I'm trying to remove incoming quotes for a doskey macro that will let me use "export" as "set". Here's what I have:
doskey export=set $*
Except when I run with the following:
export VAR="value"
I end up with:
VAR="value"
vs what I wanted:
VAR=value
I think I have to write a little method of sorts to 'clean' the input to set but I don't know how to do that - something like "for (var1=var2) do set var1=~var2", but I can't get anything like that to work.
Help!
You can probably do it with a for loop too, but this is easier:
set ORIGARGS=%*
set ARGCOPY=
:copyargs
set "ARGCOPY=%ARGCOPY% %~1"
shift
if not [%1]==[] goto:copyargs
ie. (line-by-line)
save the original %* since we're going to destroy it.
prepare a variable (ARGCOPY) to put the converted arguments into
label (target of goto in line 6)
append the first argument %1 to ARGCOPY, but remove quotes (%~1)
shift all arguments to the left one space (i.e. what was %2 becomes %1, etc.)
if we've reached the end of the arguments then %1 has no value, otherwise goto line 3, where the :copyargs label is located.
when you're done %ARGCOPY% will contain the parameters without quotes.
Related
Please consider the following very simple batch script (the file is named test.cmd):
#echo off
set "var1=%~1"
echo %var1%
The script should be called with one command line parameter, should assign the string which is contained in that parameter to a variable, and should output the variable.
As expected, I get an error message when I call this script with a command line parameter which contains an ampersand (&):
C:\Batch>test "a&b"
a
'b' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
The reason for this has been discussed in some other questions here and elsewhere, for example that one; the usual remedy is to use delayed expansion. So I changed the script accordingly:
#echo off
setLocal enableDelayedExpansion
set "var1=%~1"
echo !var1!
Now it works with the parameter from before:
C:\Batch>test "a&b"
a&b
But there is a new problem. When the command line parameter contains an exclamation mark (!), it will be dropped from the output:
C:\Batch>test a!b
ab
This behavior also has been discussed at several places, for example here; the crucial thing to note is that dropping the exclamation mark happens during the assignment, not during the echo.
Despite a lot of research, I did not find a question here which provided an elegant solution for both problems at once. That is, is there an elegant way to assign a command line parameter to a variable when that parameter contains an ampersand AND an exclamation mark?
It seems that I need the delayed expansion to treat the ampersand correctly, but this destroys the exclamation mark.
The only solution I currently see is to not use delayed expansion and to add code to explicitly quote all ampersands in the input string. This would be so ugly that I seriously think that I am missing something here.
As a side note, the reason for the problem actually seems to be that there (IMHO!) is no way to get the command line parameter in a delayed-expanded fashion. The syntax for the first parameter is %~1, there is no such thing as !~1.
Move the setLocal enableDelayedExpansion after the the set„ that's all.
#echo off
set "var1=%~1"
setLocal enableDelayedExpansion
echo !var1!
I'm trying to replace a string passed as an argument to a batch file.
This works:
set PWD="%~dp1"
set "PWD=%PWD:\=/%"
Which puts the passed argument's parent directory path inside PWD variable, and then replaces \ characters to / characters.
Is there a way to achieve this one liner by execution of just one command instead of two?
Something like this: set "PWD=%~dp1:\=/%, however, that doesn't obviously work.
Please elaborate both methods, using DelayedExpansion and not using it.
Did you test this before posting it?
Your code will produce
PWD=\=/
If it produces the "correct result" then it's because you're not clearing pwd at the end of each run (usually by a setlocal directly after the #echo off) and hence the result will be NOT of the current %~dp1 but of the previous setting of pwd.
Your code first sets pwd to be "c:\whatever..." (including the quotes) PLUS the Space before the & and then sets pwd again to the prior value of pwd with \ replaced by /.
cmd will resolve any expression involving %var% first, and then executes the result. With delayedexpansion, !var! is evaluated at run-time and %var% at parse-time.
Since string-manipulation is not allowed on metavariables, the required operation cannot be condensed into a single statement; the value must be passed through an ordinary environment variable first.
To fix your statement, use
set "PWD=%~dp1" & CALL set "PWD=%%PWD:\=/%%"
which will perform the string-manipulation in a subshell after first assigning the value to pwd - moving the quote delimits the command that will be executed - following spaces after the closing quote will not be included in the value assigned.
Special characters in batch files are a pain, but I haven't found the right workaround for properly escaping the first two characters of this particular string I'm trying to pass the application.
SET pass=^&AntiBatchfileString
A_Program.exe /pass=%pass%
Things I have tried:
:: Escaping the escape twice, first for ^, second for &.
SET pass=^^^^&AntiBatchfileString
echo %pass%
:: Combining escapes.
SET first=^^
SET second=^^&AntiBatchfileString
SET pass=%first%%second%
echo %pass%
:: Preventing expansion
SET first=^^
SET second=^^&AntiBatchfileString
SET pass=!first!%second%
echo %pass%
:: I got this to print correctly
SET "pass=^&AntiBatchfileString"
echo ^^%pass%
Still when passing the last one it doesn't accept the login, I don't know what the final output is. That got me thinking maybe it was trying to do another expansion when passing the parameter to the application, so I quoted that as well.
SET "pass=^&AntiBatchfileString"
A_Program.exe "/pass=^^%pass%"
It's still not working, I'm not sure what I'm missing at this point.
Supposing you want the string ^&AntiBatchfileString literally, this is the best set syntax, as most special characters (^ & ( ) < > | and also the standard delimiters , ; = SPACE TAB) lose their particular meaning as soon as ther are placed in between "", and the "" themselves do not become part of the variable value:
set "pass=^&AntiBatchfileString"
This works only as long as the command extensions are on, which is the Windows default anyway (type cmd /? and see the /E option).
When expanding (reading) a variable like "%pass%" (with enclosing ""), special characters are still treated literally.
However, as soon as you expand it like %pass% (no ""), they get back their special meaning. So you have the following options:
Use set "pass=^^^&AntiBatchfileString", where ^^ escapes the literal ^ and ^& the literal & when reading like %pass%.
Enable delayed expansion (see set /? about how it works and setlocal /? or cmd /? about how to enable it), where the variable value is expanded (read) at a point of time where parsing of special characters has already been completed.
I prefer the latter approach, because no special escaping is necessary, and it can also deal with " appearing in the string value (even if unsymmetrically present).
By the way, " can also be escaped by ^", as long as this does not appear within unescaped "".
Nevertheless, % signs cannot be escaped like ^% in a batch file, because percent expansion happens before escaping, but you need to double them like %% to get one literal one each, independent whether or not the string is in between "".
Note that on the console, %% does not work.
Finally, literal ! are consumed by the delayed expansion feature when enabled, therefore you need to pay particular attention to those in case, by escaping them like ^!, or also by intelligently toggling delayed expansion (hence to enable it only when it is actually needed and to disable it otherwise, when a literal string is provided, like in a set command line, for instance, when expanding a standard variable like %pass% and when reading a for variable like %%I (batch file) or %I (console), for example). Of course this is also not the ultimate solution, because you need setlocal and endlocal to enable/disable delayed expansion, which are intended to localise environment changes, so any variable changes since the most recent setlocal command are lost as soon as endlocal is executed (there are some tricks for passing a variable value over the endlocal barrier though).
If you want to use % as a string without escaping in a batch file:
Like %20, you can use %%%20.
git clone "https:// abc.com /D%%%220an"
I have a batch file that I call with something like this
call do.cmd "one two"
In do.cmd I am launching a program and pass to it first parameter from above:
#echo off
some_program.exe -name='%1'
The value to some_program.exe for name variable must be passed inside single quotes without surrounding double quotes. To get rid of double quotes in passed parameter I make a temporary variable like this:
set v_tmp=%1
set v_tmp=%v_artist:"=%
And then launch my program by
some_programm.exe -name='%v_tmp%'
The problem start when with do.cmd some text having & sign is passed. If I leave batch file code as is, variaable setting will fail because & will act as a divider. If I escape & sign by
set v_tmp=%1
set v_tmp=%v_tmp:&"=^^^&%
set v_tmp=%v_tmp:"=%
then some_program will output text having ^&..
The question is how do I get from call do.cmd "one & two" line to the correct & sign escaping and double quote removal so that to have in result some_program.exe -name='one & two'?
You could try to use delayed expansion here.
#echo off
set "arg1=%~1"
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
some_program.exe -name='!arg1!'
This works, as %~1 removes enclosing quotes, if present.
And !arg1! always expands the variable in a safe manner.
I'm working on a Windows batch file that will bcp three text files into SQL Server. If something goes wrong in production, I want to be able to override the file names. So I'm thinking of doing something like this.
bcp.exe MyDB..MyTable1 in %1 -SMyServer -T -c -m0
bcp.exe MyDB..MyTable2 in %2 -SMyServer -T -c -m0
bcp.exe MyDB..MyTable3 in %3 -SMyServer -T -c -m0
I would like to be able to enter default names for all three files, to be used if the positional parameters are not supplied. The idea would be either to execute
myjob.bat
with no parameters, and have it use the defaults, or execute
myjob.bat "c:\myfile1" "c:\myfile2" "c:\myfile3"
and have it use those files. I haven't been able to figure out how to tell if %1, %2 and %3 exist and/or are null. I also don't know how to set those values conditionally. Is this possible? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
To test for the existence of a command line paramater, use empty brackets:
IF [%1]==[] echo Value Missing
or
IF [%1] EQU [] echo Value Missing
The SS64 page on IF will help you here. Under "Does %1 exist?".
You can't set a positional parameter, so what you should do is do something like
SET MYVAR=%1
You can then re-set MYVAR based on its contents.
The right thing would be to use a "if defined" statement, which is used to test for the existence of a variable. For example:
IF DEFINED somevariable echo Value exists
In this particular case, the negative form should be used:
IF NOT DEFINED somevariable echo Value missing
PS: the variable name should be used without "%" caracters.
Both answers given are correct, but I do mine a little different. You might want to consider a couple things...
Start the batch with:
SetLocal
and end it with
EndLocal
This will keep all your 'SETs" to be only valid during the current session, and will not leave vars left around named like "FileName1" or any other variables you set during the run, that could interfere with the next run of the batch file. So, you can do something like:
IF "%1"=="" SET FileName1=c:\file1.txt
The other trick is if you only provide 1, or 2 parameters, use the SHIFT command to move them, so the one you are looking for is ALWAYS at %1...
For example, process the first parameter, shift them, and then do it again. This way, you are not hard-coding %1, %2, %3, etc...
The Windows batch processor is much more powerful than people give it credit for.. I've done some crazy stuff with it, including calculating yesterday's date, even across month and year boundaries including Leap Year, and localization, etc.
If you really want to get creative, you can call functions in the batch processor... But that's really for a different discussion... :)
Oh, and don't name your batch files .bat either.. They are .cmd's now.. heh..
Hope this helps.
rem set defaults:
set filename1="c:\file1.txt"
set filename2="c:\file2.txt"
set filename3="c:\file3.txt"
rem set parameters:
IF NOT "a%1"=="a" (set filename1="%1")
IF NOT "a%2"=="a" (set filename2="%2")
IF NOT "a%3"=="a" (set filename1="%3")
echo %filename1%, %filename2%, %filename3%
Be careful with quotation characters though, you may or may not need them in your variables.
Late answer, but currently the accepted one is at least suboptimal.
Using quotes is ALWAYS better than using any other characters to enclose %1.
Because when %1 contains spaces or special characters like &, the IF [%1] == simply stops with a syntax error.
But for the case that %1 contains quotes, like in myBatch.bat "my file.txt", a simple IF "%1" == "" would fail.
But as you can't know if quotes are used or not, there is the syntax %~1, this removes enclosing quotes when necessary.
Therefore, the code should look like
set "file1=%~1"
IF "%~1"=="" set "file1=default file"
type "%file1%" --- always enclose your variables in quotes
If you have to handle stranger and nastier arguments like myBatch.bat "This & will "^&crash
Then take a look at SO:How to receive even the strangest command line parameters?