Useful and Essential Commands

Essential Commands

dir	Lists names of files in current directory (folder)
dir Hello.*	Lists all files whose names start with Hello.
cd C:\files	Changes directory to C:\files ("absolute" pathname)
cd myfiles	Changes directory to myfiles subdirectory of current directory ("relative" pathname)
cd ..	Changes directory to "parent" of current directory
notepad Hello.java	MS-DOS text editor, used to create and edit ASCII textfiles
type Hello.java	Displays contents of ASCII textfile on screen
exit	Ends command interpreter, makes console window go away...

Useful File Management Commands

copy Test1.java Test2.java	Copies contents of Test1.java to new file Test2.java
ren Test1.java Test2.java	Renames Test1.java to Test2.java
del Test1.java	Deletes Test1.java (Be careful with this command...)
del Test1.*	Deletes all files with Test1 prefix (Be even more careful with this command...)
mkdir playpen	Creates new directory playpen as subdirectory of current directory
rmdir playpen	Removes directory playpen (must be empty)