CSCI 4200 Lab 1 Windows Command Prompt 10

Writing a script file.

Let's suppose that you need to re-create the directories TREES, PECAN, and OAK on a regular basis. You can automate this task by creating a script file. Launch the Notepad program by using the Search box. Type the following into Notepad, and remember to replace your directory with the name of your actual directory:

C:\"your directory"\PLANTS

mkdir TREES mkdir TREES\OAK

mkdir TREES\PECAN cd ..

Save this file as makedirs.bat in your I drive (make sure you Save it as type: All Files (*.*), so it is saved as a .bat file not a .txt file) and exit from Notepad. The .bat file extension represents a batch file, another name for a script. To execute the script, go back to the command prompt console and change directories to where you saved your makedirs.bat file. Then type the name of the batch file:

makedirs

-- this will automatically create the TREES, OAK, and PECAN directories for you! Check it with the tree command.

tree

Windows environment variables.

Windows maintains a collection of data available to all running programs, called the

environment. For example, a program might need to know the special directory set aside for storing application data. This variable is called APPDATA. To find out the value of this variable, use the echo command. Type

echo %appdata%

note that the variable name is not case-sensitive, but must be enclosed in percent signs.

Use the echo command to find out the values of the following environment variables:

PATH	List of directories that the command processor will search to find a command
COMSPEC	The command processor executable file that you are using now.
HOMEPATH	The path to your home directory
PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER	Description of the CPU on this computer
WINDIR	The directory where the OS is located

CSCI 4200 Lab 1 Windows Command Prompt 11

Now lets try a few commands to investigate the hidden resources of your system. Use the command

driverquery to get a list of all the drivers installed on your system. Yikes, there are lots of drivers installed!

Useful networking commands.

Use the command

ipconfig /all

to see the computers IP address and other info that would be interesting if you knew what it all meant! Dont worry; well be explaining this later. This command is useful for debugging network problems. Here are some other useful commands to try:

ping cs.uga.edu

the ping command sends a probe message out to the remote computer, to see if it is possible to connect, and if so how long it takes for the response to return. You should find that the response is so quick that it is recorded as less than 1 ms (milliseconds). Now try using the ping command with the address in.pool.ntp.org, a computer located in India. This time the response will be a lot

longer!