Using command prompt

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Guys im having a bit of confusion with > , >> ,< in the command prompt,

> firstly ,

this command sends the output from a command into a text file, it either over writes a text file you name or makes a new one if one isnt already present

Ive put some photos in a folder on my desktop which i have called Test1, when i command "dir desktop\Test1 i get the list of the files in there, so when i type "dir desktop\Test1>Test1.txt" the list which i saw in the above command should be saved to a file called Test1.txt, i dont have one so this should be created automatic.

All that happens when i press return is the next new command line appears awaiting for a command and there's no new files in the folder Test1.

What am i doning wrong? or am i looking in the wrong place for the new .txt file?

 

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desktop directory normally comes under:

Code:

c:\Documents and Settings\nameofuser\Desktop

 

yeah sorry ive got all that in the command line, i was just show this bits i had typed in, but where is the file saved too?

 

Which directory are you running the command from?

 

desktop

mywhole command line reads....

c:\Documents and Settings\david>dir desktop\Test1>Test1.txt

 

try this run it from the test1 directory:

Code:

dir > test1.txt 

 

sorry mate , how do i get to run that straight from the Test1 directory? Feeling really thick here at the mo

 

Ive just done... cd desktop\Test1

so now my commant line reads ....

c:\Documents and Settings\david\desktop\Test1>


but then when i do dir Test1.txt

file not found

 

you need to do:

Code:

dir > test1.txt

 

You my wierdybeard wizard friend are bleeming mavellous!!!!!

Thankyou!

 

The bill is in the post

 

The key thing here is that you gave the output filename without any path. This means that the file will be created in your *current* directory.

If you want it to go elsewhere then you need to give the path as part of the filename.

Harry.

 

You need to type in the command 'dir /x' to get the mangled folder names, so 'C:\documents and settings\' becomes 'C:\docu~1\' for example, so you would type:

C:> dir C:\docu~1 > Test1.txt

to redirect the current documents and setting dir listing to the text file Test1.txt.

Expand on this principle to do the same with other folders.

 

what all the way form the C: ?

 

sorry mate you lost me well and good,

 

Not in XP, it supports 256 character path names so you don't have ~ anymore

 

what all the way form the C: ?

 

OK - two points here - mangled file names and paths.

IMHO - the reference to mangled names is a red-herring here.
However - you need to know about them because they are a legacy thing, and may pop up in the exam.

These days path and filenames can be long, and can contain spaces. In the old days filenames were 8 chars, a dot, and 3 chars. In most versions of Windows a short (and mangled) name is kept along with the full name. The mangling is usualy done by truncating the full name and using a ~ and a number at the end of the 8 characters. So "Documents and Settings" might be mangled as DOCUME~1. Note that I used "" around the long name. If a long name has spaces in it then you must do that for the system to recognize it!

Paths. Look in the book for descriptions of 'absolute' paths and 'relative' paths.

An absolute path might be C:\Archives\bin
A relative path might be ..\bin

The difference is whether there is a \ at the start of the path (after any drive letter). You can think of it as directions on how to walk to a file.

So when I said that you had to give a path name for the redirect - it doesn't *have* to start with C:, it could be a relative path.

Harry.

 

so if i have a second folder on my desktop called Test2 please could you show me the what youd type to copy the contents list from Test1 into the folder Test2

Take it im already in the Test1 directory

 

dir > ..\Test2

Explanation: You are in Test1, so dir will show the contents of Test1. To get to Test2 you could CD to the parent directory (desktop) with CD .. and then CD to Test2 with CD Test2. So the *relative* path is ..\Test2.

You could also give an absolute path, which would look something like: c:\Documents and Settings\david\desktop\Test2 but note there are spaces in there - so the command would be:
dir > "c:\Documents and Settings\david\desktop\Test2"

Harry.