del (command)

In computing, del (or erase) is a command in command-line interpreters (shells) such as COMMAND.COM, cmd.exe, 4DOS, NDOS, 4OS2, 4NT and Windows PowerShell. It is used to delete one or more files or directories from a file system.

Implementations

The command is available for various operating systems including DOS, OS-9,[1] OS/2, Microsoft Windows[2] and ReactOS. It is analogous to the Unix rm command and to the OpenVOS delete_file and delete_dircommands.[3] RT-11, RSX-11, OS/8[4] and OpenVMS also provide the delete command which can be contracted to del. AmigaDOS provides a delete command as well.[5]

The del command is also available in the open-source MS-DOS emulator DOSBox.

In Windows PowerShell, del and erase are predefined command aliases for the Remove-Item cmdlet which basically serves the same purpose.

While DR-DOS supports del and erase as well, it also supports the shorthand form era, which derived from CP/M. In addition to this, the DR-DOS command processor also supports delq/eraq. These are shorthand forms for the del/era/erase command with an assumed /Q parameter (for 'Query') given as well.

THEOS/OASIS[6] and FlexOS[7] provide only the erase command.

Syntax

del filename
erase filename

See also

References

  1. ^ Paul S. Dayan (1992). The OS-9 Guru - 1 : The Facts. Galactic Industrial Limited. ISBN 0-9519228-0-7.
  2. ^ https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2012-R2-and-2012/cc771049(v%3dws.11)
  3. ^ http://stratadoc.stratus.com/vos/19.1.0/r098-19/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/r098-19.pdf
  4. ^ "Concise Command Language" (CCL)."OS/8 Handbook" (PDF). April 1974. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
  5. ^ https://archive.org/details/1988-rugheimer-spanik-amigados-quick-reference
  6. ^ THEOS/OASIS User′s Handbook
  7. ^ http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/digitalResearch/flexos/1073-2003_FlexOS_Users_Guide_V1.3_Nov86.pdf

Further reading

  • Wolverton, Van (1990). MS-DOS Commands: Microsoft Quick Reference, 4th Revised edition. Microsoft Press. ISBN 978-1556152894.
  • Kathy Ivens; Brian Proffit (1993). OS/2 Inside & Out. Osborne McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978-0078818714.
  • Frisch, Æleen (2001). Windows 2000 Commands Pocket Reference. O'Reilly. ISBN 978-0-596-00148-3.

External links