I'm trying to pass through caret chars through batch.
Escaping them once would be easy, but I need to do it twice.
I have an executable that will back up tables based on a Regex expression (not my code).
I want to back up all tables with an exclusion list.
Using ^(?!tableName$).* works for a single table.
Batch File 1 (called from command line)
SET ignoreTables=tableName
:: Call the backup script
CALL SecondBatch.bat %ignoreTables%
Batch File 2
:: Passthrough ignoreTables
Executable.exe --ignoreTablesPattern="^(?!%1$).*"
But I'd like to ignore multiple tables. In Regex this means using the | (pipe) character eg; tableOne|tableTwo would require;
SET ignoreTables=tableOne^|tableTwo
Which is correct at the SET but not when passed to the CALL
The correct output that works from the command line is;
Executable.exe --ignoreTablesPattern="^(?!tableOne|tableTwo$).*"
How can I get this result out of the batch file?
In batch file 1 use:
SET "ignoreTables=tableOne|tableTwo"
:: Call the backup script
CALL SecondBatch.bat "%ignoreTables%"
And in batch file 2 use:
:: Passthrough ignoreTables
Executable.exe --ignoreTablesPattern="^(?!%~1).*$"
Run in a command prompt window cmd /? and read the output help pages, especially the last paragraph on last help page which is about when surrounding a directory/file name or parameter string with double quotes is required.
The first line of batch file 1 contains the command SET with the parameter string variable=value. By enclosing this parameter string in double quotes the pipe character is not interpreted anymore as operator. For more details about using double quotes on assigning a string to an environment variable see answer on Why is no string output with 'echo %var%' after using 'set var = text' on command line?
The value of the environment variable is passed next expanded as first parameter to batch file 2. Again surrounding double quotes are needed to pass the string containing | as literal string to the second batch file.
In the second batch file it is necessary to reference the first argument without surrounding quotes. Therefore %~1 is used now instead of %1 as explained in help of command CALL output on running in a command prompt window call /?.
BTW: I'm quite sure $ should be at end of the regular expression and not inside the negative lookahead.
Related
I am writing a bat file to automate the process of the below Codeception command.
php vendor/bin/codecept run tests/acceptance/SigninCest.php:^anonymousLogin$
The problem is that I cannot output the ^ character for example:
set functionNamePrefix=^^
set output=php vendor/bin/codecept run tests/acceptance/SigninCest.php:
set functionName=anonymousLogin
set functionNamePostFix=$
set command=%output%%functionNamePrefix%%functionName%%functionNamePostFix%
the $ symbol is correctly displayed but the ^ is not.
Any advice?
Thanks
Enclose the variable in quotes:
set "functionNamePrefix=^^"
Now the variable %functionNamePrefix% will contain ^.
Special characters such as the %|^ are seen as operators to cmd.
When you set functionNamePrefix=^^ and try to echo it, you effectively allow cmd to utilize the special character. Therefore, echo %functionNamePrefix% will give the more prompt, as cmd is expecting the next input line because of the ^.
When however you double quote a string, you are excluding the character in the current cmd run. It is however also recommended to double quote strings when using set to ensure you eliminate unwanted whitespace. For instance:
set var=value
Note the accidental space after value, this space will form part of the value as long as it exists, so enclose everything in double quotes to play safe and to ensure the special characters are not becoming functions in the current batch run.
set "functionNamePrefix=^^"
set "output=php vendor/bin/codecept run tests/acceptance/SigninCest.php:"
set "functionName=anonymousLogin"
set "functionNamePostFix=$"
set "command=%output%%functionNamePrefix%%functionName%%functionNamePostFix%"
I was making a batch file to take dragged-and-dropped folders for program input. Everything was working fine until I passed a folder, which for the sake of this post, called foo&bar.
Checking what %1 contained inside the batch file looked like C:\path\to\foo or C:\path\to\foo\foo. If the file path were in quotes it would work, so the only working code that slightly takes this into effect is :
set arg1=%1
cd %arg1%*
set arg1="%CD%"
Which changes directory to the passed argument using wildcards. However this only works once for if there is another folder with un-escaped characters inside the parent folder, passing the child folder would result in the parent folders' value.
I tried the answer of this post, which suggests to output the argument using a remark and redirection statement during an #echo on sequence. However no progress occurred in rectifying the problem. Any suggestions?
To recap, I am looking for ways to pass folders with un-escaped characters as arguments to a batch file. The implementation should preferably be in a batch file, but answers using VBScript are welcome. However the starting program must be in batch as this is the only program of the 3 that accepts files as arguments.
To test this, create a batch file with following code:
#echo off
set "arg1=%~1"
echo "the passed path was %arg1%"
pause
Then create folders called foobar and foo&bar. Drag them onto the batch file to see their output. foo&bar will only return C:\path\to\foo.
OK, so the problem is that Explorer is passing this as the command line to cmd.exe:
C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe /c ""C:\path\test.bat" C:\path\foo&bar"
The outermost quotes get stripped, and the command becomes
"C:\working\so46635563\test.bat" C:\path\foo&bar
which cmd.exe interprets similarly to
("C:\working\so46635563\test.bat" C:\path\foo) & bar
i.e., bar is considered to be a separate command, to be run after the batch file.
The best solution would be to drag-and-drop not directly onto the batch file but onto, say, a vbscript or a Powershell script or a plain old executable. That script could then run the batch file, either quoting the argument appropriately or putting the directory path into an environment variable rather than on the command line.
Alternatively, you can retrieve the original command string from %CMDCMDLINE% like this:
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set "dirname=!CMDCMDLINE!"
set "dirname=%dirname:&=?%"
set "dirname=%dirname:" =*%"
set "dirname=%dirname:"=*%"
set "dirname=%dirname: =/%"
for /F "tokens=3 delims=*" %%i in ("%dirname%") do set dirname=%%i
set "dirname=%dirname:/= %"
set "dirname=%dirname:?=&%"
set dirname
pause
exit
Note the exit at the end; that is necessary so that cmd.exe doesn't try to run bar when it reaches the end of the script. Otherwise, if the part of the directory name after the & happens to be a valid command, it could cause trouble.
NB: I'm not sure how robust this script is.
I've tested it with the most obvious combinations, but YMMV. [It might be more sensible to use delayed expansion exclusively, I'm not sure. It doesn't seem to be necessary except in the first set command. Jeb's answer here might be a better choice if you're going this route.]
For the curious, the script works like this:
Load the original command line into dirname [necessary for the reason pointed out by jeb]
Replace all the & characters with ?
Replace all the quote marks with *
If a quote mark is followed by a space, suppress the space.
NB: it is necessary to suppress the space to deal with both the case where the path contains a space (in which case Explorer adds quote marks around it) and the case where it doesn't.
Replace all remaining spaces with /
NB: ? * and / are illegal in file names, so these replacements are safe.
At this point the string looks like this:
C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe//c/**C:\path\test.bat**C:\path\foo?bar**
So we just need to pull out the third asterisk-delimited element, turn any forward slashes back into spaces and any question marks back into ampersands, and we're done. Phew!
I need to run a command in a DOS batch file that contains a double colon AND set the output to a variable. Like this
set /a TDR = C:\InCharge\CONSOLE\smarts\bin\dmctl -s SSA-SAM invoke SM_System::SM-System nameToAddr %SM_OBJ_InstanceName%
I keep getting "Missing operator". I assume that is due to those double-colons. How do I escape these? I tried back-slashes but that didn't work. I've tried putting the whole command in double-quotes and that also didn't work.
I can run the command by itself, ie without the "set /a TDR" and the output is correct. But I need to use that output as the value of a variable hence the "set /a"
Normal output for dmctl is this
{ "10.28.112.74" }
I am using dmctl to get the ip address for the hostname. I figured once I got the output I could strip off the brackets and quotations, but I haven't figured out how to grab the output.
Thank you in advance.
Colons do not need to be escaped. See Batch files - Escape Characters for details on what characters need to be escaped, and how to escape them.
"Missing operator" is being returned because SET /A only works with arithmetic operations, so it is looking for an arithmetic operator.
To assign the output of a command to a variable, you have to use the FOR command, similar to the following:
for /f "delims=" %%i in ('C:\InCharge\CONSOLE\smarts\bin\dmctl -s SSA-SAM invoke SM_System::SM-System nameToAddr %SM_OBJ_InstanceName%') do set myresult=%%i
See Reading the output of a command into a batch file variable
To trim 3 characters from the beginning and end of a string:
set mystring=%mystring:~3,-3%
This will remove the curly braces, spaces, and quotation marks that delimit the IP address in the output.
I found this at DOS - String Manipulation.
So I'm having trouble passing an argument with a period to a batch script file.
./myScript.bat 23.97
In my script, if I do
arg1 = %1
echo %arg1%
This will display 23.97 but if I do a comparison
arg1 = %1
if "%arg1%" == "23.97"
echo %arg1%
then it doesn't display at the argument at all. Fyi, i'm not trying to treat it at a float number, just a normal string. I'm no sure why it doesn't work, any help is appreciated. Thank you.
You can, in fact, have a dot (.) passed to a batch file as an argument. The section of your code that is causing you issue is the syntax that you use when setting the variable and using the if statement.
The correct syntax for setting a variable , as described by executing help set on the command line, is
Displays, sets, or removes cmd.exe environment variables.
SET [variable=[string]]
variable Specifies the environment-variable name.
string Specifies a series of characters to assign to the variable.
With this in mind, the correct way to set arg1 to the first argument passed to your batch file is
set arg1=%1
Your issue with the if statement is that you are trying to add a new line after the Boolean expression and before the next statement. The correct syntax is described by help if as
Performs conditional processing in batch programs.
IF [NOT] ERRORLEVEL number command
IF [NOT] string1==string2 command
IF [NOT] EXIST filename command
Your if statement could be reveised to read like this:
if "%arg1%"=="29.37" echo arg1
I want to invoke a batch file(tomcat's startup.bat) by passing a command line argument something like c:>startup.bat -Dsun.lang.ClassLoader.allowArraySyntax=true
But the "=" symbol is being replaced with a space.
If I put c:>startup.bat -D"sun.lang.ClassLoader.allowArraySyntax=true" the value was not set properly.
I am using Windows 7.
Is there anyway to pass command line arguments containing "="?
Thanks,
Siva
You can't do much about it inside the batch file, except change %1 to %1=%2, which only works if you know exactly how many parameters you're passing in, or you know they will always come in pairs. (I suppose you could loop and put together all of the -Dxxx parameters with the next parameter, and put those without a leading -D, but if you have other =-style parameters it can get really messy.)
But you can do something outside the batch file, by putting your parameter in quotes:
startup "-Dsun.lang.ClassLoader.allowArraySyntax=true"
You can use %* for all parameters.
In your batch
#echo off
javac %*
Or you can enquote your complete parameter
startup.bat "-Dsun.lang.ClassLoader.allowArraySyntax=true"
And startup.bat looks like (the %~1 removes surrounding quotes from %1)
#echo off
javac %~1