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.

del / erase
The ReactOS del command
Developer(s)DEC, Microware, Microsoft, IBM, DR, Novell, JP Software, ReactOS Contributors
Operating systemRT-11, RSX-11, OS/8, OpenVMS, DOS, OS-9, MSX-DOS, FlexOS, OS/2, Windows, ReactOS, KolibriOS, SymbOS, DexOS
TypeCommand

Implementations

The command is available for various operating systems including DOS, Microware OS-9,[1] IBM OS/2,[2] Microsoft Windows[3] and ReactOS.[4] It is analogous to the Unix rm command and to the Stratus OpenVOS delete_file and delete_dircommands.[5] DEC RT-11,[6] RSX-11, OS/8[7] and OpenVMS also provide the delete command which can be contracted to del. AmigaDOS[8] and TSC FLEX[9] provide a delete command as well.

On MS-DOS, the command is available in versions 1 and later.[10] It is also available in the open-source MS-DOS emulator DOSBox.

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.[11]

THEOS/OASIS[12] and FlexOS[13] provide only the erase command.

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

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. http://www.jatomes.com/Help/Os2Cmd.php#ERASE
  3. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2012-R2-and-2012/cc771049(v%3dws.11)
  4. https://github.com/reactos/reactos/blob/master/base/shell/cmd/del.c
  5. http://stratadoc.stratus.com/vos/19.1.0/r098-19/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/r098-19.pdf
  6. http://paleoferrosaurus.com/beta/documents/rt11help.html#DELETE
  7. "Concise Command Language" (CCL)."OS/8 Handbook" (PDF). April 1974. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
  8. https://archive.org/details/1988-rugheimer-spanik-amigados-quick-reference
  9. FLEX 2.0 User's Manual
  10. Wolverton, Van (2003). Running MS-DOS Version 6.22 (20th Anniversary Edition), 6th Revised edition. Microsoft Press. ISBN 0-7356-1812-7.
  11. DR DOS 6.0 User Guide Optimisation and Configuration Tips
  12. THEOS/OASIS User′s Handbook
  13. 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.
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