Bad command or file name

Screenshot of the error in MS-DOS

"Bad command or file name" is a common error message in MS-DOS and some other operating systems.[1] It is occasionally used as an example of a computer message that is perfectly accurate yet confusing to the average user.

COMMAND.COM produced the message Bad command or file name when the first word of a command could not be interpreted. For MS-DOS, the first word of a command was the name of an internal command, external command, executable file or batch file,[2] so the error message provided an accurate description of the problem but easily confused novices. Though the source of the error was often a mistyped command, the wording gave the impression that files named in later words were damaged or had illegal filenames. Later, the wording of the error message was changed for clarity; both OS/2 and Windows NT output "foo" is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file (where foo is the first word) instead.[3]

Some early Unix shells produced the equally cryptic foo: no such file or directory for the same reasons. Most modern shells produce an error message similar to foo: command not found.[4][5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Jim Cooper, (2002). Using MS-DOS 6.22. Que Publishing. ISBN 9780789725738
  2. ↑ "Instructions:". MSDN. Microsoft. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  3. ↑ Harry Phillips, Eric Skagerberg, (2002). "New Perspectives on Microsoft Windows 2000 MS-DOS Command Line, Comprehensive, Windows XP Enhanced". Cengage Learning. ISBN 1285963679
  4. ↑ "GNU Project Archives:". GNU. GNU. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  5. ↑ "TCSH: MostRecentRelease:". Ken Greer, Paul Placeway, Christos Zoulas, et al. tcsh.org. Retrieved March 8, 2015.