Usage

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Command Line Parameters

dosbox [name] [-exit] [-c command] [-fullscreen] [-userconf] [-conf congfigfilelocation] [-lang languagefilelocation] [-machine machine type] [-noconsole] [-startmapper] [-noautoexec] [-securemode] [-scaler scaler | -forcescaler scaler] [-version] [-socket socket] [-editconf program] [-opencaptures program] [-printconf] [-eraseconf] [-erasemapper]

Usage

name
If name is a directory, DOSBox will mount the specified directory as the C drive.
If name is an executable, DOSBox will mount the directory of name as the C drive, and start executing name.
-exit
DOSBox will close itself when the DOS application name ends.
-c command
Runs the specified command before running name. Multiple commands can be specified. Each command should start with -c though. A command can be: an Internal Program, a DOS command or an executable on a mounted drive.
-fullscreen
Starts DOSBox in fullscreen mode.
-userconf[1]
Load the configuration from the user's profile or home directory. This is the default behavior, so this switch is useful when using -conf, below.
-conf configfilelocation
Load the config file specified in configfilelocation. Useful for specifying particular options for specific games. If used after -userconf, or if you use multiple -conf switches, options present in multiple configs will be overwritten by the last, except for autoexec entries, which will be appended in order.
-lang languagefilelocation
Start DOSBox using the language string specified in languagefilelocation.
-machine machinetype
Setup DOSBox to emulate a specific type of machine. Valid choices are: hercules, cga, ega, pcjr, tandy, svga_s3 (default) as well as the additional svga chipsets listed in the DOSBox configuration file. The machinetype affects the video card and the available sound cards.
-noconsole (Windows Only)
Start DOSBox without showing the console window, output will be redirected to stdout.txt and stderr.txt. This is useful if DOSBox crashes, since the error messages stored in stdout.txt and stderr.txt may help the developers fixing the problem.
-startmapper
Enter the mapper directly on startup. Useful for people with keyboard or joystick problems.
-noautoexec
Skips the [autoexec] section of the loaded configuration file.
-securemode
Same as -noautoexec, but adds config.com -securemode at the bottom of AUTOEXEC.BAT (which in turn disables any changes to how the drives are mounted inside DOSBox).
-scaler
Uses the scaler specified by "scaler". See the DOSBox configuration file for the available scalers.
-forcescaler
Similar to the -scaler parameter, but tries to force usage of the specified scaler even if it might not fit.
-version
output version information and exit. (see stdout.txt) Useful for frontends.
-editconf program
calls program with as first parameter the configuration file. You can specify this command more than once. In this case it will move to second program if the first one fails to start.
-opencaptures program
calls program with as first parameter the location of the captures folder.
-printconf
prints the location of the default configuration file.
-resetconf
removes the default configuration file.
-resetmapper
removes the mapperfile used by the default clean configuration file.
-socket
passes the socket number to the nullmodem emulation.

Notes

  • If a name/ command/ configfilelocation/ languagefilelocation contains a space in it, put the whole name/ command/ configfilelocation/ languagefilelocation between quotes ("example").
  • In Windows you can also drag directories/files onto the DOSBox executable.


Example

dosbox c:\atlantis\atlantis.exe -c "MOUNT D C:\SAVES"

This would mount c:\atlantis as c:\ and run atlantis.exe. Before it does that, it would first mount C:\SAVES as the D drive.