DEBUG (DOS Command)

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DEBUG is a command in DOS, MS-DOS, and Microsoft Windows. A computer programming tool for interactively examining memory contents (in binary, hex, or assembler), making changes, and selective execution. COM EXE and other files can be loaded into memory or saved from memory.

Traditionally, all computers and operating systems have included some version of this essential maintenance function, used by computer programmers to figure out why a program is not working right, by executing the program step-by-step and making small experimental changes.

Although this simple command-line tool is not often used on modern computers, DEBUG.EXE may sometimes be used as a DEBUG-script interpreter, in environments where no other binary editor tools exist. A script file may contain DEBUG command sequences and it may be run as:

debug.exe < script

This is a way to create or edit binary file from Batch files. Another such standard DOS tool is Edlin.

The command syntax of many modern debuggers like SoftICE was inherited from DEBUG.

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