PowerShell as cmd.exe or Bash

Xah Lee, 2009-07

PowerShell provides many aliases that emulates cmd.exe or Bash. So, if you are familiar with cmd.exe or bash, you can start using PowerShell as replacement. Here's a table showing some of the equivalent commands:

Path Manipulation
PowerShell Cmdlet	PowerShell alias	cmd.exe	bash	Purpose
Set-Location	sl, cd, chdir	cd, chdir	cd	Change dir
Get-Location	gl, pwd	cd	pwd	Show current dir
Get-ChildItem	gci, dir, ls	dir	ls	List current dir content
Push-Location	pushd	pushd	pushd	Save current path to stack
Pop-Location	popd	popd	popd	Change to last pushed dir

File Manipulation
PowerShell Cmdlet	PowerShell alias	cmd.exe	bash	Purpose
Copy-Item	cpi, copy, cp	copy	cp	Copy file or dir
Remove-Item	ri, del, erase, rmdir, rd, rm	del, erase, rmdir, rd	rm, rmdir	Delete file or dir
Rename-Item	rni, ren	ren, rename	mv	Rename file or dir
Move-Item	mi, move, mv	move	mv	Move file or dir

Text Processing
PowerShell Cmdlet	PowerShell alias	cmd.exe	bash	Purpose
Get-Content	gc, type, cat	type	cat	Get file content
Select-String	◇	find, findstr	grep	Show texts matching a pattern

env var Manipulation
PowerShell Cmdlet	PowerShell alias	cmd.exe	bash	Purpose
Write-Output	echo, write	echo	echo	Print strings, variables etc. to standard output
Set-Variable	sv, set	set	set	Set the value of a variable / create a variable

Process Management
PowerShell Cmdlet	PowerShell alias	cmd.exe	bash	Purpose
Get-Process	gps, ps	tlist, tasklist	ps	List all currently running processes
Stop-Process	spps, kill	kill, taskkill	kill	Stop a running process

Help Facilities
PowerShell Cmdlet	PowerShell alias	cmd.exe	bash	Purpose
Clear-Host	cls, clear	cls	clear	Clear the screen
Get-Help	help, man	help	man	Help on commands

Not Case Sensitive

PowerShell commands are not case sensitive. “dir” is same as “DIR” or “DiR”; “Get-ChildItem” is the same as “get-childitem” or “get-childITEM”.

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2009-07