From the placement of the 1s and 0s on disk, DOS understands the commands and data on the disk and treats it appropriately. Directories are DOS's way of organizing the many files that can be placed on disk. Every disk has at least one directory. From the root directory of every disk we are able to directly or indirectly access every file on the disk. The root directory can hold directories or files.
Subsequent directories can also hold directories or files, and so on. . .
The root directory has no parent directory, but only child directories. These commands provide the most basic functionality for working with files. Working with DOS text files is simplified by commands to view and print this type of file. Of course, there are ways to modify and improve the way these commands work. For more information on working with DOS, please see your DOS Users Guide.