Tips for using DIR

  1. When using DIR to generate a file list for further processing, keep in mind that the output of the DIR command varies with the operating system, its version and the language and country settings!
     
  2. Display long file names in Windows 95/98:
    @ECHO OFF
    DIR /B "%*"*
    This command may sometimes display more than one file name, though
     
  3. Display directories sorted, subdirectories first, including hidden files (MS-DOS 5+):
    DIR /A/OGN
    on the command prompt, or:
    SET DIRCMD=/A/OGN
    in AUTOEXEC.BAT
     
  4. If you need to use DIR in batch files, prevent weird DIRCMD settings from ruining your batch file.
    A setting like DIRCMD=/P for example, might stop your batch file where you least expected it. So, to make sure DIR does exactly what you intend it to do, never asume any defaults! Instead, specify every option yourself, as in:
    DIR /-A /-B /-O /-P /-S /-W
     
    In NT 4, however, /-P and /-W don't do what they were supposed to do.
    On the contrary, they have the same effect as /P or /W.
    The best workaround is to use /P/-P and /W/-W
    (tip provided by Walter Zackery).

     
  5. Hide files for all DIR parameters:
    ATTRIB +H C:\DIRECTRY
    Files in C:\DIRECTRY will not be found even with DIR C:\ /A/S
    DIR C:\ /A     will show C:\DIRECTRY itself, but not the files, unless you manage to change to that directory
     
  6. In MS-DOS 7.* (Windows 9*) DIR /Z will display short file names only.
    Combined with /S, however, subdirectory names will be displayed with their long names.
    (tip from Georg Pohl and Tom Lavedas)

     
  7. For OS/2 Warp 4 with Fixpack ?? and Windows 98 with servicepack 1:
    DIR /V will display file attributes too.
     
    OS/2:
    
26-06-99 12:25          4.409      0 a---  batchfiles.html
27-06-99 20:38          5.789      0 a---  batexamples.html
27-06-99 23:00          5.548      0 a---  batlinks.html
22-06-99 22:20          2.897      0 a---  batutils.html
    Windows 98:
    
CONFIG   SYS           494         8.192  11-10-99  21:39  11-11-99       A     CONFIG.SYS
IO       SYS       222.390       229.376  19-02-99   0:36  08-11-99  RHS        IO.SYS
MSDOS    SYS         1.676         8.192  30-05-99   0:01  11-11-99  RHS        MSDOS.SYS
  8. Windows NT 4/Windows 2000's DIR /TA switch shows the "last accessed" time, instead of the "last modified" time.
    This doesn't work on FAT formated drives, though.
    On a FAT formated drive the /TA swich will display 00:00 for the time of every file and directory.
    That gives us a perfect way to check if a drive is FAT formated: 
    
@ECHO OFF
IF "%1"=="/?" GOTO Syntax
VER | FIND "Windows NT" > NUL
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO Syntax

SET FAT=
FOR /F "TOKENS=2,3* DELIMS= " %%A IN ('DIR/A/TA/P/-P/W/-W %~d1 ˆ| FIND ":" ˆ| FIND "-"') DO IF NOT "%%A"=="00:00" SET FAT=non-
ECHO.
ECHO Drive %~d1 has %FAT%FAT file system
GOTO:EOF

:Syntax
ECHO.
ECHO IsFAT, Version 1.00 for NT
ECHO Written by Rob van der Woude
ECHO.
ECHO Usage: ISFAT [ drive ]

:End
    Click to view source Click to download the ZIPped sources
     
    The /P/-P and /W/-W switches overrule DIRCMD /P and /W settings, assuring the proper output format for DIR
    (tip provided by Walter Zackery)

     
    FileSys.bat is a more advanced replacement for IsFAT.bat, not only checking for FAT, but for NTFS as well.
     
  9. Windows 98 with service pack 1 applied also provides a "last accessed view" for DIR with its /OA switch.
    This doesn't work on FAT drives either, of course, but contrary to NT 4 it will just show the "last modified" dates and times instead.
     
  10. Windows 98 (service pack 1) and Windows 2000 show dates with 4 digits years with their /4 switch.
     
  11. Windows 2000 shows the owner of a file with DIR's /Q switch: 
    
C:\>DIR /Q
 Volume in drive C is BOOTDISK
 Volume Serial Number is B00D-F10B

 Directory of C:\

18-11-2001  18:17                  580 BUILTIN\Administrators comreads.dbg
18-11-2001  18:17                  545 BUILTIN\Administrators comused.dbg
01-01-2002  13:01       <DIR>          BUILTIN\Administrators Documents and Sett
ings
26-01-2002  11:06       <DIR>          BUILTIN\Administrators Program Files
25-01-2002  21:15       <DIR>          BUILTIN\Administrators TEMP
25-01-2002  20:53       <DIR>          BUILTIN\Administrators WINNT
               2 File(s)          1,125 bytes
               4 Dir(s)   3,813,990,400 bytes free

C:\>
  12. There are 2 switches to make DIR display short (8.3 format) file names in Windows 2000, /X and /-N: 
    
D:\>DIR /X
 Volume in drive D is DATA
 Volume Serial Number is DADA-D15C

 Directory of D:\

19-08-2005  22:42                    2 FILE~1.WIT      File.with very long extension
30-03-2005  20:15                   43                 TEMP.TMP
30-03-2005  20:15                  210                 test.bat
19-08-2005  22:27                    2 VERYLO~1.TXT    Very long file name.txt
               4 File(s)            257 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  27.170.144.256 bytes free

D:\>
    which will display both short and long file names to the right, and 
    
D:\>DIR /-N
 Volume in drive D is DATA
 Volume Serial Number is DADA-D15C

 Directory of D:\

FILE~1   WIT                  2 19-08-2005  22:42
TEMP     TMP                 43 30-03-2005  20:15
test     bat                210 30-03-2005  20:15
VERYLO~1 TXT                  2 19-08-2005  22:27
               4 File(s)            257 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  27.170.144.256 bytes free
D:\>
    which will display only the short file names to the left.
    Note that with DIR /-N the short file names and extensions are displayed in separate fixed width columns, separated by one or more spaces, whereas DIR /X displays the short file names and extensions linked by a single dot.
     
    In Windows 2000, use a FOR loop with %%~sA to display fully qualified short file names.
    However, sometimes the last 4 characters of the file name and extension seem to be appended to the actual fully qualified short file name -- a bug in Windows 2000 SP4? I was unable to recreate the problem in Windows XP. 
    
D:\Program Files\Perl\.cpan\build\Getopt-Mixed-1.008\lib\Getopt>DIR
 Volume in drive D is DATA
 Volume Serial Number is DADA-D15C

 Directory of D:\Program Files\Perl\.cpan\build\Getopt-Mixed-1.008\lib\Getopt

13-12-2003  21:13       <DIR>          .
13-12-2003  21:13       <DIR>          ..
09-02-1996  02:05               25.646 Mixed.pm
               1 File(s)         25.646 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  27.170.144.256 bytes free

D:\Program Files\Perl\.cpan\build\Getopt-Mixed-1.008\lib\Getopt>FOR %A IN (*.*) DO @ECHO.%~sA
D:\PROGRA~1\Perl\CPAN~1\build\GETOPT~1.008\lib\Getopt\Mixed.pmd.pm

D:\Program Files\Perl\.cpan\build\Getopt-Mixed-1.008\lib\Getopt>

 

 

 page last uploaded: 29 June 2012, 11:16