I'm trying to convert this line into Batch how would one start this exe with the arguments!?
Run("""C:\Program Files\Pro Inc\v420\commonfiles\TCL\bin\intel\cron.exe"" ""C:\Program Files\Pro Inc\v420\CommonFiles\Launcher\dank.thc"" -runae")
how does one do this? Thanks!
What seems to be the problem? This should do, I guess (if you are talking about Windows batch files):
"C:\Program Files\Pro Inc\v420\commonfiles\TCL\bin\intel\cron.exe" "C:\Program Files\Pro Inc\v420\CommonFiles\Launcher\dank.thc" -runae
That is, just specify the name of the executable to invoke, including the path if necessary (enclosed in double quotes if the name and/or the path contain spaces and/or other special characters), followed by a list of arguments. An argument may need to be quoted too if there's a chance it would be misinterpreted as several arguments otherwise (or, likewise, if it contains characters with special meaning).
Related
I need help with understanding the following Batch script structure:
This is named Profile_something_schedule.bat
call somePath\lib.cmd :someLabel reqPath
call somePath\lib.cmd :someLabel reqKey
%reqPath% "%~someFileName" /vv_pwd=%reqKey% /bProfile_something_schedule /min
I have a lot of difficulty understanding why this script works.
I do not know why the 3rd line is valid. The behavior produced is that the someFileName is run. I understand it as starting the file as a process. Then why isn't the start command needed? I don't see any batch documentation saying you can simply run a file by writing its pathed filename.
I do not understand the syntax of "%~someFileName". From online searching about it almost every source shows you the batch call parameter table, saying things like %~1 expands %1..., %~f1 expands %1 some other way, etc. All of them involve some kind of number from 0 to 9 to correspond to the parameter position. However, I cannot find any specification of %~someString being legal. There is no parameter positional information from the someFileName string, it is a filename.extension string. Still, it is quite likely this line is trying to run this format.
What does "/vv_pwd=%reqKey% /bProfile_something_schedule" mean? In the lib.cmd that was called previously, there were variables reqPath and reqKey and I am quite certain it is trying to pass the value of reqPath and reqKey from the lib.cmd into the variables here and then I guess it is trying to use the reqKey value as a parameter, which is a password required to run the file.
Inspecting the file, it contains some script of some paid software specific format, it only has variable name v_pwd inside but not vv_pwd. I do not know what the /bProfile_... is for. The part without the /b is exactly this batch file's name. But together with the /b I don't know what it means. The /v and /b look like some kind of options to me but I cannot see any specification explaining as there is no command beginning line 3 just some path. I guess the /min option refers to starting window minimized which is an option for the command start, yet there is no option of /v. The /B in start means to start application without creating window, which is quite unnecessary to have /min if you are not going to create a window in the first place. And it doesn't make sense to use /B directly followed by some string of Profile_something_Schedule.
FYI, the lib.cmd starts with call %*, which I would consider as trying to call all passed parameters and assuming those parameters are actually batch files that can be called.
Another thought I have is that the 2nd line call connects with the 3rd line so the 3rd line may not need a command. But I can't make sense of it. The someFileName is not of the Batch extension so I doubt it can be called as the call doc says it is for batch programs. If I want to run non-batch programs I need to use start right?
Would greatly appreciate your help!
The variable pathext contains a semicolon-separated list of executable filenames that may be appended as an extension to myexecutable. if the first string on a batch line is not a cmd internal command (like set, for etc.) then cmd tries to find myexecutable + each of the extensions in pathext in turn, first in the current directory, and then in each directory in the path (another semicolon-separated list of directories) and runs the first name found, or fails if none are found. That first string may also have an Associated extension, which then runs the application with which the extension is associated (like .txt runs notepad by default)
Neither do I, and I can't see that even knowing what the actual strings being executed by %reqPath% are would assist. See for /? from the prompt for more documentation on other ~ operators - or search SO for thousands of uses.
vv_pwd=%reqKey% : %reqKey% is replaced by the value of the variable reqKey evidently returned by the previous line. / is used in Windows to mean "here's a switch parameter for the executable", so evidently /vv_pwd=[the contents of reqKey], /bProfile_something_schedule and /min mean something to the executable %reqPath%. Quite what is anyone's guess.
The fact that lib.cmd's first line is call %* would mean that lib.cmd contains a library of routines. Since each call you have shown is of the form :string1 string2 then the resultant command executed would be call :string1 string2. call :string1 will call the routine contained within "lib.cmd" with the label string1: supplying string2 (and presumably optionally string2 string3... as parameters. Evidently, string2 is the name of the variable into which lib.cmd places the required data.
Without the :, string1 would be any executable that cmd can locate using the method in (1). It does not have to be a batch, but commonly is a batch.
I was making a batch file to take dragged-and-dropped folders for program input. Everything was working fine until I passed a folder, which for the sake of this post, called foo&bar.
Checking what %1 contained inside the batch file looked like C:\path\to\foo or C:\path\to\foo\foo. If the file path were in quotes it would work, so the only working code that slightly takes this into effect is :
set arg1=%1
cd %arg1%*
set arg1="%CD%"
Which changes directory to the passed argument using wildcards. However this only works once for if there is another folder with un-escaped characters inside the parent folder, passing the child folder would result in the parent folders' value.
I tried the answer of this post, which suggests to output the argument using a remark and redirection statement during an #echo on sequence. However no progress occurred in rectifying the problem. Any suggestions?
To recap, I am looking for ways to pass folders with un-escaped characters as arguments to a batch file. The implementation should preferably be in a batch file, but answers using VBScript are welcome. However the starting program must be in batch as this is the only program of the 3 that accepts files as arguments.
To test this, create a batch file with following code:
#echo off
set "arg1=%~1"
echo "the passed path was %arg1%"
pause
Then create folders called foobar and foo&bar. Drag them onto the batch file to see their output. foo&bar will only return C:\path\to\foo.
OK, so the problem is that Explorer is passing this as the command line to cmd.exe:
C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe /c ""C:\path\test.bat" C:\path\foo&bar"
The outermost quotes get stripped, and the command becomes
"C:\working\so46635563\test.bat" C:\path\foo&bar
which cmd.exe interprets similarly to
("C:\working\so46635563\test.bat" C:\path\foo) & bar
i.e., bar is considered to be a separate command, to be run after the batch file.
The best solution would be to drag-and-drop not directly onto the batch file but onto, say, a vbscript or a Powershell script or a plain old executable. That script could then run the batch file, either quoting the argument appropriately or putting the directory path into an environment variable rather than on the command line.
Alternatively, you can retrieve the original command string from %CMDCMDLINE% like this:
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set "dirname=!CMDCMDLINE!"
set "dirname=%dirname:&=?%"
set "dirname=%dirname:" =*%"
set "dirname=%dirname:"=*%"
set "dirname=%dirname: =/%"
for /F "tokens=3 delims=*" %%i in ("%dirname%") do set dirname=%%i
set "dirname=%dirname:/= %"
set "dirname=%dirname:?=&%"
set dirname
pause
exit
Note the exit at the end; that is necessary so that cmd.exe doesn't try to run bar when it reaches the end of the script. Otherwise, if the part of the directory name after the & happens to be a valid command, it could cause trouble.
NB: I'm not sure how robust this script is.
I've tested it with the most obvious combinations, but YMMV. [It might be more sensible to use delayed expansion exclusively, I'm not sure. It doesn't seem to be necessary except in the first set command. Jeb's answer here might be a better choice if you're going this route.]
For the curious, the script works like this:
Load the original command line into dirname [necessary for the reason pointed out by jeb]
Replace all the & characters with ?
Replace all the quote marks with *
If a quote mark is followed by a space, suppress the space.
NB: it is necessary to suppress the space to deal with both the case where the path contains a space (in which case Explorer adds quote marks around it) and the case where it doesn't.
Replace all remaining spaces with /
NB: ? * and / are illegal in file names, so these replacements are safe.
At this point the string looks like this:
C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe//c/**C:\path\test.bat**C:\path\foo?bar**
So we just need to pull out the third asterisk-delimited element, turn any forward slashes back into spaces and any question marks back into ampersands, and we're done. Phew!
I am trying to create a batch script to send a shortcut of a file to my start menu but I have ran into trouble setting the "Start in" option. I am using Shortcut from Optimum X to do it and this may be an error from their decade old program and not my code.
%~f1 = C:\Program Files (x86)\Example\Example.exe
%~dp1 = C:\Program Files (x86)\Example\
Running
shortcut /f:"%targetfolder%\%fileName%.lnk" /w:"%~f1" /a:c /t:%1
works as intended and creates a shortcut with the "Start in" set to the dir of the file. But running
shortcut /f:"%targetfolder%\%fileName%.lnk" /w:"%~dp1" /a:c /t:%1
fails when it encounters a space, for example if the path is in Program Files the error is
"The Parameter "Files" is invalid
The Syntax of the command is incorrect"
Sorry if this is not enough information I know very little Batch.
Your problem are not the spaces, but how the standard arguments are handled.
In your case, you are not passing the data to a internal command, but to a external executable that will use its own parser (the default C startup code). To this parser a backslash followed by a quote is a escaped quote that does not end the argument.
As your %~dp1 ends with a backslash, it escapes the quote, so the argument continues until the first unquoted space, in your case after Program in the /t switch. So, Files (in the /tswitch) is not recognized as a valid argument.
The usual approach is to remove the ending backslash with something like
for %%a in ("%~dp1.") do (
shortcut /f:"%targetfolder%\%fileName%.lnk" /w:"%%~fa" /a:c /t:"%~1"
)
Here the for command is used to process the path to the file with an added dot. This why when we retrieve the full path to the referenced element (%%~fa) the ending backslash will not be included.
But, if the target folder is the root of the drive, this approach will not work. The ending backslash can not be removed. So, another approach is to avoid the quote scape by simply escaping the backslash
shortcut /f:"%targetfolder%\%fileName%.lnk" /w:"%~dp1\" /a:c /t:"%~f1"
Now the quote is preceded by two backslashes that will be seen as a escaped backslash followed by the closing quote of the argument.
The CreateProcess documentation states that in order to run batch file one has to use cmd.exe /C <path to bat>. In fact it can run batch files just fine unless path to a script contains spaces (Microsoft confirms that in the description of the MS14-019 vulnerability). I wonder if it's possible to escape spaces in the path to batch file to make CreateProcess work. Adding quotes doesn't help, CreateProcess fails with the error:
cannot spawn "<path to batch>": No such file or directory
Update
A workaround is to use short file names as pointed by #jac in the comments. I still wonder why enclosing a path in double quotes works for normal executables but doesn't work for batch files.
There is no escape character for CreateProcess.
Since the code is broken and you can't fix it, you'll have to work around the problem. For example, create a junction point to the target directory and launch the batch file via the junction point path, or use short paths as jac suggested. (Do note that not all volumes will necessarily have short paths enabled, but if you are dealing with the system volume it is probably safe to assume that they will be.)
I have an exe file. I want to run it several times repeatedly one after another. I tried below batch file but couldnt do it is there a way to do it? Sorry but i am a rookie in code writing
#echo off
start ran.exe
start ran.exe
start ran.exe
Assuming that ran.exe is in the current folder or on your path, then you simply write:
#echo off
ran
ran
ran
to invoke it three times. If it is not found on the PATH, then use a fully qualified name like this:
#echo off
c:\path\to\ran
c:\path\to\ran
c:\path\to\ran
Running a program is the normal effect of naming it on a line of a batch file.
Furthermore, because .EXE is listed in the PATHEXT environment variable, you don't need to include that in the name, unless there is also a file name ran.com since .COM is listed in the default value of PATHEXT ahead of .EXE.
The START builtin command is only needed in batch files for handling some special cases. See the output of START /?1 for its documentation. In general, you don't need it just to launch programs.
Update: To generalize this to N invocations, use the FOR command. FOR is extremely powerful, type FOR /? at the command prompt for documentation. For N repeats specified as the argument to the batch file, and passing the current count to the command as its first argument do this:
#echo off
for /L %%N in (1,1,%1) do c:\path\to\ran %%N
The tricky thing to remember with FOR is that the iteration variable must be named with two percent signs in batch files. The help text says that, but only in passing.
Update 2: Some more details and explanation.
In this case, we want to repeat a command N times. FOR supports a variety of kinds of loops, but the easiest way to get exactly N iterations is to use its /L option which uses a starting value, a step size, and an ending value to define the number of iterations.
These are specified in parenthesis, as FOR /L %%N (start,step,end). To get a simple counter of 1 to N, we tell it to start at 1, step by 1, and to stop at the value of the first argument to the batch file which is named %1.
The arguments to the batch file itself are named as %1 through %9, and %* names all of the arguments. Note that there is a vast minefield of subtlety here related to properly quoting file names that contain spaces. To keep life simple, try very hard not to need to do that. Otherwise, CALL /? documents the command line argument conventions, and SET /? documents many things related to general batch file variables.
Other forms of FOR let you iterate over files (no option), directories (/D), directories recursively in a tree (/R), or various parts of the contents of files (/F).