I'm trying to safe the result of a where command in a batch-script
Without a script (directly in the command prompt), it looks like this:
where python
C:\Program Files\Anaconda3\short\python.exe
C:\Python\Python36\python.exe
but, when catching the result in a script-file:
#echo off
FOR /F %%p IN ('where python.exe') DO ECHO %%p
C:\Program
C:\Python\Python36\python.exe
the output of the first result ends with the whitespace.
Is there a way, to force the command, to assign a fullstring to the var, without any external tools?
FOR /F "delims=" %%p ....
See for /? from the prompt for documentation.
Related
I need to backup an existing folder with date-time stamp and replace it (delete and recreate) with new content inside the folder.
Does anyone have a script to do this?
I tried the following code, where %ApplicationDeploymentFolderPath% = \\servername\foldername
IF EXIST %ApplicationDeploymentFolderPath%\Release (
REM Get current date time
#echo off
For /f "tokens=1-3 delims=/ " %%a in ('date /t') do (set mydate=%%c_%%b_%%a)
For /f "tokens=1-2 delims=/:" %%a in ('time /t') do (set mytime=%%a%%b)
set backup_folder=%mydate%_%mytime%
MD %ApplicationDeploymentFolderPath%\%backup_folder%
REM Copy current folder to backup folder
Copy %ApplicationDeploymentFolderPath%\Release %ApplicationDeploymentFolderPath%\%backup_folder%
REM Delete Existing Release folder
RD %ApplicationDeploymentFolderPath%\Release /S /Q
)
MD %ApplicationDeploymentFolderPath%\Release
The command date with parameter /T outputs the current date in format defined by configured country for current user account. Exactly the same date string can be accessed by referencing dynamic environment variable DATE for example with %DATE%.
The command time with parameter /T outputs the current time in format defined by configured country for current user account. Exactly the same time string can be accessed by referencing dynamic environment variable TIME for example with %TIME%.
What happens on execution of this command line?
For /f "tokens=1-3 delims=/ " %%a in ('date /t') do (set mydate=%%c_%%b_%%a)
for respectively cmd.exe processing the batch file starts in background one more command process using %ComSpec% /c with the command line between '. So executed in background is following with Windows installed in C:\Windows:
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c date /t
The output of command date to handle STDOUT of this command process in background is captured by FOR respectively Windows command processor instance executing the batch file.
The captured line is split up into three substrings using / as string delimiter assigned to the loop variables a, b and c which are concatenated together in reverse order with underscore as delimiter.
This task can be done much faster by replacing 'date /t' by "%DATE%". In this case FOR processes the date string expanded by already running cmd.exe on parsing this command line before executing FOR. So there is no starting of one more cmd.exe in background and capturing its output just to process the same date string which makes batch file execution a bit faster.
The same is true for 'time /t' which can be replaced by "%TIME%".
But the two FOR loops could be completely optimized away by using string substitution as described for example by answer on What does %date:~-4,4%%date:~-10,2%%date:~-7,2%_%time:~0,2%%time:~3,2% mean? and region dependent date and time format is well known for example by running in a command prompt window:
echo %DATE% %TIME%
This command outputs on my computer with German date/time format according to configured country:
24.07.2019 20:15:29,90
It can be seen on this output that the original code would not work on my Windows computer with my account because of date string contains . and not / and time string contains a comma.
So better would be using a region independent solution as explained very detailed in answer on Why does %date% produce a different result in batch file executed as scheduled task? The disadvantage is that execution of wmic.exe takes much longer than cmd.exe needs to reformat date and time string to yyyy_MM_dd_HHmm. However, the batch file is executed most likely not very often per day, and so it does not really matter if execution to get date/time in this format takes some milliseconds or about one second.
Copying the entire folder is not really necessary in this case. It should be enough to rename it with:
ren "%ApplicationDeploymentFolderPath%\release" "%backup_folder%"
The command move could be also used if command ren cannot be used for unknown reasons.
However, the main problem is missing knowledge about how and when to use delayed expansion. Open a command prompt, run set /? and read the output help explaining on an IF and a FOR example delayed environment variable expansion.
The issue here is that backup_folder is not defined on executing the command lines referencing it with %backup_folder% because of all occurrences of %variable% are replaced by Windows command processor already on parsing entire command block starting here with ( on IF condition at top by current value of the referenced environment variable before executing the command IF.
So executed on existing release folder is:
set backup_folder=
MD \\servername\foldername\
REM Copy current folder to backup folder
Copy \\servername\foldername\Release \\servername\foldername\
REM Delete Existing Release folder
RD \\servername\foldername\Release /S /Q
This can be seen by debugging the batch file.
See also: How does the Windows Command Interpreter (CMD.EXE) parse scripts?
The solution is here avoiding the command block by changing the first IF condition.
Fast region dependent solution:
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
set "ApplicationDeploymentFolderPath=\\servername\foldername"
if not exist "%ApplicationDeploymentFolderPath%\Release\" goto CreateFolder
ren "%ApplicationDeploymentFolderPath%\Release" "%DATE:~-4%_%DATE:~-7,2%_%DATE:~-10,2%_%TIME:~0,2%%TIME:~3,2%"
:CreateFolder
md "%ApplicationDeploymentFolderPath%\Release"
endlocal
Slower region independent solution:
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
set "ApplicationDeploymentFolderPath=\\servername\foldername"
if not exist "%ApplicationDeploymentFolderPath%\Release\" goto CreateFolder
for /F "tokens=2 delims==." %%I in ('%SystemRoot%\System32\wbem\wmic.exe OS GET LocalDateTime /VALUE') do set "BackupDateTime=%%I"
set "BackupDateTime=%BackupDateTime:~0,4%_%BackupDateTime:~4,2%_%BackupDateTime:~6,2%_%BackupDateTime:~8,4%"
ren "%ApplicationDeploymentFolderPath%\Release" "%BackupDateTime%"
:CreateFolder
md "%ApplicationDeploymentFolderPath%\Release"
endlocal
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.
echo /?
endlocal /?
for /?
goto /?
if /?
md /?
ren /?
set /?
setlocal /?
wmic /?
wmic os /?
wmic os get /?
wmic os get localdatetime /?
My problem is that two FOR loops are working separately, but don't want to work one after another.
The goal is:
The first loop creates XML files and only when the creation has already been done the second loop starts and counts the size of created XML files and writes it into .txt file.
#echo off
Setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
for /f %%a in ('dir /b /s C:\Users\NekhayenkoO\test\') do (
echo Verarbeite %%~na
jhove -m PDF-hul -h xml -o C:\Users\NekhayenkoO\outputxml\%%~na.xml %%a
)
for /f %%i in ('dir /b /s C:\Users\NekhayenkoO\outputxml\') do (
echo %%~ni %%~zi >> C:\Users\NekhayenkoO\outputxml\size.txt
)
pause
This question can be answered easily when knowing what jhove is.
So I searched in world wide web for jhove, found very quickly the homepage JHOVE | JSTOR/Harvard Object Validation Environment and downloaded also jhove-1_11.zip from SourceForge project page of JHOVE.
All this was done by me to find out that jhove is a Java application which is executed on Linux and perhaps also on Mac using the shell script jhove and on Windows the batch file jhove.bat for making it easier to use by users.
So Windows command interpreter searches in current directory and next in all directories specified in environment variable PATH for a file matching the file name pattern jhove.* having a file extension listed in environment variable PATHEXT because jhove.bat is specified without file extension and without path in the batch file.
But the execution of a batch file from within a batch file without usage of command CALL results in script execution of current batch file being continued in the other executed batch file without ever returning back to the current batch file.
For that reason Windows command interpreter runs into jhove.bat on first file found in directory C:\Users\NekhayenkoO\test and never comes back.
This behavior can be easily watched by using two simple batch files stored for example in C:\Temp.
Test1.bat:
#echo off
cd /D "%~dp0"
for %%I in (*.bat) do Test2.bat "%%I"
echo %~n0: Leaving %~f0
Test2.bat:
#echo %~n0: Arguments are: %*
#echo %~n0: Leaving %~f0
On running from within a command prompt window C:\Temp\Test1.bat the output is:
Test2: Arguments are: "Test1.bat"
Test2: Leaving C:\Temp\Test2.bat
The processing of Test1.bat was continued on Test2.bat without coming back to Test1.bat.
Now Test1.bat is modified to by inserting command CALL after do.
Test1.bat:
#echo off
cd /D "%~dp0"
for %%I in (*.bat) do call Test2.bat "%%I"
echo Leaving %~f0
The output on running Test1.bat from within command prompt window is now:
Test2: Arguments are: "Test1.bat"
Test2: Leaving C:\Temp\Test2.bat
Test2: Arguments are: "Test2.bat"
Test2: Leaving C:\Temp\Test2.bat
Test1: Leaving C:\Temp\Test1.bat
Batch file Test1.bat calls now batch file Test2.bat and therefore the FOR loop is really executed on all *.bat files found in directory of the two batch files.
Therefore the solution is using command CALL as suggested already by Squashman:
#echo off
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
for /f %%a in ('dir /b /s "%USERPROFILE%\test\" 2^>nul') do (
echo Verarbeite %%~na
call jhove.bat -m PDF-hul -h xml -o "%USERPROFILE%\outputxml\%%~na.xml" "%%a"
)
for /f %%i in ('dir /b /s "%USERPROFILE%\outputxml\" 2^>nul') do (
echo %%~ni %%~zi>>"%USERPROFILE%\outputxml\size.txt"
)
pause
endlocal
A reference to environment variable USERPROFILE is used instead of C:\Users\NekhayenkoO.
All file names are enclosed in double quotes in case of any file found in the directory contains a space character or any other special character which requires enclosing in double quotes.
And last 2>nul is added which redirects the error message output to handle STDERR by command DIR on not finding any file to device NUL to suppress it. The redirection operator > must be escaped here with ^ to be interpreted on execution of command DIR and not as wrong placed redirection operator on parsing already the command FOR.
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 /?
cd /?
dir /?
echo /?
for /?
And read also the Microsoft article Using command redirection operators.
You need to use the START command with the /WAIT flag when you launch an external application.
I believe it would look something like this:
START /WAIT jhove -m PDF-hul -h xml -o C:\Users\NekhayenkoO\outputxml\%%~na.xml %%a
That should cause the batch file to pause and wait for the external application to finish before proceeding.
I'm having trouble running !var! examples ad described here http://ss64.com/nt/delayedexpansion.html
Instead of the expected variable content output as the example describes, I get the literal "bang V A R bang" output, any idea?
C:\>Setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
C:\>Set _var=first
C:\>Set _var=second& Echo %_var% !_var!
first !_var!
thanks.
You are getting an unexpected result because you are issuing the commands at the command prompt. Create a batch file by putting the following commands in a file with a .bat extension then run the batch file.
#echo off
Setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
Set _var=first
Set _var=second& Echo %_var% !_var!
E.g., if I created a batch file named delayedexp.bat with the above contents, I would see the following when I run it:
C:\Users\JDoe\Documents\>delayedexp
first second
setlocal only works within the confines of a command script:
help setlocal
If you have access to the parameters of the cmd call, you can set parameter /v. Must be first. And use ! instead % for variables.
%windir%\system32\cmd.exe /v /c set a=10&echo a=!a!&echo My Path is %CD%&pause
This is how, for example, you can get the date in the Russia-France format directly in the Windows shortcut, where a simple percentage is impossible due to its doubling. In std queries with the /v parameter, both a percentage and an exclamation mark will work fine, but single % for cicles.
%windir%\system32\cmd.exe /v /c echo off&for /F "tokens=1-6 delims=:., " %A In ("!date! !time!") Do (Echo %A.%B.%C %D:%E:%F)&pause
I don't know how can i make this clear in a short sentence, so i give this example
Bash :
./foo $(ls -a)
First, "ls -a" is evaluated and converts to its output. So we 've got this line
./foo some_script Downloads
and then that's executed.
How can i achieve the same by using the windows command line?
P.S. : I need to use it when my IDE makes a build, so using PowerShell or CygWin is not an option
Assuming that the filenames contain no embedded spaces:
#echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
set "args="
for /f "delims=" %%i in ('dir /a /b') do set "args=!args!%%i "
.\foo %args%
CMD Q: I want to remove the extension of a filename.
It is actually a complete path, like C:/Me/My/Path/filename.xxxx
i know that the extension has 4 chars, like shown in example above.
How can i get rid of the extension?
Thanks.
In terminal:
set file=C:/Me/My/Path/filename.1234
for /F "tokens=*" %A IN ("%file%") DO #echo variable ^%file^%: %~dpnA
In batch file:
#echo off
set file=C:/Me/My/Path/filename.1234
echo If called with path as batch parameter: %~dpn1
for /F "tokens=*" %%A IN ("%file%") DO echo variable %%file%%: %%~dpnA
This does the trick:
#echo off
set fullpath= C:/Me/My/Path/filename.xxxx
set withoutext=%fullpath:~0,-5%
echo %withoutext%
The result is:
c:\>test
C:/Me/My/Path/filename
In this example script the last 5 characters are removed from the variable %fullpath%.
The syntax is explained here: http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php?topic=78901.0
In cases where the length of the extension is unknown this would not work.
ren C:/Me/My/Path/filename.xxxx filename.
this should do it (the "." at the end is important)