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+++ b/scripts/miscellaneous/dos.m
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+## Copyright (C) 2004 John W. Eaton
+##
+## This file is part of Octave.
+##
+## Octave is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+## under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+## the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
+## any later version.
+##
+## Octave is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+## WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+## MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
+## General Public License for more details.
+##
+## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+## along with Octave; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to the Free
+## Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA
+## 02110-1301, USA.
+
+## -*- texinfo -*-
+## @deftypefn {Function File} {[@var{status}, @var{text}] =} dos (@var{command})
+## @deftypefnx {Function File} {[@var{status}, @var{text}] =} dos (@var{command}, "-echo")
+## Execute a system command if running under a Windos-like operating
+## system, otherwise do nothing.  Return the exit status of the program
+## in @var{status} and any output sent to the standard output in
+## @var{text}.  If the optional second argument @code{"-echo"} is given,
+## then also send the output from the command to the standard output.
+## @seealso{unix, isunix, ispc, system}
+## @end deftypefn
+
+## Author: octave-forge ???
+## Adapted by: jwe
+
+function [status, text] = dos (cmd, echo_arg)
+
+  if (nargin < 1 || nargin > 2)
+    usage ( "[status, text] = dos (cmd, '-echo')");
+  elseif (! isunix ())
+    [status, text] = system (cmd);
+    if (nargin > 1 || nargout == 0)
+      printf ("%s\n", text);
+    endif
+  endif
+
+endfunction