Using the SharePoint command line

SharePoint also offers you a command line with a big collection of commands that you can use to perform all kinds of tasks.

In SharePoint 2010 this is called the stsadm tool, which is located in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\BIN. You can create a shortcut to the Windows command line tool (cmd.exe) and set the start directory to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\BIN so you can quickly start using stsadm at all times. The stsadm tool is fully extendable with your own commands. Many other people have already done this. I think the most famous one for this is Gary Lapointe, who has dedicated a large blog talking about nothing else then his stsadm extensions. If you want an overview of all the out of the box stsadm commands, please take a look at this post.

In SharePoint 2010 stsadm is stil available although officially deprecated. It’s now advised to use PowerShell which has a huge number of out of the box SharePoint 2010 commandlets. You can even fully automate your SharePoint 2010 installation. If you want an overview of all out of the box SharePoint 2010 PowerShell commandlets, take a look at this post.