MS DOS Command: REM

Reference from Microsoft MS-DOS cmd help

Description

Enables you to include comments in a batch file or in your CONFIG.SYS file. The REM command is also useful for disabling commands. (You can use a semicolon (;) instead of the REM command in your CONFIG.SYS file, but not in batch files.)

Syntax

REM [string]

Parameters

string

Specifies any string of characters -- the command you want to disable or the comment you want to include.

Related Command

For information about displaying messages, see the ECHO command.

Remarks

Using the ECHO command to display comments

The REM command does not display comments on the screen. You must use the ECHO ON command in your batch or CONFIG.SYS file in order to display comments on the screen.

Restrictions on characters in batch-file comments

You cannot use a redirection character (> or <) or pipe (|) in a batch-file comment.

Using REM to add vertical spacing

Although you can use REM without a comment to add vertical spacing to a batch file, you can also use blank lines. MS-DOS ignores the blank lines when processing the batch program.

Examples

The following example shows a batch file that uses remarks for both explanations and vertical spacing:

• @echo off
• rem This batch program formats and checks new disks.
• rem It is named CHECKNEW.BAT.
• rem
• echo Insert new disk in drive B.
• pause
• format b: /v
• chkdsk b:

Suppose you want to include in your CONFIG.SYS file an explanatory comment before the COUNTRY command. To do this, add the following lines to CONFIG.SYS:

• rem Set country code to France
• country=033

The following example shows a DEVICE command that has been disabled by using a semicolon (;) instead of the REM command:

;device=c:\dos\ramdrive.sys