Important Notice

The pages on this site contain documentation for very old MS-DOS software, purely for historical purposes. If you're looking for up-to-date documentation, particularly for programming, you should not rely on the information found here, as it will be woefully out of date.

◄Examples►  ◄Syntax►
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                                 DEL──Notes
 
Using the /P switch
 
If you use the /P switch, DEL displays the name of a file and prompts you
with a message in the following format:
 
    filename, Delete (Y/N)?
 
Press Y to confirm the deletion, N to cancel the deletion and display the
next filename (if you specified a group of files), or CRTL+C to stop the DEL
command.
 
Deleting more than one file at a time
 
You can delete all the files in a directory by typing the DEL command
followed by [drive:]path. You can also use wildcards (* and ?) to delete
more than one file at a time. However, you should use wildcards cautiously
with the DEL command to avoid deleting files unintentionally. Suppose you
type the following command:
 
    del *.*
 
DEL displays the following prompt:
 
    All files in directory will be deleted! Are you sure (Y/N)?
 
Press Y and then ENTER to delete all files in the current directory, or
press N and then ENTER to cancel the deletion.
 
Before you use wildcards with the DEL command to delete a group of files,
you can use the same wildcards with the DIR command to see a list of the
names of all the files included in the group.
 
CAUTION:  Once you delete a file from your disk, you may not be able to
          retrieve it. Although the UNDELETE command can retrieve deleted
          files, it can do so with certainty only if no other files have
          been created or changed on the disk. If you accidentally delete a
          file that you want to keep, stop what you are doing and
          immediately use the UNDELETE command to retrieve the file.
 
          For more information on undeleting files, see the chapter
          "Managing Your System" in the MS-DOS User's Guide.
 
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