Net help

[Hairyspider]

When i type in net help to see what commands i can do, the command window pops up, then scrolls down to th end of the list. However, i cant find a way to go back up the list to see what else there is earlier on. Is there somewhere else where i can see all of the possible commands.
all comments appreciated
hairyspider

Since global warming the eskimos have 17 different words for water

 

[pansophic]

You have a couple of options. Before we get to that though, open a command prompt window before you issue the command. Don't bother with that stupid Run dialog.

You can set your command window to have a history, I typically set it to 500 lines, but you can configure it for anything that you like. Once you issue the command, a scroll bar will appear that will allow you to scroll back up and read all of the help. You configure the properties for a command prompt window through the icon on the upper left corner. The actual menu item escapes me though.

Or you can pipe "|" the command to "more" and it will allow you page through the help a page at a time.
pansophic

 

[manarth]

pansophic (MIS) said
You can set your command window to have a history, I typically set it to 500 lines
Or you can pipe "|" the command to "more"

What O/S's does this apply to?

Could you please give an example of the command you would type to use "|"?
How do you set your history?

Please excuse my ignorance; Dos commands are not my forte!

Cheers,
<marc>

 

[pansophic]

Actually, the command history applies to terminal emulators in general, so Windows and *nix at least.

The pipe &quot;|&quot; is useful in DOS (Windows command prompt) and *nix as well. May work in other OSs too. It just takes the STDOUT data and uses it as a parameter in the next command.

Try:

net /? |more

To set the history click on the icon in the upper left-hand corner of the DOS window and select Properties. Under the Layout tab is a &quot;Screen Buffer Size&quot; that indicates the height and width of the buffer (history). You can also set the &quot;Window Size&quot; to a custom height and width. A width of 80 is pretty standard, and heights generally range between 24 and 40 for most terminal emulations.

The names of the command window properties came from a Win2K machine. It may be slightly different under other Windows OSs, but the basic concept is the same.
pansophic

 

[Hairyspider]

thanks alot pansphic, ur tips were just what i was looking for. I ended up using the |Pipe, and it did exactly as you said.
cheers,
hairyspider
winners are not always first

 

[manarth]

I tried entering the command net /? |more - it behaves exactly as if I typed net /?.

I've tried this on Windows 95 & 98.

Do I understand right - should the | cause it to pause when the screen is full; and you press a key for it to display the next portion of data?

<marc> still doesn't quite get it

 

[pansophic]

No, the more executable is what does the paging. The pipe simply pipes the output of net /? to the more executable.

Try:

more c:\windows\win.ini

If you get a bad command or file name it would appear that more was not included with Win9x or it is not in your path. More likely it is not in your path.
pansophic

 

[Hairyspider]

yeah it should. it worked fine on Windows ME. Im no techno wizard, but i think that you should try NET HELP |MORE. There is no actual difference, but because your using Win 95 and 98, it might work.
hairyspider

 

[manarth]

OK - this is bugging me now...

I have the more.com executable; more c:\windows\win.ini produces the right output...i.e. a listing of win.ini, paused at each full screen of output.

If I try Net Help |More or Net /? |More it doesn't pause the output in any way.

It appears that the pipe isn't sending the output to the more executable; everything after the pipe is ignored.

I assume I have the right executable...below is taken from the dosprompt.

C:\WINDOWS>more /?
Displays output one screen at a time.

MORE [drive:][path]filename
MORE < [drive:][path]filename
command-name | MORE [drive:][path][filename]

[drive:][path]filename Specifies file(s) to display one screen at a time
command-name Specifies a command whose output will be displayed.


Any ideas? <marc>

 

[Hairyspider]

im not sure why it isnt working.
net help |more is exactly what i typed in and that worked.

make sure that you do this in a command prompt, not in &quot;RUN&quot;. Apart from that, im not sure what else you can do.

 

[manarth]

I HAVE AN ANSWER!

There are 2 | pipes - the one used in this instance SHOULD be ASCII key 124; I was using the Ascii 221 pipe.

| = Alt 221 - found &quot;|ZXCVB&quot; (row above space bar, using left shift)

| = Alt 124 - anyone know where this key is located on a qwerty keyboard??

lol same character, different function: doh!
only worked it out after cutting and pasting your post into my dos prompt!

<marc>

 

[pray11342]

On all the recent keyboards I have seen, the |(pipe) character is the shifted \ (backslash) key.

It does not look like a solid vertical bar on the keyboard. Looks like it is broken in half, like 2 vertical dashes. Paul Ray
pray@systech-computers.com

Programming Languages -- .BAT Files

Preffered editor -- EDLIN

 

[manarth]

hi Paul
thx for the advice

Apologies all, this is about to get very off-topic for the forum!
But does follow the thread, so here goes...

I use a standard 106 key British QWERTY keyb, setup in Win as a &quot;British (English)&quot; keyboard

On my keyb, &quot;shift \&quot; (i.e. Key position 45 in the ISO8859-1 layout) is the ASCII 221 pipe (which, alas, does not perform the desired function in DOS)

The pipe I need is Ascii 124. Looks identical, performs differently.
As far as I can tell, it's not mapped to a key combination on my keyboard.

Could anyone who has succeeded in using the &quot; |more&quot; command please post which key it's mapped to, what sort of keyboard you're using, and the keyboard setup with Windows?

Thanks for any help! <marc>[ul]help us help![li]please provide feedback on what works / doesn't[/li][li]not sure where to start? click here: faq581-3339[/li][/sup][/ul][/sup]

 

[pray11342]

Well, FWIW, I just tried this in Win XP --

When you need the &quot;pipe&quot; command, hold down the <ALT> key, and type 124 on the number pad. The <ALT> (ASCII NUM) trick has worked since DOS 3.1 or thereabouts. USed to use it to get smiley faces, etc. 4 keystrokes instead of 1, but if you don't have the single key that works. . . .

I assume this is how you discovered that your key is different?












dos 3.1 Four keystrokes instead of one, but if the single key is not available . . . .

I suppose this is how you determined that they are different? Paul Ray

Programming Languages -- .BAT Files

Preffered editor -- EDLIN

 

[manarth]

uhuh - took some trial & error to work out exactly which Ascii code it was, but I got there in the end!

Thought about writing a program to decipher Ascii --> Char but couldn't be bothered. <lazy>
<marc>[ul]help us help![li]please provide feedback on what works / doesn't[/li][li]not sure where to start? click here: faq581-3339[/li][/sup][/ul][/sup]