Command: command.com (or FreeCom)
COMMAND starts a new copy of the FreeDOS command shell.
Syntax:
COMMAND [[drive:]path] [device] [/E:nnnnn] [/L:nnnn] [/U:nnn] [/P] [/MSG]
[/LOW] [/Y [/[C|K] command]]
COMMAND [/?]
[drive:]path Specifies the directory containing COMMAND.COM,
e.g. C:\FREEDOS\BIN\
drive The drive letter, e.g. C:
path The directory, e.g. \FREEDOS\BIN\
device Specifies the device to use for command input
and output.
Options:
/E:nnnnn Sets the initial environment size to nnnnn bytes.
(nnnnn should be between 256 and 32,768).
/L:nnnn Specifies internal buffers length (requires /P as well).
(nnnn should be between 128 and 1,024).
/U:nnn Specifies the input buffer length (requires /P as well).
(nnn should be between 128 and 255).
/P Makes the new command shell permanent (can't exit).
/MSG Stores all error messages in memory (requires /P as well).
/LOW Forces the command shell to keep its resident data in
low memory.
/Y Steps through the batch program specified by /C or /K
/C command Executes the specified command and returns.
/K command Executes the specified command and continues running.
/? Shows the help
Comments:
[drive:]path The drive and path where the shell is to look for the
transient part of the program. This is usually only
needed to set the COMSPEC.
/e:nnnnn The environment size, in bytes, in the range 160-32768.
This number will be rounded up the nearest 16 bytes.
The default is 256.
/p Makes the shell permanent, so the EXIT command does
not exit the shell.
/c {string} Executes the command in {string}, then exits.
/msg Loads any error messages that might be stored on disk
into memory.
Command (command.com) is also named FreeCom. It contains a lot of
internal commands which need no other file in order to work. You can
find the list of internal commands here.
For more information see Appendix to the Description of Features and
Implementation Status of FreeCOM. OR:
https://github.com/FDOS/freecom/tree/master/docs/html/commands OR:
https://gitlab.com/FreeDOS/base/freecom/-/tree/master/SOURCE/FREECOM/
docs/html/commands.
Examples:
In CONFIG.SYS / FDCONFIG.SYS or in command line:
SHELL=C:\FREEDOS\BIN\COMMAND.COM C:\FREEDOS\BIN /E:1024
/P=C:\FDAUTO.BAT OR:
C:\COMMAND /E:1024 /L:1024 /U:128 /P OR:
COMMAND /?
See also:
Appendix
autoexec.bat/fdauto.bat
batch files
config.sys/fdconfig.sys
exit
kernel
list of internal commands
shell/shellhigh
Copyright © 2004 Robert Platt, updated 2023 by W. Spiegl.
This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO.
See the file H2Cpying for copying conditions.