I have a framework where I can only run stuff through PowerShell, but I need to run batch file commands. I'm trying to run a PowerShell Script, something like:
cmd /c blah
for blah I want to do something like:
set myPath = c:\theDir && if not exist %myPath% mkdir %myPath%
This will not work the first time I run it as the set command doesn't seem to take affect until the second line. Any ideas?
This is because cmd evaluates variables when a line is parsed, not when it's run. To get the latter behaviour you'll have to use delayed expansion:
cmd /c /v:on "set MyPath=C:\theDir&& if not exist "!myPath!" mkdir "!myPath!"
Note also that you must not have spaces around the = in a set, otherwise you're creating a variable name with a space at the end (which is to say, your approach would never have worked anyway).
for %d in (some\path and\maybe\another\one) do #if not exist "%d" md "%d"
You can also define the delayed expansion before you run multiple commands. That way you would not have to open a new CMD instance:
Setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set say=Hello && echo !say! && echo Done!
You can also do like this
SET _KillElevated=1& SET _KillWithGrace=1
Related
I'm trying to use CMDER for a development environment that I've setup.
Basically I've created a .bat file that calls:
#ECHO OFF
start Z:\_DEV\OS_WINDOWS\9_MISC_TOOLS\CMDER\Cmder.exe
Then I've placed the file startdev.bat in:
%CMDER_HOME%\config\profile.d
So everything seems to work just fine, but when the startdev.bat finishes, issuing an:
echo %PATH%
returns:
Z:\_DEV\OS_WINDOWS\1_COMPILER\JDK\ORACLE\1.8.0_181\bin;Z:\_DEV\OS_CYGWIN\bin;Z:\_DEV\OS_WINDOWS\9_MISC_TOOLS\CLutils;Z:\_DEV\OS_WINDOWS\9_MISC_TOOLS\PUTTY;Z:\_DEV\OS_WINDOWS\6_VERSION_CONTROL\PortableGit\bin;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\SysWOW64;C:\WINDOWS\System32
...any idea what's happening?
I would either expect CMDER to override PATH with the value from its own settings, or use my full path, which before the startdev.bat ends shows the value of:
PATH=Z:\_DEV\OS_WINDOWS\9_MISC_TOOLS\CMDER\vendor\conemu-maximus5;Z:\_DEV\OS_WINDOWS\9_MISC_TOOLS\CMDER\vendor\conemu-maximus5\ConEmu;Z:\_DEV\OS_WINDOWS\9_MISC_TOOLS\CMDER\vendor\conemu-maximus5\ConEmu\Scripts;Z:\_DEV\OS_ALL\JVM\3_BUILD_TOOLS\GRADLE\5.4\bin;Z:\_DEV\OS_ALL\JVM\3_BUILD_TOOLS\MAVEN\3.5.4\bin;Z:\_DEV\OS_ALL\JVM\3_BUILD_TOOLS\ANT\1.10.5\bin;Z:\_DEV\OS_WINDOWS\3_BUILD_TOOLS\NODE\LTS\10.15.3;Z:\_DEV\OS_WINDOWS\3_BUILD_TOOLS\NODE\LTS\10.15.3\node_modules;Z:\_DEV\OS_WINDOWS\1_COMPILER\GO\1.12.4\bin;Z:\_DEV\OS_WINDOWS\1_COMPILER\PYTHON\32bit\2.7.13;Z:\_DEV\OS_WINDOWS\1_COMPILER\PYTHON\32bit\2.7.13\scripts;Z:\_DEV\OS_WINDOWS\1_COMPILER\ANDROID\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools;Z:\_DEV\OS_WINDOWS\1_COMPILER\JDK\ORACLE\1.8.0_181\bin;Z:\_DEV\OS_CYGWIN\bin;Z:\_DEV\OS_WINDOWS\9_MISC_TOOLS\CLutils;Z:\_DEV\OS_WINDOWS\9_MISC_TOOLS\PUTTY;Z:\_DEV\OS_WINDOWS\6_VERSION_CONTROL\PortableGit\bin;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\SysWOW64;C:\WINDOWS\System32
..but the fact that it only seems to be keeping the value as defined about halfway through the batch job is strange.
Any ideas?
First I recommend opening a command prompt window and run setlocal /? and endlocal /? to get displayed the help/documentation for those two commands. Very important to know is that every setlocal without a corresponding endlocal results in an implicit execution of endlocal by cmd.exe before exiting processing of a batch file or a subroutine called with command CALL.
Next I suggest reading this answer for even more details about the commands SETLOCAL and ENDLOCAL and what happens on using them.
I suggest like michael_heath to change this code block:
setLocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set CLASSPATH=.
for /R %JRE_HOME%\lib %%a in (*.jar) do (
set CLASSPATH=!CLASSPATH!;%%a
)
set CLASSPATH=!CLASSPATH!
Better would be:
setLocal EnableExtensions EnableDelayedExpansion
set CLASSPATH=.
for /R "%JRE_HOME%\lib" %%a in (*.jar) do set "CLASSPATH=!CLASSPATH!;%%a"
endlocal & set "CLASSPATH=%CLASSPATH%"
Now the local environment is ended with passing the environment variable CLASSPATH from local environment, on which it was defined, to the restored previous environment because of cmd.exe expands %CLASSPATH% to current value of the environment variable CLASSPATH in current local environment before executing the command endlocal which restores the previous environment.
Wrong in your batch file is also set WINDIR=%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot% which should be set "WINDIR=%SystemRoot%".
I recommend further reading Why is no string output with 'echo %var%' after using 'set var = text' on command line? It explains why the syntax set "variable=string value" is recommended nowadays. Many of the environment variable definitions use directly or indirectly %UserProfile% which means depending on whatever the user currently running the batch file has entered as user name on creation of the user account. I have seen users entering their name containing a space and non ASCII characters. And I have seen users creating an account with a user name containing character & like Company GmbH & Co. An ampersand outside a double quoted argument string is interpreted as AND operator and cmd.exe tries to execute after set also the remaining string after & as command line on using something like set USERHOME=%DEVHOME%\%USERNAME% instead of set "USERHOME=%DEVHOME%\%USERNAME%". Well, startdev.bat redefines nearly all predefined Windows Environment Variables including USERNAME and USERPROFILE and so is written safe for most environment variable definitions.
This code block is also not optimal:
FOR /F "usebackq" %%i IN (`hostname`) DO SET HOSTNAME=%%i
echo Running on hostname: %HOSTNAME%
The host name respectively computer name could contain also a space or characters critical for command line or start with a semicolon for some unknown reason. So better would be:
FOR /F delims^=^ eol^= %%i IN ('hostname') DO SET "HOSTNAME=%%i"
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion & echo Running on host name: !HOSTNAME!& endlocal
Whereby there is the environment variable COMPUTERNAME predefined by Windows making it possible to use just following command line:
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion & echo Running on host name: !ComputerName!& endlocal
An ECHO command line containing an immediately expanded environment variable reference on which it is unknown if its value contains &|<> is always a problem because of the environment variable reference is expanded before further processing of the command line by cmd.exe as described at How does the Windows Command Interpreter (CMD.EXE) parse scripts?
I suggest also reading DosTips forum topic ECHO. FAILS to give text or blank line - Instead use ECHO/ and avoid the usage of echo. in the batch file to output an empty line.
"halfway through the batch job" as you have a
setLocal EnableDelayedExpansion which sets any further
changes to the variable PATH or other set variables as local.
The endLocal not specified is implied at the end of the script.
To resolve this, use endLocal and set CLASSPATH=%CLASSPATH%
on the same parsed line to set CLASSPATH as global.
Change this part:
setLocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set CLASSPATH=.
for /R %JRE_HOME%\lib %%a in (*.jar) do (
set CLASSPATH=!CLASSPATH!;%%a
)
set CLASSPATH=!CLASSPATH!
to this:
setLocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set CLASSPATH=.
for /R %JRE_HOME%\lib %%a in (*.jar) do (
set CLASSPATH=!CLASSPATH!;%%a
)
endLocal & set CLASSPATH=%CLASSPATH%
After that changed part, the script will set variables as global again.
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 need to search through a file and get some result but using a new window.
If I run the "for" loop with out the START command am getting the correct results, but when I open the process in a new windows the results are wrong.
Start "" /Min Cmd.exe /C For /f "tokens=1,2,3" %%a in (file.txt) do (
set value1=%%a
set value2=%%b
)
echo. %value1%
echo. %value2%
This is what am getting as a result:
%a
%b
I'm not sure what you expect.
Possibility 1) - You want the ECHO statements to run in your parent batch script, displaying the result of the FOR /F command that was run in another window.
This simply cannot be done. You cannot execute a FOR command in one window, and process the iterations (the DO portion) in another window.
Also, if you manage to run the entire FOR loop in another window, any variables you set will be totally separate from your parent batch environment. Your parent batch script will not have access to the variables from the other window.
Possibility 2) - You want everything (including the ECHO statements) to run within the new Window.
This is possible, but awkward, and can also be problematic depending on the file content.
You must put the entire "script" as a single line that gets passed as a parameter to the CMD /C command. Quoting and escaping can quickly become tricky. The entire line will be parsed in a single pass, so you would need the child window to use delayed expansion. But FOR loops will corrupt content if delayed expansion is enabled and the content includes !. You cannot toggle delayed expansion ON and OFF within the loop because the new window has a command line context, not batch, so the SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION command does not work.
I don't see what possible purpose this serves, but the following will run, with the constraint that values containing ! will be corrupted. I had to add a PAUSE command so that you have an opportunity to see the output.
start "" /min cmd.exe /v:on /c "(for /f "tokens=1,2" %%a in (file.txt) do #set "value1=%%a"&set "value2=%%b")&echo(!value1!&echo(!value2!&pause"
When you use a FOR loop in a bat file you need to double the %%. From the command line (which is your case... since you are starting a new instance of CMD.exe) only use single %. Change both occurrences of %%a to %a and %%b to %b and it will work.
I'd like to put each of the many properties' file names into variable fileName and echo them out to the command prompt window. But only the last properties file name to be cycled thru is printed out as many times as there are properties files. Is there an easy fix to this problem. I know that ...DO echo %%-nxG can do the same thing but I'd like to save the file name in %%~nxG for future use.
FOR %%G IN (C:\ExecutionSDKTest_10.2.2\*.properties) DO (
set fileName=%%~nxG
echo %fileName%
)
You need to use delayed expansion:
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
FOR %%G IN (C:\ExecutionSDKTest_10.2.2\*.properties) DO (
set fileName=%%~nxG
echo !fileName!
)
Environment variables in cmd are expanded when a command is parsed – in this case this includes the whole block in parentheses. So %fileName% gets replaced by an empty string because it didn't have a value before the loop ran. Delayed expansion uses ! instead of % and changes variable evaluation so that they are evaluated just before a command is run.
help set has more details about why and when it is necessary. In general, whenever you modify and use a variable within a loop you have to use delayed expansion, but it comes with a few other benefits too.
I like to have a final PAUSE in my *.bat scripts so I can just double click on them in Windows explorer and have the chance to read the output. However, the final PAUSE is an annoyance when I run the same script from the command line.
Is there any way to detect whether we are running the script from a command prompt (or not) and insert the PAUSE (or not) accordingly?
(Target environment is Windows XP and greater.)
Update
I've managed to compose this from Anders's answer:
(((echo.%cmdcmdline%)|find /I "%~0")>nul)
if %errorlevel% equ 0 (
set GUI=1
) else (
set CLI=1
)
Then, I can do stuff like this:
if defined GUI pause
#echo off
echo.Hello World
(((echo.%cmdcmdline%)|find /I "%~0")>nul)&&pause
...NT+ only, no %cmdcmdline% in Win9x probably.
As pointed out by E M in the comments, putting all of this on one line opens you up to some edge cases where %cmdcmdline% will escape out of the parenthesis. The workaround is to use two lines:
#echo off
echo.Hello World
echo.%cmdcmdline% | find /I "%~0" >nul
if not errorlevel 1 pause
I doubt that there's a distinction, because I think it just starts a command prompt and then runs the bat when you double click on it.
However, if you make shortcuts to the bat files and go to Properties and add in an extra argument (something like "/p") in the "Target" field, then you could check for the presence of that argument at the end of the script and pause if it is set. Then, running from the shortcut would cause it to end in a pause and running from command line wouldn't.
I was hoping the answer by #Anders would work in its own .bat file. Unfortunately, it does not for me. Based on #DarinH's comment, perhaps it does for some. The script below should work for all, but requires an extra parameter.
The key lies in the %CmdCmdLine% environment variable, which I imagine might be a bit different for a few edge cases.
PauseIfGui.bat
#echo off
if "%~1" == "" ((echo.%CmdCmdLine%)|"%WinDir%\System32\find.exe" /I "%~0")>nul && pause & exit /b
((echo.%CmdCmdLine%)|"%WinDir%\System32\find.exe" /I "%~1")>nul && pause
This accepts one optional parameter: the full path of calling script. If no params are passed, it runs the same as #Anders script.
AnyOtherFile.bat
#echo off
call PauseIfGui.bat %~f0
If opened from Explorer (i.e. double-clicking) , AnyOtherFile.bat will pause. If called from a command prompt, it will not.