DOS versions of: alias, cat, cp, ls, mv, rm, xargs - and desktop.bat

Do you work at a Linux | UNIX shell, and also at a DOS prompt?

Are you always typing in "ls" only to get:
'ls' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

Well, now you can!
Requirements: some kind of DOS-like command line

Save the attached file
Extract the .bat files to your path

I like to have a C:\custom-path folder rather than throwing everything in system32

As a bonus I give you desktop.bat which allows you to CD to your desktop with just eight keystrokes (including the Enter key)

EDIT 10/3/2005: added
alias
cat
rm
xargs

EDIT: 4/3/2006:
modified alias to display list of current aliases if called w/o arguments
added wordpad

http://unxutils.sourceforge.net will also do most. native builds for win32, so no strange cygwin dependencies. the ls that ships above doesn't do colours, however this one does: http://utools.com/msls.htm just fyi

You can also use MSH (microsoft shell) and just create an alias or function.  Naturally, you need to wait for MSH or get the beta.

I had toyed with the idea of creating an alias.bat - something like

@echo off
rem alias.bat

rem capture name of alias

set tofile=%1
echo @echo off > C:\custom-path\%tofile%.bat
shift

rem build target command

set thecommand=%1

:CONTINUEBUILDING
shift
if (%1) == () goto DONEBUILDING
set thecommand=%thecommand% %1
goto CONTINUEBUILDING
:DONEBUILDING

echo %thecommand% %%* >> C:\custom-path\%tofile%.bat

but I thought this would be rather dangerous.

EDIT: for example:

C:\>alias rm del

would create a "rm for DOS"

EDIT2: what the heck... typed in one that works (no sanity checking so be careful!)

have you tried doskey.exe ?

Bump - added
alias
cat
rm
xargs

Get cygwin from www.cygwin.com

Oh, did you say DOS version or Windows?

SvendTofte said:

http://unxutils.sourceforge.net will also do most. native builds for win32, so no strange cygwin dependencies. the ls that ships above doesn't do colours, however this one does: http://utools.com/msls.htm just fyi

How does http://unxutils.sourceforge.net compare to GnuWin32, in your opinion?

Thanks, great solution.