DIR
The DOS command for listing the files and subdirectories in a given directory.
Probably the most common command. Short for - you got it right - directory.
Equivalent to unix's ls.
(OldMiner adds: There is also a Linux dir, which is part of coreutils, the same collection of tools ls is a part of. According to 'info dir', it is the equivalent of 'ls -C -b'.)
Usage:
DIR [specific directory] [options]
Common options:
/p for paging the results,
/s for searching within subdirs,
/w for arranging results in wide columns.
Syntax (from MS-DOS documentation):
DIR [drive:][path][filename] [/A[[:]attributes]] [/B] [/C] [/D] [/L] [/N]
[/O[[:]sortorder]] [/P] [/Q] [/S] [/T[[:]timefield]] [/W] [/X] [/4]
- [drive:][path][filename]
- Specifies drive, directory, and/or files to list.
- /A
- Displays files with specified attributes:
- D
- Directories
- R
- Read-only files
- H
- Hidden files
- A
- Files ready for archiving
- S
- System files
- -
- Prefix meaning not
- /B
- Uses bare format (no heading information or summary).
- /C
- Display the thousand separator in file sizes. This is the default. Use /-C to disable display of separator.
- /D
- Same as wide but files are list sorted by column.
- /L
- Uses lowercase.
- /N
- New long list format where filenames are on the far right.
- /O
- List by files in sorted order:
- N
- By name (alphabetic)
- S
- By size (smallest first)
- E
- By extension (alphabetic)
- D
- By date/time (oldest first)
- G
- Group directories first
- -
- Prefix to reverse order
- /P
- Pauses after each screenful of information.
- /Q
- Display the owner of the file.
- /S
- Displays files in specified directory and all subdirectories.
- /T
- Controls which time field displayed or used for sorting:
- C
- Creation
- A
- Last Access
- W
- Last Written
- /W
- Uses wide list format.
- /X
- This displays the short names generated for non-8dot3 file names. The format is that of /N with the short name inserted before the long name. If no short name is present, blanks are displayed in its place.
- /4
- Displays four-digit years
Switches may be preset in the DIRCMD environment variable. Override preset switches by prefixing any switch with - (hyphen)--for example, /-W.
Just a thought: If dir is a short for directory, why isn't the listing command in win98 called "fold" as a short for folder?
nm. | 
