Syntax Microsoft Windows 95, 98, and ME syntax Displays a list of files and subdirectories in a directory. DIR [drive:][path][filename] [/P] [/W] [/A[[:]attributes]] [/O[[:]sortorder]] [/S] [/B] [/L] [/V]
| [drive:][path][filename] | Specifies drive, directory, and/or files to list. (Could be enhanced file specification or multiple filespecs.) |
| /P | Pauses after each screenful of information. |
| /W | Uses wide list format. |
| /A | attributes:
D Directories
R Read-only files
H Hidden files
A Files ready for archiving
S System files
- Prefix meaning not |
| /O | List by files in sorted order, sortorder:
N By name (alphabetic)
S By size (smallest first)
E By extension (alphabetic)
D By date & time (earliest first)
G Group directories first
- Prefix to reverse order
A By Last Access Date (earliest first) |
| /S | Displays files in specified directory and all subdirectories. |
| /B | Uses bare format (no heading information or summary). |
| /L | Uses lowercase. |
| /V | Verbose mode. |
Switches may be preset in the DIRCMD environment variable. Override preset switches by prefixing any switch with - (hyphen)--for example, /-W. Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP syntax Displays a list of files and subdirectories in a directory. 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. |
| 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. |
| sortorder |
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 |
| timefield | 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 |
Examples dir Lists all files and directories in the directory that you are currently in.
dir *.exe
The above command lists any executable file or any file that ends
with .exe. See our wildcard definition for
other wildcard (e.g. *) examples.
dir /ad List only the directories in the current directory. If you need to move into one of the directories listed use the cd command. dir /s Lists the files in the directory that you are in and all sub directories after that directory, if you are at root "C:\>" and type this command this will list to you every file and directory on the C: drive of the computer. dir /p If the directory has a lot of files and you cannot read all the files as they scroll by, you can use this command and it will display all files one page at a time. dir /w If you don't need the info on the date / time and other information on the files, you can use this command to list just the files and directories going horizontally,
taking as little as space needed. dir /s /w /p This would list all the files and directories in the current directory and the sub directories after that, in wide format and one page at a time. dir /on List the files in alphabetical order by the names of the files. dir /o-n List the files in reverse alphabetical order by the names of the files. dir \ /s |find "i" |more A nice command to list all directories on the hard drive, one screen page at a time, and see the number of files in each directory and the amount of space each occupies. dir > myfile.txt Takes the output of dir and re-routes it to the file myfile.txt instead of outputting it to the screen. | 
