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The Better Command Utilities, version 2.0



The Better Command Utilities, or BCMD, is a set of commands
which provide improved replacements for existing DOS commands
(like DIR and COPY) and many entirely new commands as well. BCMD
may be used instead of, or along with, existing DOS commands.

BCMD offers many improvements over the default DOS commands.
These include multiple file specifications on a single command
line, exception filespecs, directory colorization, 132-column
support, test modes, support for file descriptions and other
goodies. Help is built into each command and will be displayed
if you use the /? switch.

The BCMD collection is copyrighted. It may be distributed only
under the following conditions:

   All BCMD files must be distributed together as a unit.
   No files may be altered, added, or deleted from this unit.

YOU USE BCMD ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. It works for me on the
computers I've tried it on. I can't guarantee it will do the
same for you.

BCMD is not free software. If you find this evaluation copy
suited to your needs, send in your registration. The ORDER.FRM
file gives complete ordering information.

                      Table of Contents                 page 2



 Overview and Legal Info ................................... 1

 General Notes ............................................. 3

 BCHOICE (batch input) ..................................... 4
 BCOPY (copy file) ......................................... 5
 BDEL (delete file) ........................................ 6
 BDIR (file directory) ..................................... 7
 BEEP (sound effects)....................................... 8
 BMD (make directory) ...................................... 9
 BRD (remove directory) .................................... 9
 BREN (rename file) ....................................... 10
 BTYPE (display file) ..................................... 11

 CAL (calendar) ........................................... 11
 CALC (calculator) ........................................ 12
 CAPSLOCK (Caps Lock setting) ............................. 12
 COLOR (set display colors) ............................... 13

 DESCRIBE (describe file) ................................. 14

 ECHOS (echo w/o CR/LF) ................................... 15

 FREE (show disk space) ................................... 15

 KEYSPEED (set keyboard speed) ............................ 16

 LOCASE (lowercase filter) ................................ 16
 LOCATE (set cursor position) ............................. 17
 LTRIM (left trim filter) ................................. 17

 NUMLOCK (Num Lock setting) ............................... 18

 ONESPACE (one space filter) .............................. 18

 TYME (time and date) ..................................... 19

 UNANSI (remove ANSI filter) .............................. 19
 UNCPM (remove Ctrl-Z EOFs) ............................... 20
 UPCASE (uppercase filter) ................................ 21

                         General Notes                  page 3



The BCMD utilities which act as replacements for existing DOS
commands are given names which start with "B" to differentiate
them from the corresponding DOS command. These include:

   BCHOICE, BCOPY, BDEL, BDIR, BMD, BRD, BREN, BTYPE

These commands act much like the DOS commands they're based on,
by default. You can customize them with additional capabilities
using command-line options and/or environment variables.

Like DOS, BCMD will normally display filenames in uppercase. You
can change this to lowercase for all of the BCMD utilities by
setting a BCMD environment variable:

   SET BCMD=/L

Place that SET line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file if you'd like to
install it automatically whenever you start your computer.

If you don't want the status reporting that most BCMD commands
give you as a matter of course, you can also turn it off with
the BCMD environment variable, using the /Q (quiet) switch.

Individual BCMD commands will often have their own environment
variables so you can customize them to your preferences. These
will be discussed in the documentation for each command.

Some BCMD commands support color. For color support to work, you
must have an ANSI driver (such as ANSI.SYS) installed. See your
DOS manual for details on ANSI if BCMD displays odd characters
instead of color.

BCMD file descriptions are maintained in a format compatible
with the 4DOS and NDOS command shells.

BCMD disk access remains to be optimized. Some commands in some
configurations will be noticeably slow on floppy drives.

                            BCHOICE                     page 4



The CHOICE command debuted in MS-DOS 6.0, when Microsoft finally
noticed that interactive batch files might be handy. It is a
flexible input command that allows you to specify a list of
valid responses and a timeout in case no one is present. The
BCHOICE command works the same way, but for any DOS version.

Syntax:
   BCHOICE {options} {text}

Options:

   /C[:]keys    keys to accept
   /N           no prompt
   /S           case sensitive
   /T[:]c,nnnn  default answer, seconds to wait for answer

If you do not specify which keys to accept, YN will be assumed.
You may choose a default answer and the amount of time to wait
for an answer (0-9999 seconds). The result is returned via the
DOS error level: 1 for the first key listed, 2 for the second,
etc; 0 if ^C or Break is pressed; 255 if syntax error.

The text prompt should be enclosed in quotation marks for best
results. Otherwise, the text may be altered in various ways by
the command-line parser.

Example:
   BCHOICE /T:N,4 "Shall we play a game "

This example displays:

Shall we play a game [Y,N]?

...and waits for up to four seconds for an answer, assuming "N"
if no key is pressed.

                             BCOPY                      page 5



The BCOPY command is similar to the DOS command, COPY. It is a
pure file-to-file copy command, however. It does not support
devices or append operations.

Unlike the DOS command it replaces, BCOPY can accept multiple
source and destination files, can copy hidden, read-only, and
system files, accepts exception specifications, and allows
prompting for confirmation before copying or before overwriting
existing files.

When specifying multiple source or destination files, enclose
them in parentheses so BCOPY can tell which is which.

Syntax:
   BCOPY {options} [source(s)] [dest(s)] {/E [exception(s)]}

Options:
   /E   copy everything EXCEPT for the following files
   /H   copy hidden, read-only, and system files too
   /L   display filenames in lowercase
   /N   don't actually copy anything (for testing BCOPY)
   /P   prompt for confirmation before copying each file
   /Q   quiet: don't display filenames or summary
   /R   prompt before overwriting existing files
   /Y   assume YES to all requests for confirmation

The following parameters may be set as defaults for BCOPY by
setting the BCOPY environment variable: /H /L /P /Q /R /Y

Example:
   BCOPY (A: B:) C:\MISC

The above example copies all files on both A: and B: drives to
the directory C:\MISC.

Example:
   BCOPY *.* A: /E *.LTR *.TXT

The above example copies all files in the current directory to
drive A:, except for files that end in .LTR or .TXT.

                             BDEL                       page 6



The BDEL command is similar to the DOS command, DEL (or ERASE).

Unlike the DOS command it replaces, BDEL can accept multiple
file specs, can delete hidden, read-only, and system files,
accepts exception specifications, and can recurse through an
entire directory tree.

Syntax:
   BDEL {options} [file(s)] {/E [exception file(s)]}

Options:
   /E   delete everything EXCEPT for the following files
   /H   delete hidden, read-only, and system files too
   /L   display filenames in lowercase
   /N   don't actually delete anything (for testing BDEL)
   /P   prompt for confirmation before deleting each file
   /Q   quiet: don't display filenames or summary
   /S   recurse through subdirectories
   /Y   assume YES to all requests for confirmation

The following parameters may be set as defaults for BDEL by
setting the BDEL environment variable: /H /L /P /Q /Y

Example:
   BDEL A: B: /E *.EXE

The above example deletes all files on both A: and B: drives,
except for files ending in .EXE.

Example:
   BDEL /H /P *.*

The above example deletes all files in the current directory,
including hidden, read-only, and system files. It asks for
confirmation before deleting each file.

Example:
   BDEL /S C:\*.BAK

The above example deletes all files in every directory on the C:
drive which end in the extension .BAK.

                             BDIR                       page 7



The BDIR command is similar to the DOS command, DIR.

Unlike the DOS command it replaces, BDIR can accept multiple
file specs, can colorize its listing, supports 132 columns,
allows descriptions to be tagged onto files, can show file
attributes, and is highly configurable.

Syntax:
   BDIR {options} {file(s)} {/E [exception file(s)]}

Options:
   /A   attributes (any of ADHRS: Arc Dir Hid R/O Sys)
   /B   bare list: filenames only, single column
   /D   don't show dot directories ("." and "..")
   /E   dir of everything EXCEPT for the following files
   /K   suppress header (pathname, etc)
   /L   display filenames in lowercase
   /M   suppress footer (totals, etc)
   /O   sorting order (any of DGNS: Date GroupDirs Name Size)
   /P   prompt to continue at end of each full screen
   /S   recurse through subdirectories
   /T   display file attributes
   /U   display only summary info
   /W   wide list: filenames only, multiple columns
   /X   extra wide output (132-column mode)
   /Y   display file descriptions
   /Z   colorize (defaults may be changed with COLORDIR vbl)

The following parameters may be set as defaults for BDIR by
setting the BDIR environment variable:
   /A /D /K /L /M /O /P /T /X /Y /Z

Example:
   BDIR /Z /Y /OGN

The above example displays all files in the current directory,
colorized, with descriptions (if any). Subdirectories are
grouped before files, and it is sorted in alphabetical order.

The COLORDIR environment variable can be used to change the /Z
option's colors. You may set colors based on file extensions and
file attributes (attributes take precedence):

   SET COLORDIR=[extlist]:[color] {; [extlist]:[color]} {etc}

An "extlist" is a list of extensions or attributes, separated by
spaces. Attributes are ARCHIVE, DIRS, SYSTEM, HIDDEN, RDONLY.
Colors are the same as for the COLOR command, but background
colors are not allowed.

Example:
   SET COLORDIR=DOC TXT:BLUE;DIRS:BRIGHT GREEN;BAS:RED

The above example makes .DOC and .TXT files blue, directories
bright green, and .BAS files red.

                             BEEP                       page 8



The BEEP command provides simple sound effects through the PC
speaker.

Syntax:
   BEEP {frequency duration}

The frequency is specified in Hertz (cycles per second). The
duration is given in 1/18th seconds. No sound will be generated
for frequencies below 20, allowing you to use this as a delay
command as well.

If no parameters are specified, a 440 Hz tone will sound for 2
eighteenths of a second.

You may specify multiple frequency/duration pairs on the same
line.

   Note     Frequency (highest octave)
   =====    =========
     A         3520
   A#,B-       3714
     B         3952
     C         4186
   C#,D-       4434
     D         4698
   D#,E-       4978
     E         5274
     F         5588
   F#,G-       5920
     G         6272
   G#,A-       6644

You can drop down an octave by halving the frequency for a given
note. A "#" suffix indicates a sharp, and "-" a flat note.

                              BMCD                      page 9



The BMCD command combines the functions of the DOS commands, MD
(or MKDIR) and CD (or CHDIR): It creates a directory and makes
it the current default directory. BMCD can accept multiple
directory specifications.

Syntax:
   BMCD [directory] {directory} {etc}

Example:
   BMCD A:\GAME B:\DOC

The above example creates the subdirectories A:\GAME and B:\DOC,
and makes them the default subdirectories for drives A: and B:,
respectively.




The BMD command is similar to the DOS command, MD (or MKDIR).

Unlike the DOS command it replaces, BMD can accept multiple
directory specifications.

Syntax:
   BMD [directory] {directory} {etc}

Example:
   BMD ONE TWO

The above example creates the subdirectories ONE and TWO.




                              BRD



The BRD command is similar to the DOS command, RD (or RMDIR).

Unlike the DOS command it replaces, BRD can accept multiple
directory specifications.

Syntax:
   BRD [directory] {directory} {etc}

Example:
   BRD ONE TWO

The above example removes the subdirectories ONE and TWO.

                             BREN                      page 10



The BREN command is similar to the DOS command, REN (or RENAME).

Unlike the DOS command it replaces, BREN can accept multiple
source files, accepts full paths for both source and destination
filespecs, allows renaming from one drive to another, can rename
hidden, read-only, and system files, allows overwriting existing
files, accepts exception specifications, and allows prompting
for confirmation before renaming or before overwriting existing
files.

When specifying multiple source files, the source files must be
enclosed in parentheses, and the destination must be a directory
rather than a filespec.

By default, the rename will fail if the destination file already
exists. You can override this with /R (add /Y if you don't want
to confirm each overwrite yourself).

Syntax:
   BREN {options} [source(s)] [destination] {/E [exception(s)]}

Options:
   /E   rename everything EXCEPT for the following files
   /H   rename hidden, read-only, and system files too
   /L   display filenames in lowercase
   /N   don't actually rename anything (for testing BREN)
   /P   prompt for confirmation before renaming each file
   /Q   quiet: don't display filenames or summary
   /R   prompt before overwriting existing files
   /Y   assume YES to all requests for confirmation

The following parameters may be set as defaults for BREN by
setting the BREN environment variable: /H /L /P /Q /R /Y

Example:
   BREN (A: B:) C:\MISC /E *.TXT

The above example moves all files on both A: and B: drives to
the directory C:\MISC, except for files ending in .TXT. The
rename is not done for files that already exist in C:\MISC.

Example:
   BREN /R /Y *.BAK \BACKUP

The above example moves all .BAK files from the current
directory to the \BACKUP directory, overwriting any existing
files by the same name.

                             BTYPE                     page 11



The BTYPE command is similar to the DOS command, TYPE.

Unlike the DOS command it replaces, BTYPE provides pagination.

Syntax:
   BTYPE {options} [file(s)]

Options:
   /P   prompt to continue at end of each full screen




                              CAL



The CAL command displays a calendar. If no parameters are given,
the calendar is for the current month and year. Month and/or
year values can be specified as well.

Syntax:
   CAL {month} {year}

If the month is specified, it must be spelled out. It may be
abbreviated to as few as three characters (JAN, FEB, etc).

You may enter either two digits or four digits for the year. If
two digits are used, the 21st century will be assumed for 0-9,
or the 20th century otherwise. The calendar program accepts a
year range of 1900-2078.

                             CALC                      page 12



The CALC command is a calculator.

Syntax:
   CALC expression

Expressions may use the following operators:
   +    add
   -    subtract
   *    multiply
   /    divide
   ^    raise to a power
   **   raise to a power (alternate form)

Parentheses may be used to override the default algebraic
precedence, which is: negation, raise to power, multiply and
divide, add and subtract.

Example:
   CALC 19.95 * 1.05 + 3




                           CAPSLOCK



The CAPSLOCK command lets you get or set the Caps Lock state.

Syntax:
   CAPSLOCK {ON or OFF}

The current Caps Lock state is displayed if you do not give a
parameter. Otherwise, Caps Lock is set as you request.

                             COLOR                     page 13



The COLOR command allows you to set the display colors. An ANSI
driver must be installed for it to function.

Syntax:
   COLOR {BRIGHT} {BLINKING} foregroundcolor {ON backgroundcolor}

Colors:
   BLACK   BLUE   GREEN   RED   MAGENTA   CYAN   YELLOW   WHITE

Color parameters may be shortened to as little as three
characters each. BROWN may be used instead of YELLOW (on most
displays, the "normal" color appears brown, and the "bright"
version of the same color appears yellow).

Example:
   COLOR BRIGHT WHITE ON RED

The above example sets the foreground color to bright white, and
the background color to red. A shorter version of the same thing
might look like this:
   COLOR BRI WHI ON RED

                           DESCRIBE                    page 14



The DESCRIBE command allows you to attach a description to a
file or subdirectory name. This description will be shown when
you use the BDIR directory command. It is also compatible with
the 4DOS and NDOS command shells, and will be shown by the DIR
command provided with those shells.

Descriptions may be up to 120 characters, although the part of
the description that is shown depends on the BDIR parameters. It
is 31-37 characters in 80-column mode, depending on whether file
attributes are also being shown. In 132-column mode, up to 81
characters of the file description are displayed.

Descriptions are kept in a hidden file named DESCRIPT.ION. They
are automatically maintained by BCMD file utilities (BDEL, BREN,
BCOPY, etc) and other software that is aware of descriptions
(4DOS, NDOS, etc). Descriptions may not be properly updated if
you do file handling with other software.

Syntax:
   DESCRIBE {options} [file(s)] {/E [except file(s)]} {"desc"}

Options:
   /E   describe everything EXCEPT for the following files
   /L   display filenames in lowercase
   /Q   quiet: don't display filenames or summary

The description may be included on the DESCRIBE command line, or
you may leave it off-- in which case, you will be prompted for a
description for each of the selected files.

Example:
   DESCRIBE BCMD.DOC "Documentation for BCMD utilities"

In the above example, the file BCMD.DOC will be tagged with the
description "Documentation for BCMD utilities" (without the
quotation marks).

Example:
   DESCRIBE *.DOC

In the above example, the DESCRIBE command will ask you for a
description for each of the .DOC files in the current directory.

                             ECHOS                     page 15



The ECHOS command is for use in batch files. It displays text
like the ECHO command, but without moving to the next line. This
makes it easy to display multiple items on the same line. In
order for this to be effective, the batch ECHO state must be
turned off so that the batch commands aren't shown.

Syntax:
   ECHOS message

Example:
   ECHO OFF
   ECHOS This is
   ECHOS  a test

This example displays:

This is a test




                             FREE



The FREE command shows the amount of disk space available and
the amount used.

Syntax:
   FREE {drive{:}} {drive{:}} {etc}

If no drive specs are given, stats for the current drive will be
shown. One or more drives may be specified. A colon (":") may,
optionally, be placed after each drive letter.

Example:
   FREE C: D:

                           KEYSPEED                    page 16



The KEYSPEED command sets the keyboard repeat rate. It will not
work on 8088 PCs.

The default keyboard repeat rate is quite sluggish, and you'll
be amazed at how much more responsive your machine is with
faster settings! You can also reduce responsiveness in order to
make the keyboard more manageable for young children, etc.

Syntax:
   KEYSPEED delay repeatrate

The starting delay may be 0-3, and is 2 by default. The repeat
rate may be 0-31, and is 10 by default. In both cases, settings
of zero are fastest.

Example:
   KEYSPEED 0 0

The above example sets the keyboard repeat as fast as possible.

Example:
   KEYSPEED 2 10

The above example restores the default keyboard repeat rate.





                            LOCASE



The LOCASE filter converts text to lowercase. It works only with
ASCII characters, so it does not fully support international
character sets.

Filters are used in conjunction with redirection or piping. They
accept an incoming stream of text, modify it, and pass it on.

Example:
   LOCASE <BCMD.NEW

The above example converts the BCMD.NEW file to lowercase and
displays the results.

Example:
   BDIR | LOCASE

The above example converts the output of the BDIR command to
lowercase and displays the results.

                            LOCATE                     page 17



The LOCATE command sets the cursor position. It is intended for
use primarily in designing displays for batch files. An ANSI
driver, such as ANSI.SYS, must be installed.

Syntax:
   LOCATE row column

Cursor coordinates are based on (1,1), which is the upper left
corner of the display. A typical display has rows 1-25 and
columns 1-80.

Example:
   LOCATE 5 1

The above example positions the cursor on the first column of
the fifth row of the screen.




                             LTRIM



The LTRIM filter removes blanks from the left side of each line
of text. Blanks are construed as space or tab characters.

Filters are used in conjunction with redirection or piping. They
accept an incoming stream of text, modify it, and pass it on.

Example:
   LTRIM <BCMD.NEW

The above example trims blanks from the left side of each line
of the BCMD.NEW file and displays the results.

Example:
   BDIR | LTRIM

The above example trims blanks from the left side of each line
of the output of the BDIR command and displays the results.

                            NUMLOCK                    page 18



The NUMLOCK command lets you get or set the Num Lock state.

Syntax:
   NUMLOCK {ON or OFF}

The current Num Lock state is displayed if you do not give a
parameter. Otherwise, Num Lock is set as you request.




                           ONESPACE



The ONESPACE filter converts multiple spaces in a line of text
to single spaces.

Filters are used in conjunction with redirection or piping. They
accept an incoming stream of text, modify it, and pass it on.

Example:
   ONESPACE <BCMD.NEW

The above example takes each line of the file BCMD.NEW, converts
sequences of two or more spaces to one space, and displays the
results.

Example:
   BDIR | ONESPACE

The above example takes the output of the BDIR command, converts
sequences of two or more spaces in a line to a single space, and
displays the results.

                             TYME                      page 19



The TYME command displays the current time and date in a readily
understandable format.

Syntax:
   TYME

The output of TYME looks like this:

It is 11:11 am on Saturday, August 14, 1993.




                            UNANSI



The UNANSI filter removes ANSI sequences from text. This can be
useful in cleaning up text that was captured from a BBS and
removing colors from BDIR output if color is on by default, and
so on.

Filters are used in conjunction with redirection or piping. They
accept an incoming stream of text, modify it, and pass it on.

Example:
   UNANSI <CAPTURE.BBS

The above example removes all ANSI sequences from the file
CAPTURE.BBS and displays the results.

Example:
   BDIR | UNANSI

The above example removes ANSI sequences from the output of the
BDIR command and displays the results.

                             UNCPM                     page 20



The UNCPM command removes control-Z characters from the end of
files. This is normally used only on text files.

The old CP/M operating system did not keep track of the exact
size of files, so the end of text files was normally marked with
a control-Z character. This carried over into the early days of
MS-DOS, which was designed to make the transition from CP/M as
easy as possible. Unfortunately, some programs still use Ctrl-Z
as an end-of-file marker, even though MS-DOS keeps track of
exact file sizes. This can lead to trouble.

If there happens to be a Ctrl-Z embedded in a file which is
handled by a CP/M-style program, the file will be truncated at
the Ctrl-Z. This can quite readily occur if an editor adds a
Ctrl-Z to the end of a file which is subsequently appended to by
a program which doesn't expect CP/M terminators, for example.
The UNCPM utility helps avoid such errors.

Syntax:
   UNCPM {options} [file(s)] {/E [exception file(s)]}

Options:
   /E   UnCPM everything EXCEPT for the following files
   /H   UnCPM hidden, read-only, and system files too
   /L   display filenames in lowercase
   /N   don't actually UnCPM anything (for testing UNCPM)
   /P   prompt for confirmation before UnCPMing each file
   /Q   quiet: don't display filenames or summary
   /S   recurse through subdirectories
   /Y   assume YES to all requests for confirmation

Example:
   UNCPM *.TXT *.DOC

The above example removes Ctrl-Z terminators from all files
ending in .TXT and .DOC in the current directory.

                            UPCASE                     page 21



The UPCASE filter converts text to uppercase. It works only with
ASCII characters, so it does not fully support international
character sets.

Filters are used in conjunction with redirection or piping. They
accept an incoming stream of text, modify it, and pass it on.

Example:
   UPCASE <BCMD.NEW

The above example converts the BCMD.NEW file to uppercase and
displays the results.

Example:
   BDIR | UPCASE

The above example converts the output of the BDIR command to
uppercase and displays the results.