China DOS Union

General methods for viewing help information in software under DOS

In Windows, we know that to open a program's help, generally F1 will do it. What about in DOS?
Generally, at the DOS command line, type the program's name (the executable filename) followed by /H or /? or /help
and the program will display help information.
Or type the program's name (the executable filename) followed by -H or -? or -help
And some DOS programs will display help information if you don't add any parameters at all.

Here are a few examples.
For example: DM (that best hard disk initialization tool, the DM9.56 bilingual universal edition). To get its help information, just type at the DOS command line:
DM /?←┘
or DM /??←┘
This will give you the usage of the other command-line switches in the DM universal edition, along with color Chinese explanations.
(Note: ←┘ means the Enter key)

Another example: CMI (chinese memory infomation, the Chinese-localized edition of a memory information viewer)
Type at the DOS command line:
cmi/?←┘
(Note: ←┘ means the Enter key)
The following information will be displayed:

Memory Information Display Program V9 ?1993. Copyright Midpoint Software, USA.
Chinese localization by Mo Yisheng of Sanshui

CMI

Common parameter items are as follows:
/A - List detailed information on all conventional memory usage.
/C - List only conventional memory usage; ignore EMS and Ext memory.
/D - Device driver list.
/E - Ignore the MI*OPT= setting in the DOS environment variables.
/F - Filter (hide) characters that should not be displayed.
/H - List handles used by EMS and XMS.
/N - Do not pause when the display fills the screen.
/O - Other display format.
/Q - Quickly display summary information.
/V - List interrupt numbers occupied by programs.
/? - Display this program's usage help information.
Here, the first line is the program name and copyright notice
the second line is information about the person who localized the program
the third line is the program's usage: CMI parameters
from the fourth line onward is the program's parameter list (the parameters the software can use and what they mean)


Another example: cte (comToexe, a file conversion tool that converts COM files into EXE files)
Type at the DOS prompt
CTE←┘
and the following text will appear:
Comtoexe Version 1.50 Copyright 1993 HIT 502
Conversion ComFile to ExeFile

Examples: Comtoexe SourceFileName TargetFileName.

The meaning of these three lines is: the first line is the software version and copyright notice
the second line is a description of what the software is for
the third line is a usage example cte source filename target filename
(Note: ←┘ means the Enter key)

Another example: RAR (the famous compression/extraction software; everyone is probably more familiar with its Windows version, WinRAR)
Type at the DOS command line:
RAR /?←┘
or RAR -?←┘
(Note: ←┘ means the Enter key)
Then a long explanation (help information) will appear.

RAR 2.06 Copyright (c) 1993-98 Eugene Roshal 3 December 1998
Registered to REGISTER
Usage: RAR - -

or RAR

a Add files to archive u Update files in archive
f Freshen files in archive m Move to archive
x Extract files with full path e Extract files to current directory
d Delete files from archive v Verbosely list contents of archive
r Repair archive l List contents of archive
p Print file to stdout s Convert archive to SFX
t Test archive files c Add archive comment
en Enter to archive cf Add files comment
k Lock archive cw Write archive comment to file
rr Add data recovery record

rr Add data recovery record mm Multimedia compression
o+ Overwrite existing files o- Do not overwrite existing files
bw Black & white mode col Color mode

Let me also explain this long section of English.
The first line program name, version, and copyright notice
The second line program registration information (Registered to REGISTER registered to the registrant)
The third line program usage RAR - -

or RAR
Note: RAR has two usage modes, command-line mode and graphical mode. The usage with parameters after it as shown above
is command-line mode, while the one above without parameters is graphical mode.
That is to say, if you directly type the three letters RAR at the command line and press Enter,
the RAR graphical interface will appear.
The sixth line then below that are the available command parameters and what they do.
The seventeenth line then below that are the available switch parameters and what they do.
Note: Generally, in DOS, parameters in parentheses are understood to be required parameters (cannot be omitted), while parameters in are optional parameters
and parameters on both sides of the ｜ symbol mean choose one of the two

One more: XE (heXEdit, a hex editor; like WinHex under Windows is also a hex editor)

Type at the DOS prompt
xe/?←┘
or xe/h←┘
(Note: ←┘ means the Enter key)
You will get the following help information:

heXEdit v4.0 ^^ Rob Stuntz

Usage : XE

/C - Use default color set
/M - Use monochrome color set

Likewise, the first line program name (heXEdit), version (V4.0), a smiley (^^), author (Rob Stuntz)
the second line program usage XE
the third line the function of parameter /C use the default color settings (color interface)
the fourth line the function of parameter /M use monochrome color settings (black-and-white interface)

Another one: ED included with CCDOS97 Oriental Express edition (edit, a very powerful text editor written by Liu Huisong)
Type at the DOS command line
ed/?←┘
or ed/h←┘
or ed/help←┘
(Note: ←┘ means the Enter key)
The following information will appear:

ED .EXE Version 1.13,(C) CopyRight. By Liu HuiSong on 98.5.1
Usag 1: ED
Usag 2: ED

The first line program name, version, copyright notice
The second line program usage Usage 1: ED
The third line program usage Usage 2: ED

What I've been talking about here is getting help information from the software itself at the DOS command line. The information obtained this way may be very detailed, or it may not be very detailed.
But usually this information is enough to help you understand the program's purpose and how to use it.

Now let's talk about how to get help information in a DOS graphical interface.
Among DOS software, quite a few programs have graphical interfaces, and most of their help information is also inside the graphical interface.
How do you activate (open) the help?
Generally, pressing F1 will do it! (Now you know why the help shortcut under Windows is F1, hehe, it's a DOS tradition)
For many programs, help information in the graphical interface is obtained by pressing F1.
For example, the RAR and XE mentioned above both use F1 to get help information once you enter the graphical interface.

There are also some programs, such as ED, whose help information in the graphical interface is obtained by pressing Ctrl-H.
For example, NE (new hex editor), in the area on the right side of its graphical interface there is a simple list of keyboard commands, Help, Edit, Rename... etc.
Among them, the H in Help, the E in Edit, and the R in Rename are capitalized and highlighted. This indicates that the shortcut keys for these commands are
H, E, and R. (This is a bit like O(&O)pen under Windows, where the shortcut key is O.) So, to get help, you just need to press the H key.

Note: In the help information of DOS software, ^ is usually used to represent the Ctrl key, @ to represent the Alt key, and α is also commonly used to represent
the Alt key. Or in the help information of some software, C- is used to represent the Ctrl key, A- to represent the Alt key, and S- to represent the Shift key

Just to add, for GNUish or Unixish DOS programs, to view help, the -?、-h or --help options are often used。。

Question: how can I open DOS help files under WINDOWS? Do I need to use some other software?

No need. Just run that DOS program directly in a DOS window, then open help inside the program...
Directly clicking a DOS help file under Windows is useless. That's because DOS help files do not match the format of Windows help files, so they can't be opened directly under Windows...

Thank you, Mr. moderator, and thanks for the hard work.

Moderator, let me ask you this: is there a space between that program name and /?? I see that in some of the examples above there is, and in some there isn't.

Oh man！！！！！

Some do, some don't
Also, inside QBX7.1 there's a tool for editing DOS help software!

That really is a brilliant insight！！！

Now I'm really confused, I'm dizzy.

I want to ask, can the commands above be used at the MS-DOS prompt?

Why can't I use them? My system is WINDOWS ME

Nice summary, thanks moderator

So much stuff,

haha