I am trying to create the interactive bat file which ask for the folder details it is able to take the userchoice but after that it is not able to set the folder path given by useri.e. it takes the path till Desktop only.Below is my code for the same:
#echo off
set /p UserInfo= "Do you have abc software(y/n)? "
echo %UserInfo% // here it is working as expected
IF %UserInfo%==y (
echo "Reply is true-----"
set /p Path= "Please enter path for abc directory? "
echo %Path% //but here it takes the path till the desktop only(C:\user\username\Desktop)
CD %Path%
dir
set /p Path1= "Please enter path1 directory path provided in package? "
echo %Path1% //but here it takes the path till the desktop only(C:\user\username\Desktop)
CD %Path1%
)
IF %UserInfo%==n (
echo "Reply is False**************"
)
pause
How to read the folder directive?
Hmm.. Please use the search bar as user Magoo, LotPings said.
Also, Stephan & Squashman mentioned, do not set a variable with the name path because there is a internal variable named path. If you rename it, other programs may not work properly.
What's DelayedExpansion?
When batch files are run, cmd process them line by line. The entire if statement get processed at once. That's why the variable are un-set.
Since we want cmd to process those variable at run-time, we will need to tell it to do so, by adding setlocal enableDelayedExpansion. This enables run-time variable expansion. To disable, just change enable to disable.
You may want to add it like so:
#echo off
setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
rem your code follows...
How To Make Variable Get Processed Run-Time?
Simply change %var% to !var!.
Please note that for loop metavariable %%n cannot be changed to !!n, since itself already implicated a delayed expansion.
Command-line arguments %n cannot be changed to !n. You may want to do this instead:
if "%var%"=="abc" (
set variable=%1
echo !variable!
)
SET /P Code Injection Cause Security Issue?!
If the input of %Userinput% is a==a format D:\ && echo, cmd sees:
if a==a
do format D:\
do echo ==y (
Which... formats your D drive. Adding quotes like if "%var%"=="abc" won't help since user can just escape the quote and execute the commands.
See here for more info.
SET /P Alternatives
You may want to consider CHOICE for single letter choice. It's command syntax is like so:
choice /c choices /n /cs /t timeout /d default_choice /m prompt
/n hides the list of options, letting /m to display it's own prompt
/cs == case-insensitive.
PATH Variable
Again mentioned above, PATH is a internal variable used by Windows and other programs. Mis-setting it may cause some Windows functions or programs to stop functioning properly.
Instead, use another variable name like programPath.
I am trying to get this script to jump to another section of the script if there is no input from the user.
Down at the if %input%== area.
What I'm trying to do is skip to the section where the script checks for .mp4 files and moves them if they are there. Am I supposed to set a variable or loop for that section? Thanks for any replies
#echo off
echo Checking for youtube-dl updates.
pause
youtube-dl -U
rem Enter the url or urls that you want to download from
set /p input="Enter the url(s) you want to download:"
rem Uses the youtube-dl continue (-c) option to download multiple files if not in a playlist
youtube-dl -c "%input%"
rem pause
if %input%=="" GOTO:EOF
cls
echo Download complete, please wait while files are transfered to appropiate folder
pause
for %%o in (.mp4) do move "*%%o" "E:\Documents\scripts\videos\"
if not exist do echo .mp4 files are no longer in this directory
pause
How about following script? This script waits for 3 seconds while "file.mp4" doesn't exist. It keeps to wait until the file exists. About "filename", you can change for your script.
#echo off
set waittime=3
set filename=file.mp4
:loop
if not exist %filename% (
Timeout /t %waittime% /nobreak > nul
goto loop
)
echo Find %filename%
When doing string comparison in batch you have to make sure, that both parts are equal, which in your case will never happen! In most languages strings have double quotes around them. In batch they usually do not.
To solve your problem enclose %input% in double quotes as well.
Note that it can be useful to do something like "x%input%"=="x" to prevent certain characters like <>|to be at the beginning of the comparison string.
You can check this on your own with these few lines:
#echo off
set /p input="Input something or nothing here "
echo %input%
echo "%input%"
pause
If you are hitting Return without any input you will see that only the bottom one will output "" which is the string you are comparing to.
I'm trying to implement, in a Windows batch file, the logic "if %MyBinaryDir% is not already at the beginning of the system %PATH%, then put it there; if it's already there, do nothing".
I've got this:
#echo %PATH% | findstr /i /b /c:"%MyBinaryDir%;" > nul || set "PATH=%MyBinaryDir%;%PATH%
This has always worked pretty well, until I tried to deploy on someone's machine where for some unearthly reason the %PATH% variable contained an odd number of quote characters.
The problem boils down to this:
#set x="
#echo %x%
#echo %x% | more
The second line prints a single " character. The third line is tripped up by the quote character and fails to pipe the echo output to the second binary (in my case findstr, but in this boiled-down example more) at all. Instead, it literally prints the characters:
" | more
So my questions are:
(Y) How do I safely pipe any arbitrary string into a second binary?
and/or
(X) Is there a way of conditionally-prepending directories to the system path that avoids this mess?
Use delayed expansion to echo any variable content in a safe way.
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set x="
echo !x!
echo !x! | more
echo !path! | more
And to be safe also with empty variables you could use echo(
echo(!path! | more
There is also a question about pretty print/split the path variable
I suggest to clean up PATH as no directory path in this environment variable should contain ever quotes.
Here is an example batch code for your task:
#echo off
rem Uncomment the line below for testing with C:\PythonXX
rem already in PATH with an erroneous double quote in PATH.
rem set "PATH=C:\PythonXX;"%PATH%"
echo Path before clean up:
echo.
echo PATH=%PATH%
set "PATH=%PATH:"=%"
echo.
echo Path after clean up:
echo.
echo PATH=%PATH%
if /I "%PATH:~0,12%" NEQ "C:\PythonXX;" set "PATH=C:\PythonXX;%PATH%"
echo.
echo Path modified:
echo.
echo PATH=%PATH%
echo.
pause
See the answer on set environment variables with spaces and the other answers referenced there why set "variable=value" should be used even if the value to assign to a variable contains 1 or more quotes itself.
I'm trying to write a bat script and faced the following issue.
Below is the snippet with which the issue is dealt with.
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion enableextensions
#echo off
#echo:
echo Select an option:
echo *****************
#echo:
echo 1) process 2gen files
#echo:
echo 2) process 3gen files
#echo:
set /p option=Enter option number : %=%
set fileName=nil
echo %option%
if %option% == 1 (
set fileName = 2gen
echo !fileName!
)
echo !fileName!
The output of this bat script is as follows:
Select an option:
*****************
1) process 2gen files
2) process 3gen files
Enter option number : 1
1
nil
nil
i'm expecting the echo for fileName to have value 2gen but it is still printing nil
In my first attempt, i didn't use the setlocal enabledelayedexpansion enableextensions and !fileName! (instead used %fileName%)
After searching for solution enabled the delayed expansion. But still couldn't get what the exact mistake is.
Also the OS version being used is Windows 7 64 bit
Please help me in pointing out the mistake.
Thanks!
set fileName = 2gen sets a variable named filename<space> to a value <space>2gen. Get rid of the spaces. Even better, use this recommended syntax:
set "variable=value"
to avoid unintended trailing spaces.
(of course you could use echo !filename !...)
I have a batch file and I want to include an external file containing some variables (say configuration variables). Is it possible?
Note: I'm assuming Windows batch files as most people seem to be unaware that there are significant differences and just blindly call everything with grey text on black background DOS. Nevertheless, the first variant should work in DOS as well.
Executable configuration
The easiest way to do this is to just put the variables in a batch file themselves, each with its own set statement:
set var1=value1
set var2=value2
...
and in your main batch:
call config.cmd
Of course, that also enables variables to be created conditionally or depending on aspects of the system, so it's pretty versatile. However, arbitrary code can run there and if there is a syntax error, then your main batch will exit too. In the UNIX world this seems to be fairly common, especially for shells. And if you think about it, autoexec.bat is nothing else.
Key/value pairs
Another way would be some kind of var=value pairs in the configuration file:
var1=value1
var2=value2
...
You can then use the following snippet to load them:
for /f "delims=" %%x in (config.txt) do (set "%%x")
This utilizes a similar trick as before, namely just using set on each line. The quotes are there to escape things like <, >, &, |. However, they will themselves break when quotes are used in the input. Also you always need to be careful when further processing data in variables stored with such characters.
Generally, automatically escaping arbitrary input to cause no headaches or problems in batch files seems pretty impossible to me. At least I didn't find a way to do so yet. Of course, with the first solution you're pushing that responsibility to the one writing the config file.
If the external configuration file is also valid batch file, you can just use:
call externalconfig.bat
inside your script. Try creating following a.bat:
#echo off
call b.bat
echo %MYVAR%
and b.bat:
set MYVAR=test
Running a.bat should generate output:
test
Batch uses the less than and greater than brackets as input and output pipes.
>file.ext
Using only one output bracket like above will overwrite all the information in that file.
>>file.ext
Using the double right bracket will add the next line to the file.
(
echo
echo
)<file.ext
This will execute the parameters based on the lines of the file. In this case, we are using two lines that will be typed using "echo". The left bracket touching the right parenthesis bracket means that the information from that file will be piped into those lines.
I have compiled an example-only read/write file. Below is the file broken down into sections to explain what each part does.
#echo off
echo TEST R/W
set SRU=0
SRU can be anything in this example. We're actually setting it to prevent a crash if you press Enter too fast.
set /p SRU=Skip Save? (y):
if %SRU%==y goto read
set input=1
set input2=2
set /p input=INPUT:
set /p input2=INPUT2:
Now, we need to write the variables to a file.
(echo %input%)> settings.cdb
(echo %input2%)>> settings.cdb
pause
I use .cdb as a short form for "Command Database". You can use any extension.
The next section is to test the code from scratch. We don't want to use the set variables that were run at the beginning of the file, we actually want them to load FROM the settings.cdb we just wrote.
:read
(
set /p input=
set /p input2=
)<settings.cdb
So, we just piped the first two lines of information that you wrote at the beginning of the file (which you have the option to skip setting the lines to check to make sure it's working) to set the variables of input and input2.
echo %input%
echo %input2%
pause
if %input%==1 goto newecho
pause
exit
:newecho
echo If you can see this, good job!
pause
exit
This displays the information that was set while settings.cdb was piped into the parenthesis. As an extra good-job motivator, pressing enter and setting the default values which we set earlier as "1" will return a good job message.
Using the bracket pipes goes both ways, and is much easier than setting the "FOR" stuff. :)
So you just have to do this right?:
#echo off
echo text shizzle
echo.
echo pause^>nul (press enter)
pause>nul
REM writing to file
(
echo XD
echo LOL
)>settings.cdb
cls
REM setting the variables out of the file
(
set /p input=
set /p input2=
)<settings.cdb
cls
REM echo'ing the variables
echo variables:
echo %input%
echo %input2%
pause>nul
if %input%==XD goto newecho
DEL settings.cdb
exit
:newecho
cls
echo If you can see this, good job!
DEL settings.cdb
pause>nul
exit
:: savevars.bat
:: Use $ to prefix any important variable to save it for future runs.
#ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL
REM Load variables
IF EXIST config.txt FOR /F "delims=" %%A IN (config.txt) DO SET "%%A"
REM Change variables
IF NOT DEFINED $RunCount (
SET $RunCount=1
) ELSE SET /A $RunCount+=1
REM Display variables
SET $
REM Save variables
SET $>config.txt
ENDLOCAL
PAUSE
EXIT /B
Output:
$RunCount=1
$RunCount=2
$RunCount=3
The technique outlined above can also be used to share variables among multiple batch files.
Source: http://www.incodesystems.com/products/batchfi1.htm
Kinda old subject but I had same question a few days ago and I came up with another idea (maybe someone will still find it usefull)
For example you can make a config.bat with different subjects (family, size, color, animals) and apply them individually in any order anywhere you want in your batch scripts:
#echo off
rem Empty the variable to be ready for label config_all
set config_all_selected=
rem Go to the label with the parameter you selected
goto :config_%1
REM This next line is just to go to end of file
REM in case that the parameter %1 is not set
goto :end
REM next label is to jump here and get all variables to be set
:config_all
set config_all_selected=1
:config_family
set mother=Mary
set father=John
set sister=Anna
rem This next line is to skip going to end if config_all label was selected as parameter
if not "%config_all_selected%"=="1" goto :end
:config_test
set "test_parameter_all=2nd set: The 'all' parameter WAS used before this echo"
if not "%config_all_selected%"=="1" goto :end
:config_size
set width=20
set height=40
if not "%config_all_selected%"=="1" goto :end
:config_color
set first_color=blue
set second_color=green
if not "%config_all_selected%"=="1" goto :end
:config_animals
set dog=Max
set cat=Miau
if not "%config_all_selected%"=="1" goto :end
:end
After that, you can use it anywhere by calling fully with 'call config.bat all' or calling only parts of it (see example bellow)
The idea in here is that sometimes is more handy when you have the option not to call everything at once. Some variables maybe you don't want to be called yet so you can call them later.
Example test.bat
#echo off
rem This is added just to test the all parameter
set "test_parameter_all=1st set: The 'all' parameter was NOT used before this echo"
call config.bat size
echo My birthday present had a width of %width% and a height of %height%
call config.bat family
call config.bat animals
echo Yesterday %father% and %mother% surprised %sister% with a cat named %cat%
echo Her brother wanted the dog %dog%
rem This shows you if the 'all' parameter was or not used (just for testing)
echo %test_parameter_all%
call config.bat color
echo His lucky color is %first_color% even if %second_color% is also nice.
echo.
pause
Hope it helps the way others help me in here with their answers.
A short version of the above:
config.bat
#echo off
set config_all_selected=
goto :config_%1
goto :end
:config_all
set config_all_selected=1
:config_family
set mother=Mary
set father=John
set daughter=Anna
if not "%config_all_selected%"=="1" goto :end
:config_size
set width=20
set height=40
if not "%config_all_selected%"=="1" goto :end
:end
test.bat
#echo off
call config.bat size
echo My birthday present had a width of %width% and a height of %height%
call config.bat family
echo %father% and %mother% have a daughter named %daughter%
echo.
pause
Good day.
The best option according to me is to have key/value pairs file as it could be read from other scripting languages.
Other thing is I would prefer to have an option for comments in the values file - which can be easy achieved with eol option in for /f command.
Here's the example
values file:
;;;;;; file with example values ;;;;;;;;
;; Will be processed by a .bat file
;; ';' can be used for commenting a line
First_Value=value001
;;Do not let spaces arround the equal sign
;; As this makes the processing much easier
;; and reliable
Second_Value=%First_Value%_test
;;as call set will be used in reading script
;; refering another variables will be possible.
Third_Value=Something
;;; end
Reading script:
#echo off
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
set "VALUES_FILE=E:\scripts\example.values"
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
FOR /F "usebackq eol=; tokens=* delims=" %%# in (
"%VALUES_FILE%"
) do (
call set "%%#"
)
echo %First_Value% -- %Second_Value% -- %Third_Value%
While trying to use the method with excutable configuration
I noticed that it may work or may NOT work
depending on where in the script is located the call:
call config.cmd
I know it doesn't make any sens, but for me it's a fact.
When "call config.cmd" is located at the top of the
script, it works, but if further in the script it doesn't.
By doesn't work, I mean the variable are not set un the calling script.
Very very strange !!!!