First of all, similar questions have been answered in past but not exactly the one I have. In some other solutions, hiding folders/files and changing attributes were suggested and I do not want this, unless there is no simpler way available. Also, I have tried the solution suggested here (and couple of others): MS-DOS command to delete all files except one.
But did not work for my need due to two reasons:
This also deleted the file, I did not want to.
This did not delete the sub-folders but only the files.
So, I have folder c:/users/data and in there, I have 5 folders and 6 files I want to delete everything except one which is web.config and to do that I run the batch file like this:
#echo off
for %%j in (C:\Users\data\*) do if not %%j == Web.config del %%j
pause
But when I run the batch file, this deletes all the files including web.config and also, does not delete any of the sub-folders and if I use the /d switch then it only deletes folders not files. How can I delete both files and folders?
Here is the way I would do it:
pushd "C:\Users\data" || exit /B 1
for /D %%D in ("*") do (
rd /S /Q "%%~D"
)
for %%F in ("*") do (
if /I not "%%~nxF"=="web.config" del "%%~F"
)
popd
The basic code is taken from my answer to the question Deleting Folder Contents but not the folder but with the del command replaced by a second for loop that walks through all files and deletes only those not named web.config.
Note that this approach does not touch the original parent directory, neither does it touch the original file web.config. The great advantage of this fact is that no attributes are going to be lost (for instance, creation date and owner).
Explanation
change to root directory by pushd; in case of failure, skip the rest of the script;
iterate through all the immediate sub-folders of the root by a for /D loop and delete them recursively by rd /S with all their contents;
iterate through the files located in the root by a standard for loop; use the ~nx modifier of the loop variable to expand base name (n) and extension (x) of each file, compare it with the given file name (if) in a case-insensitive manner (/I) and delete the file by del only in case it does not match (not);
restore former working directory by popd finally;
The main problems in your code are:
that you compare more that the pure file name with the prefedined name, so there is not going to be found any match.
you needed to use case-insensitive comparison, because Windows does not care about the case of file names for searching.
you did not put quotation marks around the comparison expressions, so you are likely going to receive syntax error messages, depending on what special characters occur in the file names.
that you are using the del command only which just deletes files; to remove directories, you needed to use rd also.
I'm not sure where the web.config file is stored or if there is more than one, so ...
Only one web.config file
Just lock the file (redirect the file as input) and remove anything else
#echo off
setlocal enableextensions disabledelayedexpansion
pushd "c:\users\data" && >nul 2>nul (
<"web.config" rmdir . /s /q
popd
)
The code will
(pushd) Change to the target folder (we need to be sure this will remove information only from the intended place) setting it as the current active directory and locking it (we can not remove the current active directory). If the command can change to the folder then
(rmdir) Redirect the web.config as input to the rmdir command. This will lock the file so it can not be deleted until the command ends. The rmdir . /s /q remove anything not locked inside (and below) the current active directory
(popd) Cancel the pushd command restoring the previous active directory
Several web.config files in multiple folders
Following the approach (copy, clean, restore) pointed by #Dominique
#echo off
setlocal enableextensions disabledelayedexpansion
pushd "c:\users\data" && >nul 2>nul (
for %%t in ("%temp%\%~n0_%random%%random%%random%.tmp") do (
robocopy . "%%~ft" web.config /s
robocopy "%%~ft" . /mir
rmdir "%%~ft" /s /q
)
popd
)
The code will
(pushd) Change to the target folder (we need to be sure this will remove information only from the intended place). If the command can change to the folder then
(for) Prepare a reference (a random name) to a temporary folder to use
(robocopy) Copy only the web.config files (and their folder hierarchy) from the source folder to the temporary folder
(robocopy) Mirror the temporary folder to the source folder. This will remove any file/folder not included in the temporary copy
(rmdir) Remove the temporary folder
(popd) Cancel the pushd command restoring the previous active directory
Once the web.config files are saved, as the files in the source will match those in the temporay folder, they will not be copied back with the second robocopy call, but any file/folder in source that is not present in the temporary folder will be removed to mirror the structure in the temporary folder.
I also managed to do it, very similar to #aschipfl
For /D %%k in (C:\Users\data) do (For /d %%m in ("%%k\*") do rmdir /s /q "%%m"
For %%m in ("%%k\*") do if not %%m == %%k\Web.config del /q "%%m")
Say, there is a variable called %pathtofolder%, as it makes it clear it is a full path of a folder.
I want to delete every single file and subfolder in this directory, but not the directory itself.
But, there might be an error like 'this file/folder is already in use'... when that happens, it should just continue and skip that file/folder.
Is there some command for this?
rmdir is my all time favorite command for the job. It works for deleting huge files and folders with subfolders. A backup is not created, so make sure that you have copied your files safely before running this command.
RMDIR "FOLDERNAME" /S /Q
This silently removes the folder and all files and subfolders.
You can use this shell script to clean up the folder and files within C:\Temp source:
del /q "C:\Temp\*"
FOR /D %%p IN ("C:\Temp\*.*") DO rmdir "%%p" /s /q
Create a batch file (say, delete.bat) containing the above command. Go to the location where the delete.bat file is located and then run the command: delete.bat
The simplest solution I can think of is removing the whole directory with
RD /S /Q folderPath
Then creating this directory again:
MD folderPath
This will remove the folders and files and leave the folder behind.
pushd "%pathtofolder%" && (rd /s /q "%pathtofolder%" 2>nul & popd)
#ECHO OFF
SET THEDIR=path-to-folder
Echo Deleting all files from %THEDIR%
DEL "%THEDIR%\*" /F /Q /A
Echo Deleting all folders from %THEDIR%
FOR /F "eol=| delims=" %%I in ('dir "%THEDIR%\*" /AD /B 2^>nul') do rd /Q /S "%THEDIR%\%%I"
#ECHO Folder deleted.
EXIT
...deletes all files and folders underneath the given directory, but not the directory itself.
CD [Your_Folder]
RMDIR /S /Q .
You'll get an error message, tells you that the RMDIR command can't access the current folder, thus it can't delete it.
Update:
From this useful comment (thanks to Moritz Both), you may add && between, so RMDIR won't run if the CD command fails (e.g. mistyped directory name):
CD [Your_Folder] && RMDIR /S /Q .
From Windows Command-Line Reference:
/S: Deletes a directory tree (the specified directory and all its
subdirectories, including all files).
/Q: Specifies quiet mode. Does not prompt for confirmation when
deleting a directory tree. (Note that /q works only if /s is
specified.)
I use Powershell
Remove-Item c:\scripts\* -recurse
It will remove the contents of the folder, not the folder itself.
RD stands for REMOVE Directory.
/S : Delete all files and subfolders
in addition to the folder itself.
Use this to remove an entire folder tree.
/Q : Quiet - do not display YN confirmation
Example :
RD /S /Q C:/folder_path/here
Use Notepad to create a text document and copy/paste this:
rmdir /s/q "%temp%"
mkdir "%temp%"
Select Save As and file name:
delete_temp.bat
Save as type: All files and click the Save button.
It works on any kind of account (administrator or a standard user). Just run it!
I use a temporary variable in this example, but you can use any other! PS: For Windows OS only!
None of the answers as posted on 2018-06-01, with the exception of the single command line posted by foxidrive, really deletes all files and all folders/directories in %PathToFolder%. That's the reason for posting one more answer with a very simple single command line to delete all files and subfolders of a folder as well as a batch file with a more complex solution explaining why all other answers as posted on 2018-06-01 using DEL and FOR with RD failed to clean up a folder completely.
The simple single command line solution which of course can be also used in a batch file:
pushd "%PathToFolder%" 2>nul && ( rd /Q /S "%PathToFolder%" 2>nul & popd )
This command line contains three commands executed one after the other.
The first command PUSHD pushes current directory path on stack and next makes %PathToFolder% the current directory for running command process.
This works also for UNC paths by default because of command extensions are enabled by default and in this case PUSHD creates a temporary drive letter that points to that specified network resource and then changes the current drive and directory, using the newly defined drive letter.
PUSHD outputs following error message to handle STDERR if the specified directory does not exist at all:
The system cannot find the path specified.
This error message is suppressed by redirecting it with 2>nul to device NUL.
The next command RD is executed only if changing current directory for current command process to specified directory was successful, i.e. the specified directory exists at all.
The command RD with the options /Q and /S removes a directory quietly with all subdirectories even if the specified directory contains files or folders with hidden attribute or with read-only attribute set. The system attribute does never prevent deletion of a file or folder.
Not deleted are:
Folders used as the current directory for any running process. The entire folder tree to such a folder cannot be deleted if a folder is used as the current directory for any running process.
Files currently opened by any running process with file access permissions set on file open to prevent deletion of the file while opened by the running application/process. Such an opened file prevents also the deletion of entire folder tree to the opened file.
Files/folders on which the current user has not the required (NTFS) permissions to delete the file/folder which prevents also the deletion of the folder tree to this file/folder.
The first reason for not deleting a folder is used by this command line to delete all files and subfolders of the specified folder, but not the folder itself. The folder is made temporarily the current directory for running command process which prevents the deletion of the folder itself. Of course this results in output of an error message by command RD:
The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.
File is the wrong term here as in reality the folder is being used by another process, the current command process which executed command RD. Well, in reality a folder is for the file system a special file with file attribute directory which explains this error message. But I don't want to go too deep into file system management.
This error message, like all other error messages, which could occur because of the three reasons written above, is suppressed by redirecting it with 2>nul from handle STDERR to device NUL.
The third command, POPD, is executed independently of the exit value of command RD.
POPD pops the directory path pushed by PUSHD from the stack and changes the current directory for running the command process to this directory, i.e. restores the initial current directory. POPD deletes the temporary drive letter created by PUSHD in case of a UNC folder path.
Note: POPD can silently fail to restore the initial current directory in case of the initial current directory was a subdirectory of the directory to clean which does not exist anymore. In this special case %PathToFolder% remains the current directory. So it is advisable to run the command line above not from a subdirectory of %PathToFolder%.
One more interesting fact:
I tried the command line also using a UNC path by sharing local directory C:\Temp with share name Temp and using UNC path \\%COMPUTERNAME%\Temp\CleanTest assigned to environment variable PathToFolder on Windows 7. If the current directory on running the command line is a subdirectory of a shared local folder accessed using UNC path, i.e. C:\Temp\CleanTest\Subfolder1, Subfolder1 is deleted by RD, and next POPD fails silently in making C:\Temp\CleanTest\Subfolder1 again the current directory resulting in Z:\CleanTest remaining as the current directory for the running command process. So in this very, very special case the temporary drive letter remains until the current directory is changed for example with cd /D %SystemRoot% to a local directory really existing. Unfortunately POPD does not exit with a value greater 0 if it fails to restore the initial current directory making it impossible to detect this very special error condition using just the exit code of POPD. However, it can be supposed that nobody ever runs into this very special error case as UNC paths are usually not used for accessing local files and folders.
For understanding the used commands even better, open a command prompt window, execute there the following commands, and read the help displayed for each command very carefully.
pushd /?
popd /?
rd /?
Single line with multiple commands using Windows batch file explains the operators && and & used here.
Next let us look on the batch file solution using the command DEL to delete files in %PathToFolder% and FOR and RD to delete the subfolders in %PathToFolder%.
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
rem Clean the folder for temporary files if environment variable
rem PathToFolder is not defined already outside this batch file.
if not defined PathToFolder set "PathToFolder=%TEMP%"
rem Remove all double quotes from folder path.
set "PathToFolder=%PathToFolder:"=%"
rem Did the folder path consist only of double quotes?
if not defined PathToFolder goto EndCleanFolder
rem Remove a backslash at end of folder path.
if "%PathToFolder:~-1%" == "\" set "PathToFolder=%PathToFolder:~0,-1%"
rem Did the folder path consist only of a backslash (with one or more double quotes)?
if not defined PathToFolder goto EndCleanFolder
rem Delete all files in specified folder including files with hidden
rem or read-only attribute set, except the files currently opened by
rem a running process which prevents deletion of the file while being
rem opened by the application, or on which the current user has not
rem the required permissions to delete the file.
del /A /F /Q "%PathToFolder%\*" >nul 2>nul
rem Delete all subfolders in specified folder including those with hidden
rem attribute set recursive with all files and subfolders, except folders
rem being the current directory of any running process which prevents the
rem deletion of the folder and all folders above, folders containing a file
rem opened by the application which prevents deletion of the file and the
rem entire folder structure to this file, or on which the current user has
rem not the required permissions to delete a folder or file in folder tree
rem to delete.
for /F "eol=| delims=" %%I in ('dir "%PathToFolder%\*" /AD /B 2^>nul') do rd /Q /S "%PathToFolder%\%%I" 2>nul
:EndCleanFolder
endlocal
The batch file first makes sure that environment variable PathToFolder is really defined with a folder path without double quotes and without a backslash at the end. The backslash at the end would not be a problem, but double quotes in a folder path could be problematic because of the value of PathToFolder is concatenated with other strings during batch file execution.
Important are the two lines:
del /A /F /Q "%PathToFolder%\*" >nul 2>nul
for /F "eol=| delims=" %%I in ('dir "%PathToFolder%\*" /AD /B 2^>nul') do rd /Q /S "%PathToFolder%\%%I" 2>nul
The command DEL is used to delete all files in the specified directory.
The option /A is necessary to process really all files including files with the hidden attribute which DEL would ignore without using option /A.
The option /F is necessary to force deletion of files with the read-only attribute set.
The option /Q is necessary to run a quiet deletion of multiple files without prompting the user if multiple files should be really deleted.
>nul is necessary to redirect the output of the file names written to handle STDOUT to device NUL of which can't be deleted because of a file is currently opened or user has no permission to delete the file.
2>nul is necessary to redirect the error message output for each file which can't be deleted from handle STDERR to device NUL.
The commands FOR and RD are used to remove all subdirectories in specified directory. But for /D is not used because of FOR is ignoring in this case subdirectories with the hidden attribute set. For that reason for /F is used to run the following command line in a separate command process started in the background with %ComSpec% /c:
dir "%PathToFolder%\*" /AD /B 2>nul
DIR outputs in bare format because of /B the directory entries with attribute D, i.e. the names of all subdirectories in specified directory independent on other attributes like the hidden attribute without a path. 2>nul is used to redirect the error message output by DIR on no directory found from handle STDERR to device NUL.
The redirection operator > must be escaped with the caret character, ^, on the FOR command line to be interpreted as a literal character when the Windows command interpreter processes this command line before executing the command FOR which executes the embedded dir command line in a separate command process started in the background.
FOR processes the captured output written to handle STDOUT of a started command process which are the names of the subdirectories without path and never enclosed in double quotes.
FOR with option /F ignores empty lines which don't occur here as DIR with option /B does not output empty lines.
FOR would also ignore lines starting with a semicolon which is the default end of line character. A directory name can start with a semicolon. For that reason eol=| is used to define the vertical bar character as the end-of-line character which no directory or file can have in its name.
FOR would split up the line into substrings using space and horizontal tab as delimiters and would assign only the first space/tab delimited string to specified loop variable I. This splitting behavior is not wanted here because of a directory name can contain one or more spaces. Therefore delims= is used to define an empty list of delimiters to disable the line splitting behavior and get assigned to the loop variable, I, always the complete directory name.
Command FOR runs the command RD for each directory name without a path which is the reason why on the RD command line the folder path must be specified once again which is concatenated with the subfolder name.
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.
del /?
dir /?
echo /?
endlocal /?
for /?
goto /?
if /?
rd /?
rem /?
set /?
setlocal /?
To delete file:
del PATH_TO_FILE
To delete folder with all files in it:
rmdir /s /q PATH_TO_FOLDER
To delete all files from specific folder (not deleting folder itself) is a little bit complicated. del /s *.* cannot delete folders, but removes files from all subfolder. So two commands are needed:
del /q PATH_TO_FOLDER\*.*
for /d %i in (PATH_TO_FOLDER\*.*) do #rmdir /s /q "%i"
You can do it by using the following command to delete all contents and the parent folder itself:
RMDIR [/S] [/Q] [drive:]path
#ECHO OFF
rem next line removes all files in temp folder
DEL /A /F /Q /S "%temp%\*.*"
rem next line cleans up the folder's content
FOR /D %%p IN ("%temp%\*.*") DO RD "%%p" /S /Q
I tried several of these approaches, but none worked properly.
I found this two-step approach on the site Windows Command Line:
forfiles /P %pathtofolder% /M * /C "cmd /c if #isdir==FALSE del #file"
forfiles /P %pathtofolder% /M * /C "cmd /c if #isdir==TRUE rmdir /S /Q #file"
It worked exactly as I needed and as specified by the OP.
I had following solution that worked for me:
for /R /D %A in (*node_modules*) do rmdir "%A" /S /Q
It removes all node modules folder from current directory and its sub-folders.
This is similar to solutions posted above, but i am still posting this here, just in case someone finds it useful
Use:
del %pathtofolder%\*.* /s /f /q
This deletes all files and subfolders in %pathtofolder%, including read-only files, and does not prompt for confirmation.
I have a parent folder with lots of folders (movies) underneath. Each folder has 1 file (the actual movie).
I would like some advice on a batch script that I can run to rename the folders to the file (movie) within excluding the extension (.avi)
e.g.
BEFORE
Parent (folder)
Folder 1
Movie 1.avi
Folder 2
Movie 2.avi
AFTER
Parent (folder)
Movie 1
Movie 1.avi
Movie 2
Movie 2.avi
#ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL
SET "sourcedir=U:\sourcedir"
FOR /f "delims=" %%a IN (
'dir /b /ad "%sourcedir%\*" '
) DO (
FOR %%b IN ("%sourcedir%\%%a\*") DO IF /i "%%~na" NEQ "%%~nb" ECHO(REN "%sourcedir%\%%a" "%%~nb"
)
GOTO :EOF
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.
You would need to set your directory as sourcedir. I set my testing directory.
The following batch file does the job:
#echo off
if exist "%TEMP%\RenameFolders.bat" del "%TEMP%\RenameFolders.bat" >nul
cd /D "Complete\path\to\parent\folder"
for /R "Complete\path\to\parent\folder" %%I in (*.avi) do echo ren "%%~dpI" "%%~nI">>"%TEMP%\RenameFolders.bat"
if exist "%TEMP%\RenameFolders.bat" (
call "%TEMP%\RenameFolders.bat"
del "%TEMP%\RenameFolders.bat" >nul
)
"Complete\path\to\parent\folder" must be modified twice in the batch file by real parent folder path.
The main job is done by command FOR. Run in a command prompt window for /? to get information about option
/R ... recursive folder/file scan, and
%%~dpI ... drive and path of file, and
%%~nI ... name of file without path and file extension.
For each *.avi file the command echo is executed to create the rename command used later to rename the folder containing the *.avi file to the name of the *.avi file.
It is not possible to do the folder rename directly within the FOR loop as it is not possible to rename a folder while it is the current working directory for a running process. Each folder is the current working directory for the batch process while FOR is running.
The command CD in third line just makes sure that the working directory is set to parent folder of all the subfolders to rename to avoid that renaming a folder fails because the batch file is started from one of the subfolders.
The second line just makes sure there is no file RenameFolders.bat in the folder for termporary files for example when terminating this batch file once by click on button X while command FOR is currently running.
After command FOR processed recursively all *.avi files and a line with command ren was appended to file RenameFolders.bat for each file, this created batch file is called which renames now the folders.
Last the batch file temporarily created is deleted as not needed anymore.
I have a case where I have N number of sub folders under a parent folder X. The folder names are not in any order.
I have a requirement where I have to go into each of these subfolders and perform a specific task or run a command (for example create a text file called new.txt).
How can I do this?
Put the script bellow in a bat file and place it in the root directory tree. Run it. It will create file new.txt in all folders. You can replace this command or add others. %%a is the folder path.
#echo off
for /F "tokens=*" %%a in ('dir /B /S /AD') do (
rem command to execute for each folder
type nul >"%%a\new.txt"
)
The issue is that it is calling the original beamthemup2.bat file, not the one copied.
#ECHO OFF
for /d %%X in (*) do (
copy "beamthemup2.bat" "%%X"
#echo "%%X\beamthemup2.bat"
pause
call "%%X\beamthemup2.bat"
)
UPDATE
This is the second bat file. It seems it is copying the and running the correct batch file. Here is the problem though. When running the above batch file first %cd% is returning the path of the first batch file, however if I run the second one by itself in the folder that I wanted it copied to, %cd% returns the correct folder.
#ECHO OFF
for /r %%X in (*) do (
"c:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe" a -tzip "%cd%" "%%X"
#ECHO %cd%
pause
)
Your current working directory is still the directory you started the first batch file from. Running the second batch file doesn't change the working directory.
Try adding cd %~dp0 to your second batch file (after #ECHO OFF). That will cd to the directory the batch file is in.