Say I have the following batch script:
For ... DO (
SET VAL=%%B
IF defined VAL echo %%A=%%B >> %OUTPUT_FILEPATH%
)
How could I get the echo to output using Unix (just line feed) line endings?
Alternatively, could I write the file as-is then convert it from the batch script afterwards? (some kind of find /r/n and replace with /n? If so, how would I do that?)
I'd like a self-contained solution (i.e. one that doesn't involve downloading extra utilities, and can be done from within the batch script itself [Windows 7]).
The suitable way to perform this conversion is not via a Batch file, but using another programming language, like JScript; this way, the conversion process is fast and reliable. However, you don't need a hundreds lines program in order to achieve a replacement as simple as this one. The two-lines Batch file below do this conversion:
#set #a=0 /* & cscript //nologo //E:JScript "%~F0" < input.txt > output.txt & goto :EOF */
WScript.Stdout.Write(WScript.Stdin.ReadAll().replace(/\r\n/g,"\n"));
EDIT: I added a modification to the original code that allows to include more commands in the Batch part in the standard way.
#set #a=0 /*
#echo off
set "OUTPUT_FILEPATH=C:\Path\Of\The\File.txt"
cscript //nologo //E:JScript "%~F0" < "%OUTPUT_FILEPATH%" > output.txt
move /Y output.txt "%OUTPUT_FILEPATH%"
goto :EOF */
WScript.Stdout.Write(WScript.Stdin.ReadAll().replace(/\r\n/g,"\n"));
The first line is a trick that hide the cscript command from the JScript code, so the compilation of this hybrid .BAT file don't issue errors.
In the JScript code: WScript.Stdin.ReadAll() read the whole redirected input file; this may cause problems if the file is huge. The replace method use a regex to identify the text to replace and put in its place the second string; you may read a further description of this topic at this link. The WScript.Stdout.Write just take the output from replace and send it to the screen. Easy! Isn't it? ;-)
If you are OK with using PowerShell, you can produce a Unix newline like this:
PowerShell -Command Write-Host
You can combine this with the SET /P trick to output text without newlines and add newlines manually. For example:
( ECHO | SET /P="Hello World!" & PowerShell -Command Write-Host ) > output.txt
After this, output.txt will contain the text Hello World! with a single 0x0a character appended.
Taken from Macros with parameters appended:
Formatting is tricky, but try
set ^"LF=^
^" Don't remove previous line & rem line feed (newline)
set ^"\n=^^^%LF%%LF%^%LF%%LF%^^"& rem Define newline with line continuation
For ... DO (
SET VAL=%%B
IF defined VAL <nul set/P^=%%A=%%B%\n%>> %OUTPUT_FILEPATH%
)
Or, to avoid the leading space after first line:
<nul set/P^=%%A=%%B%\n%^>> %OUTPUT_FILEPATH%
Related
I am trying to use the tee code written for a bat file but am having trouble implementing it in my code. I don't want to use any third party installs to solve the tee problem as I want the code to work if I format my computer in a year and want to run the program again.
I have it setup in this fashion:
mycommand.exe | tee.bat -a output.txt
I've tried with a seperate .bat file and tried including as a function (preffered) in the original .bat to no avail with:
myprogram.exe | call tee -a output.txt
echo.
echo.
echo.
SET /P restart="Do you want to run again? (1=yes, 2=no): "
if "%restart%"=="1" GOTO LoopStart
::--------------------------------------------------------
::-- Function section starts below here
::--------------------------------------------------------
:tee
:: Check Windows version
IF NOT "%OS%"=="Windows_NT" GOTO Syntax
|
:: Keep variables local
SETLOCAL
:: Check command line arguments
SET Append=0
IF /I [%1]==[-a] (
SET Append=1
SHIFT
)
IF [%1]==[] GOTO Syntax
IF NOT [%2]==[] GOTO Syntax
:: Test for invalid wildcards
SET Counter=0
FOR /F %%A IN ('DIR /A /B %1 2^>NUL') DO CALL :Count "%%~fA"
IF %Counter% GTR 1 (
SET Counter=
GOTO Syntax
)
:: A valid filename seems to have been specified
SET File=%1
:: Check if a directory with the specified name exists
DIR /AD %File% >NUL 2>NUL
IF NOT ERRORLEVEL 1 (
SET File=
GOTO Syntax
)
:: Specify /Y switch for Windows 2000 / XP COPY command
SET Y=
VER | FIND "Windows NT" > NUL
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 SET Y=/Y
:: Flush existing file or create new one if -a wasn't specified
IF %Append%==0 (COPY %Y% NUL %File% > NUL 2>&1)
:: Actual TEE
FOR /F "tokens=1* delims=]" %%A IN ('FIND /N /V ""') DO (
> CON ECHO.%%B
>> %File% ECHO.%%B
)
:: Done
ENDLOCAL
GOTO:EOF
:Count
SET /A Counter += 1
SET File=%1
GOTO:EOF
:Syntax
ECHO.
ECHO Tee.bat, Version 2.11a for Windows NT 4 / 2000 / XP
ECHO Display text on screen and redirect it to a file simultaneously
ECHO.
IF NOT "%OS%"=="Windows_NT" ECHO Usage: some_command ¦ TEE.BAT [ -a ] filename
IF NOT "%OS%"=="Windows_NT" GOTO Skip
ECHO Usage: some_command ^| TEE.BAT [ -a ] filename
:Skip
ECHO.
ECHO Where: "some_command" is the command whose output should be redirected
ECHO "filename" is the file the output should be redirected to
ECHO -a appends the output of the command to the file,
ECHO rather than overwriting the file
ECHO.
ECHO Written by Rob van der Woude
ECHO http://www.robvanderwoude.com
ECHO Modified by Kees Couprie
ECHO http://kees.couprie.org
ECHO and Andrew Cameron
I am trying to split the output so I can save the console output to a file while still being able to interact with the program that is running.
How can I get the Tee command to work properly with my .bat so I can split the output to both a file and the console.
Your attempt to call a batch function within a pipe will always fail because of how Windows pipes work - Windows instantiates both sides of the pipe via new CMD shells. See https://stackoverflow.com/a/8194279/1012053 for more info.
That Rob van der Woude version of a batch tee cannot possibly work for you because it uses a FOR /F to read the results of a command - the command must execute to completion before any lines are read. That won't work if you need user interaction during the execution of the command. With that version of tee you might as well simply redirect output to a file and then TYPE the file when finished. Obviously not what you want.
There are pure batch tricks that can get you closer, but I think there is still one problem that can't be solved with pure batch. Your executable may put a prompt on a line without issuing a new line. I believe pure native batch always reads entire lines (except when at end of stream). I'm not aware of a batch method to read character by character.
Slight correction - SET /P can read partial lines of piped input, but it has limitations that prevent it from being used for a robust batch tee solution: There is no way to know for sure when each line ends. It is limited to 1021 characters per "line". It strips control characters from the end of each "line". There is no way to tell when it has reached the end of the input stream.
But there is a simple solution - JScript or VBScript works like a champ, and doesn't require any special installs. Here is a hybrid JScript/batch script that should work for you. The JScript is poorly written with lots of room for improvement. For example, there is no error checking.
I save the script as tee.bat. The first required argument specifies the name of the file to write to. By default, the file is over-written if it already exists. If a second argument is provided (value doesn't matter), then the output is appended to the file instead.
#if (#X)==(#Y) #end /* Harmless hybrid line that begins a JScript comment
::--- Batch section within JScript comment that calls the internal JScript ----
#echo off
cscript //E:JScript //nologo "%~f0" %*
exit /b
----- End of JScript comment, beginning of normal JScript ------------------*/
var fso = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");
var mode=2;
if (WScript.Arguments.Count()==2) {mode=8;}
var out = fso.OpenTextFile(WScript.Arguments(0),mode,true);
var chr;
while( !WScript.StdIn.AtEndOfStream ) {
chr=WScript.StdIn.Read(1);
WScript.StdOut.Write(chr);
out.Write(chr);
}
Usage is pretty much like you would expect.
command.exe | tee.bat output.txt 1
The last 1 argument forces append mode. It could be any value besides 1
It is possible to put everything in one batch script as you seem to prefer.
#if (#X)==(#Y) #end /* Harmless hybrid line that begins a JScript comment
::--- Batch section within JScript comment ----------------------------
#echo off
::This block of code handles the TEE by calling the internal JScript code
if "%~1"=="_TEE_" (
cscript //E:JScript //nologo "%~f0" %2 %3
exit /b
)
::The rest of your batch script goes here
::This pipes to TEE in append mode
mycommand.exe | "%~f0" _TEE_ output.txt 1
exit /b
----- End of JScript comment, beginning of normal JScript ------------------*/
var fso = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");
var mode=2;
if (WScript.Arguments.Count()==2) {mode=8;}
var out = fso.OpenTextFile(WScript.Arguments(0),mode,true);
var chr;
while( !WScript.StdIn.AtEndOfStream ) {
chr=WScript.StdIn.Read(1);
WScript.StdOut.Write(chr);
out.Write(chr);
}
Update
For anyone with an academic interest in batch scripting, I've posted a pure native batch version of tee at Asynchronous native batch tee script over at DosTips. But this hybrid approach is my preferred scripting solution.
Okay I have several lines in a text file. I want to get the first line and save it in another file. For example this is the text file:
put returns between paragraphs
for linebreak add 2 spaces at end
for linebreak add 2 spaces at end2
for linebreak add 2 spaces at end3
I want put returns between paragraphs to be saved into another file.
I used
for /f "tokens=" %%A in ('findstr /r "^[0-9][0-9]*$" <"C:\Users\Sherlock\Desktop\AbcImport\123.txt"') do echo 123>>1234.txt
pause
But it doesn't work at all.
How to get just the first line of a text file written into a new text file using a batch file?
Option 1 - SET /P : This is the simplest and fastest pure batch solution, provided the line does not exceed 1021 bytes, and it does not end with control characters that must be preserved. The size of the file does not matter - it will always read and write the first line very quickly.
#echo off
setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
set "ln="
<"input.txt" set /p "ln="
>"output.txt" (echo(!ln!)
Option 2 - FOR /F : This will work with lines up to ~8191 bytes long, but it can be slow if the file is really large because the FOR /F loop must read the entire file before it processes the first line. This solution is basically the same as the Mofi answer, except it disables the EOL option, so it never ignores the first line, regardless what the first character is. It does have a limitation that it will skip empty lines, so technically it does not give the correct result if the first line is empty:
#echo off
for /f usebackq^ delims^=^ eol^= %%A in ("input.txt") do echo(%%A>"output.txt"&goto :break
:break
There is a way to preserve the first line if it is empty using pure batch, but I would not bother. I would move on to ...
Option 3 - JREPL.BAT, or some other non-batch solution : Batch is quite poor at manipulating text files. You are much better off using some other scripting language like VBScript, JScript, or Powershell. Or a Windows port of any number of unix utilities.
I would use JREPL.BAT - a hybrid JScrpit/batch regular expression text processing utility that runs natively on any Windows machine from XP onward. It is way overkill for such a simple task, but it is an extremely handy, powerful, and efficient tool to have in your arsenal. Once you have it, then it can be used for many text processing tasks. Full documentation is embedded within the script.
jrepl "^.*" "$&" /jendln "quit=true" /f "input.txt" /o "output.txt"
Use CALL JREPL if you put the command within a batch script.
Here is the batch code to write just first non blank/empty line of a text file into another text file.
#echo off
for /F "usebackq delims=" %%I in ("InputTextFile.txt") do (
echo %%I>"OutputTextFile.txt"
goto ContinueAfterLoop
)
:ContinueAfterLoop
InputTextFile.txt is the file in current directory containing the first line to copy.
OutputTextFile.txt is the file created in current directory with first line from input file copied into this output file.
The command GOTO is used to exit the loop after first line is processed and continue the batch file below the loop.
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 /?
goto /?
Read also the Microsoft article about Using Command Redirection Operators.
You can use use this command:
SetLocal EnableDelayedExpansion
for /f "tokens=* delims=;" %%m in ("C:\Users\Sherlock\Desktop\AbcImport\123.txt") do (
set /p FirstLine=<%%m
echo !FirstLine!>>1234.txt
)
and for multiple file:
SetLocal EnableDelayedExpansion
for %%a in ("*") do (
for /f "tokens=* delims=;" %%m in ("%%a") do (
set /p FirstLine=<%%m
echo !FirstLine!>>1234.txt
)
)
rem Get the first line of a text file:
set /P "line=" < "C:\Users\Sherlock\Desktop\AbcImport\123.txt"
rem Write it into a new text file:
echo %line%> 1234.txt
I would like to create a logfile with this information :
echo %time%;%date%;%computername%;"findstr /I "%%a" %MYFILES%\Dir_ALL.txt" >> %computername%_File.csv
How can I write something that will not write "findstr /I ..." but the output of this command ?
I would like to have everything in the same line on my output file.
Thank you
write a line without linefeed with set /p, followed by the second line:
<nul set /p .=%time%;%date%;%computername%;>>%computername%_File.csv
findstr /I "%%a" %MYFILES%\Dir_ALL.txt>>%computername%_File.csv
Note: Because of the %%a I guess, you are using this codefragment inside a forstatement. I suggest using !time! instead of %time% to get the actual time (using delayed expansion of course)
You have to set a variable with the command result. This is answered in Windows Batch help in setting a variable from command output, using a dummy for-loop whose loop variable is set from the content of a file.
That would be something like this:
findstr /I "%%a" %MYFILES%\Dir_ALL.txt >%temp%\temp.txt
for /f %%i in (%temp%\temp.txt) do echo %time%;%date%;%computername%;%%i >> %computername%_File.csv
del %temp%\temp.txt
There is a limitation on this: the variable cannot contain multiple lines. However, rephrasing your script fragment as a loop would probably solve that issue as well.
The MSDN article on set shows some additional features which you can use to control how the data from the file is parsed. Normally it parses the result into tokens separated by spaces. But you can override that using the delims keyword.
Input redirection is working for .exe files or internal windows commands.
app.exe < ListOfNames.txt
sort < input.txt
However it isn't working when I try to redirect it into a batch script.
test.bat :-
#echo off
echo %1 %2
Running it using :-
test.bat<input.txt
where input.txt has two strings.
However, it is working fine for redirecting output even in case of batch scripts.
Is this the expected behavior or I am making some syntax mistake? Is there any other way to read arguments from a file instead of manually parsing it?
Parameters that are provided on the command line are completely different than stdin ( where your redirected input goes). This is true for both batch scripts as well as .exe programs.
Some programs are designed to accept the same values via command line arguments or stdin. But that is not the norm. That is a feature that is provided by the developer of the program.
If you want to read redirected input within a batch script, then you must do one of the following.
To read a single line:
set /p "ln="
echo %ln%
To read all lines in a loop:
for /f "delims=" %%A in ('findstr "^"') do (
echo %%A
)
Additionally to dbenhams answer, you could also read multiple lines with set/p for a input redirection, like myBatch.bat < commands.txt
#echo off
set "line_1="
set "line_2="
set "line_3="
set /p line_1=
set /p line_2=
set /p line_3=
set line_
But this would fail with an input pipe like type commands.txt | myBatch.bat
I'm trying to use a batch file to create another batch file... it's a file I have to use quite often with a few variables changed each time. I'm running into an issue because in the batch I'm trying to create, it is also using echo to write to a .txt file.
Here is the command:
echo echo %date% - %time% >> C:\MOVEit\Logs\FileGrabberLog.txt >> C:\filegrabber_%org%.bat
I want to enter the whole string echo %date% - %time% >> C:\MOVEit\Logs\FileGrabberLog.txt into C:\filegrabber_%org%.bat.
I can put "" around it but then they appear in the batch I'm trying to create.
Anyone know of a way around this?
You escape % with %% and other special characters with ^ so this should work;
echo echo %%date%% - %%time%% ^>^> C:\MOVEit\Logs\FileGrabberLog.txt >> C:\filegrabber_%org%.bat
Or to avoid the carets you can use disappearing quotes
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
(
echo !="!echo %%date%% - %%time%% >> C:\MOVEit\Logs\FileGrabberLog.txt
) > C:\filegrabber_%org%.bat
Only the percents have to be doubled then.
It works, as the !="! is parsed in the special character phase, and it is decided, that the rest of the line will be quoted.
And in the delayed phase the !="! will be removed, as the variable with the name =" does not exist (and it can't be created).
The following answer might be beneficial to your question:
This was posted earlier and the answer was given, similar to what was given here:
Ignore Percent Sign in Batch File