Echoing in the same line - windows

I had a look at the previous questions of your db and I didn't try an answer, but I try.
I would like to write the following lines code:
echo Executing backup....
backup procedure
echo Ok
but the output should be:
Executing backup... Ok
That's possible?!

I suppose you are using dos/nt-batch.
It is possible with the set /p command, because set /p doesn't print a CrLf
set /p "=Executing backup...." <nul
echo OK
Also it's possible to erase the line with a CR character.
It's important to know that whitespace characters at the front of an set /p are ignored (in Vista, not in XP), so the !cr! has to placed later or at the end.
A CR can only be displayed with delayedExpansion, because %cr% works, but CR characters are removed in the percent expansion phase(or directly after this phase), but not in the delayed expansion phase.
Example of a counter which use only one line for displaying
#echo off
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion EnableExtensions
call :CreateCR
for /l %%n in (1,1,10000) do (
set /P "=Count %%n!CR!" <nul
)
echo(
goto :eof
:CreateCR
rem setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion EnableExtensions
set "X=."
for /L %%c in (1,1,13) DO set X=!X:~0,4094!!X:~0,4094!
echo !X! > %temp%\cr.tmp
echo\>> %temp%\cr.tmp
for /f "tokens=2 usebackq" %%a in ("%temp%\cr.tmp") do (
endlocal
set cr=%%a
goto :eof
)
goto :eof
EDIT: Explanation, how the variable cr is created (Done with a trick)
After setting variable X to a single dot (the character itself is unimportant), it is repeated to become 8188 characters by way of for /L %%c in (1,1,13) DO set X=!X:~0,4094!!X:~0,4094!
Then the variable, two spaces and both a CR and LF are echoed into a file with echo !X! > %temp%\cr.tmp (Notice the two spaces between the !X! and the > and the natural line endings echo amends internally)
We now have 8192 characters, but the data buffer can only hold 8191 characters, so the last character (the linefeed) will be dropped!
In the next line echo\>> %temp%\cr.tmp, another CR/LF set is appended to the file (the \ in the command is just to output nothing bar the carriage return and line feed, as echo by it's self will output ECHO is ON/OFF), that's important, as a single CR can't be read at the end of a line (More later).
So the file now contains <8188 .'s><SPACE><SPACE><CR><CR><LF>
The for /f "tokens=2 usebackq" %%a in ("%temp%\cr.tmp") do reads the second token, the delimters are standard space and tab, so the second token is only a single CR, as the following CR/LF is removed as standard line ending.
Finally the endlocal is used to return to an environment without the temporary variables X, c and a existing (As with the endlocal in brackets, it allows the setting of cr before the endlocal actually takes affect at the end of the brackets (could also be written as for /f "tokens=2 usebackq" %%a in ("%temp%\cr.tmp") do endlocal&set cr=%%a&goto :eof)
Additionally
This was my first way to create a CR character, but it needs some time and a temporary file.
Later I saw a simpler method of retrieving the CR from a copy /z command.
for /f %%a in ('copy /Z "%~dpf0" nul') do set "CR=%%a"

Try this on Posix system (Linux)
echo -n "Executing backup.... "
echo -n "backup procedure "
echo "Ok"
It is much harder on Windows. You will need to use something like this:
#echo off
echo|set /p ="Executing backup...."
echo|set /p =" backup procedure"
Check this post: http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/showpost.php?s=1a20b16775d915998b30bd76a0ec5d35&p=4432915&postcount=7.

It's a bit of a hack, but here is an article describing how to do it for Windows.
From the article, the final result (edited for your setup) looks like this:
SET /P var=Backing up
%Result%....<NUL
Backup_process %Result% >NUL 2>&1
IF ERRORLEVEL 1
ECHO FAIL
ELSE
ECHO OK

I've done something similar using a VBScript.
Put this code in EchoNoNewline.vbs:
If WScript.Arguments.Named.Exists("TEXT") Then
WScript.StdOut.Write WScript.Arguments.Named.Item("TEXT")
End If
From your batch file, use the script like this:
CSCRIPT EchoNoNewLine.vbs //NOLOGO /TEXT:"Executing backup...."
backup procedure
CSCRIPT EchoNoNewLine.vbs //NOLOGO /TEXT:"Ok"

at What does a forward slash before a pipe in cmd do to remove the line ending of an echo?
the best suggestion is:
to echo text without a linefeed is very inefficient, as a pipe creates two new instances of cmd.exe.
It's much simpler and faster to use
<nul set /p "=My Text"
The redirect from NUL will also stop the waiting for user input.

Related

How to process pathnames with ! within an for /F loop?

In a complex batch file I want to read in files with paths, among other things, to read them into a variable one after the other separated by spaces.
This works with the following code so far quite well - but only if the path does not contain an exclamation mark.
Even using the setlocal command (enabledelayedexpansion / disabledelayedexpansion) I did not succeed in processing exclamation marks.
Does anyone here have a clever idea to the problem?
The following example batch creates a text file in the current directory and then reads it in a for /F loop.
At the end all three paths from the text file should be in the variable %Output%. But with the exclamation mark.
#echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
echo This is an example^^! > "textfile.txt"
echo This is a second example^^! >> "textfile.txt"
echo And this line have an ^^! exclamation mark in the middle >> "textfile.txt"
for /F "usebackq tokens=* delims=" %%a in (textfile.txt) do (
set "Record=%%a"
set "Output=!Output!!Record! - "
)
)
echo %Output%
echo !Output!
endlocal
The Output is like this:
This is an example - This is a second example - And this line have an exclamation mark in the middle
But should be like this:
This is an example! - This is a second example! - And this line have an ! exclamation mark in the middle
It is advisable not using delayed variable expansion on processing files and directories, lines in a text file, strings not defined by the batch file itself, or output captured from the execution of a program or a command line. If it is for some reasons necessary to make use of delayed variable expansion inside a FOR loop, there should be first assigned the file/directory name, the line, or the string to process to an environment variable while delayed expansion is disabled and then enable delayed expansion temporary inside the FOR loop.
Here is a batch file demo which can be simply run from within a command prompt window or by double clicking on the batch file. It creates several files for demonstration in the directory for temporary files, but deletes them all before exiting.
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
echo This is an example!> "%TEMP%\TextFile.tmp"
echo This is a second example!>> "%TEMP%\TextFile.tmp"
echo And this line has an exclamation mark ! in the middle.>> "%TEMP%\TextFile.tmp"
set "Output="
(for /F usebackq^ delims^=^ eol^= %%I in ("%TEMP%\TextFile.tmp") do set "Line=%%I" & call :ConcatenateLines) & goto ContinueDemo
:ConcatenateLines
set "Output=%Output% - %Line%" & goto :EOF
:ContinueDemo
cls
echo/
echo All lines concatenated are:
echo/
echo %Output:~3%
set "Output="
del "%TEMP%\TextFile.tmp"
echo File with name ".Linux hidden file!">"%TEMP%\.Linux hidden file!"
echo File with name "A simple test!">"%TEMP%\A simple test!"
echo File with name " 100%% Development & 'Test' (!).tmp">"%TEMP%\ 100%% Development & 'Test(!)'.tmp"
echo/
echo Files with ! are:
echo/
for /F "eol=| tokens=* delims=" %%I in ('dir "%TEMP%\*!*" /A-D /B /ON 2^>nul') do (
set "NameFile=%%I"
set "FileName=%%~nI"
set "FileExtension=%%~xI"
set "FullName=%TEMP%\%%I"
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
if defined FileName (
if defined FileExtension (
echo File with ext. !FileExtension:~1!: !NameFile!
) else (
echo Extensionless file: !NameFile!
)
) else echo Extensionless file: !NameFile!
del "!FullName!"
endlocal
)
endlocal
echo/
#setlocal EnableExtensions EnableDelayedExpansion & for /F "tokens=1,2" %%G in ("!CMDCMDLINE!") do #endlocal & if /I "%%~nG" == "cmd" if /I "%%~H" == "/c" set /P "=Press any key to exit the demo . . . "<nul & pause >nul
The output of this batch file is:
All lines concatenated are:
This is an example! - This is a second example! - And this line has an exclamation mark ! in the middle.
Files with ! are:
File with ext. tmp: 100% Development & 'Test(!)'.tmp
Extensionless file: .Linux hidden file!
Extensionless file: A simple test!
The text file example with concatenating lines makes use of a subroutine called from within the FOR loop processing the lines in the text file. The syntax used here is for maximum performance by getting the subroutine as near as possible to the FOR command line. That is important if the FOR loop has to process hundreds or even thousands of items.
The example processing file names enables and disables delayed expansion inside the FOR loop after having assigned all parts of the currently processed file to environment variables. It could be useful to reduce the list of environment variables before processing thousands of files for a better performance on using this method.
Another method is shown in Magoo´s answer using the command CALL to get a command line with referenced environment variables (re)defined inside the loop parsed a second time. I used that method also in the past quite often, but don't that anymore as it is not fail-safe and not efficient. call set results in searching by cmd.exe in current directory and next in all directories of environment variable PATH for a file with name set and a file extension of environment variable PATHEXT. So it results in lots of file system accesses in the background on each iteration of the FOR loop and if there is by chance a file set.exe, set.bat, set.cmd, etc. found by cmd.exe somewhere, the batch file does not work anymore as expected because of running the executable or calling the batch file instead of the (re)definition of the environment variable.
The following answers written by me could be also helpful:
How to read and print contents of text file line by line?
It explains in full details how to process all lines of a text file.
How to pass environment variables as parameters by reference to another batch file?
It explains in full details what the commands SETLOCAL and ENDLOCAL do.
How to pass a command that may contain special characters (such as % or !) inside a variable to a for /f loop?
This is an example of a batch file designed to process video files with any valid file name on any Windows computer very efficient, safe and secure with full explanation.
Well, the main trick is to enable delayed expansion only when it is actually needed and to disable it otherwise. Since you are accumulating multiple strings in a single variable inside of a loop, it becomes a bit more difficult, because you should have delayed expansion disabled during expansion of for meta-variables (like %%a), but enabled when joining the string, leading to setlocal and endlocal statements inside of the loop. The major purpose of these commands is environment localisation, hence any variable changes become lost past endlocal, so a method of tansfering the value beyond endlocal is required, which is incorporated in the following code:
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
rem /* At this point delayed expansion is disabled, so there is no need to
rem escape exclamation marks; moreover a redirected block prevents
rem superfluous file close/reopen operations, and there is no more
rem trailing space written to the file (as in your original approach): */
> "textfile.txt" (
echo This is an example!
echo This is a second example!
echo And this line have an ! exclamation mark in the middle
)
rem // Let us initialise the output variable:
set "Output= - "
rem // Using `usebackq` only makes sense when you want to quote a file path:
for /F "usebackq tokens=* delims=" %%a in ("textfile.txt") do (
rem // Remember that delayed expansion is still disabled at this point:
set "Record=%%a"
rem // For concatenation we need delayed expansion to be enabled:
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set "Output=!Output!!Record! - "
rem /* We need to terminate the environment localisation of `setlocal`
rem inside of the loop, but we would lose any changes in `Output`;
rem therefore let us (mis-)use `for /F`, which is iterated once: */
for /F "delims=" %%b in ("!Output!") do endlocal & set "Output=%%b"
rem /* An often used method to transfer a variable beyond `endlocal` is
rem the line `endlocal & set "Output=%Output%`, but this only works
rem outside of a parenthesised block because of percent expansion. */
)
rem /* Echo out text with delayed expansion enabled is the only safe way;
rem surrounding separators ` - ` are going to be removed; since `Output`
rem was initialised with something non-empty, we do not even need to skip
rem sub-string expansion for the problematic case of an empty string: */
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
echo(!Output:~3,-3!
endlocal
endlocal
exit /B
Pew. I finally got it to work.
It works via a workaround using a second text file.
Not pretty, not performant, but it works and is sufficient for my purposes.
#Magoo, thanks for your post.
This is my solution:
#echo off
setlocal enableextensions enabledelayedexpansion
echo This is an example^^!> "textfile.txt"
echo This is a second example^^!>> "textfile.txt"
echo And this line have an ^^! exclamation mark in the middle>> "textfile.txt"
echo.
echo Content of the textfile:
type "textfile.txt"
set output=
del "textfile2.txt" 1> nul 2>&1
setlocal disabledelayedexpansion
for /f "usebackq tokens=* delims=" %%a IN ("textfile.txt") do (
rem Write each line without a newline character into a new text file
echo|set /p "dummy=%%a, ">>"textfile2.txt"
)
endlocal
rem Loading the content of the new text file into the variable
set /p output=<"textfile2.txt"
del "textfile2.txt" 1> nul 2>&1
echo.
echo --------------------------------------------
echo Content of the variable:
set out
endlocal
The output looks like this:
Content of the textfile:
This is an example!
This is a second example!
And this line have an ! exclamation mark in the middle
--------------------------------------------
Content of the variable:
output=This is an example!, This is a second example!, And this line have an ! exclamation mark in the middle,
It's delayedexpansion mode that appears to raise this problem.
#ECHO OFF
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
echo This is an example^^^! > "textfile.txt"
echo This is a second example^^^! >> "textfile.txt"
echo And this line have an ^^^! exclamation mark in the middle >> "textfile.txt"
TYPE "textfile.txt"
SETLOCAL disabledelayedexpansion
for /F "usebackq tokens=* delims=" %%a in (textfile.txt) do (
set "Record=%%a"
CALL set "Output2=%%Output2%%%%record%% - "
CALL set "Output=%%Output%%%%a - "
SET out
)
)
endlocal&SET "output=%output%"
echo %Output%
echo !Output!
SET out
I've no doubt that with delayedexpansion off, there would be the same problem with %. Just special characters, I suppose.
Note that with endlocal&SET "output=%output%", the set is executed in delayedexpansion mode.

unable to use for loop output to set variable in batch

I'm using a for loop to acces a text file with a bunch of files + their directory formatted like this:
//srv/something/somethingelse/movie.mpg
//srv/something/somethingelse/movie2.mkv
//srv/something/somethingelse/movie3.mpg
//srv/something/somethingelse/movie4.mkv
I have to replace .mpg and .mkv with .xml, and then write that output away to another text file, which I'm trying to do like this:
for /F "tokens=*" %%A in (%~dp0temporary\movies.txt) do (
set string=%%A
set find=.mkv
set replace=.xml
set string=%%string:!find!=!replace!%%
set find=.mpg
set string=%%string:!find!=!replace!%%
echo %string%>>%~dp0temporary\xml.txt
)
The output I want is this:
//srv/something/somethingelse/movie.xml
//srv/something/somethingelse/movie2.xml
//srv/something/somethingelse/movie3.xml
//srv/something/somethingelse/movie4.xml
But what I get is this:
Echo is off.
Echo is off.
Echo is off.
Echo is off.
I have been searching on this for over an hour but I can't find anything that works
Here is the rewritten batch code which produces the expected output from input file.
#echo off
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set "vidLoc=//srv"
set "resultLoc=c:"
del "%~dp0temporary\xml.txt" 2>nul
for /F "usebackq delims=" %%A in ("%~dp0temporary\movies.txt") do (
set "FileNameWithPath=%%A"
set "FileNameWithPath=!FileNameWithPath:.mkv=.xml!"
set "FileNameWithPath=!FileNameWithPath:.mpg=.xml!"
set "FileNameWithPath=!FileNameWithPath:%vidLoc%=%resultLoc%!"
echo !FileNameWithPath!>>"%~dp0temporary\xml.txt"
)
endlocal
All environment variable references enclosed in percent signs are expanded already on parsing entire for block. Just the environment variable references enclosed in exclamation marks are expanded delayed on executing the command. This can be seen on opening a command prompt window and running from there the batch file without #echo off at top or with this line being changed to #echo on.
Executing in a command prompt window set /? results in getting help of this command output on several window pages where usage of delayed expansion for for and if blocks is explained on a simple example.
And running in a command prompt window for /? prints help of command for into the output window.
For just replacing the file extension you could also use:
#echo off
del "%~dp0temporary\xml.txt" 2>nul
for /F "usebackq delims=*" %%A in ("%~dp0temporary\movies.txt") do (
echo %%~dpnA.xml>>"%~dp0temporary\xml.txt"
)
But this faster code changes also all forward slashes / to backslashes \ as the backslash character is the directory separator on Windows.
Mofi is right: move the line with setlocal enabledelayedexpansion out of any code block enclosed in (parentheses).
However, try next approach using Command Line arguments (Parameters) modifier ~:
#ECHO OFF >NUL
#SETLOCAL enableextensions
for /F "tokens=*" %%A in (%~dp0temporary\movies.txt) do (
rem full_path=%%~dpnA
rem extension=%%~xA
echo %%~dpnA.xml
)>%~dp0temporary\xml.txt

Find a line in a file and replace the next line

Using a .bat script, I want to find a line that says # Site 1 and replace the text in the next line with a variable. I found tutorials on StackOverflow for finding and replacing a line, but not finding a line and replacing the next line. Any help?
#echo off
set "the_file=C:\someFile"
set "search_for=somestring"
set "variable=http://site1"
for /f "tokens=1 delims=:" %%# in ('findstr /n /c:"%search_for%" "%the_file%"') do (
set "line=%%#"
goto :break
)
:break
set /a lineBefore=line-1
set /a nextLine=line+1
break>"%temp%\empty"&&fc "%temp%\empty" "%the_file%" /lb %lineBefore% /t |more +4 | findstr /B /E /V "*****" >newFile
echo %variable%>>newFile
more "%the_file%" +%nextLine% 1>>newFile
echo move /y newFile "%the_file%"
Check if newFile is ok and remove the echo at the front of the last line.
you need to set the three variables at the beginning by yourself.Have on mind that more command sets spaces instead of tabs
#ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL
SET "filename=q28567045.txt"
SET "afterme=# Site 1"
SET "putme=put this line after # Site 1"
SET "skip1="
(
FOR /f "usebackqdelims=" %%a IN ("%filename%") DO (
IF DEFINED skip1 (ECHO(%putme%) ELSE (ECHO(%%a)
SET "skip1="
IF /i "%%a"=="%afterme%" SET skip1=y
)
)>newfile.txt
GOTO :EOF
Produces newfile.txt
The flag `skip1 to skip the line is first reset, then the file is read line by line.
If the skip1 flag is set, then the replacement line is echoed in place of the line read; if not, the line read is echoed.
Then the skip1 flag is cleared
If the line read to %%a matches the string assigned to afterme then the flag skip1 is set (to y - but it doesn't matter what the value is)
Note that empty lines and those starting ; will be ignored and not reproduced - this is standard behaviour of for /f.
If you want to replce the starting file, then simply add
move /y newfile.txt "%filename%"
before the goto :eof line.
Even though I enjoy working with batch, I generally avoid using pure native batch to edit text files because a robust solution is usually complicated and slow.
This can be done easily and efficiently using JREPL.BAT - a hybrid JScript/batch utility that performs regular expression replacement. JREPL.BAT is pure script that runs natively on any Windows machine from XP onward.
#echo off
setlocal
set "newVal=Replacement value"
call jrepl "^.*" "%newValue%" /jbeg "skip=true" /jendln "skip=($txt!='# Site 1')" /f test.txt /o -
The /F option specifies the file to process
The /O option with value of - specifies to replace the original file with the result.
The /JBEG option initializes the command to skip (not replace) each line.
The /JENDLN option checks the value of each line just before it is written out, and sets SKIP off (false) if it matches # Site 1. The next line will be replaced only when SKIP is false.
The search string matches an entire line.
The replacement string is your value stored in a variable.
This problem is similar to this one and may use an equivalent solution. The pure Batch file solution below should be the fastest one of its kind.
#echo off
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set "search=# Site 1"
set "nextLine=Text that replaces next line"
rem Get the line number of the search line
for /F "delims=:" %%a in ('findstr /N /C:"%search%" input.txt') do set /A "numLines=%%a-1"
rem Open a code block to read-input-file/create-output-file
< input.txt (
rem Read the first line
set /P "line="
rem Copy numLines-1 lines
for /L %%i in (1,1,%numLines%) do set /P "line=!line!" & echo/
rem Replace the next line
echo %nextLine%
rem Copy the rest of lines
findstr "^"
) > output.txt
rem Replace input file with created output file
move /Y output.txt input.txt > NUL
This method will fail if the input file have empty lines and also have other limitations.
For a further description of this method, see this post.

Batch File - Insert Line into file

I'm trying to insert a line into a file using the following code (from Write batch variable into specific line in a text file)
#echo off
setlocal enableextensions enabledelayedexpansion
set inputfile=variables.txt
set tempfile=%random%-%random%.tmp
copy /y nul %tempfile%
set line=0
for /f "delims=" %%l in (%inputfile%) do (
set /a line+=1
if !line!==4 (
echo WORDS YOU REPLACE IT WITH>>%tempfile%
) else (
echo %%l>>%tempfile%
)
)
del %inputfile%
ren %tempfile% %inputfile%
endlocal
My problem is the file has comment lines (which start with semicolons) which need to be kept
; directory during network startup. This statement must indicate a local disc
; drive on your PC and not a network disc drive.
LOCALDRIVE=C:\TEMP;
; PANELISATION PART/NET NAMING CONVENTION
; When jobs are panelised, parts/nets are renamed for each panel step by
When I run the batch file, it ignores the semicolon lines, So I only get:
LOCALDRIVE=C:\TEMP;
What do I need to do to keep the semicolon lines?
The EOL option determines what lines are to be ignored. The default value is a semicolon. If you know a character that can never appear in the first position of a line, then you can simply set EOL to that character. For example, if you know a line can't start with |, then you could use
for /f "eol=| delims=" %%l in (%inputfile%) do ...
There is an awkward syntax that disables EOL completely, and also disables DELIMS:
for /f delims^=^ eol^= %%l in (%inputfil%) do ...
Note that FOR /F always discards empty lines, so either of the above would result in:
; directory during network startup. This statement must indicate a local disc
; drive on your PC and not a network disc drive.
LOCALDRIVE=C:\TEMP;
; PANELISATION PART/NET NAMING CONVENTION
; When jobs are panelised, parts/nets are renamed for each panel step by
A trick is used if you want to preserve empty lines. Use FIND or FINDSTR to insert the line number before each line, and then use expansion find/replace to remove the line number. Now you know the line never begins with ;, so you can ignore the EOL option.
for /f "delims=" %%L in ('findstr /n "^" "%inputfile%"') do (
set "ln=%%L"
set "ln=!ln:*:=!"
REM You now have the original line, do whatever needs to be done here
)
But all of the above have a potential problem in that you have delayed expansion enabled when you expand the FOR variable, which means that any content containing ! will be corrupted. To solve this you must toggle delayed expansion on and off within the loop:
setlocal disableDelayedExpansion
...
for /f "delims=" %%L in (findstr /n "^" "%inputfile%") do (
set "ln=%%L"
setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
set "ln=!ln:*:=!"
REM You now have the original line with ! preserved, do whatever needs done here
endlocal
)
Also, when ECHOing an empty line, it will print out ECHO is off unless you do something like
echo(!ln!
It takes time to open and position the write cursor to the end every time you use >> within the loop. It is faster to enclose the entire operation in one set of parentheses and redirect once. Also, you can replace the DEL and REN with a single MOVE command.
Here is a final robust script:
#echo off
setlocal disableDelayedExpansion
set "inputfile=variables.txt"
set line=0
>"%inputfile%.new" (
for /f "delims=" %%L in (findstr /n "^" "%inputfile%") do (
set "txt=%%L"
set /a line+=1
setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
set "txt=!txt:*:=!"
if !line! equ 4 (
echo New line content here
) else (
echo(!txt!
)
endlocal
)
)
move /y "%inputfile%.new" "%inputfile%" >nul
endlocal
That is an awful lot of work for such a simple task, and it requires a lot of arcane knowledge.
There is a much quicker hack that works as long as
your first 4 lines do not exceed 1021 bytes
none of your first 3 lines have trailing control characters that need to be preserved
the remaining lines do not have <tab> characters that must be preserved (MORE converts <tab> into a string of spaces.
#echo off
setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
set "inputfile=variables.txt"
>"%inputfile%.new" (
<"%inputfile%" (
for /l %%N in (1 1 3) do (
set "ln="
set /p "ln="
echo(!ln!
)
)
echo New line content here
more +4 "%inputfile%"
)
move /y "%inputfile%.new" "%inputfile%"
That is still a lot of work and arcane knowledge.
I would use my JREPL.BAT utility
Batch is really a terrible tool for text processing. That is why I developed JREPL.BAT to manipulate text using regular expressions. It is a hybrid JScript/batch script that runs natively on any Windows machine from XP onward. It is extremely versatile, robust, and fast.
A minimal amount of code is required to solve your problem with JREPL. Your problem doesn't really require the regular expression capabilities.
jrepl "^" "" /jendln "if (ln==4) $txt='New content here'" /f "variables.txt" /o -
If used within a batch script, then you must use call jrepl ... because JREPL.BAT is also a batch script.
By default, the FOR command treats ; as the end-of-line character, so all those lines that start with ; are being ignored.
Add eol= to your FOR command, like this:
for /f "eol= delims=" %%l in (%inputfile%) do (
It looks like you're echoing just the line delimiter, not the whole line:
echo %%l>>%tempfile%
I'm rusty on ms-dos scripts, so I can't give you more than that.

Nesting for loop in batch file

I want to nest a for loop inside a batch file to delete carriage return.
I tried it like you can see below but it does not work.
#echo off
setLocal EnableDelayedExpansion
for /f "tokens=* delims= " %%a in (Listfile.txt) do (
set /a N+=1
set v!N!=%%a
)
for /l %%i in (1, 1, %N%) do (
echo !v%%i!
for /r "tokens=* delims=" %%i in (windows.cpp) do (
echo %%i >> Linux11.cpp
)
)
pause
Here I want to check with windows.cpp. If its working I like to change windows .cpp with !v%%i!
You cannot do this in a batch file. You have no way of addressing or writing arbitrary characters. Every tool on Windows normally makes sure to output Windows line breaks (i.e. CR+LF). Some can read Unix-style line breaks just fine, which is why you can easily convert from them. But to them isn't possible.
Also as a word of caution: Source code files often contain blank lines (at least mine do) that are for readability. for /f skips empty lines which is why you're mangling the files for your human readers there. Please don't do that.
As for your question: When nesting two loops you have to make sure that they don't use the same loop variable. Show me a language where code like you wrote actually works.
Something like
for /l %%i in (1, 1, %N%) do (
echo !v%%i!
for /f "tokens=* delims=" %%l in ("!v%%i!") do (
rem do whatever you want to do with the lines
)
)
should probably work better (you missed the final closing parenthesis as well). Thing to remember: If you want to use a certain variable instead of a fixed file name it surely helps replacing that fixed file name by that variable.
It would be probably easiest to use some unix2dos/dos2unix converter to do that or some win32 flavor of sed.
The intrinsic issue of your code is already addressed by another answer, hence I am going to focus on the main task you are trying to accomplish, namely converting DOS/Windows-style end-of-line markers (or line-breaks) to Unix-style ones.
Doing this is very tricky in a batch file, but give the following script a try. Supposing it is called convert.bat, and the original text file is named convert.txt, run the script using the following command line:
convert.bat "convert.txt" LF
The name of the returned file will get the original file name with _converted_EOL appended. The second argument LF specifies Unix-style line-breaks; omitting it will return DOS/Windows-style ones.
So here is the code:
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
rem check whether or not an existing file is given as the first argument
>&2 (
if "%~1"=="" (
echo No file specified.
exit /B 2
) else if not exist "%~1" (
echo File "%~1" not found.
exit /B 1
)
)
rem get carriage-return character
for /F %%A in ('copy /Z "%~0" nul') do set "CR=%%A"
rem get line-feed character (the two empty lines afterwards are mandatory!)
(set ^"LF=^
%= blank line =%
^")
rem check which line-break is given by the second argument
rem (`CR` - carriage return (Mac); `LF` - line feed (Unix);
rem anything else or nothing - CR+LF (Windows, default))
setlocal EnableDelayedexpansion
set "BR=!CR!!LF!"
if /I "%~2"=="CR" set "BR=!CR!" & (>&2 echo CR not supported.) & exit /B 3
if /I "%~2"=="LF" set "BR=!LF!"
rem convert line-breaks; append `_converted_EOL` to file name
setlocal DisableDelayedExpansion
> "%~n1_converted_EOL%~x1" (
for /F delims^=^ eol^= %%L in ('
findstr /N /R "^" "%~1"
') do (
set "LINE=%%L"
rem firstly, precede every line with a dummy character (`:`) and
rem append the specified line-break in order to avoid the loss of
rem leading white-spaces or trouble with leading equal-to signs,
rem all caused by `set /P`, which is needed here to return the
rem line without a trailing DOS/Windows-style line-break (opposed
rem to `echo`); then, let `pause` strip off that character;
rem lastly, let `findstr` return the remainder;
rem (the `rem` suffix is just there to fix syntax highlighting)
cmd /V /C ^< nul set /P #="!LINE:*:=:!!BR!" | (> nul pause & findstr "^") & rem/ "^"
)
)
endlocal
endlocal
endlocal
exit /B
The following restrictions apply:
no line must be longer than about 8190 characters (this is a general limitation of batch files);
the file must not contain any null-bytes (well, a normal text file should not hold such, but Unicode-encoded do);
the last line of the returned file will always be terminated by a line-break, even if the respective original line is not;
And here is another solution for line-break conversions: Convert all CR to CRLF in text file using CMD

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