dir (command)

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.

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]}

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

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.

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

• 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.

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

• Windows commands
• CP/M commands
• Internal DOS commands
• Microcomputer software
• Microsoft free software
• MSX-DOS commands
• OS/2 commands
• ReactOS commands
• Windows administration

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