ECHO (MSX-DOS 2) - MSX Wiki

1 Effect
2 Syntaxes
3 Parameters
4 Examples
5 Related to
6 Compatibility

Effect

Displays the specified text on the screen under MSX-DOS 2 / Nextor.

Can also display

the value of a specified environment variable since version 2.31 of COMMAND2.COM
the value of a specified internal variable of internal variable function since version 2.40 of COMMAND2.COM

Note: This command should not be confused with the ECHO state in batch files, which is controlled by an environment variable called ECHO.

Syntaxes

ECHO <Text>
ECHO %<Variable>%
ECHO %<VariableFunction[arguments]>%

Parameters

<Text> is the text to display on the screen. If no text is given, then just a blank line is output.

<Variable> can be the name of a specific parameter for the MSX-DOS 2 environmment (since COMMAND2.COM 2.31) or an internal variable (since COMMAND2.COM 2.40).

The value of an variable is simply a string of arbitrary characters up to a maximum length of 255. No processing is performed on the characters and so the casing of characters is preserved.

When a specified environment variable does not has been defined or when you have removed it from the environment variable list, you will get a blank line. Only a few environment variables are defined by default when you launch the MSX-DOS 2 system. It depends also of the commands in the AUTOEXEC.BAT and REBOOT.BAT batch files.

Check the SET page + the MSX-DOS 2 Environment Variables and MSX-DOS 2 Internal Variables sections for more info and examples.

<VariableFunction> is the name of an internal variable function (since COMMAND2.COM 2.40). It includes parameters (arguments) that need to be enclosed between square brackets. Instead of a parameter, a variable function can also include another variable function, or internal variable, whose value serves as a parameter for the previous variable function.

Check the MSX-DOS 2 Internal Variable Functions section for more info and examples.

Examples

With MSX-DOS 2.20 and higher

A>ECHO AUTOEXEC batch file executed
AUTOEXEC batch file executed

With MSX-DOS 2 with COMMAND2.COM 2.31 and higher

A>ECHO %TIME%
12

A>SET MyName=Alex
A>ECHO Hello %MyName%, how are you?
Hello Alex, how are you?

With MSX-DOS 2 with COMMAND2.COM 2.40 and higher

See more examples in the MSX-DOS 2 Internal Variables and MSX-DOS 2 Internal Variable Functions sections.

To return the free amount of disk space on the current active drive:

A>ECHO %@DISKFREE[%_DISK%:,K]% 
309

Related to

ECHOS, SET

Compatibility

MSX-DOS 2 / Nextor with COMMAND2.COM v2.20 and higher

Retrieved from "https://www.msx.org/wiki/ECHO_(MSX-DOS_2)"

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