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I have a folder full of zip files. Those zip files sometimes contain zip files, that sometimes contain zip files within them, and so on. I am trying to write a batch file that I can paste into the top folder containing all the zips, and when it runs it will unzip all the nested zip files, and within sub-directories, all the way down, and delete the zips once they have been successfully extracted. The full file paths need to be preserved. If there is an error and a file cannot be extracted then it should not be deleted and the file and file path need to be printed to a text file.
So far I have this:
#ECHO ON
SET source=%cd%
FOR /F "TOKENS=*" %%F IN ('DIR /S /B "%source%\*.zip"') DO "C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe" x "%%~fF" -o"%%~pF\"
EXIT
Which I can drop into a folder and run, it will unzip the first level of zips but none of the nested zips inside. That's the first hurdle.
The next hurdle would be to delete the successfully extracted zips. And last, not to delete any zips that could not be extracted and print their name and/or path to a text file.
Any suggestions or chunks of code are appreciated. Or if there's a better way to do this entirely.
**** UPDATED ****
Mofi posted an answer that looks like it's working except for one piece:
When a ZIP is extracted, it needs to be extracted to a folder with the same name, so I can still follow the structure.
Starting Example:
[Top Level Folder Holding Zips] (folder)
--ExampleZip.zip
---FileInZip.txt
---FileinZip2.txt
--ExampleZip2.zip
---Folder1 (folder)
----ExampleZip3.zip
-----FileinZip3.txt
-----FileinZip4.txt
---ExampleZip4.zip
----FileinZip5.txt
----FileinZip6.txt
Needs to become this:
[Top Level Folder Holding Zips] (folder)
--ExampleZip (folder)
---FileInZip.txt
---FileinZip2.txt
--ExampleZip2 (folder)
---Folder1 (folder)
----ExampleZip3 (folder)
-----FileinZip3.txt
-----FileinZip4.txt
---ExampleZip4 (folder)
----FileinZip5.txt
----FileinZip6.txt
So the full structure is still visible.
I think the top answer in this question shows what I need to include: Extract zip contents into directory with same name as zip file, retain directory structure
This part:
SET "filename=%~1"
SET dirName=%filename:~0,-4%
7z x -o"%dirName%" "%filename%"
Needs to be smashed in there somewhere. Or it seems like there should be a switch for 7Zip that does it, since you can do this from the context menu with "Extract to *" I thought that's what the "extract with full paths" command does but that must have something to do with the -o switch, specifying output path? How do I specify the output path to be a folder with the same name as the input zip? Or merge the answer from that question I linked with Mofi's answer?
*** UPDATED AGAIN ***
I thought there was an issue with the batch file ignoring ZIP files with underscores in the name, but that was a coincidence and it was actually ignoring ZIP files without the Archive file attribute set.
Mofi suggested another fix for that which worked, but the batch file is not extracting nested zips that needed the Archive file attribute set.
This does kind of work, in that I can manually execute the batch file a few times and it will work it's way through everything in the folder, but the loop calculation does not seem to work, or is calculating/terminating before the batch file sets the Archive attribute for all zip files?
Here is the current version I'm working with:
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
set "ErrorOutput="
set "LoopCount=20"
rem The current directory is used on batch file being called without
rem a base folder path or with just one or more double quotes.
set "BaseFolder=%~1"
if defined BaseFolder set "BaseFolder=%BaseFolder:"=%"
if not defined BaseFolder set "BaseFolder=%CD%" & goto VerifyFolderPath
rem Make sure the folder path contains backslashes and not forward slashes
rem and does not contain wildcard characters or redirection operators or a
rem horizontal tab character after removing all double quotes.
set "BaseFolder=%BaseFolder:/=\%"
for /F "delims=*?|<> " %%I in ("%BaseFolder%") do if not "%BaseFolder%" == "%%I" (
echo ERROR: %~nx0 must be called with a valid folder path.
echo "%~1" is not a valid folder path.
set "ErrorOutput=1"
goto EndBatch
)
rem Get full folder path in case of the folder was specified with
rem a relative path. If the folder path references the root of a
rem drive like on using "C:\" or just "\", redefine the folder
rem path with full path for root of the (current) drive.
for %%I in ("%BaseFolder%") do set "BaseFolder=%%~fI"
:VerifyFolderPath
rem The base folder path must end with a backslash for verification.
if not "%BaseFolder:~-1%" == "\" set "BaseFolder=%BaseFolder%\"
rem Verify the existence of the folder. The code above processed also
rem folder paths of folders not existing at all and also invalid folder
rem paths containing for example a colon not (only) after drive letter.
if not exist "%BaseFolder%" (
echo ERROR: Folder "%BaseFolder%" does not exist.
set "ErrorOutput=1"
goto EndBatch
)
rem Make sure to process all ZIP files existing in base folder and all
rem its subfolders by setting archive file attribute on all ZIP files.
%SystemRoot%\System32\attrib.exe +A /S "%BaseFolder%*.zip"
rem Process all *.zip files found in base folder and all its subfolders
rem which have the archive file attribute set. *.zip files with archive
rem file attribute not set are ignored to avoid an endless running loop
rem if a ZIP archive file cannot be extracted successfully with reason(s)
rem output by 7-Zip or if the ZIP file cannot be deleted after successful
rem extraction of the archive. The archive extraction loop runs are limited
rem additionally by a loop counter as defined at top of the batch file for
rem 100% safety on prevention of an endless loop execution.
:ExtractArchives
set "ArchiveProcessed="
for /F "delims=" %%I in ('dir "%BaseFolder%*.zip" /AA-D /B /S 2^>nul') do (
set "ArchiveProcessed=1"
echo Extracting archive: "%%I"
"%ProgramFiles%\7-Zip\7z.exe" x -bd -bso0 -o"%%~dpnI\" -spd -y -- "%%I"
#pause
if errorlevel 255 set "ErrorOutput=1" & goto EndBatch
if errorlevel 1 (
set "ErrorOutput=1"
%SystemRoot%\System32\attrib.exe -A "%%I"
) else (
del /A /F "%%I"
if exist "%%I" (
echo ERROR: Failed to delete: "%%I"
set "ErrorOutput=1"
%SystemRoot%\System32\attrib.exe -A "%%I"
)
)
)
if not defined ArchiveProcessed goto EndBatch
set /A LoopCount-=1
if not LoopCount == 0 goto ExtractArchives
:EndBatch
if defined ErrorOutput echo/& pause
endlocal
echo[
echo[
echo If no errors are displayed above, everything extracted successfully. Remember to delete the batch file once you are done.
#pause
It is rare that there would be maybe 10 or 20 layers of nested zips, so a quick and dirty fix may be just somehow looping the whole batch file 10 or 20 times, unless that is a bad idea or there is a more elegant way to do it.
The task to recursively extract all ZIP archives including nested ZIP archives inside a ZIP archive can be achieved by running the ZIP archive file extraction process in a loop until no ZIP file exists anymore. But there must be at least two use cases taken into account to avoid an endless running archive extraction loop:
The extraction of a ZIP archive file fails for whatever reason. 7-Zip outputs information about the error reason(s). Such a ZIP file should not be processed a second time.
The deletion of a successfully extracted ZIP file fails for whatever reason. The ZIP file should not be processed once again.
The solution is processing only ZIP files with archive file attribute set as done automatically by Windows on creating, renaming or modifying a file and remove the archive file attribute on every ZIP file on which the extraction process or the deletion of the file failed to avoid processing the ZIP file again.
The archive file attribute is set on all *.zip files on directory tree to process before starting the archive files extraction process to make sure that really all existing *.zip files are processed at least once. The archive file attribute is also set on all *.zip files in output directory of a completely successfully processed ZIP archive file to make sure that even *.zip files inside a ZIP file with archive file attribute not set after extraction are processed also on next archive file extraction loop run.
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
set "ErrorOutput="
set "LoopCount=20"
rem The current directory is used on batch file being called without
rem a base folder path or with just one or more double quotes.
set "BaseFolder=%~1"
if defined BaseFolder set "BaseFolder=%BaseFolder:"=%"
if not defined BaseFolder set "BaseFolder=%CD%" & goto VerifyFolderPath
rem Make sure the folder path contains backslashes and not forward slashes
rem and does not contain wildcard characters or redirection operators or a
rem horizontal tab character after removing all double quotes.
set "BaseFolder=%BaseFolder:/=\%"
for /F "delims=*?|<> " %%I in ("%BaseFolder%") do if not "%BaseFolder%" == "%%I" (
echo ERROR: %~nx0 must be called with a valid folder path.
echo "%~1" is not a valid folder path.
set "ErrorOutput=1"
goto EndBatch
)
rem Get full folder path in case of the folder was specified with
rem a relative path. If the folder path references the root of a
rem drive like on using "C:\" or just "\", redefine the folder
rem path with full path for root of the (current) drive.
for %%I in ("%BaseFolder%") do set "BaseFolder=%%~fI"
:VerifyFolderPath
rem The base folder path must end with a backslash for verification.
if not "%BaseFolder:~-1%" == "\" set "BaseFolder=%BaseFolder%\"
rem Verify the existence of the folder. The code above processed also
rem folder paths of folders not existing at all and also invalid folder
rem paths containing for example a colon not (only) after drive letter.
if not exist "%BaseFolder%" (
echo ERROR: Folder "%BaseFolder%" does not exist.
set "ErrorOutput=1"
goto EndBatch
)
rem Make sure to process all ZIP files existing in base folder and all
rem its subfolders by setting archive file attribute on all ZIP files.
%SystemRoot%\System32\attrib.exe +A /S "%BaseFolder%*.zip" >nul
rem Process all *.zip files found in base folder and all its subfolders
rem which have the archive file attribute set. *.zip files with archive
rem file attribute not set are ignored to avoid an endless running loop
rem if a ZIP archive file cannot be extracted successfully with reason(s)
rem output by 7-Zip or if the ZIP file cannot be deleted after successful
rem extraction of the archive. The archive extraction loop runs are limited
rem additionally by a loop counter as defined at top of the batch file for
rem 100% safety on prevention of an endless loop execution.
:ExtractArchives
set "ArchiveProcessed="
for /F "delims=" %%I in ('dir "%BaseFolder%*.zip" /AA-D /B /S 2^>nul') do (
set "ArchiveProcessed=1"
echo Extracting archive: "%%I"
"%ProgramFiles%\7-Zip\7z.exe" x -bd -bso0 -o"%%~dpI" -spd -y -- "%%I"
if errorlevel 255 set "ErrorOutput=1" & goto EndBatch
if errorlevel 1 (
set "ErrorOutput=1"
%SystemRoot%\System32\attrib.exe -A "%%I"
) else (
%SystemRoot%\System32\attrib.exe +A /S "%%~dpnI\*.zip" >nul
del /A /F "%%I"
if exist "%%I" (
echo ERROR: Failed to delete: "%%I"
set "ErrorOutput=1"
%SystemRoot%\System32\attrib.exe -A "%%I"
)
)
)
if not defined ArchiveProcessed goto EndBatch
set /A LoopCount-=1
if not LoopCount == 0 goto ExtractArchives
:EndBatch
if defined ErrorOutput echo/& pause
endlocal
Note: There must be one horizontal tab character after "delims=*?|<> and " on line 16 of the batch file code and not a series of space characters as there will be after copying the code from browser window and pasting the code into a text editor window.
The batch file is commented with lines with command REM (remark). These comments should be read for understanding the code and then can be removed for a more efficient execution of the batch file by Windows command processor.
The 7-Zip switches used in code are explained by help of 7-Zip opened by double clicking on file 7-zip.chm or opening Help from within GUI window of started 7-Zip. On help tab Contents expand the list item Command Line Version and click on list item Switches to get displayed the help page Command Line Switches with all switches supported by currently used version of 7-Zip.
The batch file can be executed with a folder path as argument to process all ZIP files in this folder and all its subfolders. So it is possible to add to Send to context menu of Windows File Explorer a shortcut file which runs the batch file with the folder path passed by Windows File Explorer to the batch file as first argument. It would be also possible to registry the batch file as context menu option for Directory in Windows registry to be able to run the batch file easily from within any application supporting the Windows context menu handlers for a directory.
Edit after question edited: The command line running 7-Zip can be modified to:
"%ProgramFiles%\7-Zip\7z.exe" x -bd -bso0 -o"%%~dpnI\" -spe -spd -y -- "%%I"
Each ZIP file is extracted with this command line into a subfolder in folder of the ZIP file with name of the ZIP file because of replacing -o"%%~dpI" by -o"%%~dpnI\". The additional 7-Zip switch -spe avoids duplicating the folder name if the ZIP file contains at top level a folder with same name as the ZIP file. So if Example3.zip contains at top level the folder Example3, the files are extracted to folder Example3 and not to folder Example3\Example3 as it would occur without usage of option -spe.
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.
attrib /?
call /?
dir /?
echo /?
endlocal /?
for /?
goto /?
if /?
rem /?
set /?
setlocal /?
Read the Microsoft documentation about Using command redirection operators for an explanation of 2>nul. The redirection operator > must be escaped with caret character ^ on FOR command line to be interpreted as literal character when Windows command interpreter processes this command line before executing command FOR which executes the embedded dir command line with using a separate command process started in background.
Using Groovy, or Ant
This would be a lot easier using Apache Ant or, better still, the Groovy AntBuilder.
e.g. this Groovy script will unzip all the top leval zip files then delete them:
new AntBuilder().with {
def sourceRoot = '.'
// Unzip all .zip files in / underneath sourceRoot
unzip( dest: 'some-folder' ) {
fileset( dir: sourceRoot ) {
include name: "**/*.zip"
}
}
// Unzip throws an exception on failure.
// Delete all .zip files in / underneath sourceRoot
delete {
fileset( dir: sourceRoot, includes: '**/*.zip' )
}
}
You'll need to keep scanning the destination folder for zips, and repeating the above process, until everythings unzipped. You may also find it useful to use a FileScanner.
AntBuilder throws an exception if anything fails, so you can avoid deleting archives that fail to unzip. AntBuilder will also log it's progress, using the standard Java logging mechanisms. You can tell it the level of detail you want, or supress it completely
The full AntBuilder documentation is here:
http://docs.groovy-lang.org/latest/html/documentation/ant-builder.html
Using a fileScanner
Example from the Groovy AntBuilder documentation:
// let's create a scanner of filesets
def scanner = ant.fileScanner {
fileset(dir:"src/test") {
include(name:"**/My*.groovy")
}
}
// now let's iterate over
def found = false
for (f in scanner) {
println("Found file $f")
found = true
assert f instanceof File
assert f.name.endsWith(".groovy")
}
assert found
Putting it together
It's not a huge leap to combine a filesScanner with an AntBuilder to get the job done. I suspect it will be a lot easier than doing it with a batch script.
Finally managed to write a batch file that can unzip nested zips, keeping the archive file structure intact!
logic is that, run recursively until all the zip files are unzipped. Number of iterations default is 5, and can be passed as cmd arg "extract.bat 3". may be changed to a while loop until hit file not found exception. And most importantly delete the archive file after extraction, so, we don't get into endless loop!
But follow the rules below
it uses 7z, make sure in the cmd window 7z can be run, that is in the path
zip file names cannot have spaces. make sure of that and ext is zip
copy the zip file to a directory where there are no other zip files
And only .zip ext, you may change that to rar or anything in the batch file
Here is the batch file
Rem Nested unzip - #sivakd
echo off
if "%1"=="" (set iter=5) else (set iter=%1)
echo Running %iter% iterations
for /l %%x in (1, 1, %iter%) do (
dir *.zip /s /b > ziplist.txt
for /F %%f in (ziplist.txt) do (
7z x %%f -o%%~dpnf -y & del /f %%f
)
del ziplist.txt
)
Morning all.
So I've been up hours trying to cobble together -a variety of replies to other posts- into my own code in order to see if I could get something usable. No-go. I'm sufficiently lost in the sauce that I've now got to ask for some help from you.
Background:
OS: Windows 10
I use the program text2folders.exe to create 20-30 new folders on a secondary drive every night.
Primarily, I have a base file "aGallery-dl.bat" that I populate each folder with using an xcopy batch file. Secondarily, from time to time I update the source file "aGallery-dl.bat" using the same xcopy and this overwrites the older target file, populating all folders with the newest "aGallery-dl.bat" (whether they need it or not). All is well.
#echo off
for /D %%a in ("U:\11Web\gallery-dl\deviantart\*.*") do xcopy /y /d ".\aGallery-dl.bat" "%%a\"
I've recently decided I want to add two new files to each folder and have expanded my xcopy to include these. All is well.
#echo off
for /D %%a in ("U:\11Web\gallery-dl\deviantart\*.*") do xcopy /y /d ".\aGallery-dl.bat" "%%a\"
for /D %%a in ("U:\11Web\gallery-dl\deviantart\*.*") do xcopy ".\Folder.jpg" "%%a\"
for /D %%a in ("U:\11Web\gallery-dl\deviantart\*.*") do xcopy ".\Folder2.jpg" "%%a\"
Folder.jpg
a big red X
Folder2.jpg
a big yellow ! mark
When I choose to run a "aGallery-dl.bat" in a given folder (again, one of 100's), it first deletes Folder.jpg then renames Folder2.jpg to Folder.jpg. This has the effect of the red X being replaced by the yellow ! when viewing the folder in File Explorer parent folder. Secondly, it calls "gallery-dl.exe." I use going from red to yellow to let me know I've run "aGallery-dl.bat" at least once. All is well.
rem #echo off
del .\Folder.jpg
ren .\Folder2.jpg Folder.jpg
FOR /F %%i IN ('cd') DO set FOLDER=%%~nxi
"C:\Program Files (x86)\gallery-dl\gallery-dl.exe" -d "U:\11Web\gallery-dl" --download-archive ".\aGDB.sqlite3" "https://www.deviantart.com/"%FOLDER%"/gallery/all"
del .\Folder.jpg
If "aGallery-dl.bat" completes successfully, it finally deletes the Folder.jpg (currently yellow !), and now the representative contents of the folder (usually DeviantArt .jpg's) are visible.
Problem:
When I have to re-run my original xcopy command to update "aGallery-dl.bat" in ALL FOLDERS, the Folder.jpg and Folder2.jpg will be re-copied to all folders, defeating the purpose of deleting them once via "aGallery-dl.bat." I don't want to have to go back and re-run "aGallery-dl.bat" intermittently across 100's of folders (again, only those that have had aGallery-dl.bat run at least once). I need some type of test, that if "aGallery-dl.bat" is already present in the target folder, DO NOT xcopy Folder.jpg and Folder2.jpg aka vague example, below.
*********************************Some sort of test statement here!!!***********************
:aGallery-dlPresent
GOTO eof
:aGallery-dlNotPresent
for /D %%a in ("U:\11Web\gallery-dl\deviantart\*.*") do xcopy ".\Folder.jpg" "%%a\"
for /D %%a in ("U:\11Web\gallery-dl\deviantart\*.*") do xcopy ".\Folder2.jpg" "%%a\"
GOTO eof
:eof
I had found a hopeful candidate test statement in the below (copied in its original form from what/where I read in other post), but am looking for ideas/replacements as I HAVE NO IDEA how to modify/inject/implement the below to work in the above.
If exist \\%DIR%\%Folder%\123456789.wav xcopy \\%DIR%\%Folder%\123456789.wav D:\%New Folder%\ /y
Having XCopy copy a file and not overwrite the previous one if it exists (without prompting)
Note: The below is a vague approximation of what it should all look like (barring having a correct -test statement-).
rem #echo off
*********************************Some sort of test statement here!!!***********************
:aGallery-dlPresent
GOTO eof
:aGallery-dlNotPresent
for /D %%a in ("U:\11Web\gallery-dl\deviantart\*.*") do xcopy ".\Folder.jpg" "%%a\"
for /D %%a in ("U:\11Web\gallery-dl\deviantart\*.*") do xcopy ".\Folder2.jpg" "%%a\"
GOTO eof
:eof
for /D %%a in ("U:\11Web\gallery-dl\deviantart\*.*") do xcopy /y /d ".\aGallery-dl.bat" "%%a\"
The command for copying a file is COPY. It is an internal command of Windows command processor cmd.exe. XCOPY is an eXtended file and directory copying executable in directory %SystemRoot%\System32 which is deprecated since Windows Vista as there is even more powerful ROBOCOPY which is with full qualified file name %SystemRoot%\System32\robocopy.exe.
There is no need to use XCOPY or ROBOCOPY for this simple file copying task. COPY is enough on source files aGallery-dl.bat, Folder.jpgand Folder2.jpg don't have hidden attribute set and the same files in the target directories don't have read-only attribute set.
.\ references the current directory which can be any directory. Windows Explorer sets the directory of the batch file as current directory on double clicking on a batch file. But this is nearly the only method to run a batch file on which the directory of the executed batch file is set automatically as current directory (except the batch file is stored on a network resource accessed using UNC path).
There is %~dp0 to reference the path of the batch file. This path always ends with a backslash which means that no additional backslash is needed on concatenating the batch file path with a file or folder name. The usage of %~dp0 makes it possible to reference files in same directory as the executed batch file independent on which directory is the current directory on execution of the batch file.
The batch file needed for your task is:
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
for /D %%I in ("U:\11Web\gallery-dl\deviantart\*") do (
if not exist "%%I\aGallery-dl.bat" (
copy "%~dp0Folder.jpg" "%%I\"
copy "%~dp0Folder2.jpg" "%%I\"
)
copy /Y "%~dp0aGallery-dl.bat" "%%I\"
)
endlocal
A file/folder name must be enclosed in " if containing a space or one of these characters &()[]{}^=;!'+,`~. For that reason all file/folder names are enclosed in this batch file in double quotes although inside the batch files no file/folder name contains a space or one of the characters in the list. It is important to understand on batch file writing how a command line looks like after Windows command processor processed the command line. See following topics:
How does the Windows Command Interpreter (CMD.EXE) parse scripts?
How to debug a batch file?
Windows interprets *.* like just * which means any file or folder name. For that reason it is enough to just write * and omit .*.
Please note that for /D ignores directories with hidden attribute set.
The batch file checks first for each subfolder if it does not contain the batch file aGallery-dl.bat. In this case it copies the two files Folder.jpg and Folder2.jpg from directory of executed batch file to current subdirectory of U:\11Web\gallery-dl\deviantart.
Then the batch file aGallery-dl.bat is copied from directory of executed batch file to to current subdirectory of U:\11Web\gallery-dl\deviantart independent on its existence in the destination directory.
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.
call /? ... explains %~dp0 ... drive and path of argument 0 ... full batch file path.
cmd /? ... outputs the help of Windows command processor executing a batch file.
copy /?
echo /?
endlocal /?
for /?
if /?
setlocal /?
See also the chapters Issue 6 and Issue 7 in this answer why using setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion and endlocal although not necessary by default and why using I instead of a as loop variable although a would work here, too.
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 am very new to batch scripting.
I need to write a batch script to search for a specific file(usually .zip or .7z extension) located on network drive directory(containing multiple folder and sub-folders with space in name) and copy the same to my local drive.
Also I need to copy a zip file containing "elf" keyword which will also be located in the same directory where my file is present.
For example:
Search file: abc.zip
Network drive:\abc.com\test
So basically I need to search for my file abc.zip in the network directory(including sub-folders) and if found copy the same to my local drive(say c:\Temp) and also I need to copy *elf* file to the same local directory.
Thanks in Advance.
#echo off
rem Prepare environment
setlocal enableextensions
rem Configure paths
set "source=\abc.com\test"
set "target=c:\test"
rem Change drive/path to source of files
pushd "%source%"
rem Recurse folders searching adecuated files and when found, copy to target
for /f "tokens=*" %%f in ('dir /s /b "abc.*z*" ^| findstr /i /e /c:".zip" /c:".7z"') do (
copy /y "%%~ff" "%target%"
if exist "%%~dpf\*elf*.zip" copy /y "%%~dpf\*elf*.zip" "%target%"
)
rem Return to previous drive/path
popd
rem Clean
endlocal
This will search the source folder hierarchy for indicated filename and an aproximate match based on file extension (.*z* matchs .zip, .7z and more), filters file extensions to only accept the cases needed (.zip and .7z) and copy the required files to target folder.
Have you considered using the Extended Copy Utility (xcopy)? Syntax is as simple as
xcopy "<directoryToCopyFrom>" "<directoryToCopyTo>" /C /S /D /Y /I
This will work assuming you're wanting to write a Windows batch script.
Searching for the "elf" string will be a bit trickier though. You might consider doing that using Java, and then call the batch file from the Java program.
for /d /r "drive:\abc.com\test" %%A in (*) do (
if exist "%%~A\abc.zip" copy "%%~A\abc.zip" "C:\Temp"
if exist "%%~A\*elf*" copy "%%~A\*elf*" "C:\Temp"
)