Usage

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.