Thursday, 30 May 2019

command line - Create permanent DOSKEY in Windows cmd


I think the title is pretty self explanatory.


The question is how can I create an alias in a Windows cmd that will also work after I close and then reopen it. For example I would like an alias called ip to call the command ipconfig or an alias ls -l to call Dir.


My operating system is Windows 10, in case that makes a difference.



Answer



Create a macro definition file, for instance in notepad; name it at will and save it anywhere (for instance, in next example I used filename macros.doskey in d:\bat\ folder).
Alternatively, doskey /macros>d:\bat\macros.doskey command will list all current macro definitions into d:\bat\macros.doskey file.
A sample macro definition file could be as follows (note that ==> is my command prompt specified by prompt $Q$Q$G$S command):


==> type d:\bat\macros.doskey
ls=dir /B $1
ip=ipconfig $*

Then, next commands should do the job:


==> reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor" /v Autorun /d "doskey /macrofile=\"d:\bat\macros.doskey\"" /f
The operation completed successfully.

==> reg query "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor" /v Autorun

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor
Autorun REG_SZ doskey /macrofile="d:\bat\macros.doskey"

For explanation, read cmd /?:



If /D was NOT specified on the command line, then when CMD.EXE starts, it looks for the following REG_SZ/REG_EXPAND_SZ registry variables, and if either or both are present, they are executed first.


HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun

and/or


HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun

Disclaimer: some AutoRun settings could eventuate in unlooked-for unwanted behaviour, e.g. as decribed in Hidden gotcha: The command processor’s AutoRun setting


Read Save and restore macro definitions; you could prepare a valid macros.cmd script file in one step:


==> >macros.cmd (@for /F "delims=" %G in ('doskey /macros') do @echo DOSKEY %G)

==> type macros.cmd
DOSKEY ip=ipconfig $*
DOSKEY ls=dir /B $1

==>

Please keep in mind that you cannot run a Doskey macro from a batch file.


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