I am trying to make a batch file which will work on computers with CMD disabled. Below is my code. (The bit saying command is other code which I have not included.)
If I try running this code, a CMD window will open but it will not run because CMD is disabled. It is opening as a CMD file not a batch file. How can I change this? Or could I make the batch file create a .reg file to enable CMD before the start command is used?
#setlocal enableextensions enabledelayedexpansion
for %%f in (%0) do set basename=%%~nf
set UsPr=%UserProfile%
copy %0 "%UsPr%"
if "%0" == "%UsPr%\%basename%.bat" (
goto :1
) else (
goto :2
)
:1
command
pause
:2
command
start "%UsPr%\%basename%.bat"
pause
I'm not sure what you mean by "CMD is disabled". But your START command is failing because your target path is enclosed by quotes (probably by necessity), but START will treat the first argument as a title if it is enclosed by quotes. The solution is to add an additional quoted argument for the title - an empty string will do:
start "" "%UsPr%\%basename%.bat"
Related
We've large number of bat files in our server and they're scheduled using task scheduler. Sometimes, instead of right click to edit it, users execute them by double clicking it, triggering processes.
Can I able to change the double click properties of batch files only? Like triple click to execute, double click to do nothing.
Are there any batch commands to prompt user when they try to execute directly instead of command line?
I had similar cases and the issue solved when I added in the begin of the script TIMEOUT 10 the batch starts after 10 seconds, so if someone will accidentally start it will have time to close the window without running.
I do not recommend it but you can break the associated application for .bat files from registry changing the (Default) value from "%1" %* to nothing of the key: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\batfile\shell\open\command
I would definitely choose the first option.
#echo off &::in_con.bat filename and args
setlocal
set "_is.c=0"
for /f "tokens=*" %%# in ("%ComSpec%") do for /f "tokens=1-2 delims= " %%c in ('echo %CmdCmdLine%') do if /i "%%~nc"=="%%~n#" if /i "%%~d"=="/c" set "_is.c=1"
rem if running by click open in notepad
if "%_is.c%"=="1" if exist "%~1" notepad "%~1"
rem if running in console pass it throuth
endlocal & if "%_is.c%"=="0" cmd /c %*
goto :eof
always run .bat throuth cmd /c in_con.bat
Why not just rename them all to .txt and in your scheduler copy the file to a .bat|.cmd file and execute it. Best of all worlds.
I have an executable that need to be spawned in different processes using command line in windows. I want to change the name "concatenate date and process number" output file which is a text file.
The instances are computationally intensive so they take a long time....can we make a script wait in each process and rename the output file in that process.
Here is what I did , but it doesn't seem to work
#ECHO OFF
set progPath=%cd%
cd %progPath%
set nprs=3
for /l %%x in (1, 1, %nprs%) do ( start execMCS.exe ren output.txt output%nprs%.txt );
I believe you want to achieve the following:
#echo off
cd /D "D:\working_directory"
set "nprs=3"
for /L %%x in (1,1,%nprs%) do (
start "" cmd /C "execMCS.exe" ^& ren "output.txt" "output%%x.txt"
)
start starts an application, so you cannot state multiple ones, neither can you state internal commands of cmd. You can however start a new cmd instance and execute both an application and an internal command (ren) therein, concatenated by the cmd-internal & operator.
You may want to specify the absolute path to the executable file rather than its name only.
It does not make sense to change to the directory stored in variable %CD%, because this is already the current working directory. That is why I changed the cd command line.
I'm having trouble with a batch script that worked a few days ago, but now doesnt work, even though no changes has been made!
I believe something has changed in the system without my knowledge.
The expected link is:
order.htm?order=12345
But it becomes like this: (notice the question mark becomes %3F)
order.htm%3Forder=12345
The code is as follows:
#echo off
echo.
set "drive=%~d0"
set "runningDir=%~dp0"
:start
ClS
Echo.
Set /P Job=Enter number:^>
#echo off
if exist c:\"Program Files (x86)"\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe goto program_files_x86
:program_files_x86
start c:\"Program Files (x86)"\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe --disable-print-preview --ignore-certificate-errors --disable-web-security --user-data-dir --allow-file-access-from-files %runningDir%\order.htm?order=%job%
goto end
:end
goto start
Any suggestions?
Best Regards
Niclas
Double quotes should be usually used around entire folder/file string and not just parts of it.
Command START interprets first double quoted string as title for the new command process. Therefore on starting a GUI application an empty title string specified with "" should be used on START command line to avoid interpreting the double quoted file name with path of the application to execute as title string.
The batch file path referenced with %~dp0 always ends with a backslash. Therefore don't specify an extra backspace after this string or an environment variable like runningDir with path of batch file. By the way: The current directory on running a batch file can be different to directory of batch file. For that reason the name runningDir is not good as misleading. A better name for the environment variable is BatchPath.
It is possible to use start as label in a batch file. But it is not advisable to do that because of command START which makes it difficult to search for label respectively search for command. It is better to use a label like Begin.
In an url the directory separator is / and therefore each backslash (directory separator on Windows) in batch file path should be substituted by a slash.
The url should start with the protocol like http:// (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) and should be enclosed completely in double quotes.
And last echo/ or echo( is better than echo. for printing a blank line, see Difference between Echo[Special Character] for details.
The rewritten batch code:
#echo off
echo/
set "BatchPath=%~dp0"
set "BatchPath=%BatchPath:\=/%"
:Begin
clS
echo/
set /P "Job=Enter number: "
if exist "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" goto program_files_x86
:program_files_x86
start "" "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --disable-print-preview --ignore-certificate-errors --disable-web-security --user-data-dir --allow-file-access-from-files "http://%BatchPath%order.htm?order=%Job%"
goto end
:end
goto Begin
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.
cls /?
echo /?
goto /?
if /?
set /?
start /?
I have a bat file that does a bunch of things and closes the cmd window which is fine when user double clicks the bat file from explorer. But if I run the bat file from a already open cmd window as in cmd>c:\myfile.bat then I do not want the bat file to close the cmd window (END) since I need to do other things. I need bat dos command code that will do something like
if (initiated_from_explorer) then
else
endif
Is this possible ? thanks
mousio's solution is nice but I did not manage to make it work in an "IF" statement because of the double quotes in the value of %cmdcmdline% (with or without double quotes around %cmdcmdline%).
In constrast, the solution using %0 works fine. I used the following block statement and it works like a charm:
IF %0 == "%~0" pause
The following solution, which expands %~0 to a fully qualified path, might also work if the previous does not (cf. Alex Essilfie's comment):
IF %0 EQU "%~dpnx0" PAUSE
However, note that this solution with %~dpnx0 fails when
the .bat file is located somewhere in the %USERPROFILE% directory, and
your %USERNAME% contains one or more uppercase characters
because... wait for it... the d in %~dpnx0 forces your %USERPROFILE% username to lowercase, while plain %0 does not. So they're never equal if your username contains an uppercase character. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
[Edit 18 June 2021 - thanks to JasonXA]
You can solve this lowercase issue with case-insensitive comparison (magic /I):
IF /I %0 EQU "%~dpnx0" PAUSE
This might be the best solution of all!
%cmdcmdline% gives the exact command line used to start the current Cmd.exe.
When launched from a command console, this var is "%SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe".
When launched from explorer this var is cmd /c ""{full_path_to_the_bat_file}" ";
this implicates that you might also check the %0 variable in your bat file, for in this case it is always the full path to the bat file, and always enclosed in double quotes.
Personally, I would go for the %cmdcmdline% approach (not %O), but be aware that both start commands can be overridden in the registry…
A consolidated answer, derived from much of the information found on this page:
:pauseIfDoubleClicked
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
set testl=%cmdcmdline:"=%
set testr=!testl:%~nx0=!
if not "%testl%" == "%testr%" pause
The variable "testl" gets the full line of the cmd processor call (as per mousio), stripping out all of the pesky double quotes.
The variable "testr" takes "testl" and further strips outs the name of the current batch file name if present (which it will be if the batch file was invoked with a double-click).
The if statement sees if "testl" and "testr" are different. If yes, batch was double-clicked, so pause; if no, batch was typed in on command line, go on.
Naturally, if you want to do something else if you detect a double-click, you can change the pause.
Thanks everyone.
Less code, more robust:
Build upon the other answers, I find the most robust approach to:
Replace quotes with x to enable text comparison without breaking the IF statement.
Recreate the expected cmdcmdline exactly (well, with '"' replaced by x).
Test for case-insensitive equality.
The result is:
set "dclickcmdx=%comspec% /c xx%~0x x"
set "actualcmdx=%cmdcmdline:"=x%"
set isdoubleclicked=0
if /I "%dclickcmdx%" EQU "%actualcmdx%" (
set isdoubleclicked=1
)
This adds more robustness against general cmd /c calls, since Explorer adds an awkward extra space before the last quote/x (in our favor). If cmdcmdline isn't found, it correctly renders isdoubleclicked=0.
Addendum:
Similarly to the above method, the following one-liner will pause a script if it was double-clicked from explorer. I add it to the end of my scripts to keep the command-line window open:
(Edit 2022-01-12, fixed quote mismatching from this discussion)
if /i "%comspec% /c ``%~0` `" equ "%cmdcmdline:"=`%" pause
if /i "%comspec% /c %~0 " equ "%cmdcmdline:"=%" pause
Use exit /b 0, not exit
The former will exit all the way if launched from Windows Explorer, but return to the console if launched from the command line.
You can add a command line parameter when running from a CMD window that won't exist when the file is double-clicked. If there is no parameter, close the window. If there is, don't close it. You can test the parameter using %1
It's not only possible, but your desired behavior is the normal behavior of batch file execution, unless you do something 'special':
when executing a batch file by double-clicking it in Explorer, the cmd window will close when it's done;
when the batch file is executed from the command line, it simply returns to the command line prompt when complete - the window is not closed;
So I think the question that needs to be answered is what are you doing in the batch file that causes the command window to close when you execute it by the command line?
Like #anishsane I too wanted a pause statement if launched from explorer, but not when launched from a command window.
Here's what worked for me, based upon #mousio's answer above:
#SET cmdcmdline|FINDSTR /b "cmdcmdline="|FINDSTR /i pushd >nul
#IF ERRORLEVEL 1 (
#echo.
#echo Press ENTER when done
#pause > nul
)
(Nothing original here, just providing a working example)
Paste this at the beginning of your BAT or CMD script and maybe change what happens in the 'if' clause:
:: To leave command window open if script run from Windows explorer.
#setlocal
#set x=%cmdcmdline:"=%
#set x=%x: =%
#set y=%x:cmd/c=%
#if "%x%" neq "%y%" cmd /k %0 %* && exit || exit
#endlocal
What this does, is if the user either double-clicks or calls this script using "cmd /c" it will re-launch with "cmd /k" which will leave the session open after the command finishes. This allows the user to EXIT or maybe do something else.
The reason for doing it this way rather than the other ways explained in this answer is because I've found situations that still even with using the quotes or other symbols, the IF statement would barf with certain situations of the QUOTES and the /c and with spaces. So the logic first removes all QUOTES and then removes all spaces.. because SOMETIMES there is an extra space after removing the quotes.
set x=%cmdcmdline:"=% <-- removes all quotes
set x=%x: =% <-- removes all spaces
set y=%x:cmd/c=% <-- removes cmd/c from the string saving it to y
The point of the && exit || exit is so that if the ERRORLEVEL before exiting is 0 (success) it then stops running, but also if it is non 0 (some failure) it also stops running.
But you can replace this part:
cmd /k %0 %* && exit || exit
with something like
set CALLED_WITH_CMD_C=YES
and then make up your own differences in the rest of your script. You would have to then move or remove the endlocal.
The '#' symbol at front just prevents the echo, which you can have if you want to test.
Do not use echo on or echo off as it changes the setting and affects all subsequent scripts that call yours.
#dlchambers was close but set didn't work since cmdcmdline isn't a defined environment variable in some cases, but this version based on his works great for me:
echo %cmdcmdline% | findstr /i pushd >nul
if errorlevel 1 pause
after reading through the suggestions, this is what I went with:
set __cmdcmdline=%cmdcmdline%
set __cmdcmdline=%__cmdcmdline:"=%
set __cmdcmdline=%__cmdcmdline: =%
set __cmdcmdline=%__cmdcmdline:~0,5%
if "%__cmdcmdline%"=="cmd/c" set CMD_INITIATED_FROM_EXPLORER=1
set __cmdcmdline=
which conditionally sets the variable: CMD_INITIATED_FROM_EXPLORER
..and can subsequently be used as needed:
if defined CMD_INITIATED_FROM_EXPLORER (
echo.
pause
)
..but the issue regarding Powershell that #Ruben Bartelink mentions isn't solved:
running ./batch.cmd from Powershell uses cmd /c under the hood
You also can check for SESSIONNAME environment variable.
As you see here that variable typically isn't set in Explorer window. When invoking from cmd it SESSIONNAME is set to Console. I can confirm this for Windows 10.
Unfortunately behaviour seems to be changeable: https://support.microsoft.com/de-de/help/2509192/clientname-and-sessionname-enviroment-variable-may-be-missing
(Partly) Contrary and in addition to the accepted answer AToW (re %cmdcmdline%) and the top answer AToW (re if /i %0 equ "%~dpnx0") in Win10 it is:
in CMD:
in a *.cmd (here _pauseIfRunFromGUI.cmd):
"C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe"
if /I _pauseIfRunFromGUI[.cmd] EQU "C:\Users\Geri\_pauseIfRunFromGUI.cmd"
.cmd is present if entered on the cmd line, which happens if you complete with Tab.
in a *.cmd (_pauseIfRunFromGUI.cmd) that's called by a *.cmd:
"C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe"
if /I _pauseIfRunFromGUI[.cmd] EQU "C:\Users\Geri\_pauseIfRunFromGUI.cmd"
Same as above.
.cmd is present if called via call _pauseIfRunFromGUI.cmd.
In any way the comparison evaluates to false which is intended.
from GUI:
(Explorer and link on Desktop)
in a *.cmd (here _pauseIfRunFromGUI.cmd) that's launched from the GUI:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /c ""C:\Users\Geri\_pauseIfRunFromGUI.cmd" "
if /I "C:\Users\Geri\_pauseIfRunFromGUI.cmd" EQU "C:\Users\Geri\_pauseIfRunFromGUI.cmd"
This one is different to the accepted answer AToW which says just cmd /c ""..." "_!
The comparison evaluates to true which is intended.
in a *.cmd (_pauseIfRunFromGUI.cmd) that's called by a *.cmd (here calling.cmd) that's launched from the GUI:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /c ""C:\Users\Geri\calling.cmd" "
if /I _pauseIfRunFromGUI[.cmd] EQU "C:\Users\Geri\_pauseIfRunFromGUI.cmd"
Different to above, since calling .cmd is in cmdcmdline, of course, not the one in which it is evaluated (_pauseIfRunFromGUI.cmd).
.cmd is present if called via call _pauseIfRunFromGUI.cmd within calling.cmd.
The comparison evaluates to false which is not intended!
If the comparison is changed to:
if /i "%cmdcmdline:~0,31%"=="C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /c " echo: & pause
everything works as expected.
I have a DOS batch script that invokes a java application which interacts with the user through the console UI. For the sake of argument, let's call it runapp.bat and its contents be
java com.example.myApp
If the batch script is invoked in a console, everything works fine. However, if the script is invoked from the Window Manager, the newly opened console closes as soon as the application finishes executing. What I want is for the console to stay open in all cases.
I know of the following tricks:
add a pause command at the end of the script. This is a bit ugly in case runapp.bat is invoked from the command line.
create a new shell using cmd /K java com.example.myApp This is the best solution I found so far, but leaves an extra shell environment when invoked from the command line, so that calling exit doesn't actually close the shell.
Is there a better way?
See this question: Detecting how a batch file was executed
This script will not pause if run from the command console, but will if double-clicked in Explorer:
#echo off
setlocal enableextensions
set SCRIPT=%0
set DQUOTE="
:: Detect how script was launched
#echo %SCRIPT:~0,1% | findstr /l %DQUOTE% > NUL
if %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 set PAUSE_ON_CLOSE=1
:: Run your app
java com.example.myApp
:EXIT
if defined PAUSE_ON_CLOSE pause
I prefer using %cmdcmdline% as posted in the comment to Patrick's answer to the other question (which I didn't find although looked). That way, even if someone decides to use quotes to call the batch script, it won't trigger the false positive.
My final solution:
#echo off
java com.example.myApp %1 %2
REM "%SystemRoot%\system32.cmd.exe" when from console
REM cmd /c ""[d:\path\script.bat]" " when from windows explorer
#echo %cmdcmdline% | findstr /l "\"\"" >NUL
if %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 pause
cmd /K java com.example.myApp & pause & exit
will do the job. The & will execute the command one after another. If you use && you can break if one fails.
Include this line in a batch file and double click on the batch file in explorer:
cmd /k "script commands within these quotes seperated by &&"
For example
cmd /k "cd ../.. && dir && cd some_directory"
The full complement of options to cmd can be found here
I frequently use alternate shells (primarily TCC/LE from jpsoft.com) and subshells. I've found that this code works for a wider, more general case (and it doesn't require FINDSTR):
#echo off & setlocal
if "%CMDEXTVERSION%"=="" ( echo REQUIRES command extensions & exit /b 1 ) &:: REQUIRES command extensions for %cmdcmdline% and %~$PATH:1 syntax
call :_is_similar_command _FROM_CONSOLE "%COMSPEC%" %cmdcmdline%
if "%_PAUSE_NEEDED%"=="0" ( goto :_START )
if "%_PAUSE_NEEDED%"=="1" ( goto :_START )
set _PAUSE_NEEDED=0
if %_FROM_CONSOLE% equ 0 ( set _PAUSE_NEEDED=1 )
goto :_START
::
:_is_similar_command VARNAME FILENAME1 FILENAME2
:: NOTE: not _is_SAME_command; that would entail parsing PATHEXT and concatenating each EXT for any argument with a NULL extension
setlocal
set _RETVAL=0
:: more than 3 ARGS implies %cmdcmdline% has multiple parts (therefore, NOT direct console execution)
if NOT [%4]==[] ( goto :_is_similar_command_RETURN )
:: deal with NULL extensions (if both NULL, leave alone; otherwise, use the non-NULL extension for both)
set _EXT_2=%~x2
set _EXT_3=%~x3
if NOT "%_EXT_2%"=="%_EXT_3%" if "%_EXT_2%"=="" (
call :_is_similar_command _RETVAL "%~2%_EXT_3%" "%~3"
goto :_is_similar_command_RETURN
)
if NOT "%_EXT_2%"=="%_EXT_3%" if "%_EXT_3%"=="" (
call :_is_similar_command _RETVAL "%~2" "%~3%_EXT_2%"
goto :_is_similar_command_RETURN
)
::if /i "%~f2"=="%~f3" ( set _RETVAL=1 ) &:: FAILS for shells executed with non-fully qualified paths (eg, subshells called with 'cmd.exe' or 'tcc')
if /i "%~$PATH:2"=="%~$PATH:3" ( set _RETVAL=1 )
:_is_similar_command_RETURN
endlocal & set "%~1=%_RETVAL%"
goto :EOF
::
:_START
if %_FROM_CONSOLE% EQU 1 (
echo EXEC directly from command line
) else (
echo EXEC indirectly [from explorer, dopus, perl system call, cmd /c COMMAND, subshell with switches/ARGS, ...]
)
if %_PAUSE_NEEDED% EQU 1 ( pause )
Initially, I had used if /i "%~f2"=="%~f3" in the _is_similar_command subroutine. The change to if /i "%~$PATH:2"=="%~$PATH:3" and the additional code checking for NULL extensions allows the code to work for shells/subshells opened with non-fully qualified paths (eg, subshells called with just 'cmd.exe' or 'tcc').
For arguments without extensions, this code does not parse and use the extensions from %PATHEXT%. It essentially ignores the hierarchy of extensions that CMD.exe uses when searching for a command without extension (first attempting FOO.com, then FOO.exe, then FOO.bat, etc.). So, _is_similar_command checks for similarity, not equivalence, between the two arguments as shell commands. This could be a source of confusion/error, but will, in all likelyhood, never arise as a problem in practice for this application.
Edit: Initial code was an old version. The code is now updated to the most recent version which has: (1) a swapped %COMSPEC% and %cmdcmdline% in the initial call, (2) added a check for multiple %cmdcmdline% arguments, (3) echoed messages are more specific about what is detected, and (4) a new variable %_PAUSE_NEEDED% was added.
It should be noted that %_FROM_CONSOLE% is set based specifically on whether the batch file was excecuted directly from the console command line or indirectly through explorer or some other means. These "other means" can include a perl system() call or by executing a command such as cmd /c COMMAND.
The variable %_PAUSE_NEEDED% was added so that processes (such as perl) which execute the batch file indirectly can bypass pauses within the batch file. This would be important in cases in which output is not piped to the visible console (eg, perl -e "$o = qx{COMMAND}"). If a pause occurs in such a case, the "Press any key to continue . . ." pause prompt would never be displayed to the user and the process will hang waiting for unprompted user input. In instances where user interaction is either not possible or not allowed, the %_PAUSE_NEEDED% variable can be preset to "0" or "1" (false or true respectively). %_FROM_CONSOLE% is still set correctly by the code, but the value of %_PAUSE_NEEDED% is not subsequently set based upon %_FROM_CONSOLE%. It is just passed through.
And also note that the code will incorrectly detect execution as indirect (%_FROM_CONSOLE%=0) within a subshell if that subshell is opened with a command containing switches/options (eg, cmd /x). Generally this isn't a big problem as subshells are usually opened without extra switches and %_PAUSE_NEEDED% can be set to 0, when necessary.
Caveat codor.
#echo %CMDCMDLINE% | find /I " /c " >nul && pause