When I pipe commands the output from the one command is sent to the next so that output can be lost if the second one does not expect input.

e.g. if at the command prompt I enter
DIR|DIR A: >PRN
the output from the first DIR is sent to the second DIR which does not accept input and the output from the first DIR is therefore lost. The output from the second DIR is sent to the printer successfully.

Question: can anyone tell me where the output from the first DIR is stored?

Thanks

Piped data is usually written to a temporary file. If a program is not designed to use the data then it is probably just deleted.

Thanks Wiz F.

That's not the answer I hoped for but I guess I cannot have everything I want.

What were you trying to accomplish?

I was trying to set up some Function key (aka Softkey) to install & exit from QBasic 4.5 but found that any screen output from the QB program simply disappeared because the next command was 'CD\' or 'CD..' to return to the root directory.

Got any brilliant ideas? I can achieve this by using two Function keys, one to install QB then the other to return to the root dir but really just wanted to use one. I have written a .bat file to do the job and use just one Function key to call the .bat and that works fine but am still looking!!

Thanks

V...

If the output is graphical, I think exitting the program changes the screen mode and changes the display memory.