Extracting text

How would you extract text from the MS-DOS command line? For example:
echo dir > new.txt

How would you get it to input "dir" into the command line. I know in that instance you could just pipe it into new.bat, but I want to know for any general curcumstance.

tree > file.txt
or
dir /p > file.txt

if you want more options for "tree" and "dir," simply type "help" before the command.

That pipes the info into file.txt , but I want to extract the information from file.txt .

Here's what I did. The contents of file.txt:

Quote:

---

dir

---

Then in the command prompt I typed:

Quote:

---

cmd < file.txt

---

And it ran the dir command.

mjk

oh, okay I understand now. That or this

more filename.txt | cmd

Ok, what if new.txt contained
192.168.1.100

and I wanted to have a program ping the IP from the txt file. How could I do that?

I don't think there's a way to do that with one command but if you has something like this in a batch file:

set a = more new.txt
ping a

..except I don't know how to use variables in batch files! You get the idea though.

mjk