I can understand cmd but not cmd /c. I was trying to invoke a java program from the current for which I use Runtime.getRuntime().exec("cmd /C java helloworld"); There arises my doubt.

3 Answers

The part you should be interested in is the /? part, which should solve most other questions you have with the tool.

 Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600] (C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp. C:\>cmd /? Starts a new instance of the Windows XP command interpreter CMD [/A | /U] [/Q] [/D] [/E:ON | /E:OFF] [/F:ON | /F:OFF] [/V:ON | /V:OFF] [[/S] [/C | /K] string] /C Carries out the command specified by string and then terminates /K Carries out the command specified by string but remains /S Modifies the treatment of string after /C or /K (see below) /Q Turns echo off /D Disable execution of AutoRun commands from registry (see below) /A Causes the output of internal commands to a pipe or file to be ANSI /U Causes the output of internal commands to a pipe or file to be Unicode /T:fg Sets the foreground/background colors (see COLOR /? for more info) /E:ON Enable command extensions (see below) /E:OFF Disable command extensions (see below) /F:ON Enable file and directory name completion characters (see below) /F:OFF Disable file and directory name completion characters (see below) /V:ON Enable delayed environment variable expansion using ! as the delimiter. For example, /V:ON would allow !var! to expand the variable var at execution time. The var syntax expands variables at input time, which is quite a different thing when inside of a FOR loop. /V:OFF Disable delayed environment expansion. 

/C Carries out the command specified by the string and then terminates.

You can get all the cmd command line switches by typing cmd /?.

CMD.exe Start a new CMD shell Syntax CMD [charset] [options] [My_Command] Options **/C Carries out My_Command and then terminates** 

From the help.

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