Batch symbolic link creation from .txt list - batch-file

Question

I need a way to create symbolic links to multiple files in one folder, all listed in a .txt file. Filenames in the list lack the file extension. I used to do copy with the following script, and I failed to replace the copy command to symlink creation.
#echo off
chcp 65001 > nul
for /f "usebackq delims=" %%i IN ("selection_list.txt") DO (
xcopy "..\%%i.zip" "..\selection\%%i.zip*"
)
pause
Using relative paths because i wanna be able to use this in multiple folders.
Filenames in the .txt file don't include file extensions.
For instantce, let's say I wanna use this in a folder "F:\assets", i'll put my script in a folder "F:\assets\selection_script" along with the .txt file named selection_list.txt. After launching the script, it'll create a folder "F:\assets\selection" with all the files I wanted in it.
I tried replacing xcopy command with mklink /D, using this syntax example
mklink /D "C:\Link To Folder" "C:\Users\Name\Original Folder"
New script looks like this
#echo off
chcp 65001 > nul
for /f "usebackq delims=" %%i IN ("selection_list.txt") DO (
mklink /D "..\selection_links\%%i.zip*" "..\%%i.zip"
)
pause
Obviously this didn't work. Says System can't find the file selection_list.txt
I tried to manually run the command for a single named file with relative paths and it worked, so my problem is getting it to work in a function with a list. Seems to me that file extensions being added on top of filename from .txt list might be the problem, but idk how to resolve it. I tried few syntax variations I found, without success
I'm quite unexperienced with this so any help would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

Let me first explain better the task to do. There are following folders and files:
F:\assets
selection
Development & Test(!).zip
;Example Zip File.zip
selection_script
create_selection.cmd
selection_list.txt
The text file selection_list.txt contains the lines:
Development & Test(!)
;Example Zip File
Not existing file
The execution of create_selection.cmd should result in the following folders and files:
F:\assets
selection
Development & Test(!).zip
;Example Zip File.zip
selection_links
Development & Test(!).zip
;Example Zip File.zip
selection_script
create_selection.cmd
selection_list.txt
The directory entries Development & Test(!).zip and ;Example Zip File.zip in created directory selection_links are symbolic links and not copies of the two files in directory selection.
This symbolic links creation task can be done with F:\assets\selection_script\create_selection.cmd with the following command lines:
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
for /F "tokens=*" %%G in ('%SystemRoot%\System32\chcp.com') do for %%H in (%%G) do set /A "CodePage=%%H" 2>nul
%SystemRoot%\System32\chcp.com 65001 >nul 2>&1
for %%I in ("%~dp0..\selection_links") do set "LinksFolder=%%~fI"
if not exist "%LinksFolder%\" md "%LinksFolder%" 2>nul
if not exist "%LinksFolder%\" echo ERROR: Failed to create directory: "%LinksFolder%"& goto EndBatch
pushd "%LinksFolder%"
if exist "%~dp0selection_list.txt" for /F "usebackq eol=| delims=" %%I in ("%~dp0selection_list.txt") do if exist "..\selection\%%I.zip" if not exist "%%I.zip" mklink "%%I.zip" "..\selection\%%I.zip" >nul
popd
:EndBatch
%SystemRoot%\System32\chcp.com %CodePage% >nul
endlocal
There is defined first completely the required execution environment with the first two command lines setting up a local execution environment with command echo mode turned off, command extensions enabled and delayed variable expansion disabled as required for this task.
There is next determined the currently active code page and stored in environment variable CodePage using a command line published by Compo on DosTips forum topic [Info] Saving current codepage. Then the active code page is changed to UTF-8 although not really needed for the example.
There is next determined once the full path of the folder in which the symbolic links should be created which is the folder selection_links being a subfolder of the parent folder F:\assets of the folder selection_script containing the batch script. It does not matter if this folder already exists or not on determining the fully qualified folder name.
There is next verified if the target folder exists. The folder selection_links is created on not existing with checking once again if the folder really exists now. A useful error message is output on creation of folder failed and the batch file restores the initial code page and the initial execution environment.
The target folder is made the current directory by using the command PUSHD which should not fail anymore now after verification that the target folder exists.
There are next processed the lines in the text file selection_list.txt referenced with its fully qualified file name by using %~dp0 which expands to drive and path of argument 0 which is the full path of the batch file always ending with a backlash.
Each non-empty line not starting with the character | is assigned completely one after the other to the loop variable I. The character | is not valid for a file name as explained in the Microsoft documentation about Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces. There is verified next if there is really a ZIP archive file with that name in the folder selection and if there is no directory entry with same name in current folder selection_links.
If these two conditions are both true, MKLINK is executed to create in current directory selection_links a file symbolic link to the ZIP file in the directory selection.
Please note that a ZIP archive file is not a directory and for that reason the usage of MKLINK option /D to create a directory symbolic link cannot work ever.
Finally the initial current directory is restored using POPD and the initial code page and the initial execution environment are also restored by the batch file before it ends.
For understanding the used commands and how they work, open a command prompt window, execute there the following commands, and read entirely all help pages displayed for each command very carefully.
call /? ... explains %~dp0 ... drive and path of argument 0 – the batch file path
chcp /?
echo /?
endlocal /?
for /?
goto /?
if /?
md /?
mklink /?
popd /?
pushd /?
set /?
setlocal /?
See also:
Microsoft documentation about Using command redirection operators
Single line with multiple commands using Windows batch file