Windows Command Line notes

This pages lists useful things that can be done by typing commands on a Windows computer!

Notes:

• All Windows commands
• Commands can be typed in a cmd, Windows PowerShell or, better, in a Windows Terminal!
• pipe (|) and redirection
  • Using command redirection operators
  • how to redirect output from PowerShell to text files

Sections below: Linux command ⇔ Windows command

• What: recursively find files (filenames) matching a given pattern
• Documentation: forfiles, forfiles (Wikipedia)
• Linux example: find path -n '*somename*.nc' -ls
• Windows example:

  •  PS C:\> forfiles /p C:\Utils\miniconda3_2024-03\pkgs /m *ffi*.dll /s /c "cmd /c echo @fdate @ftime @relpath"
    
    09/11/2021 22:16:18 ".\libffi-3.4.2-h8ffe710_5\Library\bin\ffi-8.dll"
    10/05/2023 13:03:16 ".\libffi-3.4.4-hd77b12b_0\Library\bin\ffi-7.dll"
    10/05/2023 13:03:16 ".\libffi-3.4.4-hd77b12b_0\Library\bin\ffi-8.dll"
    10/05/2023 13:03:16 ".\libffi-3.4.4-hd77b12b_0\Library\bin\ffi.dll"
    11/02/2025 09:56:52 ".\libffi-3.4.6-h537db12_0\Library\bin\ffi-8.dll"
    31/03/2025 17:25:29 ".\libffi-3.4.6-h537db12_1\Library\bin\ffi-8.dll"

• What: search for a string of text in a file or files
  • To search for a string with wild cards and regex patterns, you can use the FINDSTR command
  • findstr can also search subdirectories
• Documentation:
  • find, find (Wikipedia)
  • findstr, findstr (Wikepedia)
• Linux example:
• Windows example:

• What: display the path of a command (look for a result in the predefined search path)
  • Note: on Windows, also look for files with the extensions specified in the pathext environment variable
    • cmd:

      C:\>echo %pathext%
      .COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH;.MSC

    • Powershell:

      PS C:\> echo $Env:pathext
      .COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH;.MSC;.CPL

  • Linux search path:

    $ echo $PATH
    /home/share/unix_files/cdat/miniconda3_2024-03/bin:/home/share/unix_files/cdat/miniconda3_2024-03/condabin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:.

  • Windows search path:
    • cmd: echo %path%
    • Powershell: echo $Env:path
• Documentation: where
• Linux example:

  (base) >which which
  which: shell built-in command.
  
  (base) >which \which
  /usr/bin/which
  
  (base) >which conda
  conda:   aliased to source /home/share/unix_files/cdat/miniconda3_2024-03/etc/profile.d/conda.csh

• Windows example:

  (base) PS C:\> where.exe where
  C:\Windows\System32\where.exe
  
  (base) PS C:\> where.exe conda
  C:\Utils\miniconda3_2024-03\Library\bin\conda.bat
  C:\Utils\miniconda3_2024-03\Scripts\conda.exe
  C:\Utils\miniconda3_2024-03\condabin\conda.bat

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