EDIT

Home >> MS-DOS Reference >> Command Categories >> File and Disk Management >> EDIT

Supported DOS versions:	MS-DOS 5+
How easy to use?	Very easy
How safe to use?	Very safe
How common?	Very common
Internal or external command?	External

Description

A full screen text editor based on the QBASIC editor

Command Syntax

EDIT in DOS 5 - 6.22:

EDIT filename [/b] [/g] [/h] [/nohi]

/b Displays in black and white on a colour monitor (good for mono laptops)
/g Provides the fastest possible screen updates when using EDIT with a CGA adaptor
/nohi Stops use of high intensity/bright colours

EDIT in DOS 7+:

EDIT [/B] [/H] [/R] [/S] [/<nnn>] [file(s)]

/B       - Forces monochrome mode.
/H       - Displays the maximum number of lines possible for your hardware.
/R       - Load file(s) in read-only mode.
/S       - Forces the use of short filenames.
/<nnn>   - Load binary file(s), wrapping lines to <nnn> characters wide.
[file]   - Specifies initial files(s) to load. Wildcards and multiple filespecs can be given.

Comments

EDIT is a vast improvement over EDLIN. It's based on the QBASIC editor. The DOS 5 - 6.22 version can only open one file at a time while the DOS 7+ version can load up to 9 files at a time. If you want to copy the DOS 5 - 6.22 version of EDIT.COM (such as onto a boot disk), you will also need to copy QBASIC.EXE and QBASIC.HLP.

	Home
	MS-DOS Home
	A - Z Index