"deltree" use in DOS under XP

D

Duane Meador

The old DOS deltree command does not seem to work under XP
and I am going nuts going into each unwanted directory,
deleting the contents, backing out, then deleting the
direcory itself - I have hundreds of them - how can I make
deltree work or what substitute method can anybody
suggest. Please respond and I promise you will get at
least 64 virgins in heaven.
Thank you,
Duane Meador
 
N

Nicholas

Open XP's "Help and Support" and type: DELTREE , and hit enter.
Click on the topic: "New ways to do familiar tasks".


--
Nicholas

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------


| The old DOS deltree command does not seem to work under XP
| and I am going nuts going into each unwanted directory,
| deleting the contents, backing out, then deleting the
| direcory itself - I have hundreds of them - how can I make
| deltree work or what substitute method can anybody
| suggest. | Thank you,
| Duane Meador
 
L

LVTravel

You can now use RD (Remove Directory) with the /s switch to remove
subdirectories and files. Click Start, Run, Type CMD and hit Enter. Type
RD /? and hit enter for the switches available to this command.
 
M

Maureen Goldman

Nicholas said:
Open XP's "Help and Support" and type: DELTREE , and hit enter.
Click on the topic: "New ways to do familiar tasks".

I'm not the original poster. When I entered deltree in the main box
for Help and Support, nothing came up. Then I went to the Index, and
the listings stopped at delete.

Where are you looking? (The solution to the deltree question has been
posted - I'm interested in the broader topic of "new ways to do
familiar tasks".) I have HomeXP, if there's a difference in the H&S
area.
 
M

Maureen Goldman

Maureen, you have to enter the text Nicolas showed: That is: "DELTREE"
(all caps). Then click on "New ways to do do familiar tasks". In the
information this brings up, will be a Subject heading "Unavailable MSDOS
commands", "deltree" being one of them, with the following notation:

Thanks for your reply. Honestly, there's nothing like that. Caps or no
caps, the results for DELTREE are exactly as I wrote earlier -
nothing..

I ran a systemwide Find for the text "new ways to do familiar things".
Other than this newsgroup exchange, I came up with two .hhk files
under c:\windows\pchealth\helpctr\indices. Since this is apparently
supposed to open in a part of the Search and Help area that isn't
evident to me, I don't know whether to go from here.
 
J

John Haithwaite @ Blue Case Solutions

Rmdir (rd)
Removes (that is, deletes) a directory.

Syntax
rmdir [Drive:]Path [/s] [/q]

rd [Drive:]Path [/s] [/q]

Parameters
[Drive:]Path
Specifies the location and name of the directory that you want to delete.
/s
Removes the specified directory and all subdirectories including any
files. Use /s to remove a tree.
/q
Runs rmdir in quiet mode. Deletes directories without confirmation.
/?
Displays help at the command prompt.
Remarks
a.. Using rmdir at the Recovery Console
The rmdir command, with different parameters, is available from the
Recovery Console.

b.. Cannot delete directory with hidden or system files
You cannot delete a directory that contains files, including hidden or
system files. If you attempt to do so, the following message appears:

The directory not empty

Use the dir command to list hidden and system files, and the attrib
command to remove hidden and system attributes from files. For more
information, see Related Topics.

c.. Using the backslash character with the path parameter
If you insert a backslash (\) before the first directory name in path, the
directory is treated as a subdirectory of the root directory, regardless of
your current directory. If you do not insert a backslash before the first
directory name in path, the directory is treated as a subdirectory of the
current directory.

d.. Deleting the current directory
You cannot use rmdir to delete the current directory. You must first
change to a different directory (not a subdirectory of the current
directory) and then use rmdir with a path. If you attempt to delete the
current directory, the following message appears:

The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another
process.

Examples
To delete a directory named \User\Smith, first ensure that the directory is
empty. To do this, type:

dir \user\smith /a

Only the "." and ".." symbols should display.

Then, from any directory except \User\Smith, type:

rmdir \user\smith

To delete the directory \User and all of the subdirectories and files, type:

rmdir /s \user
 
N

Nicholas

New ways to do familiar tasks
https://www.microsoft.com/technet/t...t/prodtechnol/winxppro/proddocs/dos_diffs.asp

--
Nicholas

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


|
| >> Thanks for your reply. Honestly, there's nothing like that. Caps or no
| >> caps, the results for DELTREE are exactly as I wrote earlier -
| >> nothing..
|
| >Do you perhaps have Windows XP Home Edition? Anyway, deltree is no
| >longer supported under XP. Use "rmdir /s" instead.
|
| Yes, I do have XP Home. I was most interested in the article mentioned
| about doing familiar tasks in different ways with XP, not in deltree
| specifically. If the article isn't available in Search on my system,
| well, I guess that explains why not and I appreciate your clearing up
| the mystery. I'm sure it won't be difficult to find something similar
| elsewhere.
|
 
D

Donald McDaniel

Yes, I do have XP Home. I was most interested in the article mentioned
about doing familiar tasks in different ways with XP, not in deltree
specifically. If the article isn't available in Search on my system,
well, I guess that explains why not and I appreciate your clearing up
the mystery. I'm sure it won't be difficult to find something similar
elsewhere.
Evidently, the reason must be the version of XP you are using, not the
case of the search text entered, since entering the search text
"deltree", or "DELTREE" returns the same results under Windows XP
Professional.
 
Joined
Dec 13, 2007
Messages
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All this seems fine but I haven't found replacement to this command:

deltree *

wchich i used to delete all contents without deleting directory
eg. deleting temp dir
 

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