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DOS/Unix Commands

• Below is a short list of DOS commands to be used in a Command Prompt/Terminal Window.
• DOS means Disk Operating System.
• Mac computers run the Unix operating system.
• The terms folder and directory mean the same thing.
• Instead of a single filename, a filename with the wildcard character * can be entered. For example, *.txt matches all files with a .txt extension.
• The symbol .. means the parent of the current directory.
  
  

  DOS Command	Unix Command	Meaning
  cd dirname	cd dirname	Change to new directory
  cd ..	cd ..	Change to parent directory
  cls	clear	Clear screen
  copy filename1 filename2	cp filename1 filename2	Copy file
  del filename	rm filename	Delete file
  dir	ls	Show all files in current directory
  echo	echo	Echo a string to the screen
  exit	exit	Close Command Prompt Window
  help	man	List information about DOS commands
  mkdir dirname	mkdir dirname	Make new directory
  rename filename1 filename2	mv filename1 filename2	Rename file
  rmdir dirname	rmdir dirname	Delete or remove directory
  type filename	type filename	Type contents of file at screen

• The symbol > redirects screen output to a textfile.
  

  dir > dir.txt
  type dir.txt
  echo This is a test string > test.txt
  type test.txt
  

• The symbol >> appends screen output to an existing textfile.
  

  dir > out.txt
  echo This is a test string >> out.txt
  type out.txt
  

• An alternative to typing DOS comments in the Command Prompt Window is to create a .bat file that contains DOS comments. The commands in the .bat file are then executed by simply typing the name of the batch file.