Preview command output to text file before running command (Batch) - batch-file

I have a batch-file which works as intended, deleting files with a specified string or extension, but I want to keep a record of what was deleted.
I want to take the output of the command and write it to a .txt file on my desktop before running the actual command:
if /I %CONFIRM%==y (
(del /F /S %FOLDER%\*%DELETE%)>"C:\Users\%username%\Desktop\deleted.txt"
del /F /S %FOLDER%\*%DELETE%
)
In this case %DELETE% is the user input variable value bak.
If I try to delete .bak files it still deletes the files but gives me the following result and wont write to text file:
Could Not Find C:\Users\USERXYZ\Desktop\*bak
Any ideas?

Perhaps
set /p "confirm=delete %FOLDER%\*%DELETE% ? "
if /I %CONFIRM%==y (
(ECHO del /F /S %FOLDER%\*%DELETE%)>"C:\Users\%username%\Desktop\deleted.txt"
(dir/S/B %FOLDER%\*%DELETE%)>>"C:\Users\%username%\Desktop\deleted.txt"
del /F /S %FOLDER%\*%DELETE%
)
may assist.
In your code, the first del command deletes the file AND should create the deleted.txt file containing the names of the deleted files. Since those files have now been deleted, then the second del command quite correctly reports that it could not delete the files since they are no longer there.
Note that > will create a NEW file, whereas >> will append to an existing file (or create a new file if none already exists)
The echo del in this code shows the command that is about to be executed - you may or may not want this - idk. However the > puts this into a NEW file.

Related

How to copy file from file location list in Batch?

If you don't want to read the whole story, you can skip to the next paragraph.
So I found a YouTube video of how to make file in usb drive to autorun when the usb is inserted. Then I found and program that shows you all passwords saved in the browser (these passwords are stored in a database file on your computer). So the program gets the file with the passwords and writes them on another file. But the problem is that the antivirus is blocking it every time. It's saying that there is unwanted app and I have to allow it.
So I started writing my own code:
#echo off
setlocal
rem change to the correct directory
cd /d C:\Users\MyName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Edge
rem count the files
dir /b "Login Data" /s 2> nul | find "" /v /c > %temp%\count
set /p _count=<%temp%\count
rem cleanup
del %temp%\count
rem output the number of files
echo Files found : %_count%
rem list the files
echo Files Paths :
dir /b "Login Data" /s > D:\Folder\dir.txt
pause
endlocal
So what this does is finding all the files with specific name and writes their paths to a txt file. But I can't seem to understand how to make it reading these paths from the file and copying the files to the usb drive.
The count and pause functions are just to know if the program is really finding all the files called "Login Data"
I watched YouTube tutorials, searched in google, asked friends and nothing worked.
You could use the for command to handle each file found by the dir command. Note the for documentation (for /?), %%i will only work in batch files, at command line you would use %i instead.
for /f %%i in ('dir /b "Login Data" /s') do copy "%%i" "f:\path\"
f:\path\ would be the target path at the USB drive.
On the other hand you do not need the dir command as the copy command can filter by itself. Bye the way I do not understand the filter Login Data as is seems to be only one file. Eg. dir "Login Data*" would result in a list of files starting with "Login Data".

XCOPY in a Batch Script - Avoid the File or Directory Prompt [duplicate]

I have a simple copy from-to script for one of my friends who is missing a file 20 km from my desk.
When testing the script out I am prompted if my file shapes.atc is a file or a folder.
I can tell you that its a file. How can I automatically copy it with my friend needs to just double click the batch to get the file copying job done.
xcopy /s/y J:\"My Name"\"FILES IN TRANSIT"\JOHN20101126\"Missing file"\Shapes.atc C:\"Documents and Settings"\"His name"\"Application Data"\Autodesk\"AutoCAD 2010"\"R18.0"\enu\Support\Shapes.atc
A seemingly undocumented trick is to put a * at the end of the destination - then xcopy will copy as a file, like so
xcopy c:\source\file.txt c:\destination\newfile.txt*
The echo f | xcopy ... trick does not work on localized versions of Windows, where the prompt is different.
Actually xcopy does not ask you if the original file exists, but if you want to put it in a new folder named Shapes.atc, or in the folder Support (which is what you want.
To prevent xcopy from asking this, just tell him the destination folder, so there's no ambiguity:
xcopy /s/y "J:\Old path\Shapes.atc" "C:\Documents and Settings\his name\Support"
If you want to change the filename in destination just use copy (which is more adapted than xcopy when copying files):
copy /y "J:\Old path\Shapes.atc" "C:\Documents and Settings\his name\Support\Shapes-new.atc
The real trick is: Use a Backslash at the end of the target path where to copy the file. The /Y is for overwriting existing files, if you want no warnings.
Example:
xcopy /Y "C:\file\from\here.txt" "C:\file\to\here\"
echo f | xcopy /s/y J:\"My Name"\"FILES IN TRANSIT"\JOHN20101126\"Missing file"\Shapes.atc C:\"Documents and Settings"\"His name"\"Application Data"\Autodesk\"AutoCAD 2010"\"R18.0"\enu\Support\Shapes.atc
Referencing XCopy Force File
For forcing files, we could use pipeline "echo F |":
C:\Trash>xcopy 23.txt 24.txt
Does 24.txt specify a file name
or directory name on the target
(F = file, D = directory)?
C:\Trash>echo F | xcopy 23.txt 24.txt
Does 24.txt specify a file name
or directory name on the target
(F = file, D = directory)? F
C:23.txt
1 File(s) copied
For forcing a folder, we could use /i parameter for xcopy or using a backslash() at the end of the destination folder.
The /i switch might be what your after.
From xcopy /?
/I If destination does not exist and copying more than one file,
assumes that destination must be a directory.
Well, for the task as asked by just me the perhaps best solution would be the following command according to the incomplete advice of Andy Morris:
xcopy "J:\My Name\FILES IN TRANSIT\JOHN20101126\Missing file\Shapes.atc" "C:\Documents and Settings\His name\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2010\R18.0\enu\Support\" /Q /R /S /Y
This works for this simple file copying task because of
specifying just the destination directory instead of destination file and
ending destination directory with a backslash which is very important as otherwise XCOPY would even with /I prompt for file or directory on copying just a single file.
The other parameters not related to the question are:
/Q ... quiet
/Y ... yes (OS language independent) on overwrite existing file
/R ... overwrite also read-only, hidden and system file
/S ... from specified directory and all subdirectories.
Well, I don't know if /S is really needed here because it is unclear if just J:\My Name\FILES IN TRANSIT\JOHN20101126\Missing file\Shapes.atc should be copied or all Shapes.atc found anywhere in directory tree of J:\My Name\FILES IN TRANSIT\JOHN20101126\Missing file.
The explanation for the parameters can be read by opening a command prompt window and running from within this window xcopy /? to get output the help for XCOPY.
But none of the provided solutions worked for a file copying task on which a single file should be copied into same directory as source file, but with a different file name because of current date and time is inserted in file name before file extension.
The source file can have hidden or system attribute set which excludes the usage of COPY command.
The batch file for creating the time stamped file should work also on Windows XP which excludes ROBOCOPY because by default not available on Windows XP.
The batch file should work with any file including non typical files like .gitconfig or .htaccess which are files without a file extension starting with a point to hide them on *nix systems. Windows command processor interprets such files as files with no file name and having just a file extension because of the rule that everything after last point is the extension of the file and everything before last point is the file name.
For a complete task description and the final, fully commented solution see the post Create a backup copy of files in UltraEdit forum.
Patrick's, Interociter Operator's and CharlesB's solutions do not work because using /Y does not avoid the file or directory prompt if the destination file does not already exist.
Andy Morris' and grenix's solutions can't be used for the single file copying task as destination must be the name of destination file and not the name of destination directory. The destination directory is the same as the source directory, but name of destination file is different to name of source file.
DosMan's and Govert's solutions simply don't work for files starting with a point and not having a file extension.
For example the command
xcopy C:\Temp\.gitconfig C:\Temp\.gitconfig_2016-03-07_15-30-00* /C /H /K /Q /R /V /Y
results in following error message on execution:
English:  Could not expand second file name so as to match first.
German: Zweiter Dateiname konnte nicht so erweitert werden, dass er zum ersten passt.
And finally Denis Ivin's solution has the restriction that the operating system language dependent character for an automatic answering of the file OR directory prompt must be known.
So I thought about methods to get F for File on English Windows or D for Datei on German Windows or ? for ... on ... Windows automatically.
And it is indeed possible to determine the language dependent character for an automatic answering of the prompt.
A hack is used to get the language dependent letter from prompt text without really copying any file.
Command XCOPY is used to start copying the batch file itself to folder for temporary files with file extension being TMP for destination file. This results in a prompt by XCOPY if there is not already a file with that name in temporary files folder which is very unlikely.
The handler of device NUL is used as an input handler for XCOPY resulting in breaking the copying process after the prompt was output by XCOPY two times.
This output is processed in a FOR loop which is exited on first line starting with an opening parenthesis. This is the line on which second character defines the letter to use for specifying that destination is a file.
Here is a batch file using XCOPY with the code to determine the required letter for an automatic answering of the file or directory prompt to create a time stamped copy of a single file in same directory as the source file even if source file is a hidden or system file and even if the source file starts with a point and does not have a file extension.
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
rem Batch file must be started or called with name of a single file.
if "%~1" == "" exit /B
for /F "delims=*?" %%I in ("#%~1#") do if not "%%I" == "#%~1#" exit /B
if not exist "%~1" exit /B
if exist "%~1\" exit /B
rem Determine the character needed for answering prompt of
rem XCOPY for destination being a file and not a directory.
del /F "%TEMP%\%~n0.tmp" 2>nul
for /F %%I in ('%SystemRoot%\System32\xcopy.exe "%~f0" "%TEMP%\%~n0.tmp" ^<nul') do (
set "PromptAnswer=%%I"
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
if "!PromptAnswer:~0,1!" == "(" set "PromptAnswer=!PromptAnswer:~1,1!" & goto CopyFile
endlocal
)
echo ERROR: Failed to determine letter for answering prompt of XCOPY.
exit /B
:CopyFile
endlocal & set "PromptAnswer=%PromptAnswer%"
rem This is a workaround for files starting with a point and having no
rem file extension like many hidden files on *nix copied to Windows.
if "%~n1" == "" (
set "FileNameWithPath=%~dpx1"
set "FileExtension="
) else (
set "FileNameWithPath=%~dpn1"
set "FileExtension=%~x1"
)
rem Get local date and time in region and language independent format YYYYMMDDHHmmss
rem and reformat the local date and time to format YYYY-MM-DD_HH-mm-ss.
for /F "tokens=2 delims==." %%I in ('%SystemRoot%\System32\wbem\wmic.exe OS get LocalDateTime /format:value') do set "LocalDateTime=%%I"
set "LocalDateTime=%LocalDateTime:~0,4%-%LocalDateTime:~4,2%-%LocalDateTime:~6,2%_%LocalDateTime:~8,2%-%LocalDateTime:~10,2%-%LocalDateTime:~12,2%"
rem Do the copy with showing what is copied and with printing success or
rem an error message if copying fails for example on sharing violation.
echo Copy "%~f1" to "%FileNameWithPath%_%LocalDateTime%%FileExtension%"
for /F %%I in ('echo %PromptAnswer% ^| %SystemRoot%\System32\xcopy.exe "%~f1" "%FileNameWithPath%_%LocalDateTime%%FileExtension%" /C /H /K /Q /R /V /Y') do set "FilesCopied=%%I"
if "%FilesCopied%" == "1" (echo Success) else echo ERROR: Copying failed, see error message above.
This batch code was tested on German Windows XP SP3 x86 and English Windows 7 SP1 x64.
See the post Create a backup copy of files in UltraEdit forum for a similar, fully commented batch file explaining all parts of the batch code.
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.
del /?
echo /?
exit /?
for /?
goto /?
if /?
rem /?
set /?
setlocal /?
wmic OS get /?
xcopy /?
Further the Microsoft article about Using command redirection operators should be read, too.
The trick of appending "*" can be made to work when the new extension is shorter. You need to pad the new extension with blanks, which can only be done by enclosing the destination file name in quotes. For example:
xcopy foo.shtml "foo.html *"
This will copy and rename without prompting.
"That's not a bug, it's a feature!" (I once saw a VW Beetle in the Microsoft parking lot with the vanity plate "FEATURE".) These semantics for rename go all the way back to when I wrote DOS v.1. Characters in the new name are substituted one by one for characters in the old name, unless a wildcard character (? or *) is present in the new name. Without adding the blank(s) to the new name, remaining characters are copied from the old name.
xcopy /s/y J:\"My Name"\"FILES IN TRANSIT"\JOHN20101126\"Missing file"\Shapes.atc C:\"Documents and Settings"\"His name"\"Application Data"\Autodesk\"AutoCAD 2010"\"R18.0"\enu\Support\*.*"
..should do it.
Good idea to do an:
IF NOT EXIST "C:\Documents and Settings\His name\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2010\R18.0\enu\Support\Shapes.atc" ECHO/ && ECHO/ && ECHO * * * * * COPY FAILED - Call JustME at 555-555-1212 && ECHO/ && pause
(assuming you've done a rename of previous version to .old)
XCOPY /Z <----- restartable mode - good for large files.
The virtual parent trick
Assuming you have your source and destination file in
%SRC_FILENAME% and %DST_FILENAME%
you could use a 2 step method:
#REM on my win 7 system mkdir creates all parent directories also
mkdir "%DST_FILENAME%\.."
xcopy "%SRC_FILENAME% "%DST_FILENAME%\.."
this would be resolved to e.g
mkdir "c:\destination\b\c\file.txt\.."
#REM The special trick here is that mkdir can create the parent
#REM directory of a "virtual" directory (c:\destination\b\c\file.txt\) that
#REM doesn't even need to exist.
#REM So the directory "c:\destination\b\c" is created here.
#REM mkdir "c:\destination\b\c\dummystring\.." would have the same effect
xcopy "c:\source\b\c\file.txt" "c:\destination\b\c\file.txt\.."
#REM xcopy computes the real location of "c:\destination\b\c\file.txt\.."
#REM which is the now existing directory "c:\destination\b\c"
#REM (the parent directory of the "virtual" directory c:\destination\b\c\file.txt\).
I came to the idea when I stumbled over some really wild ../..-constructs in the command lines generated from a build process.
I had exactly the same problem, where is wanted to copy a file into an external hard drive for backup purposes.
If I wanted to copy a complete folder, then COPY was quite happy to create the destination folder and populate it with all the files.
However, I wanted to copy a file once a day and add today's date to the file.
COPY was happy to copy the file and rename it in the new format, but only as long as the destination folder already existed.
my copy command looked like this:
COPY C:\SRCFOLDER\MYFILE.doc D:\DESTFOLDER\MYFILE_YYYYMMDD.doc
Like you, I looked around for alternative switches or other copy type commands, but nothing really worked like I wanted it to.
Then I thought about splitting out the two different requirements by simply adding a make directory ( MD or MKDIR ) command before the copy command.
So now i have
MKDIR D:\DESTFOLDER
COPY C:\SRCFOLDER\MYFILE.doc D:\DESTFOLDER\MYFILE_YYYYMMDD.doc
If the destination folder does NOT exist, then it creates it.
If the destination folder DOES exist, then it generates an error message.. BUT, this does not stop the batch file from continuing on to the copy command.
The error message says:
A subdirectory or file D:\DESTFOLDER already exists
As i said, the error message doesn't stop the batch file working and it is a really simple fix to the problem.
Hope that this helps.

How to create folder based on first and second part of file name and move files into the folder?

I created the following batch script to create a folder based on today's date and then group files into folders based on the file name.
For example the files
JIM_BRICKMAN_QPS.avi
JIM_BRICKMAN_Slice.avi
JIM_BRICKMAN_Slice.jpg
are moved to the folder BRICKMAN.
This works fine, however, attempts to modify the batch file to move the newly created folders into the newly created date folder fail or overwrite the folders when going through the loop.
for /F "tokens=1-4 delims=/" %%A in ('date /t') do (
set DateDay=%%A
set DateMonth=%%B
set DateYear=%%C
)
set CurrentDate=%DateDay%-%DateMonth%-%DateYear%
if not exist "%CurrentDate%" md %CurrentDate%
for %%A in (*.avi *.jpg) do (
for /f "tokens=1,* delims=_" %%D in ("%%~nA") do (
md "%%D" 2>nul
echo Moving file %%A to folder %%D
move "%%A" "%%D" >nul
)
)
echo Finished
Additionally, I can't seem to get the token to ignore the first delimiter so that the folder is titled JIM_BRICKMAN and not just BRICKMAN.
EDIT:
I rewrote the batch file after the suggestions in the comments:
set "CurrentDate=%DATE:~-10,2%-%DATE:~-7,2%-%DATE:~-4%"
if not exist "%CurrentDate%" md %CurrentDate%
for %%A in (*.avi *.jpg) do (
for /f "tokens=1,2 delims=_" %%D_%%E in ("%%~nA") do (
md "%%D_%%E" 2>nul
move "%%A" "%%D_%%E" >nul
)
)
But the script seems to bomb out. I tried to capture the error, but it closes despite me putting PAUSE in the script.
Double clicking on a batch file in development is no good idea because this results in starting
%SystemRoot%\System32\cmd.exe /c "batch file name with full path and extension"
As it can be read on running cmd /? from within a command prompt window, the option /C means close the command process and its console window immediately after execution of command, executable or script finished independent on the reason for ending the execution.
For debugging a batch file in development it is much better to
open a command prompt window,
change the current directory with command CD to directory of batch file and
run the batch file by typing its name and hitting key RETURN or ENTER.
For batch files which should work independent on which directory is the current directory, it is advisable to omit point 2 and run the batch file with entering its full path, file name and file extension enclosed in double quotes with current directory being not the directory of the batch file.
A batch file is executed from within a command prompt window with:
%SystemRoot%\System32\cmd.exe /K BatchFileNameAsTyped
The option /K means keep command process running which results in keeping also command prompt window opened after execution of command/executable/script which makes it possible to read error messages.
The keys UP ARROW and DOWN ARROW can be used to reload command lines once entered in command prompt window making it easy to run the batch file once again after making a modification in GUI text editor.
And with having #echo off removed from first line of batch file, or changed to #echo ON, or commented out this line with command REM or with :: (invalid label) at beginning, it is also possible to see which lines Windows command interpreter really executes after applying immediate environment variable expansion and where an error occurs in case of a syntax error.
Wrong on second batch code is the line:
for /f "tokens=1,2 delims=_" %%D_%%E in ("%%~nA") do (
Specified as loop variable must be always 1 character. Right would be:
for /f "tokens=1,2 delims=_" %%D in ("%%~nA") do (
The command echo %DATE% outputs on my computer with my account and my region settings today the date 01.04.2017.
The command echo %DATE:~-10,2%-%DATE:~-7,2%-%DATE:~-4% outputs 01-04-2017.
So this part of the script works.
Hint: A list of directories in format YYYY-MM-DD is better than in format DD-MM-YYYY. The list of directories with format YYYY-MM-DD sorted alphabetically as by default is automatically with this date format also sorted from oldest to newest. Date format DD-MM-YYYY results in a weird list of the directories on being sorted alphabetically as by default.
A batch file for this task could be:
#echo off
set "CurrentDate=%DATE:~-10,2%-%DATE:~-7,2%-%DATE:~-4%"
for %%A in (*.avi *.jpg) do (
for /F "tokens=1,2 delims=_" %%D in ("%%~nA") do (
if not "%%E" == "" (
md "%CurrentDate%\%%D_%%E" 2>nul
move /Y "%%A" "%CurrentDate%\%%D_%%E\"
) else (
md "%CurrentDate%\%%D" 2>nul
move /Y "%%A" "%CurrentDate%\%%D\"
)
)
)
set "CurrentDate="
How the inner loop works is most interesting for this task.
for /F and "%%~nA" means the command FOR should process just the file name of the *.avi or *.jpg file without file extension found by outer FOR loop.
delims=_ means the FOR command should split up the string into multiple parts (tokens) using underscore as delimiter. The first file name is JIM_BRICKMAN_QPS which would be split up to:
JIM assigned to loop variable D being specified in FOR command line,
BRICKMAN assigned to loop variable E which is the next character in ASCII table after D and
QPS assigned to loop variable F.
This string split feature is the reason why loop variables are interpreted case-sensitive while environment variables are interpreted not case-sensitive.
With tokens=1,2 is specified that just first and second string parts are of interest. So inner FOR can stop string splitting after having already determined the first two underscore delimited strings and having assigned them to the loop variables D and E.
FOR executes the command block if it could determine at least 1 string delimited by an underscore. So it is possible that loop variable D has a string value, but loop variable E is an empty string, for example if the file name does not contain any underscore. That is the reason for the IF condition.
The command MD creates with command extensions enabled as by default the entire directory tree. Therefore it is not necessary to create the date subdirectory explicitly before searching for *.avi and *.jpg files. That is good as it avoids creating empty date directories when there are no *.avi and *.jpg files in current directory.
As the *.avi and *.jpg files in current directory should be moved to DD-MM-YYYY\Token1_Token2 it is of course necessary to specify also the environment variable with todays date string on creating the directory and moving the file.
The error message output by MD if the directory exists (or when it fails to create the directory because of missing permissions) to handle STDERR is redirected with 2>nul to device NUL to suppress it.
The MOVE command is used with option /Y to move the file to target folder even if the current file exists already in target folder.
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.
echo /?
for /?
if /?
md /?
move /?
set /?
Read also the Microsoft article about Using Command Redirection Operators.

Bat file to delete all files with a specific string within?

Guys I am trying to write a batch file that kills all files within a directory - basically every file will have 'status' within it
I cant just kill the files on file extension either - there is this post
batch script delete file containining certain chars
however, this does not seem to do it
for /f "delims=" %%a in ('
findstr /l /i /m /c:"status" "c:\somewhere\*.*"
') do echo del "%%a"
This uses findstr to list the files (/m) containing the literal (/l) "status" ignoring the string case (/i). The list is processed with a for /f command to execute the del operation for each file.
del commands are only echoed to console. If the output is correct, remove the echo command.
edited if the string status is not inside the file but in the file name, the code is reduced to
del "c:\somewhere\*status*"

Why does the command XCOPY in batch file ask for file or folder?

I have a simple copy from-to script for one of my friends who is missing a file 20 km from my desk.
When testing the script out I am prompted if my file shapes.atc is a file or a folder.
I can tell you that its a file. How can I automatically copy it with my friend needs to just double click the batch to get the file copying job done.
xcopy /s/y J:\"My Name"\"FILES IN TRANSIT"\JOHN20101126\"Missing file"\Shapes.atc C:\"Documents and Settings"\"His name"\"Application Data"\Autodesk\"AutoCAD 2010"\"R18.0"\enu\Support\Shapes.atc
A seemingly undocumented trick is to put a * at the end of the destination - then xcopy will copy as a file, like so
xcopy c:\source\file.txt c:\destination\newfile.txt*
The echo f | xcopy ... trick does not work on localized versions of Windows, where the prompt is different.
Actually xcopy does not ask you if the original file exists, but if you want to put it in a new folder named Shapes.atc, or in the folder Support (which is what you want.
To prevent xcopy from asking this, just tell him the destination folder, so there's no ambiguity:
xcopy /s/y "J:\Old path\Shapes.atc" "C:\Documents and Settings\his name\Support"
If you want to change the filename in destination just use copy (which is more adapted than xcopy when copying files):
copy /y "J:\Old path\Shapes.atc" "C:\Documents and Settings\his name\Support\Shapes-new.atc
The real trick is: Use a Backslash at the end of the target path where to copy the file. The /Y is for overwriting existing files, if you want no warnings.
Example:
xcopy /Y "C:\file\from\here.txt" "C:\file\to\here\"
echo f | xcopy /s/y J:\"My Name"\"FILES IN TRANSIT"\JOHN20101126\"Missing file"\Shapes.atc C:\"Documents and Settings"\"His name"\"Application Data"\Autodesk\"AutoCAD 2010"\"R18.0"\enu\Support\Shapes.atc
Referencing XCopy Force File
For forcing files, we could use pipeline "echo F |":
C:\Trash>xcopy 23.txt 24.txt
Does 24.txt specify a file name
or directory name on the target
(F = file, D = directory)?
C:\Trash>echo F | xcopy 23.txt 24.txt
Does 24.txt specify a file name
or directory name on the target
(F = file, D = directory)? F
C:23.txt
1 File(s) copied
For forcing a folder, we could use /i parameter for xcopy or using a backslash() at the end of the destination folder.
The /i switch might be what your after.
From xcopy /?
/I If destination does not exist and copying more than one file,
assumes that destination must be a directory.
Well, for the task as asked by just me the perhaps best solution would be the following command according to the incomplete advice of Andy Morris:
xcopy "J:\My Name\FILES IN TRANSIT\JOHN20101126\Missing file\Shapes.atc" "C:\Documents and Settings\His name\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2010\R18.0\enu\Support\" /Q /R /S /Y
This works for this simple file copying task because of
specifying just the destination directory instead of destination file and
ending destination directory with a backslash which is very important as otherwise XCOPY would even with /I prompt for file or directory on copying just a single file.
The other parameters not related to the question are:
/Q ... quiet
/Y ... yes (OS language independent) on overwrite existing file
/R ... overwrite also read-only, hidden and system file
/S ... from specified directory and all subdirectories.
Well, I don't know if /S is really needed here because it is unclear if just J:\My Name\FILES IN TRANSIT\JOHN20101126\Missing file\Shapes.atc should be copied or all Shapes.atc found anywhere in directory tree of J:\My Name\FILES IN TRANSIT\JOHN20101126\Missing file.
The explanation for the parameters can be read by opening a command prompt window and running from within this window xcopy /? to get output the help for XCOPY.
But none of the provided solutions worked for a file copying task on which a single file should be copied into same directory as source file, but with a different file name because of current date and time is inserted in file name before file extension.
The source file can have hidden or system attribute set which excludes the usage of COPY command.
The batch file for creating the time stamped file should work also on Windows XP which excludes ROBOCOPY because by default not available on Windows XP.
The batch file should work with any file including non typical files like .gitconfig or .htaccess which are files without a file extension starting with a point to hide them on *nix systems. Windows command processor interprets such files as files with no file name and having just a file extension because of the rule that everything after last point is the extension of the file and everything before last point is the file name.
For a complete task description and the final, fully commented solution see the post Create a backup copy of files in UltraEdit forum.
Patrick's, Interociter Operator's and CharlesB's solutions do not work because using /Y does not avoid the file or directory prompt if the destination file does not already exist.
Andy Morris' and grenix's solutions can't be used for the single file copying task as destination must be the name of destination file and not the name of destination directory. The destination directory is the same as the source directory, but name of destination file is different to name of source file.
DosMan's and Govert's solutions simply don't work for files starting with a point and not having a file extension.
For example the command
xcopy C:\Temp\.gitconfig C:\Temp\.gitconfig_2016-03-07_15-30-00* /C /H /K /Q /R /V /Y
results in following error message on execution:
English:  Could not expand second file name so as to match first.
German: Zweiter Dateiname konnte nicht so erweitert werden, dass er zum ersten passt.
And finally Denis Ivin's solution has the restriction that the operating system language dependent character for an automatic answering of the file OR directory prompt must be known.
So I thought about methods to get F for File on English Windows or D for Datei on German Windows or ? for ... on ... Windows automatically.
And it is indeed possible to determine the language dependent character for an automatic answering of the prompt.
A hack is used to get the language dependent letter from prompt text without really copying any file.
Command XCOPY is used to start copying the batch file itself to folder for temporary files with file extension being TMP for destination file. This results in a prompt by XCOPY if there is not already a file with that name in temporary files folder which is very unlikely.
The handler of device NUL is used as an input handler for XCOPY resulting in breaking the copying process after the prompt was output by XCOPY two times.
This output is processed in a FOR loop which is exited on first line starting with an opening parenthesis. This is the line on which second character defines the letter to use for specifying that destination is a file.
Here is a batch file using XCOPY with the code to determine the required letter for an automatic answering of the file or directory prompt to create a time stamped copy of a single file in same directory as the source file even if source file is a hidden or system file and even if the source file starts with a point and does not have a file extension.
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
rem Batch file must be started or called with name of a single file.
if "%~1" == "" exit /B
for /F "delims=*?" %%I in ("#%~1#") do if not "%%I" == "#%~1#" exit /B
if not exist "%~1" exit /B
if exist "%~1\" exit /B
rem Determine the character needed for answering prompt of
rem XCOPY for destination being a file and not a directory.
del /F "%TEMP%\%~n0.tmp" 2>nul
for /F %%I in ('%SystemRoot%\System32\xcopy.exe "%~f0" "%TEMP%\%~n0.tmp" ^<nul') do (
set "PromptAnswer=%%I"
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
if "!PromptAnswer:~0,1!" == "(" set "PromptAnswer=!PromptAnswer:~1,1!" & goto CopyFile
endlocal
)
echo ERROR: Failed to determine letter for answering prompt of XCOPY.
exit /B
:CopyFile
endlocal & set "PromptAnswer=%PromptAnswer%"
rem This is a workaround for files starting with a point and having no
rem file extension like many hidden files on *nix copied to Windows.
if "%~n1" == "" (
set "FileNameWithPath=%~dpx1"
set "FileExtension="
) else (
set "FileNameWithPath=%~dpn1"
set "FileExtension=%~x1"
)
rem Get local date and time in region and language independent format YYYYMMDDHHmmss
rem and reformat the local date and time to format YYYY-MM-DD_HH-mm-ss.
for /F "tokens=2 delims==." %%I in ('%SystemRoot%\System32\wbem\wmic.exe OS get LocalDateTime /format:value') do set "LocalDateTime=%%I"
set "LocalDateTime=%LocalDateTime:~0,4%-%LocalDateTime:~4,2%-%LocalDateTime:~6,2%_%LocalDateTime:~8,2%-%LocalDateTime:~10,2%-%LocalDateTime:~12,2%"
rem Do the copy with showing what is copied and with printing success or
rem an error message if copying fails for example on sharing violation.
echo Copy "%~f1" to "%FileNameWithPath%_%LocalDateTime%%FileExtension%"
for /F %%I in ('echo %PromptAnswer% ^| %SystemRoot%\System32\xcopy.exe "%~f1" "%FileNameWithPath%_%LocalDateTime%%FileExtension%" /C /H /K /Q /R /V /Y') do set "FilesCopied=%%I"
if "%FilesCopied%" == "1" (echo Success) else echo ERROR: Copying failed, see error message above.
This batch code was tested on German Windows XP SP3 x86 and English Windows 7 SP1 x64.
See the post Create a backup copy of files in UltraEdit forum for a similar, fully commented batch file explaining all parts of the batch code.
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.
del /?
echo /?
exit /?
for /?
goto /?
if /?
rem /?
set /?
setlocal /?
wmic OS get /?
xcopy /?
Further the Microsoft article about Using command redirection operators should be read, too.
The trick of appending "*" can be made to work when the new extension is shorter. You need to pad the new extension with blanks, which can only be done by enclosing the destination file name in quotes. For example:
xcopy foo.shtml "foo.html *"
This will copy and rename without prompting.
"That's not a bug, it's a feature!" (I once saw a VW Beetle in the Microsoft parking lot with the vanity plate "FEATURE".) These semantics for rename go all the way back to when I wrote DOS v.1. Characters in the new name are substituted one by one for characters in the old name, unless a wildcard character (? or *) is present in the new name. Without adding the blank(s) to the new name, remaining characters are copied from the old name.
xcopy /s/y J:\"My Name"\"FILES IN TRANSIT"\JOHN20101126\"Missing file"\Shapes.atc C:\"Documents and Settings"\"His name"\"Application Data"\Autodesk\"AutoCAD 2010"\"R18.0"\enu\Support\*.*"
..should do it.
Good idea to do an:
IF NOT EXIST "C:\Documents and Settings\His name\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2010\R18.0\enu\Support\Shapes.atc" ECHO/ && ECHO/ && ECHO * * * * * COPY FAILED - Call JustME at 555-555-1212 && ECHO/ && pause
(assuming you've done a rename of previous version to .old)
XCOPY /Z <----- restartable mode - good for large files.
The virtual parent trick
Assuming you have your source and destination file in
%SRC_FILENAME% and %DST_FILENAME%
you could use a 2 step method:
#REM on my win 7 system mkdir creates all parent directories also
mkdir "%DST_FILENAME%\.."
xcopy "%SRC_FILENAME% "%DST_FILENAME%\.."
this would be resolved to e.g
mkdir "c:\destination\b\c\file.txt\.."
#REM The special trick here is that mkdir can create the parent
#REM directory of a "virtual" directory (c:\destination\b\c\file.txt\) that
#REM doesn't even need to exist.
#REM So the directory "c:\destination\b\c" is created here.
#REM mkdir "c:\destination\b\c\dummystring\.." would have the same effect
xcopy "c:\source\b\c\file.txt" "c:\destination\b\c\file.txt\.."
#REM xcopy computes the real location of "c:\destination\b\c\file.txt\.."
#REM which is the now existing directory "c:\destination\b\c"
#REM (the parent directory of the "virtual" directory c:\destination\b\c\file.txt\).
I came to the idea when I stumbled over some really wild ../..-constructs in the command lines generated from a build process.
I had exactly the same problem, where is wanted to copy a file into an external hard drive for backup purposes.
If I wanted to copy a complete folder, then COPY was quite happy to create the destination folder and populate it with all the files.
However, I wanted to copy a file once a day and add today's date to the file.
COPY was happy to copy the file and rename it in the new format, but only as long as the destination folder already existed.
my copy command looked like this:
COPY C:\SRCFOLDER\MYFILE.doc D:\DESTFOLDER\MYFILE_YYYYMMDD.doc
Like you, I looked around for alternative switches or other copy type commands, but nothing really worked like I wanted it to.
Then I thought about splitting out the two different requirements by simply adding a make directory ( MD or MKDIR ) command before the copy command.
So now i have
MKDIR D:\DESTFOLDER
COPY C:\SRCFOLDER\MYFILE.doc D:\DESTFOLDER\MYFILE_YYYYMMDD.doc
If the destination folder does NOT exist, then it creates it.
If the destination folder DOES exist, then it generates an error message.. BUT, this does not stop the batch file from continuing on to the copy command.
The error message says:
A subdirectory or file D:\DESTFOLDER already exists
As i said, the error message doesn't stop the batch file working and it is a really simple fix to the problem.
Hope that this helps.

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