VBscript comparing md5 "If then" - vbscript

Question

I am trying to compare some Md5's of some files to see if they are the same after I have copied them to another drive, and if they are the same then to delete the original files. I am lost on the syntax because I have never done something like this before.
I am using a free utility vmd5.exe (command line) to get the md5's. I am just not sure how to tell vbscript that if the outputs are the same then to go ahead and delete the files. This is just a snippet of the part where I am trying to compare the two md5's but this is what I have so far:
Dim md5Command, md5Command2
md5Command = "C:\Program Files\vmd5.exe " vmd5 & " " & C:\Testscripts\
md5Command2 = "C:\Program Files\vmd5.exe " vmd5 & " " & E:\CopyTestFolder\
If md5Command = md5Command2 then
objFSO.DeleteFolder("C:\ScriptOutput") 'Can either delete entire archived folder, or just .zip files in folder
objFSO.DeleteFile("C:\Testscripts\Archive*.evtx") 'This will be path where archived logs are located once finished
Else
End If
This syntax is wrong for sure. But from what I know about IF then's I need it to look something like this. I am just not sure if I need to be telling the script to run the commands in the "set" part or how I can tell the script to grab the md5 output from the command line and compare it to another.
After the Else statement I would like it to either end the script or just output a text file with the different md5's but I am not to that point yet and haven't really decided on anything.
If there is a better way to do something like this I would also be up to do that, this is about all I was coming up with this morning though.
EDIT: I thought of something that might be possible. If I tell the command line to output the contents of the output to a text file then I could compare two different text files and if the contents match then it could proceed with the rest of the script. I don't know how to get this to work but the logic seems to make sense.
Here is what the output of the text file that it creates looks like:
Vallen VMD5 R2009.1215
Filename MD5 sum
------------------------------------------------------------
[C:\ScriptOutput\]
Testzip.zip d5db2ff8c372a12c145170fb7340e682

Answer 1

To tackle your task, you have to solve some sub problems:
String concatenation in VBScript: "... exe " vmd5 & " " - to splice in the content of the variable vmd5, you need the concatenation operator on both sides - but is that what you want to do? " " & C:\Testscripts\ - to append the literal 'C:\Testscripts\', you need to (double) quote the literal - but then you could combine all the components into one string literal.
In VBScript " are used as string literal delimiters; they don't work like backticks in more powerful scripting languages. md5Command must hold the command you want to execute; to get the result of that command is a different kettle of fish.
To shell out/execute a command, you'll have to use the .Exec or the .Run method of the WScript.Shell object and collect the output.
Depending on the (output of) the tool you use, you won't be able to compare the results via the = operator - e.g. the pathes or the order of the files/cheksums may differ. So you'll need a strategy for parsing the captured output.
Which sub problem do you want to deal with first?
As your comments prove, getting the syntax right should be the starting point. This:
Dim aDirs : aDirs = Array("..\data\one", "..\data\two")
' Join an array of the components (no more problems
' with (forgetting (to concat)) separators)
' Use qq() function to lessen the noise
Dim sCmdT : sCmdT = Join(Array( _
"fciv" _
, "-add" _
, qq("§DIR§") _
), " ")
Dim nDir, sDir, sCmd
For nDir = 0 To UBound(aDirs)
sDir = aDirs(nDir)
' Use replace on a template to avoid repetition
sCmd = Replace(sCmdT, "§DIR§", sDir)
WScript.Echo "sCmd: |" & sCmd & "|"
Next
output:
sCmd: |fciv -add "..\data\one"|
sCmd: |fciv -add "..\data\two"|
illustrates 3 methods to make it easier/less errorprone to 'build' (shell) commands or SQL statements. (Implementation of the qq() function is left as exercise).
As I don't have the vmd5 utility, I'll use fciv in the further examples.
The next (version of the) script:
Dim aDirs : aDirs = Array("..\data\one", "..\data\two")
Dim sCmdT : sCmdT = Join(Array( _
"fciv" _
, "-add" _
, qq("§DIR§") _
), " ")
Dim oWSH : Set oWSH = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Dim nDir, sDir, sCmd, oExec, sRes
For nDir = 0 To UBound(aDirs)
sDir = aDirs(nDir)
sCmd = Replace(sCmdT, "§DIR§", sDir)
Set oExec = oWSH.Exec(sCmd)
sRes = oExec.Stdout.ReadAll()
WScript.Echo sRes
Next
output:
CmpMd500 - compare md5 checksums
==============================================================
//
// File Checksum Integrity Verifier version 2.05.
//
09fea378b96141413f5f09444573f0f3 ..\data\one\version.txt
4945c1ffd9ceb14c83e003091c6e8455 ..\data\one\README.md
4c4c34f7b6f0863056615d2cbcdf6912 ..\data\one\History.txt
//
// File Checksum Integrity Verifier version 2.05.
//
09fea378b96141413f5f09444573f0f3 ..\data\two\version.txt
4945c1ffd9ceb14c83e003091c6e8455 ..\data\two\README.md
4c4c34f7b6f0863056615d2cbcdf6912 ..\data\two\History.txt
==============================================================
demonstrates the absolute minimum of code to execute a command and capture the output - a production version must add a lot of code for error handling. At the same time, it shows sample output to discuss how to parse/compare the checksums. Can you post sample output of your vmd5 utility?
Whether you get the output of the md5 utility directly (my above sample) or from a file, you'll need a Regular Expression to parse the string into data that can be processed further. A simple script to work with files like you published in your question:
Dim reMd5File : Set reMd5File = New RegExp
reMd5File.Global = True
reMd5File.Multiline = True
reMd5File.Pattern = "^(\S+)\s+(\w{32})"
Dim sDir : sDir = "..\data\three"
Dim oFile
For Each oFile In goFS.GetFolder(sDir).Files
Dim sAll : sAll = oFile.OpenAsTextStream(ForReading).ReadAll()
WScript.Echo sAll
Dim oMTS : Set oMTS = reMd5File.Execute(sAll)
Dim oMT
For Each oMT In oMTS
WScript.Echo "** parsed:", qq(oMT.Submatches(1)), qq(oMT.Submatches(0))
Next
Next
output:
CmpMd501 - compare md5 checksums
==================================================================
Vallen VMD5 R2009.1215
Filename MD5 sum
------------------------------------------------------------
[C:\ScriptOutput\]
Testzip.zip d5db2ff8c372a12c145170fb7340e682
version.txt 09fea378b96141413f5f09444573f0f3
README.md 4945c1ffd9ceb14c83e003091c6e8455
History.txt 4c4c34f7b6f0863056615d2cbcdf6912
** parsed: "d5db2ff8c372a12c145170fb7340e682" "Testzip.zip"
** parsed: "09fea378b96141413f5f09444573f0f3" "version.txt"
** parsed: "4945c1ffd9ceb14c83e003091c6e8455" "README.md"
** parsed: "4c4c34f7b6f0863056615d2cbcdf6912" "History.txt"
********************
Vallen VMD5 R2009.1215
Filename MD5 sum
------------------------------------------------------------
[C:\ScriptOutput\]
Testzip.zip d5db2ff8c372a12c145170fb7340e682
** parsed: "d5db2ff8c372a12c145170fb7340e682" "Testzip.zip"
********************
==================================================================
xpl.vbs: Erfolgreich beendet. (0) [0.14844 secs]
After working thru that code, you'll have no problem with this script, that adds
'storing of the results in dictionaries' to my 'read .Exec output' version:
Dim aDirs : aDirs = Array("..\data\one", "..\data\two")
Dim sCmdT : sCmdT = Join(Array( _
"fciv" _
, "-add" _
, qq("§DIR§") _
), " ")
Dim oWSH : Set oWSH = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
ReDim aRes(UBound(aDirs))
Dim reMd5File : Set reMd5File = New RegExp
reMd5File.Global = True
reMd5File.Multiline = True
reMd5File.Pattern = "^(\w{32})\s(.+?)\s+$"
Dim nDir, sDir, sCmd, oExec, sRes, oMTS, oMT
For nDir = 0 To UBound(aDirs)
sDir = aDirs(nDir)
sCmd = Replace(sCmdT, "§DIR§", sDir)
Set oExec = oWSH.Exec(sCmd)
sRes = oExec.Stdout.ReadAll()
Set aRes(nDir) = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
Set oMTS = reMd5File.Execute(sRes)
For Each oMT in oMTS
aRes(nDir)(goFS.GetBaseName(oMT.SubMatches(1))) = oMT.SubMatches(0)
Next
Next
Dim sFile
For nDir = 0 To UBound(aDirs)
For Each sFile In aRes(nDir).Keys
WScript.Echo aRes(nDir)(sFile), sFile
Next
WScript.Echo
Next
output:
===========================================
09fea378b96141413f5f09444573f0f3 version
4945c1ffd9ceb14c83e003091c6e8455 README
0252535193507019a0eb97328d28dd80 robic
4c4c34f7b6f0863056615d2cbcdf6912 History
09fea378b96141413f5f09444573f0f3 version
4945c1ffd9ceb14c83e003091c6e8455 README
4c4c34f7b6f0863056615d2cbcdf6912 History
c46264f8101b6c1609c77b4c674bd327 Rakefile
===========================================
The next - and last, I hope - step would be to do the comparisons (Are files missing from one folder?, Do the checksums for the 'same' file differ?). Any ideas from your side?