#123 DIR /? doesn't work in combination with option /P

[Oliver]

The help listing of the command dir with:

dir /?

doesn't fit on one screen in FreeDOS.
The /p option says:

  /P  Displays one page of the listing at a time.

but it is not usable in combination with option /?

dir /? /p

Only

dir /? | more

does work.
But for consistency reasons it would be better if a page-by-page view was also possible with the /p option.

I also looked at what it's like in MS-DOS. But there it practically doesn't matter because the help page fits on one page. It's the same with DR-DOS.

[Jim Hall]

Correct, that is as intended (and matches behavior in other commands on original MS-DOS that had long "help" screens). The /P option to DIR will cause the directory listing to "pause" after each screenful. It does not "pause" the /? Help display at each screen. You are expected to use DIR/? | MORE to view the usage info one screenful at a time.

[Jim Hall]

Ticket moved from /p/freedos/bugs/389/

[Jim Hall]

(moved this from the bug tracker to the feature requests tracker. this is a low priority request because it is different from original DOS behavior.)

[Oliver]

I am fine with the move to the feature request tracker, but:

because it is different from original DOS behavior.)

How do you know, when the help of MS-DOS is not long enough?
The correct answer here would be: The behavior is unknown in MS-DOS. Unless you reverse engineer the command or look at the source code, if available for the latest MS-DOS version.

We know that in MS-DOS the /P is used for paged file listing with pause. But that doesn't mean that page-by-page help wouldn't be paused with this option too if the help text were longer. This is simply unknown.