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What can I do to reverse engineer a DOS .COM file? As far as debugging goes, I've looked DEBUG and DEBUGX from the creators of FreeDOS, as well as the default DEBUG command that comes with Windows. Sure, I can probably work with them and eventually figure out what I'm doing, but I feel like the process would end up being longer than necessary. Is there a better tool I can use?

If there are no "better" tools than DEBUG or DEBUGX, then what can I use to work with output from these two tools? My main goal is to create something that mimics the .COM program, but in a more manageable format (as far as code goes).

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  • suggested by broadway: d86
    – Ange
    Apr 19, 2013 at 16:47

3 Answers 3

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I personally use DosBox debugger, which is quite complete, with a SoftICE-like interface.

Otherwise you can go for DOS debuggers like Turbo Debugger or CodeView.

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  • Cool, I'll try all of them out. I'll get back to you with a response on what worked best for me. So far CodeView looks very promising
    – JMcAfreak
    Apr 19, 2013 at 16:39
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As an alternative to Ange's answer I would like to offer idados. I've had good experiences with it when trying to reverse engineer a program and the accompanying file format. It also makes use of DOSBox. But if you have a proper IDA Pro license it is - I think - slightly more convenient.

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  • Hmmm... I might look into that when I have the money to get an IDA Pro license. Thanks for the tip.
    – JMcAfreak
    Apr 18, 2013 at 22:13
  • @JMcAfreak: it is why I have added this last sentence. I think the SDK wasn't included the last time in the IDA Freeware version and plugins were also (not full or not at all?) supported. But since I have the full version I don't check it too often.
    – 0xC0000022L ♦
    Apr 18, 2013 at 22:22
  • IDA free doesn't support SDK afaik - there was an unofficial patch for that, which I haven't tested.
    – Ange
    Apr 19, 2013 at 6:32
  • I wish I could select two accepted answers! :P Both seem like really good options. Currently I'm using the stuff suggested by @Ange (I'm trying each one out), but I'll definitely look into this!
    – JMcAfreak
    Apr 22, 2013 at 15:53
  • accept @0xC0000022L's then, since it enhances mine (I haven't tried idados personally)
    – Ange
    Apr 22, 2013 at 16:42
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My answer is a little late; newcomer to this site. The Decompiler project was initiated in order to decompile MS-DOS EXE and COM binaries. The project has both a command-line and a GUI tool:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/decompiler/

Use the following command with the command-line tool to decompile COM programs:

decompile --default-to ms-dos-com myprog.com

In the GUI, use the menu command File > Open as... to open the COM file and specify a start address like 0800:0100.

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