the screen because it is the standard output
device. However, you may redirect the standard input and output
devices to files or devices other than "con". If you
append your DOS command line with a ">" sign followed by a
file/device name, then the output from that program is redirected
to the specified file/device. As an example, if you want to
print the results from the DOS command "dir" or save it
in a file named "c:\save.doc", you can do the following:
dir > prn:
dir > c:\save.doc
In the above example, the computer creates a file named
"save.doc" under the main (\) directory on the c: drive
and sends all output that are normally displayed on the screen to
that file. If the file "save.doc" already exists, it is
truncated to zero length without warning and then written over.
(Translation: the original file is destroyed beyond recovery.)
If you want to append to the end of an existing file instead, you
add another ">" sign. With ">>", the computer
opens an existing file and positions the write pointer at the end
of the file so that all output from the program is appended to
the file. The computer creates a new file only when the file
does not already exist.
dir >> c:\save.doc
If you want to suppress all output, you can accomplish this
by redirecting the output to a special device named "nul".
program >nul
Similarly, if you want all standard input to a program to come
from a file instead of from the keyboard, you redirect the input.
Redirecting the standard input is useful when a program requires a
long list of input. You can save a lot of trouble and have a
record of the input when you run the same program repeatedly,
perhaps each time with only minor modifications in the input.
All input normally expected from the keyboard must be
contained in the file; otherwise, processing will stop and the
computer may remain inactive/stuck when the end of file is
reached. For example, the DOS "sort" program takes a
series of lines you type in and sort them alphabetically.
However, if you want the input to the "sort" program to come from
a file named "input.lst" instead, you issue:
sort < input.lst
An example of redirecting both the standard input and output.
sort output.txt
command1|command2[|...]
Piping directs the standard output of the first program to
the standard input of the second program, thus effectively
chaining a series of programs together as a single command. It
allows the screen output of one program to be channeled into the
keyboard input of the second program. Any program that reads its
input from the standard input device (i.e. keyboard) and writes
its output to the standard output device (i.e. screen) can act
as a filter and be piped. The names of the programs to be
chained are separated by the vertical bar (|) character on the
command line. The output from each program is stored by DOS in a
temporary file in the root directory of the default disk; so,
there must be sufficient space on the disk to store these files.
The temporary files are deleted at the end. In essence, the
above one line is equivalent to the following set of separate
commands with redirection:
command1 > temporary
command2 < temporary
del temporary
A simple example that sort the directory listing in
alphabetical order:
dir|sort
In the following example, the output from the DOS "dir" command is
sent to the "find" command. Each line that contains the time
stamp "2-12-96" is sent to the "sort" command, and the sorted
file listing is sent to the printer. See above for information
on redirection using ">".
dir|find "2-12-96" |sort >prn
An another example, two variables separated by "|" are
set in one DOS command line (no space between "abc" and "|").
set var1=abc| var2=def
|
