Dir Command

Examples, switches, options, & more

The dir command is a Command Prompt command used to display a

list of the files and subfolders contained in a folder.

For each file or folder listed, the command will, by default, show the
date and time the item was last changed, if the item is a folder
(labeled with DIR) or file, the size of the file if applicable, and
finally the name of the file or folder including the file extension.

Outside of the file and folder list, the dir command also displays the
current drive letter of the partition, the volume label, volume serial
number, total number of files listed, total size of those files in bytes,
the number of subfolders listed, and the total bytes remaining free on
the drive.

Dir Command Availability

The dir command is available from within the Command Prompt in all
Windows operating systems including Windows 11, Windows
10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP.

Older versions of Windows include the dir command as well but with
a few fewer options than we have listed below. The dir command is
also a DOS command, available in all versions of MS-DOS.

The dir command can be found in offline Command Prompt versions,

like the ones available from Advanced Startup Options and System
Recovery Options. The dir command is also included in the Recovery
Console in Windows XP.

The availability of certain dir command switches and other dir

command syntax may differ from operating system to operating
system.
Dir Command Syntax
dir [drive:][path][filename] [/a[[:]attributes]] [/b] [/c] [/d] [/l] [/n]
[/o[[:]sortorder]] [/p] [/q] [/r] [/s] [/t[[:]timefield]] [/w] [/x] [/4]

See How to Read Command Syntax if you're not sure how to

interpret the syntax of the dir command as it's written above or shown
in the table below.
Dir Command Options
Item Explanation
drive:, This is the drive, path, and/or filename that you want to see results for. All three are
path, optional since the command can be executed alone. Wildcards are allowed. See
filename the Dir Command Examples section below if this isn't clear.
/a When executed alone, this switch shows all types of files and folders, including those
with file attributes that typically prevent them from showing up in Command Prompt
or in Windows. Use /a with one or more of the following attributes (colon is optional,
no spaces needed) to show only those types of files in the command result:

a = archive files

d = directories

h = hidden files

i = not content indexed files

l = reparse points

r = read-only files

s = system files

v = integrity files

x = no scrub files

- = Use this as a prefix to any of the above attributes to exclude items with those file
attributes from the results.
/b Use this option to show the dir results using "bare" format, which removes the typical
header and footer information, as well as all the details on each item, leaving only the
directory name or file name and extension.
/c This switch forces the use of the thousands separator when the command is used in a
way that shows file sizes. This is the default behavior on most computers, so the
practical use is /-c to disable the thousands separator in results.
 Dir Command Options
/d Use /d to limit the items displayed to just folders (contained within brackets) and file
names with their extensions. Items are listed top-to-bottom and then across columns.
Standard dir command header and footer data remain the same.
/l Use this option to show all folder and file names in lowercase.
/n This switch produces a result with columns in the date > time > directory > file
size > file or folder name column structure. Since this is the default behavior, the
practical use is /-n which produces columns in the file or folder
name > directory > file size > date > time order.
/o Use this option to specify a sort order for the results. When executed alone, /o lists
directories first, followed by files, both in alphabetical order. Use this option with one
or more of the following values (colon is optional, no spaces needed) to sort the dir
command result in the specified manner:

d = sort by date/time (oldest first)

e = sort by extension (alphabetical)

g = group directory first, followed by files

n = sort by name (alphabetical)

s = sort by size (smallest first)

- = Use this as a prefix with any of the above values to reverse the order (-d to sort by
newest first, -s for largest first, etc.).
/p This option displays the results one page at a time, interrupted with a Press any key to
continue... prompt. Using /p is very similar to using the dir command with the more
command.
/q Use this switch to display the owner of the file or folder in the results. The easiest way
to view or change a file's ownership from within Windows is via the Advanced button
in the Security tab when looking at the file's Properties.
/r The /r option shows any alternate data streams (ADS) that are part of a file. The data
stream itself is listed in a new row, under the file, and is always suffixed with $DATA,
making them easy to spot.
/s This option shows all the files and folders in the specified directory plus all of the
files and folders contained within any subdirectories of that specified directory.
/t Use this option with one of the values below (colon is optional, no spaces needed) to
specify a time field to be used when sorting and/or displaying results:

a = last access

c = created

w = last written
 Dir Command Options
/w Use /w to show results in "wide format" which limits the items displayed to just
folders (contained within brackets) and file names with their extensions. Items are
listed left-to-right and then down rows. Standard dir command header and footer data
remain the same.
/x This switch shows the "short name" equivalent for files whose long names don't
comply with non-8dot3 rules.
/4 The /4 switch forces the use of 4-digit years. At least in newer versions of Windows,
the 4-digit year display is the default behavior and /-4 doesn't result in a 2-digit year
display.
/? Use the help switch with the dir command to show details about the above options
directly in the Command Prompt window. Executing dir /? is the same as using
the help command to execute help dir.
Considering the volume of information that the dir command usually
returns, saving all of it to a text file via a redirection operator is
usually a smart idea. See How to Redirect Command Output to a
File for more on how to do this.

Dir Command Examples

Below are some of the different ways you can use the dir command:

Run Without Switches

dir

In this example, the dir command is used alone, without any drive:,
path, filename specifications, nor any switches, producing a result
like this:
C:\>dir
Volume in drive C has no label.
Volume Serial Number is F4AC-9851
Directory of C:\
09/02/2015 12:41 PM
$SysReset
05/30/2016 06:22 PM 93 HaxLogs.txt
05/07/2016 02:58 AM PerfLogs
05/22/2016 07:55 PM Program Files
05/31/2016 11:30 AM Program Files (x86)
07/30/2015 04:32 PM Temp
05/22/2016 07:55 PM Users
05/22/2016 08:00 PM Windows
05/22/2016 09:50 PM Windows.old
1 File(s) 93 bytes
As you can see, the dir command was executed from the root
directory of C (i.e., C:\>). Without specifying where exactly to list the
folder and file contents from, the command defaults to displaying this
information from where the command was executed.

List Hidden Items

dir c:\users /ah

In the above example, we're requesting that the dir command show
results from the drive: and path of c:\users, not from the location
we're running the command from. We're also specifying, via
the /a switch with the h attribute, that we'd like to only see hidden
items, resulting in something like this:
C:\>dir c:\users /ah
Volume in drive C has no label.
Volume Serial Number is F4AC-9851
Directory of c:\users
05/07/2016 04:04 AM All Users [C:\ProgramData]
05/22/2016 08:01 PM
Default
05/07/2016 04:04 AM Default User [C:\Users\Default]
05/07/2016 02:50 AM 174 desktop.ini
1 File(s) 174 bytes

The small list of directories and the single file you see in the result
above doesn't make up the entirety of the c:\users folder—just the
hidden files and folders. To see all files and folders, you would
execute dir c:\users /a (removing the h) instead.

Search for File In Any Folder

dir c:\*.csv /s /b > c:\users\tim\desktop\csvfiles.txt

In this slightly more complex, but much more practical, example for
the dir command, we're requesting that our entire hard drive be
searched for CSV files and then the bare minimum results are
outputted to a text document. Let's look at this piece by piece:

• c:\*.csv tells the dir command to look at all files (*) that end in
the CSV (.csv) extension in the root of the c: drive.
 • /s instructs it to go deeper than the root of c: and instead,
search for files like this in every folder, as deep as the folders
go.
• /b removes anything but the path and file name, essentially
creating a readable "list" of these files.
• > is a redirection operator, meaning "send to" somewhere.
• c:\users\tim\desktop\csvfiles.txt is the destination for
the > redirector, meaning that results will be written to
the csvfiles.txt file instead of in Command Prompt, which will
be created at the c:\users\tim\desktop location (i.e., the
Desktop you see when you're logged in).

When you redirect command output to a file, as we did here in this dir
command example, Command Prompt doesn't display anything.
However, the exact output you would have seen is instead located
inside that text file. Here's what our csvfiles.txt looked like after the
dir command had completed:
c:\ProgramData\Intuit\Quicken\Inet\merchant_alias.csv
c:\ProgramData\Intuit\Quicken\Inet\merchant_common.csv
c:\Users\All Users\Intuit\Quicken\Inet\merchant_alias.csv
c:\Users\All Users\Intuit\Quicken\Inet\merchant_common.csv
c:\Users\Tim\AppData\Roaming\condition.2.csv
c:\Users\Tim\AppData\Roaming\line.csv
c:\Users\Tim\AppData\Roaming\media.csv

While you certainly could have skipped the file redirection, and even
the "bare format" switch, the results would have been very difficult to
work within the Command Prompt window, making it hard to get to
what you were after.