Commodore PC Ms-Dos 3.2 User's Manual page 87

About Commands 15
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Afote If you have more than one external command with the
same name, ms-dos will run only one of them, according to the
following order of precedence: .com, .exe, .bat.
Suppose, for example, that your disk includes the files format, exe
and format, bat. If you were to type the external command
format, ms-dos would always run the program format, exe first.
To run the batch file format, bat, you would have to place it in
a separate directory and give a path along with the external
command.
The following external commands are described in Chapter 3,
"MS-DOS Commands":
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append
assign
attrib
backup
chkdsk
command
diskcomp
diskcopy
exe2bin
fdisk
find
format
graftabl
graphics
join
keybxx
label
mode
more
print
recover
replace
restore
share
sort
subst
sys
tree
xcopy
Before ms-dos can run external commands, it must read them into
memory from the disk. When you give an external command,
ms-dos immediately checks your working directory to find that
command. If it isn't there, you must tell ms-dos which directory
the external command is in. You do this with the path command.
When you are working with more than one directory, you may
find it more convenient to put all the ms-dos external commands
in one directory. Then, when it needs them, ms-dos can quickly
find the external commands at one location.
Suppose, for example, that you are in a working directory named
\user\prog and that the ms-dos external commands are in \bin.
To find the format command, you must tell ms-dos to choose the
\bin path, as in the following command, which tells ms-dos to
search in your working directory and in the \bin directory for all
commands:
path \bin
You need only specify this path once during each computer ses
sion. Also, if you want to know what the current path is, you can
simply type the path command by itself. In response, ms-dos
displays the working path on the screen.
Using paths with
external commands
Using the path
command