Batch strange behavior when renaming lnks with for loop - batch-file

I’m trying to make a script that removes the ” – Shortcut” from shortcut names and have discovered an odd phenomenon, if the name is under 6 characters not including the “ – Shortcut.lnk” the loop goes through an extra cycle for that file and makes its name blank. However this only applies to the first file not any file after the first.
So if we have two lnk files one is “12345 – Shortcut.lnk” and the other is “C1 – Shortcut.lnk” the output is a blank lnk file and a “C1.lnk”
But “123456 – Shortcut.lnk” and “C1 – Shortcut.lnk” gives “123456.lnk” and “C1.lnk” (the way its suppose to work)
“x1 – Shortcut.lnk” and “c1 – Shortuct.lnk” gives a blank lnk file and and “x1.lnk”
Here is the script I’m using
#echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
for %%i in ("*.lnk") do (
set CurrentFile=%%i
set NewName=!CurrentFile:~0,-15!.lnk
ren "%%i" "!NewName!"
)
pause

What is happening is that when the file is renamed, the new name is placed later in the directory than the old name, so the for finds the filename again as it processes the names mechanically as it encounters them.
Three solutions
You could change your mask to
for %%i in ("* - shortcut.lnk") do (
You could change your processing to ensure that the shortcut text is still there before renaming by gating the rename
if /i "!CurrentFile:~0,-15!"=="- shortcut.lnk" (
(
set NewName=!CurrentFile:~0,-15!.lnk
ren "%%i" "!NewName!"
)
Or you use for /f which builds a list in memory, then processes the list (hence only the "old" names are present)
for /f "delims=" %%i in ('dir /b/a-d "*.lnk" ') do (
or preferably
for /f "delims=" %%i in ('dir /b/a-d "* - shortcut.lnk" ') do (
The second is preferable since the dir command will only select names ending appropriately, so the process can be run repeatedly despite having rnamed files on a prior run.

Since you're trying to delete a specific string (rather than generally shorten the filename), you're probably safer using the substitution operator to explicitly remove - Shortcut if present:
#echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
for %%i in ("*.lnk") do (
set "CurrentFile=%%i"
set "NewName=!CurrentFile: - Shortcut=!"
ren "%%i" "!NewName!"
)
pause

Related

Batch Script To Identify Missing Numerical File Name

I have a custom service that automatically generates files every 60 mins into a particular directory with part of the filename incrementing numerically, Eg:
File_00004.job
File_00003.job
File_00002.job
File_00001.job
Currently I have an issue where on occasion a file isn't generated, which results in gaps in the file sequence. This issue then causes a number of issues if not identified ASAP.
I'd like a batch file to identify if I have a gap in the file name sequence.
Tried looking for solutions from existing posts, but haven't found something that fits, so apologies if this has been covered elsewhere.
#ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL enabledelayedexpansion
rem The following settings for the source directory, destination directory, target directory,
rem batch directory, filenames, output filename and temporary filename [if shown] are names
rem that I use for testing and deliberately include names which include spaces to make sure
rem that the process works using such names. These will need to be changed to suit your situation.
SET "sourcedir=u:\your files\t w o"
SET "mask=file_??????.job"
SET "lowest="
SET "highest="
FOR /f "delims=" %%a IN (
'dir /b /a-d /on "%sourcedir%\%mask%" '
) DO (
IF NOT DEFINED lowest SET "lowest=%%~na"
SET "highest=%%~na"
)
SET "lowest=%lowest:*_=1%"
SET "highest=%highest:*_=1%"
ECHO checking range %lowest:~1% to %highest:~1%
:: See whether an entry in the range is missing; report&create an empty file if so.
FOR /L %%a IN (%lowest%,1,%highest%) DO SET "name=%%a"&SET "name=file_!name:~1!.job"&IF NOT EXIST "%sourcedir%\!name!" echo !name! missing&(copy nul "%sourcedir%\!name!" >nul)
GOTO :EOF
Alternative structure for the for /L loop:
FOR /L %%a IN (%lowest%,1,%highest%) DO (
SET "name=%%a"
SET "name=file_!name:~1!.job"
IF NOT EXIST "%sourcedir%\!name!" (
echo !name! missing
copy nul "%sourcedir%\!name!" >nul
copy "d:\path to\template.file" "wherever\!name!" >nul
copy "d:\path to\template.file" "anotherplace\!name!" >nul
echo Batch is fun and powerful
copy "d:\path to\template.file" "a third place\!name!" >nul
)
)
The critical point is the positioning of the ( - must be directly after and on the same line as do or else or the logical comparison clause of if and must be matched by a ) (which doesn't need to be on its own line - I find it easier that way, to align indentation.) )s that are not intended to close a block need to be escaped with ^, thus: ^)

How to clean-up file paths (back/forward slashes) provided as arguments in a .bat script to avoid syntax errors

I have a simple .bat script which renames all files in a folder using ren. The input argument is a path to a folder containing the files to be renamed. The script sometimes returns syntax errors which we've traced to the fact that sometimes the input path has forward slashes, backslashes, or a mix of both (and sometimes starts with a double forward slash). We would like to make this script more robust by allowing it to accept any of these types of paths, and cleaning up the path as part of the .bat script before calling the ren command.
So my question is: is there a (set of) command(s) I can apply to the file path argument (%1 in the example below) before calling the ren function that will correct all forward/backslashes to be consistent and avoid syntax errors? I don't have much experience with .bat scripts, so any code examples would be helpful.
#echo off
setlocal ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
for %%F in (%1*.nc) do (
for /F "tokens=1-8 delims=_" %%a in ("%%~nF") do (
ren "%%F" "%%a_%%b_%%c_%%d_%%e_%%g_%%f_%%h.nc"
)
)
UPDATE: In the end, only the last suggestion by Magoo was needed, because changing %1 to "%~f1" fixed the slash issues. I also had to add %~f1\ to the first argument of the ren command because otherwise it was somehow looking in the wrong folder (the first for found the files ok, but the ren command was looking in the wrong folder.
#echo off
setlocal ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
for /F "delims=" %%F in ('dir /b /a-d "%~f1\*.nc"') do (
for /F "tokens=1-8 delims=_" %%a in ("%%~nF") do (
ren "%~f1\%%~nF.nc" "%%a_%%b_%%c_%%d_%%e_%%g_%%f_%%h.nc"
)
)
set "corrected=%~1"
set "corrected=%corrected:/=\%"
Then use %corrected% in place of %1 AND quote the filename thus:
for %%F in ("%corrected%*.nc") do (
If %1 is always a directory-name, then add
if "%corrected:~-1%" neq "\" set "corrected=%corrected%\"
as a third set line before the for line.
The first set assigns the value of %1 to a variable corrected - the ~ removes any enclosing quotes.
The second set changes all strings matching that between the : and = into that between the = and % in the variable given and assigns to the first-mentioned variable (can be the same variable, as in this case)
The third set, if used, checks that the last character is \ and if it is not, appends a \.
The quoting of the filename-string allows there to be spaces in the path/filename and is harmless if there are no spaces.
To avoid attempting to rename a file twice, instead of
for %%F in ("%corrected%*.nc") do (
use
for /F "delims=" %%F in ('dir /b /a-d "%corrected%*.nc"') do (
This builds a list of filenames in memory, then processes that list.

Batch Script - Rename files, removing a variable prefix and suffix

I have several files in a folder with names like
"prefix (S-N 12RE3123) suffix.pdf"
I would like to rename them to just "12RE3123.pdf", removing the prefix and suffix. The issue is that both the prefix and suffix are of varying lengths/ characters, so I cannot just rename by removing the first/last xx characters, but have to use the only commonality where only the characters inside the parenthesis following "S-N" are those to be kept.
There is one special case where a few of the serial numbers are named as WD-12RE3123, and I need to remove the WD- as well. If I had to do it manually, there aren't a lot of them like that so it wouldn't be the end of the world, but having it automated would be nice. I thought of maybe doing an if statement after the removal of prefix/suffix to check if the first 3 characters match WD- then remove those if true, but I am not sure on the implementation.
I am still a novice in batch or vbscript, so I was wondering if this can be done in either of those. Batch has the method "REN" to rename files, but since the final name depends upon what the current name is I am not sure how to set up delimiters or how to approach this.
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Here is a simple solution for your request. It relies on the following facts:
the prefix portion does not contain any parenthesis ( or ) on its own (suffix might though);
the serial number does not contain any parentheses ( or ) on its own;
there are no duplicate serial numbers, also with respect to removal of potentional WD- strings;
This is the code (after having tested the code on the files in your target folder, you need to remove the upper-case ECHO command to actually rename the files):
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
rem Set constants here:
set "LOCATION=.\test"
set "PATTERN=*.pdf"
set STRINGS="S-N " "WD-"
cd /D "%LOCATION%"
for /F "eol=| delims=" %%K in ('dir /B "%PATTERN%"') do (
for /F "eol=| tokens=2 delims=()" %%L in ("%%~nK") do (
set "NAME=%%L"
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
for %%J in (%STRINGS%) do (
if "!NAME!"=="%%~J!NAME:*%%~J=!" (
set "NAME=!NAME:*%%~J=!"
)
)
ECHO ren "%%~fK" "!NAME!%%~xK"
endlocal
)
)
endlocal
exit /B
How it works:
the first section specifies the folder location, the file pattern and the strings to remove (after having extracted the portion within ()); adapt the values to your needs;
there are several nested for loops; the outermost one simply iterates all the files matching the given pattern (it basically reads and parses the output of a dir command applied on the given files and loops through the returned items; opposed to a standard for loop, this for /F method ensures that the entire folder is read before the loop starts iterating, which is necessary when modifying the enumerated folder content like we do here by renaming files; see also this thread about that issue);
the next for /F loop extracts the file name portion of interest, that is everything between the first pair of parenthesis, and stores it in variable NAME; this loop iterates once only per file;
the is another for loop which walks though all items in the STRINGS variable;
the if clause checks whether the current item of STRINGS occurs at the very beginning of the NAME value; if so, it is removed, otherwise not; this is just a safety query because perhaps a serial number might also contain a given STRINGS item in the middle or at the end (for instance, 123-WD-45A);
at this point, the renaming is performed (after having removed ECHO, of course);
the toggling of delayed expansion is intended to avoid trouble with some special characters in the file names;
And here is another script that uses a more complex method for extracting the interesting parts of the file names. It relies on the following facts:
there occurs only a single substring (S-NSPACE in the file name
the serial number is followed by a );
the serial number does not contain any parentheses ( or ) on its own;
there are no duplicate serial numbers, also with respect to removal of potentional WD- strings;
The code looks like this:
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
rem Set constants here:
set "LOCATION=.\test"
set "PATTERN=*.pdf"
set "FILTER=(S-N [^()][^()]*)"
set "IDENTIFYER=S-N "
set STRINGS="WD-"
cd /D "%LOCATION%"
for /F "eol=| delims=" %%K in ('
dir /B "%PATTERN%" ^| findstr /I /R /C:"%FILTER%"
') do (
set "NAME=%%K"
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set "NAME=!NAME:*(%IDENTIFYER%=!"
for /F "eol=| tokens=1 delims=)" %%L in ("!NAME!") do (
setlocal DisableDelayedExpansion
set "NAME=%%L"
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
for %%J in (%STRINGS%) do (
if "!NAME!"=="%%~J!NAME:*%%~J=!" (
set "NAME=!NAME:*%%~J=!"
)
)
ECHO ren "%%~fK" "!NAME!%%~xK"
endlocal
endlocal
)
endlocal
)
endlocal
exit /B
Basically, this script works similar to the above one, with a few deviations:
the first section specifies a file name filter and the serial number identifyer (S-N) in addition;
the dir command in the outermost for loop is piped into a findstr command to filter out files not containing (S-N and ) and a string (not containing (/)) in between already at the beginning;
the part (S-N and everything before is removed, the result is stored in NAME;
the next for /F loop extracts everything up to but not including the first ) from the NAME value, which constitutes the file name portion of interest; this loop iterates once only per file;
the is another for loop which walks though all items in the STRINGS variable, which does not contain the S-N portion here as this has already been removed before; the rest in this loop is the same as in the above script;
at this point, the renaming is performed (after having removed ECHO, of course);
#ECHO Off
SETLOCAL
SET "sourcedir=U:\sourcedir"
FOR /f "delims=" %%a IN (
'dir /b /a-d "%sourcedir%\*(*)*.*" '
) DO (
FOR /f "tokens=1,2delims=()" %%c IN ("%%a") DO (
FOR /f "tokens=1-3delims=- " %%m IN ("%%d") DO (
IF "%%o"=="" (ECHO(REN "%sourcedir%\%%a" "%%n%%~xa"
) ELSE (
ECHO(REN "%sourcedir%\%%a" "%%o%%~xa"
)
)
)
)
GOTO :EOF
You would need to change the setting of sourcedir to suit your circumstances.
The required REN commands are merely ECHOed for testing purposes. After you've verified that the commands are correct, change ECHO(REN to REN to actually rename the files.
Apply each filename matching the mask "()." to %%a
Tokenise using ( and ) as delimiters so that the parenthesised portion is in %%d
Re-tokenise using - and as delimiters so that the required number is in %%o for S-N patterns and %%n for WD- pattern.
Show the rename line.
Note: this should work provided the prefix portion does not contain parentheses and the parenthesised portion is exactly as described.
Magoo and aschipfl both provided good pure batch solutions.
I find development of custom batch scripts for every complex renaming task to be tedious, which is why I wrote JREN.BAT - a regex find/replace renaming utility. JREN.BAT is pure script (hybrid JScript/batch) that runs natively on any Windows machine from XP onward. Full documentation is available from the command line via jren /?, or use jren /?? for paged help.
With JREN.BAT, the solution is as simple as (untested):
jren "^.*\((?:S-N (?:WD-)?)(.+?)\).*" "$1.jpg" /fm *.jpg
If I got the regex wrong, it can easily be fixed. You should probably add the /T option to run the command in test mode first, and then remove it when everything looks good.
If you put the command in a batch script, then you must use CALL JREN.

Windows batch file: get last folder name from path

I'm trying to rename .jpg files which is in one of many subdirectories of e:\study\pubpmc\test\extracted.
I want to rename files to LastFolderName_ImageName.jpg.
(For example if Figure1.jpg is in e:\study\pubpmc\test\extracted\folder1
I want it to be renamed like this: folder1_Figure1.jpg)
So I need to take out the last folder name from the file's path.
Since it's my first time with batch scripting, I'm having a hard time.
I googled and made code similar to it
but it doesn't seem to work out.
Can you help me with it and tell me where I've done wrong?
Thank you! :)
#echo off
cd /D "e:\study\pubpmc\test\extracted"
for /r %%f in (*.jpg) do (
set mydir=%%~dpf
set mydir=%mydir:\=;%
for /f "tokens=* delims=;" %%i in (%mydir%) do call :LAST_FOLDER %%i
goto :EOF
:LAST_FOLDER
if "%1"=="" (
#echo %LAST%
goto :EOF
)
set LAST=%1
SHIFT
goto :LAST_FOLDER
)
JosefZ explains the obvious problems with your code, but he failed to point out a subtle problem, though his code fixed it:
FOR /R (as well as the simple FOR) begin iterating immediately, before it has finished scanning the disk drive. It is possible for the loop to reiterate the already named file! This would cause it to be renamed twice, giving the wrong result. The solution is to use FOR /F with command 'DIR /B', because FOR /F always processes the command to completion before iterating.
JosefZ also provides code that works for most situations. But there is a much simpler solution that works always:
#echo off
for /f "delims=" %%A in (
'dir /b /s /a-d "e:\study\pubpmc\test\extracted\*.jpg"'
) do for %%B in ("%%A\..") do ren "%%A" "%%~nxB_%%~nxA"
The "%%A\.." treats the file name as a folder and walks up to the parent folder. So %%~nxB gives the name of the parent folder.
The command could be run as a long one liner, directly from the command line (no batch):
for /f "delims=" %A in ('dir /b /s /a-d "e:\study\pubpmc\test\extracted\*.jpg"') do #for %B in ("%A\..") do #ren "%A" "%~nxB_%~nxA"
Avoid using :label and :: label-like comment inside (command block in parentheses). Using any of them within parentheses - including FOR and IF commands - will break their context.
Using variables inside (command block in parentheses). Read EnableDelayedExpansion: Delayed Expansion will cause variables to be expanded at execution time rather than at parse time [and CLI parses all the (command block in parentheses) at once]
Next script should work for you. Note rename statement is merely echoed for debugging purposes.
#ECHO OFF >NUL
SETLOCAL enableextensions disabledelayedexpansion
set "fromFolder=e:\study\pubpmc\test\extracted"
rem my debug setting set "fromFolder=D:\path"
for /F "tokens=*" %%f in ('dir /B /S /A:D "%fromFolder%\*.*"') do (
set "mydir=%%~ff"
set "last=%%~nxf"
call :renameJPG
)
#ENDLOCAL
goto :eof
:renameJPG
rem echo "%mydir%" "%last%"
for /f "tokens=*" %%i in ('dir /B /A:-D "%mydir%\*.jpg" 2^>nul') do (
echo ren "%mydir%\%%~nxi" "%last%_%%~nxi"
)
goto :eof
Resources:
SETLOCAL, disableDelayedExpansion, ENDLOCAL etc.
An A-Z Index of the Windows CMD command line
Windows CMD Shell Command Line Syntax
I already wrote a function for that. You give it any path and it returns you only it's filename or pathname. Works for any path: Url, Windows path, Linux path, etc...
Copy this function at the end of your batch script: (Instructions below)
rem ===========================================================================
:Name_From_Path
SetLocal
set _TMP_FOLDERNAME=%1
for %%g in ("%_TMP_FOLDERNAME%") do set _TMP_FOLDERNAME=%%~nxg
EndLocal & set _Name_From_Path=%_TMP_FOLDERNAME%
goto :EOF
rem ===========================================================================
Usage:
CALL :Name_Of_Path e:\study\pubpmc\test\extracted\folder1
ECHO %_Name_From_Path%
Result: folder1
If your program or com file traverses these folders when renaming, then it should be able to get the present working directory ( path ), pwd. You may be able to chop everything but the LAST_FOLDER out of this by also creating a PREVIOUS_FOLDER and doing a string replacement.
Or you may be able to break the folder names at the '\' token from the pwd into an array and use a -1 array reference to get the last folder name.
In any circumstance you'll want to check for a present working directory command.
If your creating a large text list of all these and issuing a single call to the batch file.
Then you may be better off with something like:
(Symmantic code warning )
(copy) /folderbase/some_folder/oneormore1/image_from_oneormore1.jpg (to) /folderbase/some_folder/oneormore1/oneormore1_image_from_oneormore1.jpg
Instead of copy, window uses rename, linux uses mv.
The latter example would require simply creating a duplicate list and replacing the \ with a _ while parsing through the tokens.
The code you've given is difficult to make sense of, so its hard to discern if you can simple concatenate the current folder and image name (stringify) and then write or rename them where they are.

Batch Script assistance needed

Happy Friday Think-Tank!
I need some assistance with a Batch .BAT script. Specifically I need help with some "IF statement syntax"
I have a script that is renaming files. There are two files, one ending in four digits and the other ending in five digits. The files will be renamed with variables I have already pre-set earlier within my script.
So here is a scenario: We have two files in a directory located at
c:\Users\username\Desktop\test-dir
There are two files within test-dir:
file1.12345
file2.1234
A four digit ending is one variable type (VAR1), whereas a file ending in five digits is another variable type (VAR2).
I need an if statement to:
a) read all the files(s) with the chosen directory (without using a wildcard if possible).
b) determine based on the number of digits after the "." which variable to use.
c) once making that determination rename the file with the appropriate variables.
The final re-naming convention is as so: yyyymmddtype.1234/12345
So basically it would use the datestamp variable I already created, the type variable I already created to be injected by the if statement, and append with the original ending digits of the file.
I know this seems like a lot, but I am more so a bash script guy. I have all the elements in place, I just need the if statement and what feels like a for loop of some kind to tie it all together.
Any help would be great!
Thank you!
Sorry, not the option you where asking for. Instead of iterating over the full list checking each file for extension conformance, iterate over a list of patterns that will filter file list, renaming matching files with the asociated "type"
for %%v will iterate over variable list, for %%a will split the content of the variable in pattern and type, for %%f will generate the file list, filter with findstr using the retrieved pattern and rename matching files with the corresponding "type"
Rename command is preceded with a echo to output commands to console. If the output is correct, remove the echo to rename the files.
#echo off
rem Variables defined elsewhere
set "folder=c:\somewhere"
set "timestamp=yyyymmdd"
rem Rename pattern variables in the form pattern;type
set "var1=\.....$;type1"
set "var2=\......$;type2"
set "var1=\.[^.][^.][^.][^.]$;type1"
set "var2=\.[^.][^.][^.][^.][^.]$;type2"
setlocal enableextensions disabledelayedexpansion
for %%v in ("%var1%" "%var2%") do for /f "tokens=1,* delims=;" %%a in ("%%~v") do (
for /f "tokens=*" %%f in ('dir /a-d /b "%folder%" ^| findstr /r /c:"%%~a"') do (
echo ren "%folder%\%%~f" "%timestamp%%%~b%%~xf"
)
)
endlocal
#ECHO OFF &SETLOCAL
set "yyyymmdd=yyyymmdd"
set "VAR1=VAR1"
set "VAR2=VAR2"
for /f "delims=" %%a in ('dir /b /a-d^|findstr /re ".*\....."') do echo(ren "%%~a" "%yyyymmdd%%VAR1%%%~xa"
for /f "delims=" %%a in ('dir /b /a-d^|findstr /re ".*\......"') do echo(ren "%%~a" "%yyyymmdd%%VAR2%%%~xa"
remove echo( to get it working.
If I understand you then this will rename the two files using preset variables for each one:
for %%a in ("%userprofile%\Desktop\test-dir\*") do (
if "%%~xa"==".12345" ren "%%a" "%variableA%-%variableB%%%~xa"
) else (
ren "%%a" "%variableC%-%variableD%%%~xa"
)
)

Resources