The programs featured here are DOS ports of Unix originals, or of the Free Software Foundation's tools for the GNU Operating System

Programs from the GNUish Project, and some others, run in 80x86 real mode (16-bit) and so will work on 80286 or older CPUs and almost any DOS.

More recent ports from GNU and others are 32-bit DJGPP builds that require an 80386+ CPU and a DOS Protected Mode Interface (usually supplied by CWSDPMI or by Windows).

See More Resources - 1 for links to additional info and download sites.

Also see Mi-Shell (MSH), a Norton Commander-type shell with Unixish features.

bash — GNU's command shell, ported to DOS.

* * * *

[added 2004-10-29, updated 2006-08-15]

Bash... the GNU Bourne-Again SHell... the shell, or command language interpreter, for the GNU operating system... incorporates useful features from the Korn and C shells (ksh and csh)

...a macro processor that executes commands. A Unix shell is both a command interpreter, which provides the user interface to the rich set of GNU utilities, and a programming language, allowing these utilitites to be combined. Files containing commands can be created, and become commands themselves. These new commands have the same status as system commands in directories such as /bin, allowing users or groups to establish custom environments.

2003-04-25: v2.05b, 32-bit DJGPP port for 80386+.

Author: Chet Ramey et al. (2003).

MS Shell — Unixish command shell for DOS.

* * * *

[added 2004-10-29]

This shell is based on Unix SVR4's Korn and Bourne shells, and the MINIX shell by Charles Forsyth. Some OS/2 commands have been added. Binaries package includes 16- and 32-bit DOS, and 16- and 32-bit OS/2 executables. Also see the matching UXUTL utilty set.

Author: Ian Stewartson, UK (1994).

1994-08-26: v2.3.

Also see RUTILS4.

GNU Shell Utilities (Shellutils, Sh-utils) — Core components of the GNU operating system.

* * * *

[added 2005-03-28, updated 2006-08-15]

These, with the Fileutils and the Textutils, are core components of the GNU operating system. In this version, all are 32-bit DJGPP compilations.

basename		Strip directory and suffix
chroot		Specify the root directory
date		Print/set system date and time
dirname		Strip non-directory suffix
echo		Print a line of text
env		Modify the environment
expr		Evaluate expressions
factor		Print prime factors
false		Do nothing, unsuccessfully
groups		Print group names a user is in
hostid		Print numeric host identifier
hostname		Print or set system name
id		Print real/effective uid/gid
logname		Print current login name
nice		Modify scheduling priority
nohup		Immunize to hangups
pathchk		Check file name portability
printenv		Print environment variables
printf		Format and print data
pwd		Print working directory
seq		Print numeric sequences
sleepp		Delay for a specified time
stty		Print/change terminal settings
su		Modify user and group id
tee		Redirect to multiple files
test		File/string tests
true		Do nothing, successfully
tty		Print terminal name
uname		Print system information
users		Print current user names
who		Print who is logged in
whoami		Print effective user id
yes		Print a string indefinitely

Authors: Jim Meyering, Roland McGrath, David MacKenzie, Richard Mlynarik, Mike Parker, Arnold Robbins, Joseph Arceneaux, Kaveh Ghazi, Ulrich Drepper, Paul Eggert, Richard M. Stallman for GNU. DOS port by Prashant TR (2003).

2003-12-15: v2.0.11.

UXUTL — Comprehensive collection of command line Unix utilities for DOS.

* * * *

[updated 2004-10-29]

This set of UNIX utilities was originally developed for use with the author's Uish MS Shell but the tools can be used as standalone programs. The UXUTL set is split into four archives (a, b, c, and d) and mainly consists of file and text processing programs. Documentation (included with the "a" set) is sparse – you'll need to acquire the corresponding Unix MAN docs to appreciate the full potential of these programs. One util I use frequently from this package is tee – it allows you to redirect output to the screen and to a file *simultaneously.*

Here are the contents of the four packages that make up the collection:

a
basename		Display file namename
bmgrep		Fast pattern matching utility
cal		Display calendar
cat		Concatenate files
cdiff		Context difference
cgrep		Searches file for pattern and display context
chmod		Change file attributes
cmp		Compare two files
comm		Select or reject lines common to two sorted files
cp		Copy files
cpio		Archive files
csplit		Context or line file splitter
cut		Cut data out of a file
USAGE		doc file
b
date		Display / change date and time
dd		Data copy
df		Display Disk Free space
dirname		Extract directory name from filename
du		Display disk usage
expr		Evaluate arguments as expression
fgrep		Searches file for string
find		Search dir tree for files matching req.
fold		Fold long lines to stdout
fstat		Print file status information
grep		Searches file for pattern
head		Display file headers
ls		List directory
c
m4		M4 Macro processor
make		Makefile processor
mkdir		Make path
mv		Move files
od		octal dump
printarg		Print arguments to stdout
printenv		Print environment to stdout
rm		Remove files
rmdir		Remove directories
setschar		Set switch character
sleep		Wait for n seconds
sort		Sort files
split		Split file into n line parts
d
strings		Display the strings in files
sym		Display symbolic info from obj and lib files
tail		Print tail of file
tee		Copy stdin to one or more files and standard output
touch		Change a file's time stamp or size
tput		Output a termcap string
tr		Translate characters
uniq		Display unique lines
wc		Count number of words in file
which		Display the dir containing a command from PATH

Author: Ian Stewartson, UK (1994).

Berkeley Utilities — Unixish tool set for DOS.

* * * *

[added 2001-11-16, updated 2005-12-09]

Also see the related Mi-Shell (MSH), which looks for this set.

The Berkeley Utilities are a set of 40 Unix-like utilities for MS-DOS... It is not as complete a set of Unix commands as can be found in some other packages (e.g. MKS) but it contains some useful utilities you don't find elsewhere (e.g. cb, xstr)...[T]hey now work with long filenames under Win95/98, and df can understand multi-gigabyte partitions...Compared to the GNU utilities, [the Berkeley Utilities] have the advantage that they are much smaller (20K on average instead of 100K). Compared to MKS utilities, they have the advantage that each utility is self contained (it can run separately without any other support file, and each utility contains a help screen)...

The Berkeley Utilities follow rigorously the Unix System V syntax and include all the options found on any Unix system plus a few carefully chosen ones. They used to sell for $200 and are now free.

awk		string processing language
basename		extract base part from pathname of a file or directory
cal		display the calendar for a year or a month
cat		concatenate files
cb		C beautifier
cmp		binary file comparison
comm		look for common lines in 2 files
cp		copy files and directories
cut		cut out columns or fields from files
df		statistics on disk usage
diff		compare files and directories
dtree		display tree structure of directory
du		display space each directory takes
ech		echo arguments
ed		line editor
expand		expands tabs into blanks
find		find files with certain properties, execute commands on each
grep		search for patterns in files
head		display the beginning of one or several files
join		relational join of two files
ls		list files and directories
make		update files
more		text files browser
mv		move files and directories
od		octal or hexadecimal dump
paste		merge files as columns of a single file
rederr		redirect error output of commands
rm		remove files and directories
sed		stream editor
sort		sort files
split		split a file into smaller pieces
tail		display the end of a file
tee		pipe connection and derivation
touch		update file timestamp
tr		translate standard in to standard out
unexpand		compress spaces to tabs
uniq		weed out or find duplicate lines in a sorted file
wc		count words and lines
which		find which version of a program is active
xstr		extract character strings from C programs

Authors: Jean Michel and Patrick Mérissert-Coffinières, France (1991, 2001). Distributed by OPENetwork.

2001-02-12: v2.0. Formerly paid commercial software, now in the public domain and completely free.

Download berk.zip (1.2MB), complete package with all utils + manual (pdf format).

Go to the Berkeley Utilities page at OPENetwork to download individual programs, and see examples of use with screenshots.

Online manual.

GNU Diffutils (diff) — File difference package.

* * * *

[added 1998-08-16, updated 2006-08-15]

These utils are available in two sets, 32-bit and 16-bit. The 32-bit DJGPP set includes 4 programs: diff, cmp, diff3, and sdiff. Diff seems best suited to tracking differences among versions of code / documents through time (i.e., version maintenance) rather than offering quick, intuitive recognition of differences as with VCOMP. But as noted by a reader:

[diff] has long had a very readable format, that does not require ansi color etc. called the context format:

    diff -C 1 file1  file2

This prints different lines (changed, deleted, or added) with one line that is the same in each file at the beginning and end, something like this:

    first line is same
    2C --  second line of file is different
    ---------------------------------------
    2C --  second line of this file is different
    third line is same

Where the first and third lines are the identical "context" lines. Very readable format for changed lines, a little less for lines added or deleted.

Also, for hard copy, double column, portrait-mode visual comparison of content (i.e., ignoring layout) you may want to re-wrap copies of your two text files to a narrow width (e.g., 35, if that doesn't mangle the readability too much) and then play with the --width=NUM parameter (e.g., =80) in combination with the -y switch. Diff is capable of handling large files. Win9x LFN compatible under Win9x.

...outputs differences between files line by line in any of several formats, selectable by command line options. This set of differences is often called a "diff" or "patch". For files that are identical, diff normally produces no output; for binary (non-text) files, diff normally reports only that they are different. You can use the set of differences produced by diff to distribute updates to text files (such as program source code) to other people...The cmp command shows the offsets and line numbers where two files differ. cmp can also show all the characters that differ between the two files, side by side. ...Use the diff command to show differences among three files...diff3 can report the differences between the original and the two changed versions, and can produce a merged file that contains both persons' changes together with warnings about conflicts...Use the sdiff command to merge two files interactively.

...provides ways to suppress certain kinds of differences that are not important to you. Most commonly, such differences are changes in the amount of white space between words or lines...differences in alphabetic case or in lines that match a regular expression that you provide.

The older 16-bit utils are GNUish Project ports, and do not include sdiff.

Authors: Paul Eggert, Mike Haertel, David Hayes, Richard Stallman, Len Tower, Thomas Lord, Randy Smith, Torbjorn Granlund and David MacKenzie for GNU. 16-bit port by Helge Oldach, Germany (1993). 32-bit port by Eli Zaretskii, Israel (2004).

GNU Fileutils — Collection of file utilities.

* * * *

[added 1998-09-13, updated 2005-03-11]

An up-to-date, all-in-one file toolkit. Separately zipped documentation helpful.

32-bit DJGPP port for 80386+, supports Win9x long file names (LFNs):

chgrp		Changes file group ownership
chown		Changes file ownership
chmod		Changes file permissions
cp		Copies files
dd		Copies and converts a file
df		Shows disk free space on filesystems
dir		Gives a brief directory listing
dircolors		Setup program for the color output of GNU ls
du		Shows disk usage on filesystems
install		Copies file and sets its permissions
ln		Creates file links
ls		Lists directory contents
mkdir		Creates directories
mkfifo		Creates FIFOs (named pipes)
mknod		Creates special files
mv		Moves files
rm		Removes (deletes) files
rmdir		Removes empty directories
shred		Destroy data in files
sync		Synchronizes filesystem buffers and disk
touch		Changes file timestamps
vdir		Long directory listing

16-bit port for 8086/80286, similar but not identical contents:

chmod		change the access permissions of files
cp		copy files
dd		convert a file while copying it
df		summarize free disk space
di		list contents of directories
du		summarize disk usage
install		copy files and set their attributes
ls		list contents of directories
mkd		make directories
mv		rename files
rm		remove files
rmd		remove empty directories
touch		change file timestamps
vdir		list contents of directories

Authors: Richard Stallman, David MacKenzie, Torbjorn Granlund, Larry McVoy, Paul Eggert, Paul Rubin, Stuart Kemp, Jim Meyering, H. Peter Anvin, Arnold Robbins, Jim Kingdon, Randy Smith, Colin Plumb for GNU. 16-bit port by Stephen McConnel (1995). 32-bit port by Richard Dawe, UK, et al. (2002).

GNU Findutils — Powerful file finding package.

* * * *

[updated 2006-08-15]

These are the programs in the set:

find		search for files in a directory hierarchy
locate		list files in databases that match a pattern
locatedb		front-compressed file name database
updatedb		update a file name database
xargs		build and execute command lines from standard input

Somewhat complex. Supports Unix wildcards. The locate program, which accesses a previously compiled database of file names, i.e, a file, rather than an entire drive, is accessed during a search (quicker, less disk wear, but requires regular maintainence of a filename database. The DOS version uses a less than intuitive batch analog of the file database updater).

A simpler locate program than the one here, but using the same principle is locat110.zip (but database creation freezes on big drives with long paths).

2003-12-15: v4.1.7. 32-bit DJGPP port for 80386+.

Authors: Eric Decker, David MacKenzie, Jay Plett, Tim Wood, Mike Rendell for GNU. DOS port by Eli Zaretski, Israel; and Andrew Cottrell, Australia (2003).

GNU Textutils — Collection of text utilities.

* * * *

[added 1998-09-13, updated 2005-03-11]

An all-in-one toolkit, available in 16-bit and in 32-bit DJGPP compilations. The 32-bit programs may get the job done quicker than their 16-bit counterparts, will definitely handle larger files, and support Win9x long file names. Separately zipped documentation helpful.

Output of entire files
cat		Concatenate and write files.
tac		Concatenate and write files in reverse.
nl		Number lines and write files.
od		Write files in octal or other formats.
Formatting file contents
fmt		Reformat paragraph text.
pr		Paginate or columnate files for printing.
fold		Wrap input lines to fit in specified width.
Output of parts of files
head		Output the first part of files.
tail		Output the last part of files.
split		Split a file into fixed-size pieces.
csplit		Split a file into context-determined pieces.
Summarizing files
wc		Print byte, word, and line counts.
sum		Print checksum and block counts.
cksum		Print CRC checksum and byte counts.
md5sum		Print or check message-digests.
Operating on sorted files
sort		Sort text files.
uniq		Uniqify files.
comm		Compare two sorted files line by line.
Operating on fields within a line
cut		Print selected parts of lines.
paste		Merge lines of files.
join		Join lines on a common field.
Operating on characters
tr		Translate, squeeze, and/or delete characters.
expand		Convert tabs to spaces.
unexpand		Convert spaces to tabs.

Authors: 32-bit port by Eli Zaretskii, Israel (2003). 16-bit port by Stephen McConnel (1995).

GNU Shar utils — Prepare archives for mailing.

* * * *

[added 2004-10-29, updated 2006-08-15]

shar makes so-called shell archives out of many files, preparing them for transmission by electronic mail services. A "shell archive" is a collection of files that can be unpacked by /bin/sh. A wide range of features provide extensive flexibility in manufacturing shars and in specifying shar _smartness_. For example, shar may compress files, uuencode binary files, split long files and construct multi-part mailings, ensure correct unsharing order, and provide simplistic checksums.

unshar scans a set of mail messages looking for the start of shell archives. It will automatically strip off the mail headers and other introductory text. The archive bodies are then unpacked by a copy of the shell. unshar may also process files containing concatenated shell archives.

mail-files		Send files to remote site
mailshar		Make and send a shell archive
remsync		Synchronize remote files
uuencode		Force binary file to 7-bits
uudecode		Restore file from 7-bits

Authors: James Gosling, William Davidsen, Warren Tucker, Richard Gumpertz, François Pinard for GNU. DOS port by Juan Manuel Guerrero, Germany (2000).

2000-10-10: v4.2c. 32-bit DJGPP port for 80386+.

 Some of these also appear in the collections above, some don't.

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