The description below is from the book DOS the
Easy Way by Everett Murdock Ph.D.
CLICK HERE
for information about downloading the book.
Type: Internal (2.0 and later)
Syntax:
CHDIR (CD) [d:]path
CHDIR (CD)[..]
Purpose: Displays working (current) directory and/or changes to a
different directory.
Discussion
Used to change from one directory to another you specify. The command
can be
used without the drive designator (d:) if you were changing to a
different
directory on the current drive. The path designator can indicate a
subdirectory
within another directory or subdirectory, but it must not exceed 63
characters
in length. The command followed by two periods (CD..) can be used to
change to
the parent directory.
Enter CHDIR or CD without a drive and path designation to get a display
of the
current directory.
For more information on CHDIR and other hard disk commands, see Chapter 3,
Using Fixed Disks, in the downloadable
book DOS the Easy Way .
Examples
To demonstrate how the CHDIR command accesses the DOS directory
structure,
assume that two directories, WORDS and FILES have been created on a
disk. These
two directories are to be found within the root directory. Assume also
that an
additional directory, LETTERS is to be found within the WORDS directory.
To change to the directory LETTERS (that is within the directory WORDS)
on the
root directory of drive C, enter
cd\words\letters
The command indicates the path sequentially down through the directory
path:
the first backslash indicates the root directory, down through the
directory
WORDS, down to the target directory LETTERS.
If you are already working in the WORDS directory, you can change back to
the
root directory simply by entering
cd\
To change to a directory path other than through the root directory, do
not
enter the leading backslash. For example, if you are working in the
WORDS
directory, you can change to the LETTERS directory without going through
the
root directory by entering
cd letters
A shortcut method to change to the directory immediately above the
current
directory allows you to enter the CHDIR command followed by two periods.
For
example, to change from the LETTERS directory to its parent directory,
WORDS, enter
cd..
Enter it again to change to the next higher directory (in this case, the
root directory).
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