Novice Batch Issue- Creating Files - batch-file

I was working on developing a batch program that would scan various sections of a PC, and log them to a file. Surprisingly, I was unable to have the program create the file to write to. I then tried to create a file, that I was fairly certain would work; it is as followed:
#echo off
ipconfig > ip.txt
timeout 5
However, this was also unable to write to the file ip.txt. I also attempted the following program, with no success.
#echo off
echo Test > test.txt
timeout 3
If anyone would be able to give advice, I would much appreciate it.
No error messages are present, and clicking the link batch file
Issue Resolved, downgraded to Win7 from Win10 and no longer experiencing the issue. Not a great fix.

ipconfig > %userprofile%\desktop\ip.txt
Use full paths. This specifies your desktop as the place to put the file.
See Set /? for help and type set to see standard variables.
& seperates commands on a line.
&& executes this command only if previous command's errorlevel is 0.
|| (not used above) executes this command only if previous command's =
errorlevel is NOT 0
> output to a file
>> append output to a file
< input from a file
| output of one command into the input of another command
^ escapes any of the above, including itself, if needed to be passed =
to a program
" parameters with spaces must be enclosed in quotes
+ used with copy to concatinate files. E.G. copy file1+file2 newfile
, used with copy to indicate missing parameters. This updates the files =
modified date. E.G. copy /b file1,,
%variablename% a inbuilt or user set environmental variable
!variablename! a user set environmental variable expanded at execution =
time, turned with SelLocal EnableDelayedExpansion command
%<number> (%1) the nth command line parameter passed to a batch file. %0 =
is the batchfile's name.
%* (%*) the entire command line.
%<a letter> or %%<a letter> (%A or %%A) the variable in a for loop. =
Single % sign at command prompt and double % sign in a batch file.

Related

how to make batch file handle spaces in file names

I have the following batch file to make git diff invoke spreadsheet compare UI in windows. So I'm trying to pass the git diff's 2nd (old file) and 5th (new file) arguments to spreadsheet compare in order to make it compare the file using git diff.
So now, this batch file only successfully handles files with NO spaces in the file names, it CANNOT handle files with spaces in the file names.
What code should I add to this script to make this batch code handles file with spaces:
#ECHO OFF
set path2=%5
set path2=%path2:/=\%
ECHO %2 > tmp.txt
dir %path2% /B /S >> tmp.txt
C:/"Program Files"/"Microsoft Office"/root/vfs/ProgramFilesX86/"Microsoft Office"/Office16/DCF/SPREADSHEETCOMPARE.EXE tmp.txt
It currently throw errors like this:
Unhandled Exception: System.ArgumentException: Illegal characters in path.
at System.IO.Path.CheckInvalidPathChars(String path, Boolean checkAdditional)
at System.IO.Path.GetFileName(String path)
at ProdianceExcelCompare.Form1.StatusReady()
at ProdianceExcelCompare.Form1.Init()
at ProdianceExcelCompare.Form1..ctor(String instructionFile)
at ProdianceExcelCompare.Program.Main(String[] args)
fatal: external diff died, stopping at London comparison.xlsx
See the following answers on Stack Overflow:
How to set environment variables with spaces?
Why is no string output with 'echo %var%' after using 'set var = text' on command line?
They explain the recommended syntax set "VariableName=variable value" to define an environment variable and the reasons recommending this syntax.
Why does ECHO command print some extra trailing space into the file?
It explains why the space character left to redirection operator > on an ECHO command line is also written into the file as trailing space and how to avoid this safely on variable text written into the file.
See also Microsoft documentation about Using command redirection operators.
On other command lines than ECHO a space left to > is usually no problem.
It is in general wrong to use multiple times " within an argument string like a file or folder path. There should be just one " at beginning and one " at end. This is explained by help of Windows command processor output on last help page on running in a command prompt window cmd /?.
The Microsoft documentation about Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces explains that the directory separator on Windows is \ and not / and therefore / should not be used in batch files on Windows in file/folder paths.
The help output on running in a command prompt window call /? explains how the arguments of a batch file can be referenced with which modifiers.
The code rewritten according to information posted above and on the referenced pages:
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
set "path2=%~5"
set "path2=%path2:/=\%"
>"tmp.txt" echo %2
dir "%path2%" /B /S >>"tmp.txt" 2>nul
"%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesX86\Microsoft Office\Office16\DCF\SPREADSHEETCOMPARE.EXE" "tmp.txt"
endlocal
The first line in tmp.txt contains the second argument as passed to the batch file, i.e. without or with surrounding double quotes.
The following code is necessary to write the second argument safely always without " into file tmp.txt even on second argument passed to the batch file is "Hello & welcome!":
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
set "path2=%~5"
set "path2=%path2:/=\%"
set "Argument2=%~2"
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
echo !Argument2!>"tmp.txt"
endlocal
dir "%path2%" /B /S >>"tmp.txt" 2>nul
"%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\ProgramFilesX86\Microsoft Office\Office16\DCF\SPREADSHEETCOMPARE.EXE" "tmp.txt"
endlocal
>tmp.txt echo %~2 cannot be used as not working for something like "Hello & welcome!". Windows command processor would interpret the first string separated by normal space, horizontal tab, comma, equal sign, or no-break space (in OEM code pages) delimited string after & as command or application to execute as described by single line with multiple commands using Windows batch file.
"tmp.txt" could be written everywhere in both batch files also with just tmp.txt. But it is never wrong to enclose the complete file/folder argument string in double quotes even on not being really necessary because of the string does not contain a space or one of these characters &()[]{}^=;!'+,`~. So it is good practice to always enclose a complete file/folder argument string in double quotes. For example running a replace on both batch files searching for tmp.txt and using as replace string %TEMP%\%~n0.tmp would result in using instead of tmp.txt in current directory a temporary file with name of batch file as file name and file extension .tmp in directory for temporary files independent on what is the name of the batch file and what is the path of the directory for temporary files.
The last suggestion is reading this answer for details about the commands SETLOCAL and ENDLOCAL.
The temporary file should be also deleted finally before reaching an exit point for batch file execution.
You can use quotes as below:
It treats the string in quotes as a title of the new command window. So, you may do the following:
start "" "yourpath"
Found it in the below link :
https://ccm.net/forum/affich-16973-open-a-file-with-spaces-from-batch-file

Stripping part of a filename and using it for a comparison

I'm building a script for Windows command line in which I try to check some filenames in a FOR loop, and then stripping off part of the filename into a variable for further use. Basically, what I want to happen is this:
List all files in a certain directory, splitting of the extension like .osm.pbf in this case.
Assign the filename to a variable.
Out the last 7 characters of the filename in another variable.
Compare this new variable to "-latest".
If the compare is true, cut a part of the variable containing the filename.
If the compare is false, take over the complete variable into another variable.
Through some trial and error and some searching online, I've arrived at this point (which still isn't doing what I want):
FOR /F "tokens=1-2 delims=." %%M IN ('DIR /b %VECTOR_WORKDIR%\*.osm.pbf') DO (
SET VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP2=%%M
ECHO !VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP2! >> %VECTOR_LOGFILE%
SET LAST_BIT_TEMP=!VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP2:~-7!
ECHO !LAST_BIT_TEMP! >> %VECTOR_LOGFILE%
SET LAST_BIT=!LAST_BIT_TEMP: =!
ECHO !LAST_BIT! >> %VECTOR_LOGFILE%
IF !LAST_BIT!=="-latest" (
SET VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP3=!VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP2:~0,-8!
ELSE
SET VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP3=!VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP2!
)
ECHO !VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP3! >> %VECTOR_LOGFILE%
)
This results in these lines in the log file, for the file basse-normandie-latest.osm.pbf:
basse-normandie-latest
-latest
-latest
ECHO is on.
The first echo is correct, although the filename has a trailing space. (So actually it's "basse-normandie-latest ".)
The second echo doesn't seem to take this training space into account, as it correctly gives "-latest" as the last 7 characters. This echo also has a trailing space (So actually it's "-latest ".)
The third echo is an attempt to clear the spaces from the variable (by using ": ="), but this results in another trailing space. (So actually it's "latest ".)
The final echo after the IF statement (where I try to cut the "-latest" part from the filename), results in "ECHO is on".
I have SETLOCAL enabledelayedexpansion enableextensions declared at the top of my script.
Any thoughts on how to make this work, i.e. get rid of the trailing spaces to make the comparison work?
Thanks in advance for any pointers in the right direction!
A line like
ECHO !VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP2! >> %VECTOR_LOGFILE%
results in appending the value of the environment variable VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP2 to file with file name stored in environment variable VECTOR_LOGFILE with a trailing space because there is a space before redirection operator >> which is interpreted by Windows command processor as part of the string to output by command ECHO. This space must be removed to get the file name redirected into the log file without a trailing space.
In general it is critical on redirecting a variable string into a file without a space between the variable string and the redirection operator in case of the variable string ends with a space and a number being a valid handle number like  1 or  2 or  3. There are several solutions to workaround this problem like specifying the redirection left to command ECHO, i.e.
>>%VECTOR_LOGFILE% ECHO !VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP2!
But on using delayed expansion as simply necessary here, it is safe to append the redirection at end without a space between exclamation mark and >>, i.e.
ECHO !VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP2!>> %VECTOR_LOGFILE%
The space after redirection operator is ignored by Windows command processor and therefore can be kept although many batch file programmers (like me) with good syntax highlighting don't insert a space after a redirection operator.
On comparing strings with command IF and enclosing one string in double quotes which is always a good idea, it must be made sure that the other string is also enclosed in double quotes. The command IF does not remove the double quotes before comparing the strings. The double quotes are parts of the compared strings.
The condition
IF !LAST_BIT!=="-latest"
is only true if the string assigned to environment variable LAST_BIT would be with surrounding quotes which is never the case with your batch code and therefore the condition is never true.
Correct would be:
IF "!LAST_BIT!"=="-latest"
There is no need to use command DIR to search for files with a pattern in a directory as command FOR is designed for doing exactly this task. Processing of output of command DIR is an extension of FOR available only if command extensions are enabled as by default.
The file extension is defined by Microsoft as everything after last dot in name of a file. Therefore the file extension for your files is pbf respectively .pbf and .osm belongs to the file name.
Command FOR offers several modifiers to get specific parts of a file or directory name. Those modifiers are explained in help output into console window on running in a command prompt window for /?. Help of command CALL output with call /? explains the same for processing parameters of a batch file or subroutine (batch file embedded within a batch file).
Your code with all mistakes removed:
FOR %%M IN (*.osm.pbf) DO (
SET "VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP2=%%~nM"
SET "VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP2=!VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP2:~0,-4!"
ECHO !VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP2!>>%VECTOR_LOGFILE%
SET "LAST7CHARS=!VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP2:~-7!"
ECHO !LAST7CHARS!>>%VECTOR_LOGFILE%
IF "!LAST7CHARS!" == "-latest" (
SET "VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP3=!VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP2:~0,-7!"
) ELSE (
SET "VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP3=!VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP2!"
)
ECHO !VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP3!>>%VECTOR_LOGFILE%
)
Easier would be using this code with using string substitution feature of command SET, i.e. search within a string case-insensitive for all occurrences of a string and replace them with another string which can be also an empty string.
FOR %%M IN (*.osm.pbf) DO (
SET "VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP2=%%~nM"
SET "VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP2=!VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP2:~0,-4!"
ECHO !VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP2!>>%VECTOR_LOGFILE%
SET "VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP3=!VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP2:-latest=!"
ECHO !VECTOR_CURRENT_MAP3!>>%VECTOR_LOGFILE%
)
%%~nM is replaced on execution by Windows command processor by the name of the file without drive, path and file extension resulting for your example in basse-normandie-latest.osm.
The unwanted file name part .osm is removed with the next line in both batch code blocks which chops the last 4 characters from the file name string.
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 /?
set /?
Read the answer on question Why is no string output with 'echo %var%' after using 'set var = text' on command line? for an explanation why I used set "variable=value" on every line which assigns a value string to an environment variable because trailing whitespaces are critical for your task.

Batch Command, calling File within command

What am I missing?
#echo off
rem - processfiles.bat - Processes all text files in the "source" folder:
rem - Runs %executable% with each text file as parameter
rem - Move the text file to the target folder after processing
set SourceFolder=C:\Users\Chris\Desktop\Yield_Files
set TargetFolder=C:\Users\Chris\Desktop\YieldCleanFiles
set fin=default.set
if not exist "%TargetFolder%" md "%TargetFolder%"
echo Processing text files in %SourceFolder%:
for %%f in (%SourceFolder%\*.txt) do call "C:\Program Files\Yield_Editor\yieldeditor.exe/csvin="(%SourceFolder%\*.txt)"/auto="y"/hide/fin=%fin%"%%f
pause
I have to have the file name I am working on each time I call the .exe
when ran it says it cannot find the file specified, but I am not sure which one it is talking about.
The line
for %%f in (%SourceFolder%\*.txt) do call "C:\Program Files\Yield_Editor\yieldeditor.exe/csvin="(%SourceFolder%\*.txt)"/auto="y"/hide/fin=%fin%"%%f
must be written most likely
for %%f in ("%SourceFolder%\*.txt") do "C:\Program Files\Yield_Editor\yieldeditor.exe" /csvin="%SourceFolder%\*.txt" /auto=y /hide /fin=%fin% "%%~f"
or
for %%f in ("%SourceFolder%\*.txt") do "%ProgramFiles%\Yield_Editor\yieldeditor.exe" "/csvin=%SourceFolder%\*.txt" /auto=y /hide /fin=%fin% "%%~f"
which means your executable must be run with syntax
"Path to Application\Application.exe" "/First Option" /Option2 /Option3 /Option4 "File Name As Fifth Parameter"
File name of application with file extension and path must be in quotes if there is at least 1 space or another character with a special meaning which are output in a command prompt window on last help page displayed when running in command prompt window cmd /?. This is argument 0 for the application.
The first parameter/option is argument 1 for the application. It must be in quotes if the parameter string contains a space or another special character. Options not containing a space must not be quoted, but can be nevertheless also quoted.
Some applications support quoting inside an option with a variable string. An example for such a syntax would be /csvin="%SourceFolder%\*.txt".
Read the help/documentation of the application for details on using it from command line. Most Windows console applications can be executed from within a command prompt window with just /? as parameter for printing command line help to console.
It can be seen here why argument strings with spaces must be enclosed in quotes. The space is the separator for the arguments.

About Copying Files

I want to copy some files to same destination.
Files which will be copied are listed in a text file.
So, how to read file list from text file and copy via using cmd
command?
I tried this command:
for /f "delims=" %%L in (foo.txt) do copy "%%L" new_folder
Similar question was asked in this website, I know that. When I use this command, files will be copied; but folders which include these files won't be copied.
I want to copy files with their directories.
What should I do? (Sorry for my awful English.)
You use %%L in a batchfile and %L when typing interactivly.
Your command, depending on other factors, should have a path specified for new_folder.
& seperates commands on a line.
&& executes this command only if previous command's errorlevel is 0.
|| (not used above) executes this command only if previous command's errorlevel is NOT 0
> output to a file
>> append output to a file
< input from a file
| output of one command into the input of another command
^ escapes any of the above, including itself, if needed to be passed to a program
" parameters with spaces must be enclosed in quotes
+ used with copy to concatinate files. E.G. copy file1+file2 newfile
, used with copy to indicate missing parameters. This updates the files modified date. E.G. copy /b file1,,
%variablename% a inbuilt or user set environmental variable
!variablename! a user set environmental variable expanded at execution time, turned with SelLocal EnableDelayedExpansion command
%<number> (%1) the nth command line parameter passed to a batch file. %0 is the batchfile's name.
%* (%*) the entire command line.
%<a letter> or %%<a letter> (%A or %%A) the variable in a for loop. Single % sign at command prompt and double % sign in a batch file.
.
--
Ok ,I have solved my problem via searching another cmd command:
for /f "delims=" %%i in (filelist.txt) do echo F|xcopy "-Source root folder-\%%i" "-Destination folder-\%%i" /i /z /y
In spite of the fact that I have solved my problem myself, thanks guys for your helps.
I appreciate it too much!

redirecting a stream for the entire .bat file inside itself

I've recently started working with .bat files, and I'm trying to redirect the output to a file.
I've found 2 options, so far:
echo aaa > out.txt - which sends the output of the single echo command to the specified file (can also be appended using >>)
calling the entire file from the cmd using somefile.bat > out.txt (which is actually similar to number 1, as it sends the output of the single command somefile.bat to out.txt)
What I'm looking for is something else - I'm trying to have a line in my file that sends all the output from that point forth to the file.
Thanks!
echo this goes to screen
(
echo this line goes to the file
echo also this line and the ping-output
ping www.stackoverflow.com
echo and this
)>file.txt
echo this goes to screen again
Note:
all inside the block (between ( and )) is parsed at once. If you use variables inside the block, you may need delayed expansion.
There is no universal solution. It depends of the batch file requirements.
For a lot of batch files, the answer from Stephan will work without problems, taking in consideration what he pointed: all the code is inside a block and any variable management inside it may require delayed expansion.
Other alternative is to move the code under a subroutine, calling it with the redirection
#echo off
call :mainProcess %* > outputFile
exit /b
:mainProcess
:: here the batch file begins
echo %1 %2 %3

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