dir

The SpartaDOS X DIR command
Developer(s)	DEC, DR, Intel, Cromemco, MetaComCo, Microsoft, IBM, Datalight, ICD, Inc.
Operating system	CP/M, MP/M, ISIS-II, iRMX 86, CDOS, TRIPOS, DOS, MSX-DOS, SISNE plus, 4690 OS, PC-MOS, OS/2, Windows, Singularity, ReactOS, AROS, VMS, RT-11, RSX-11, OS/8
Platform	Cross-platform
Type	Command
License	CP/M, MP/M: BSD-like MS-DOS: MIT PC-MOS: GPL-3.0-only ReactOS: GPL

In computing, dir (directory) is a command in various computer operating systems used for computer file and directory listing. ^[1] It is one of the basic commands to help navigate the file system. The command is usually implemented as an internal command in the command-line interpreter ( shell). On some systems, a more graphical representation of the directory structure can be displayed using the tree command.

Implementations

The command is available in the command-line interface (CLI) of the operating systems Digital Research CP/M, ^[2] MP/M, ^[3] Intel ISIS-II, ^[4] iRMX 86, ^[5] Cromemco CDOS, ^[6] MetaComCo TRIPOS, ^[7] DOS, IBM/ Toshiba 4690 OS, ^[8] IBM OS/2, ^[9] Microsoft Windows, ^[10] Singularity, Datalight ROM-DOS, ^[11] ReactOS, ^[12] GNU, ^[13] AROS ^[14] and in the DCL command-line interface used on DEC VMS, RT-11 and RSX-11. It is also supplied with OS/8 as a CUSP (Commonly-Used System Program).

The dir command is supported by Tim Paterson's SCP 86-DOS. ^[15] On MS-DOS, the command is available in versions 1 and later. ^[16] It is also available in the open source MS-DOS emulator DOSBox. MS-DOS prompts " Abort, Retry, Fail?" after being commanded to list a directory with no diskette in the drive.

The numerical computing environments MATLAB and GNU Octave include a dir function with similar functionality. ^{[17] [18]}

Examples

DOS, Windows, ReactOS

List all files and directories in the current working directory.

C:\Users>dir

List any text files and batch files ( filename extension ".txt" or ".bat").

C:\Users>dir *.txt *.bat

Recursively list all files and directories in the specified directory and any subdirectories, in wide format, pausing after each screen of output. The directory name is enclosed in double-quotes, to prevent it from being interpreted is as two separate command-line options because it contains a whitespace character.

C:\Users>dir /s /w /p "C:\Users\johndoe\My Documents"

List any NTFS junction points:

C:\Users>dir /ash
Volume in drive C is OS.
Volume Serial Number is xxxx-xxxx
Directory of C:\Users
12/07/2019  02:30 AM    <SYMLINKD>     All Users [C:\ProgramData]
12/07/2019  02:30 AM    <JUNCTION>     Default User [C:\Users\Default]
12/07/2019  02:12 AM               174 desktop.ini
              1 File(s)            174 bytes
              2 Dir(s)  332,659,789,824 bytes free

Unices

dir is not a Unix command; Unix has the analogous ls command instead. The GNU operating system, however, has a dir command that "is equivalent to ls -C -b; that is, by default files are listed in columns, sorted vertically, and special characters are represented by backslash escape sequences". ^[19] Actually, for compatibility reasons, ls produces device-dependent output. The dir instruction, unlike ls -Cb, produces device-independent output.

See also

• Directory (OpenVMS command)
• List of DOS commands
• ls (corresponding command for *nix systems)

References

Further reading

• Wolverton, Van (1990). MS-DOS Commands: Microsoft Quick Reference, 4th Revised edition. Microsoft Press. ISBN  978-1556152894.
• Kathy Ivens; Brian Proffit (1993). OS/2 Inside & Out. Osborne McGraw-Hill. ISBN  978-0078818714.
• Frisch, Æleen (2001). Windows 2000 Commands Pocket Reference. O'Reilly. ISBN  978-0-596-00148-3.

External links

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Guide to Windows Commands

• dir | Microsoft Docs
• Open source DIR implementation that comes with MS-DOS v2.0
• Dir command syntax and examples