Attrib

From HowToGeek

The attrib command allows you to display or change the attributes of a file from the command prompt in Windows.

1 Usage
2 See Also

Usage

The most common usage of this file is to set or unset the hidden or read-only attributes. The syntax for this is:

attrib <option> <filename>

Display File Attributes

You can display the attributes of a file by simply typing attrib and then the name of the file:

C:\>attrib application.log
A            C:\application.log

Hide or Unhide a File

To change the file attribute to a hidden file, use the following syntax:

attrib +h <filename>

To remove the hidden attribute, use the following syntax:

attrib -h <filename>

Make a File Read-Only or Writable

To set a file to be read-only, use the following syntax:

attrib -r <filename>

To make a file read-only, use the following syntax:

attrib +r <filename>

Combining Attributes

You can combine these attributes as well as the others into a single command, for instance to set a file as hidden and read-only, use this syntax:

attrib +h +r <filename>

Full Syntax

You can see the full syntax for this command (and most commands in Windows) by typing attrib /? at the command prompt:

ATTRIB [+R | -R] [+A | -A ] [+S | -S] [+H | -H] [+I | -I]
       [drive:][path][filename] [/S [/D] [/L]]

  +   Sets an attribute.
  -   Clears an attribute.
  R   Read-only file attribute.
  A   Archive file attribute.
  S   System file attribute.
  H   Hidden file attribute.
  I   Not content indexed file attribute.
  [drive:][path][filename]
      Specifies a file or files for attrib to process.
  /S  Processes matching files in the current folder
      and all subfolders.
  /D  Processes folders as well.
  /L  Work on the attributes of the Symbolic Link versus
      the target of the Symbolic Link

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