Windows batch: REN does not halt even if errorlevel 1 - windows

I'm using REN to find files with a certain naming pattern and modify them, like so:
REN "?%var1%?%var2%.S16" "?%var1%?%var3%.S16"
This finds all files like aXaY.S16, bXaY.S16, cXbY.S16 (etc) and renames them to aXaZ.S16, bXaZ.S16, cXbZ.S16 (etc). If it finds what it's looking for, it works just fine. But there's a problem: REN won't halt the operation if it encounters an error.
To prove this is the case, my script is as follows:
#echo off
set /p var1=Enter first var:
set /p var2=Enter second var:
set /p var3=Change second var to:
echo Searching for all files matching ?%var1%?%var2%.S16
REN "?%var1%?%var2%.S16" "?%var1%?%var3%.S16"
echo Errorlevel: %errorlevel%
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 goto :FAIL
echo Success!
PAUSE
goto :eof
:FAIL
echo I done goofed!
PAUSE
exit
I ran this in a folder containing a few hundred files. I searched for files matching ?0?a.S16 (of which there are ~40 results) and asked it to change the 'a' to a 'c', knowing that files with this name already exist and should create a conflict.
Here is the console output (shortened for brevity):
Enter first var: 0
Enter second var:a
Change second var to:c
Searching for all files matching ?0?a.S16
A duplicate file name exists, or the file
cannot be found.
A duplicate file name exists, or the file
cannot be found.
A duplicate file name exists, or the file
cannot be found.
...(etc)...
Errorlevel: 1
I done goofed!
Press any key to continue . . .
The complaint about duplicates goes on for about 40 lines, as expected. As you can see, though, Errorlevel returns 1 at the end of the process instead of quitting at the first sign of trouble, which is what I'd rather it do.
I did consider passing this through FOR /f but I don't know how I would also pass the searchmask through it. I know FOR supports '*' wildcards, but as far as I'm aware, it doesn't support '?' the same way REN does. A possible alternative would be to use regular expressions somehow, but I can't wrap my head around them at all despite trying.
Any clues? Many thanks for taking a look.

Yes, you have documented how the REN command works - it continues to completion, even after a rename fails, and then reports ERRORLEVEL 1 if at least one rename failed.
If you want to halt processing upon the first error, then you will have to write your own loop to rename each file, one at a time. You should not use the simple FOR loop because it can begin iterating before it has scanned the entire directory, so you run the risk of renaming the same file twice. The safe thing to do is use FOR /F coupled with DIR /B /A-D instead.
#echo off
set /p var1=Enter first var:
set /p var2=Enter second var:
set /p var3=Change second var to:
echo Searching for all files matching ?%var1%?%var2%.S16
for /f "eol=: delims=" %%F in (
'dir /b /a-d "?%var1%?%var2%.S16"'
) do ren "%%F" "?%var1%?%var3%.S16" || goto :break
:break
echo Errorlevel: %errorlevel%
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 goto :FAIL
echo Success!
PAUSE
goto :eof
:FAIL
echo Errorlevel: %errorlevel%
echo I done goofed!
PAUSE
exit
Note - The wildcard rules used by REN are not at all intuitive. You should have a look at How does the Windows RENAME command interpret wildcards? to make sure you are getting the results you expect.

replace you ren command with
FOR /f "delims=" %%x IN ('dir /b /a-d "%sourcedir%\?%var1%?%var2%.S16" 2^>nul') DO REN "%sourcedir%\%%x" "?%var1%?%var3%.S16"&IF ERRORLEVEL 1 ECHO failed AT %%x&goto :EOF
note This is a direct patch of my test, where I set sourcedir to a testing directory. In your case, you'd need to make appropriate adjustments.
This makes a directory list in basic form without directories and each filename is then assigned to %%x Then rename is then attempted and the resultant errorlevel interpreted. On fail, show the name for good measure and bail out.
[edit] 2^>nul added into dir command.
This will cause dir errors (like "file not found") to be directed to nowhere. The caret (^) is required to tell cmd that the > is part of the dir command, not the for.

Related

How can I restructure file names on bulk via batch script

I have 324 files on a Windows 10 machine which are named in the following pattern:
[7 Numbers] [Space] [Last name] [Space] [First name]
And I need them to be:
[Last name] [Space] [First name] [Space] [7 Numbers]
I have done some quick research and found that I could write a batch script utilizing the 'rename' function:
#echo off
rename “y:\*.txt” “???-Test1.*”
However, I was unable to find out how I can program the script to take the first 7 chracters and put them to the end.
Any help is appreciated.
Given the little detail on the exact formatting of your structures, i.e what happens in the event a surname has a split like van Halen which also now contains a space:
anyway, this will cater for the situation as you've mentioned only and not for names/surnames containing spaces.
#echo off
for /f "tokens=1-3*" %%i in ('dir /b /a-d *.txt ^| findstr /R "^[1-9]"') do echo ren "%%i %%j %%k" "%%~nk %%~nj %%~ni%%~xk"
Note this example will simply echo the command and not perform the actual rename. You need to test it first before you do the renaming. Once you are happy with the result printed to console, then remove echo from the line.
Note. findstr is important here as we need to only perform the action if the file starts with numbers. You can define the findstr filter even more if you want to be more specific. Here I just focused on numbers in the beginning of any .txt file considering no name or surname should start with a number., Unless you're 50cent or some other random rapper.
#ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
rem The following setting for the source directoryis a name
rem that I use for testing and deliberately includes spaces to make sure
rem that the process works using such names. These will need to be changed to suit your situation.
SET "sourcedir=u:\your files\t w o"
FOR %%b IN ("%sourcedir%\??????? * *.txt") DO FOR /f "tokens=1*delims= " %%u IN ("%%~nb") DO SET /a junk=0&SET /a "junk=1%%u" 2>nul&IF !junk! geq 10000000 IF !junk! leq 19999999 ECHO REN "%%b" "%%v %%u.txt"
GOTO :EOF
Please note that this routine uses delayedexpansion
The first for puts the absolute filename of each file matching the mask into %%b
The second partitions the name part of the filename (%%~nb) into that part before the first space (token 1) to %%u and the remainder (token *) to %%v
junk is then set to 0 and then reset to the value of 1%%u. set /a will leave junk unchanged (therefore, 0) if %%u is not a numeric string (the 2>nul suppresses the error message) so if %%u is numeric, junk will be set to 10000000 ... 19999999.
Use !junk! to access the run-time value of junk, check it is within range and if so, echo the ren required.
Remove the echo keyword before the ren after checking the resultant report to actually rename the files.

Searching for partial path\filename in bat

Ok, so I've been bating (hehe) my head against a wall here.
I am looking for an option/code that would allow me to search for a partial path and/or filename from a .bat script that I would export to an outside file.
Now, "search", "export" and "outside file" is something I am fine with. The part that is giving me a headache is the "partial".
To elaborate.
I am looking for a folder called DATA and a file called userinfo.txt inside DATA.
Those are constant. So the path I have is DATA\userinfo.txt
I am also 99% certain that this folder will be in D:\ but thats not a concern right now. Where ever it is I'll find it.
But I cannot figure out how to look for a partial path\filename for the life of me.
Reason I have specified that DATA\userinfo.txt is a constant is due to other folders ability to be named arbitrarily. So in my below example 01-12-2016 does not have to be named according to that convention. For USA it would most likely be named 12-01-2016. It is also sometimes named 20161201 or 20160112 or on top of all that has a letter prefix such as d01-12-2016. On that note DATA is always DATA, which is why I said DATA is constant in my search. Another thing that will be the same is the grandparent folder. When i say "same" i mean "shared" between the two applications. It does not mean it will always be named "program" as in my example below.
Googling this and using things I know has got me nowhere.
Reason I cannot simply use
where /r d: userinfo.txt
is that that specific command will return hundreds of results as there is a userinfo.txt created for every.single.day the program was running and is stored separately.
Alternatively - if there would be a way to comb trough those hundreds of results and find the matching part that would also resolve my issue.
This however brings up another headache as there is usually more than one program with this exact file.
so in the example of
d:\users\path\program\storage\01-12-2016\userinfo.txt
d:\users\path\program\otherstorage\01-12-2016\userinfo.txt
d:\users\path\program\storage\02-12-2016\userinfo.txt
d:\users\path\program\otherstorage\02-12-2016\userinfo.txt
d:\users\path\program\storage\03-12-2016\userinfo.txt
d:\users\path\program\otherstorage\03-12-2016\userinfo.txt
d:\users\path\program\storage\04-12-2016\userinfo.txt
d:\users\path\program\otherstorage\04-12-2016\userinfo.txt
d:\users\path\program\storage\05-12-2016\userinfo.txt
d:\users\path\program\otherstorage\05-12-2016\userinfo.txt
d:\users\path\program\storage\06-12-2016\userinfo.txt
d:\users\path\program\otherstorage\06-12-2016\userinfo.txt
d:\users\path\program\storage\data\userinfo.txt
d:\users\path\program\otherstorage\data\userinfo.txt
Note: storage, otherstorage, storageother, storage2, storagegh are all arbitrary names as these folders are named accoring to end-user wishes.
I would want to export two separate variables for
d:\users\path\program\storage
and
d:\users\path\program\otherstorage
I would also need to do this for \data\userinfo.txt
So if searching for \data\userinfo.txt it would return
d:\users\path\program\storage\data\userinfo.txt
d:\users\path\program\otherstorage\data\userinfo.txt
I would also want to isolate both
d:\users\path\program\storage
and
d:\users\path\program\otherstorage
and use it as (separate) local variables.
I would need to note that installing/downloading any external scripting tools/aids would not be a suitable solution as I work on a lot of computers, most of which I do not have internet access and/or sufficient permissions for external downloads/installations so anything that is not integrated into the bat and needs to be imported separately is a bad idea.
Also, I am working on Windows XP SP3 but I would need this bat to be able to run on XP SP2, XP SP3, Windows 7, Windows 10, Windows NT, Windows 2000.
Any help would be appreciated.
Please note that
d:\users\path\program
would also be an acceptable variable. In this case I would manually amend the remainder of the path or would rely on end-user (my coworkers) input to complete the path correctly. The last has proven to be a fools errand.
The way that I've been handling it until now is to look for a .exe that I KNOW will be in both folders. This is a part of my code below edited to match the current example.
#echo off
SETLOCAL
echo Program will now look for program.exe and programgh.exe. Please input, when asked, matching part of the path for these files.
echo Example:
echo d:\users\path\program\storage\bin\program.exe
echo d:\users\path\program\otherstorage\bin\programgh.exe
echo In above example matching part is d:\users\path\program so you would enter that when prompted
echo Please do not input the last pathing mark: \ (backslash)
echo -------------searching---------------
::I am exporting errors to nul as I don't want them to be spammed by errors and other data that they would think is their fault
where /r c: program*.exe 2>nul
where /r d: program*.exe 2>nul
where /r e: program*.exe 2>nul
where /r f: program*.exe 2>nul
set /p dualpath="Please enter matching paths for program folder: "
After that I would proceed to work with %dualpath% variable.
As it usually happens (to me at least) most people would just copy the example path without taking a look at what the program has spat out and would be confused as to why the program did not work. Either that or would copy everything up to program.exe and programgh.exe - including the otherstorage\bin\ without noticing that \storage\ and \otherstorage\ do not match.
I think this now covers all the comments or additional questions and clarifies a bit better what I need. Thank you all for help so far and I hope that this is easier to understand.
If a Windows cmd command allows wildcards in a (partially or fully qualified) path then wildcards must be used only in the path leaf (i.e. the last item or container in the path). However, you could apply findstr regex to narrow command output e.g. as follows:
where /r d:\ userinfo.txt | findstr /I "\\storage2*\\data\\userinfo.txt"
above command wold narrow output to paths ending with \storage\data\userinfo.txt and \storage2\data\userinfo.txt
Another example - narrow output to paths ending with \storageX\data\userinfo.txt where X is either nothing or any decimal cipher [0-9]:
dir /B /S d:\userinfo.txt | findstr /I "\\storage[0-9]*\\data\\userinfo.txt"
Put the paths to environment variables (with _var prefix for easier next identification), e.g. _varstorage, _varstorage2, …
#ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL EnableExtensions
for /F "delims=" %%F in ('
dir /B /S "d:\userinfo.txt" ^| findstr /I "\\storage[0-9]*\\data\\userinfo.txt"') do (
for /D %%D in ("%%~dpF..") do (
set "_var%%~nxD=%%~fD"
rem %%~fD path
rem %%~nxD last item in above path
rem _var variable name prefix
)
)
rem show result:
set _var
See also next %%~nxD and %%~D explanation: Command Line arguments (Parameters): Parameter Extensions
If I got your intention right, the following script should do what you want:
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
rem // Define constants here:
set "_ROOT=D:\" & rem "D:\", "D:\users",..., or "D:\users\path\program"
set "_FILE=userinfo.txt"
rem // Initialise index:
set /A "INDEX=1"
rem // Search for the specified file in the given root directory:
for /F "delims=" %%F in ('dir /B /S "%_ROOT%\%_FILE%"') do (
rem // Iterate once over the grandparent directory itself:
for /D %%D in ("%%F\..\..") do (
rem // Resolve the path of the grantparent directory;
set "ITEM=%%~fD"
rem // Initialise flag (non-empty means not yet stored):
set "FLAG=#"
rem // Toggle delayed expansion to avoid trouble with exclamation marks:
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
rem // Iterate over all currently stored grantparent paths:
for /F "tokens=1,* delims==" %%V in ('2^> nul set $ARRAY[') do (
rem // Clear flag in case current grandparent has already been stored:
if /I "!%%V!"=="!ITEM!" set "FLAG="
)
rem // Check flag:
if defined FLAG (
rem // Flag is empty, so current grandparent needs to be stored:
set "$ARRAY[!INDEX!]=!ITEM!"
rem // Transfer stored grandparent over localisation barrier:
for /F "delims=" %%E in ("$ARRAY[!INDEX!]=!ITEM!") do (
endlocal
set "%%E"
)
rem // Increment index
set /A "INDEX+=1"
) else endlocal
)
)
rem // Retrieving final count of grandparent directories:
set /A "INDEX-=1"
rem // Return stored grandparent paths:
set $ARRAY[
endlocal
exit /B
This should return D:\users\path\programs\otherstorage and D:\users\path\programs\storage in your situation, which are stored in the variables $ARRAY[1] and $ARRAY[2], respectively. Due to the array-style variables, this approach is flexible enough to cover also cases where more than two grandparent directories are present.
Based on your above sample this batch
#Echo off
Set Search=\\data\\userinfo.txt
pushd "D:\Users\path\program
For /f "Delims=" %%A in (
'Dir /B/S/A-D userinfo.txt ^|findstr "%Search%$"'
) Do Call :Sub "%%~fA" "%%~dpA.."
Popd
Goto :Eof
:Sub FullName DrivePath
Echo Found %~nx1
Echo in %~dp1
Echo Granny %~nx2
Set "Granny=%~nx2"
Echo in %~dp2
Echo -------
Should give this output (only partially tested)
Found userinfo.txt
in D:\Users\path\program\storage\data\
Granny storage
in D:\Users\path\program\
-------
Found userinfo.txt
in D:\Users\path\program\storage2\data\
Granny storage2
in D:\Users\path\program\
-------
The backslash in Search has to be doubled as it is an escape char for findstr

Loop through files in a folder and check if they have different extensions

I have a folder that contains files; each document should have .pdf and .xml format. I need to write a BAT file to run from a scheduled task to verify that both documents exist for each.
My logic is:
loop through files in the folder
strip each file to its name without extension
check that same name files exist for both .xml and pdf.
if not mark a flag variable as problem
when done, if the flag variable is marked, send an Email notification
I know how to use blat to sending email, but I'm having trouble to execute the loop. I found a way to get path and file name without extension but can't merge them.
I've used batch files a few time, before but I'm far from an expert. What am I missing?
Here's the code I have so far:
set "FolderPath=E:\TestBat\Test\"
echo %FolderPath%
for %%f in (%FolderPath%*) do (
set /p val=<%%f
For %%A in ("%%f") do (
Set Folder=%%~dpA
Set Name=%%~nxA
)
echo Folder is: %Folder%
echo Name is: %Name%
if NOT EXIST %FolderPath%%name%.xml
set flag=MISSING
if NOT EXIST %FolderPath%%name%.pdf
set flag=MISSING
)
echo %Flag%
pause
There is no need for fancy code for a task such as this:
#Echo Off
Set "FolderPath=E:\TestBat\Test"
If /I Not "%CD%"=="%FolderPath%" PushD "%FolderPath%" 2>Nul||Exit/B
Set "flag="
For %%A In (*.pdf *.xml) Do (
If /I "%%~xA"==".pdf" (If Not Exist "%%~nA.xml" Set "flag=MISSING")
If /I "%%~xA"==".xml" (If Not Exist "%%~nA.pdf" Set "flag=MISSING")
)
If Defined flag Echo=%flag%
Timeout -1
Something like this :
set "FolderPath=E:\TestBat\Test\"
pushd "%FolderPath%"
for %%a in (*.xml) do (
if exist "%%~na.pdf"(
echo ok
) else (
rem do what you want here
echo Missing
)
)
popd
Is this what you want?
#echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
set "FolderPath=E:\TestBat\Test\"
echo !FolderPath!
for /f "usebackq delims=" %%f in (`dir !FolderPath! /B`) do (
set /p val=<%%f
For %%A in ("%%f") do (
Set Folder=%%~dpA
Set name=%%~nxA
)
echo Folder is: !Folder!
echo Name is: !name!
if NOT EXIST !FolderPath!!name!.xml set flag=MISSING
if NOT EXIST !FolderPath!!name!.pdf set flag=MISSING
)
echo Flag: !flag!
pause
endlocal
You should reformat your code and keep in mind that the grama for batch file is critical. BTW, if you are trying to update the existing batch variable and read it later, you should enable localdelayedexpansion and use ! instead of %.
Keep it simple:
#echo off
pushd "E:\TestBat\Test" || exit /B 1
for %%F in ("*.pdf") do if not exist "%%~nF.xml" echo %%~nxF
for %%F in ("*.xml") do if not exist "%%~nF.pdf" echo %%~nxF
popd
This returns all files that appear orphaned, that is, where the file with the same name but the other extension (.pdf, .xml) is missing. To implement a variable FLAG to indicate there are missing files, simply append & set "FLAG=missing" to each for line and ensure FLAG is empty initially. Then you can check it later by simply using if defined FLAG.
Note: This does not cover the e-mail notification issue. Since I do not know the BLAT tool you mentioned, I have no clue how you want to transfer the listed files to it (command line arguments, temporary file, or STDIN stream?).
In case there is a huge number of files in the target directory, another approach might be better in terms of performance, provided that the number of file system accesses is reduced drastically (note that the above script accesses the file system within the for loop body by if exist, hence for every iterated file individually). So here is an attempt relying on a temporary file and the findstr command:
#echo off
pushd "E:\TestBat\Test" || exit /B 1
rem // Return all orphaned `.pdf` files:
call :SUB "*.pdf" "*.xml"
rem // Return all orphaned `.xml` files:
call :SUB "*.xml" "*.pdf"
popd
exit /B
:SUB val_pattern_orphaned val_pattern_missing
set "LIST=%TEMP%\%~n0_%RANDOM%.tmp"
> "%LIST%" (
rem // Retrieve list of files with one extension:
for %%F in ("%~2") do (
rem /* Replace the extension by the other one,
rem then write the list to a temporary file;
rem this constitutes a list of expected files: */
echo(%%~nF%~x1
)
)
rem /* Search actual list of files with the other extension
rem for occurrences of the list of expected files and
rem return each item that does not match: */
dir /B /A:-D "%~1" | findstr /L /I /X /V /G:"%LIST%"
rem // Clean up the temporary file:
del "%LIST%"
exit /B
To understand how it works, let us concentrate on the first sub-routine call call :SUB "*.pdf" "*.xml" using an example; let us assume the target directory contains the following files:
AlOnE.xml
ExtrA.pdf
sAmplE.pdf
sAmplE.xml
So in the for loop a list of .xml files is gathered:
AlOnE.xml
sAmplE.xml
This is written to a temporary file but with the extensions .xml replaced by .pdf:
AlOnE.pdf
sAmplE.pdf
The next step is to generate a list of actually existing .pdf files:
ExtrA.pdf
sAmplE.pdf
This is piped into a findstr command line, that searches this list for search strings that are gathered from the temporary file, returning non-matching lines only. In other words, findstr returns only those lines of the input list that do not occur in the temporary file:
ExtrA.pdf
To finally get also orphaned .xml files, the second sub-routine call is needed.
Since this script uses a temporary file containing a file list which is processed once by findstr to find any orphaned files per extension, the overall number of file system access operations is lower. The weakest part however is the for loop (containing string concatenation operations).

CMD delete files

Perhaps someone can be of help; I have several files with the following naming convention:
fooR1.txt, fooR2.txt, fooR3.txt, . . . , fooR1000.txt
I wish to delete all the files greater than R500. I have several folders and I know how to pass through each folder, but I am not sure how to capture and delete the files with replication 501 and greater. How can I do such?
How about simply:
ren foo500.txt foo499bis.txt
del fooR5??.txt fooR6??.txt fooR7??.txt fooR8??.txt fooR9??.txt fooR10??.txt
ren foo499bis.txt foo500.txt
Not elegant, but efficient.
This will delete all files fooR###.txt where ### is greater than 500.
#echo off
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
for %%f in (fooR*.txt) do (
set num=%%~f
set num=!num:~4,-4!
if !num! gtr 500 del /q "%%~f"
)
endlocal
Because your range is open, I've reversed your criteria: delete anything that is not in the range 1-499. Please be aware that this is not exactly equivalent to yours, for example it will also delete a file named fooR001.txt or fooR_something_else.txt
It's also pretty slow.
#echo off
for %%F in (fooR*.txt) do (
echo %%F | findstr /v /r "fooR[1-9]\.txt fooR[1-9][0-9]\.txt fooR[1-4][0-9][0-9]\.txt" >nul && echo del %%F
)
First line (for) enumerates files starting with fooR, then for each file findstr checks if it does not match pattern (/v option) and finally a command is executed if a check (ie does not match) is positive (&& means execute only if previous command was successfull).
Code above will just echo commands, not execute them, so you may safely run it to verify it actually behaves as it should. To actually run delete, just remove echo in front of it.
note: you could actually run this directly from command line in a form of:
#for %F in (fooR*.txt) do #echo %%F | findstr /v /r "fooR[1-9]\.txt fooR[1-9][0-9]\.txt fooR[1-4][0-9][0-9]\.txt" >nul && echo del %F
You would need to make a Batch script for this. Then in the Batch file you could write.
DEL "fooR500.txt"
To delete all files with a .txt ending you would just write:
DEL "*.txt"
That's all I know, but if you want to get it so it does files 500 and higher you would have
to create a variable in Batch that holds the value 500 using:
set Value = 500
and then have it delete file "fooR" + Index + ".txt" so to do that you would have to do:
set "FilePre = fooR"
set "FileW = %FilePre% %Value%"
set "Ex = .txt"
set "FileX = %FileW% %Ex%"
del FileX
Then you will have to make Value go up by one and repeat the process 500 times until it reaches 1000.

Drag and drop batch file for multiple files?

I wrote a batch file to use PngCrush to optimize a .png image when I drag and drop it onto the batch file.
In the what's next section, I wrote about what I thought would be a good upgrade to the batch file.
My question is: is it possible to create a batch file like I did in the post, but capable of optimizing multiple images at once? Drag and drop multiple .png files on it? (and have the output be something like new.png, new(1).png, new(2).png, etc...
Yes, of course this is possible. When dragging multiple files on a batch file you get the list of dropped files as a space-separated list. You can verify this with the simple following batch:
#echo %*
#pause
Now you have two options:
PngCrush can already handle multiple file names given to it on the command line. In this case all you'd have to do would be to pass %* to PngCrush instead of just %1 (as you probably do now):
#pngcrush %*
%* contains all arguments to the batch file, so this is a convenient way to pass all arguments to another program. Careful with files named like PngCrush options, though. UNIX geeks will know that problem :-)
After reading your post describing your technique, however, this won't work properly as you are writing the compressed file to new.png. A bad idea if you're handling multiple files at once as there can be only one new.png :-). But I just tried out that PngCrush handles multiple files just well, so if you don't mind an in-place update of the files then putting
#pngcrush -reduce -brute %*
into your batch will do the job (following your original article).
PngCrush will not handle multiple files or you want to write each image to a new file after compression. In this case you stick with your "one file at a time" routine but you loop over the input arguments. In this case, it's easiest to just build a little loop and shift the arguments each time you process one:
#echo off
if [%1]==[] goto :eof
:loop
pngcrush -reduce -brute %1 "%~dpn1_new%~x1"
shift
if not [%1]==[] goto loop
What we're doing here is simple: First we skip the entire batch if it is run without arguments, then we define a label to jump to: loop. Inside we simply run PngCrush on the first argument, giving the compressed file a new name. You may want to read up on the path dissection syntax I used here in help call. Basically what I'm doing here is name the file exactly as before; I just stick "_new" to the end of the file name (before the extension). %~dpn1 expands to drive, path and file name (without extension), while %~x1 expands to the extension, including the dot.
ETA: Eep, I just read your desired output with new.png, new(1).png, etc. In this case we don't need any fancy path dissections but we have other problems to care about.
The easiest way would probably be to just start a counter at 0 before we process the first file and increment it each time we process another one:
#echo off
if [%1]==[] goto :eof
set n=0
:loop
if %n%==0 (
pngcrush -reduce -brute %1 new.png
) else (
pngcrush -reduce -brute %1 new^(%n%^).png
)
shift
set /a n+=1
if not [%1]==[] goto loop
%n% is our counter here and we handle the case where n is 0 by writing the result to new.png, instead of new(0).png.
This approach has problems, though. If there are already files named new.png or new(x).png then you will probably clobber them. Not nice. So we have to do something different and check whether we can actually use the file names:
rem check for new.png
if exist new.png (set n=1) else (set n=0 & goto loop)
rem check for numbered new(x).png
:checkloop
if not exist new^(%n%^).png goto loop
set /a n+=1
goto checkloop
The rest of the program stays the same, including the normal loop. But now we start at the first unused file name and avoid overwriting files that are already there.
Feel free to adapt as needed.
To do Drag & Drop in a secure way, isn't so simple with batch.
Dealing with %1, shift or %* could fail, because the explorer is not very smart, while quoting the filenames, only filenames with spaces are quoted.
But files like Cool&stuff.png are not quoted by the explorer so you get a cmdline like
pngCr.bat Cool&stuff.png
So in %1 is only Cool even in %* is only Cool, but after the batch ends, cmd.exe tries to execute a stuff.png (and will fail).
To handle this you could access the parameters with !cmdcmdline! instead of %1 .. %n,
and to bypass a potential error at the end of execution, a simple exit could help.
#echo off
setlocal ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
rem Take the cmd-line, remove all until the first parameter
set "params=!cmdcmdline:~0,-1!"
set "params=!params:*" =!"
set count=0
rem Split the parameters on spaces but respect the quotes
for %%G IN (!params!) do (
set /a count+=1
set "item_!count!=%%~G"
rem echo !count! %%~G
)
rem list the parameters
for /L %%n in (1,1,!count!) DO (
echo %%n #!item_%%n!#
)
pause
REM ** The exit is important, so the cmd.ex doesn't try to execute commands after ampersands
exit
Btw. there is a line limit for drag&drop operations of ~2048 characters, in spite of the "standard" batch line limit of ~8192 characters.
As for each file the complete path is passed, this limit can be reached with few files.
FOR %%A IN (%*) DO (
REM Now your batch file handles %%A instead of %1
REM No need to use SHIFT anymore.
ECHO %%A
)
And to differentiate between dropped files and folders, you can use this:
FOR %%I IN (%*) DO (
ECHO.%%~aI | FIND "d" >NUL
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 (
REM Processing Dropped Files
CALL :_jobF "%%~fI"
) ELSE (
REM Processing Dropped Folders
CALL :_jobD "%%~fI"
)
)
This is a very late answer, Actually I was not aware of this old question and prepared an answer for this similar one where there was a discussion about handling file names with special characters because explorer only quotes file names that contain space(s). Then in the comments on that question I saw a reference to this thread, after that and not to my sureprise I realized that jeb have already covered and explained this matter very well, which is expected of him.
So without any further explanations I will contribute my solution with the main focus to cover more special cases in file names with this ,;!^ characters and also to provide a mechanism to guess if the batch file is directly launched by explorer or not, so the old fashion logic for handling batch file arguments could be used in all cases.
#echo off
setlocal DisableDelayedExpansion
if "%~1" EQU "/DontCheckDrapDrop" (
shift
) else (
call :IsDragDrop && (
call "%~f0" /DontCheckDrapDrop %%#*%%
exit
)
)
:: Process batch file arguments as you normally do
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
echo cmdcmdline=!cmdcmdline!
endlocal
echo,
echo %%*=%*
echo,
if defined #* echo #*=%#*%
echo,
echo %%1="%~1"
echo %%2="%~2"
echo %%3="%~3"
echo %%4="%~4"
echo %%5="%~5"
echo %%6="%~6"
echo %%7="%~7"
echo %%8="%~8"
echo %%9="%~9"
pause
exit /b
:: IsDragDrop routine
:: Checks if the batch file is directly lanched through Windows Explorer
:: then Processes batch file arguments which are passed by Drag'n'Drop,
:: rebuilds a safe variant of the arguments list suitable to be passed and processed
:: in a batch script and returns the processed args in the environment variable
:: that is specified by the caller or uses #* as default variable if non is specified.
:: ErrorLevel: 0 - If launched through explorer. 1 - Otherwise (Will not parse arguments)
:IsDragDrop [retVar=#*]
setlocal
set "Esc="
set "ParentDelayIsOff=!"
setlocal DisableDelayedExpansion
if "%~1"=="" (set "ret=#*") else set "ret=%~1"
set "Args="
set "qsub=?"
:: Used for emphasis purposes
set "SPACE= "
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set "cmdline=!cmdcmdline!"
set ^"ExplorerCheck=!cmdline:%SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe /c ^""%~f0"=!^"
if "!cmdline!"=="!ExplorerCheck!" (
set ^"ExplorerCheck=!cmdline:"%SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe" /c ^""%~f0"=!^"
if "!cmdline!"=="!ExplorerCheck!" exit /b 1
)
set "ExplorerCheck="
set ^"cmdline=!cmdline:*"%~f0"=!^"
set "cmdline=!cmdline:~0,-1!"
if defined cmdline (
if not defined ParentDelayIsOff (
if "!cmdline!" NEQ "!cmdline:*!=!" set "Esc=1"
)
set ^"cmdline=!cmdline:"=%qsub%!"
)
(
endlocal & set "Esc=%Esc%"
for /F "tokens=*" %%A in ("%SPACE% %cmdline%") do (
set "cmdline=%%A"
)
)
if not defined cmdline endlocal & endlocal & set "%ret%=" & exit /b 0
:IsDragDrop.ParseArgs
if "%cmdline:~0,1%"=="%qsub%" (set "dlm=%qsub%") else set "dlm= "
:: Using '%%?' as FOR /F variable to not mess with the file names that contain '%'
for /F "delims=%dlm%" %%? in ("%cmdline%") do (
set ^"Args=%Args% "%%?"^"
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set "cmdline=!cmdline:*%dlm: =%%%?%dlm: =%=!"
)
(
endlocal
for /F "tokens=*" %%A in ("%SPACE% %cmdline%") do (
set "cmdline=%%A"
)
)
if defined cmdline goto :IsDragDrop.ParseArgs
if defined Esc (
set ^"Args=%Args:^=^^%^"
)
if defined Esc (
set ^"Args=%Args:!=^!%^"
)
(
endlocal & endlocal
set ^"%ret%=%Args%^"
exit /b 0
)
OUTPUT with sample files dragged and dropped onto the batch file:
cmdcmdline=C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe /c ""Q:\DragDrop\DragDrop.cmd" Q:\DragDrop\ab.txt "Q:\DragDrop\c d.txt" Q:\DragDrop\!ab!c.txt "Q:\DragDrop\a b.txt" Q:\DragDrop\a!b.txt Q:\DragDrop\a&b.txt Q:\DragDrop\a(b&^)).txt Q:\DragDrop\a,b;c!d&e^f!!.txt Q:\DragDrop\a;b.txt"
%*=/DontCheckDrapDrop "Q:\DragDrop\ab.txt" "Q:\DragDrop\c d.txt" "Q:\DragDrop\!ab!c.txt" "Q:\DragDrop\a b.txt" "Q:\DragDrop\a!b.txt" "Q:\DragDrop\a&b.txt" "Q:\DragDrop\a(b&^)).txt" "Q:\DragDrop\a,b;c!d&e^f!!.txt" "Q:\DragDrop\a;b.txt"
#*= "Q:\DragDrop\ab.txt" "Q:\DragDrop\c d.txt" "Q:\DragDrop\!ab!c.txt" "Q:\DragDrop\a b.txt" "Q:\DragDrop\a!b.txt" "Q:\DragDrop\a&b.txt" "Q:\DragDrop\a(b&^)).txt" "Q:\DragDrop\a,b;c!d&e^f!!.txt" "Q:\DragDrop\a;b.txt"
%1="Q:\DragDrop\ab.txt"
%2="Q:\DragDrop\c d.txt"
%3="Q:\DragDrop\!ab!c.txt"
%4="Q:\DragDrop\a b.txt"
%5="Q:\DragDrop\a!b.txt"
%6="Q:\DragDrop\a&b.txt"
%7="Q:\DragDrop\a(b&^)).txt"
%8="Q:\DragDrop\a,b;c!d&e^f!!.txt"
%9="Q:\DragDrop\a;b.txt"
In :IsDragDrop routine I specially tried to minimize the assumptions about command line format and spacing between the arguments. The detection (guess) for explorer launch is based on this command line signature %SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe /c ""FullPathToBatchFile" Arguments"
So it is very possible to fool the code into thinking it has launched by double click from explorer or by drag'n'drop and that's not an issue and the batch file will function normally.
But with this particular signature it is not possible to intentionally launch batch file this way: %SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe /c ""FullPathToBatchFile" Arguments & SomeOtherCommand" and expect that the SomeOtherCommand to be executed, instead it will be merged into the batch file arguments.
You don't need a batch script to optimize multiple PNGs, all you need is the wildcard:
pngcrush -d "crushed" *.png
That will pngcrush all PNGs in the current dir and move them to a sub-dir named "crushed". I would add the -brute flag to likely shave off a few more bytes.
pngcrush -d "crushed" -brute *.png
I'm posting this because it doesn't seem to be well documented or widely known, and because it may be easier for you in the long run than writing and maintaining a drag and drop batch file.

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