At some point in my script, I'd like the bat script to delete itself. This requires that the script know its name and then to use that name to delete itself. Is this possible?
None of the existing answers provide a clean way for a batch file to delete itself and exit without any visible error message.
Simply including del "%~f0" does delete the script, but it also results in an ugly "The batch file cannot be found." error message.
If it is OK for the script to close the parent CMD process (the console window), then the following works fine without any error message:
del "%~f0"&exit
But it is a bit more complicated if you want the script to delete itself and exit without closing the parent CMD process, and without any error message.
Method 1: Start a second process that runs within the same console window that actually performs the delete. The EXIT /B is probably not necessary, but I put it in to maximize the probability that the batch script will close before the STARTed process attempts to delete the file.
start /b "" cmd /c del "%~f0"&exit /b
Method 2: Create and transfer control to another temp batch file that deletes itself as well as the caller, but don't use CALL, and redirect stderr to nul.
>"%~f0.bat" echo del "%~f0" "%~f0.bat"
2>nul "%~f0.bat"
If I'm not mistaken, %0 will be the path used to call the batch file.
Tested and working:
del %0
exit
%0 gives you the relative path the from the directory where the bat file was started. So if you call it
mybats\delyourself.bat tango roger
%0 will contain mybats\delyourself.bat
del %0 works if you haven't changed your current directory.
%~f0 exapnds to the full path to the file.
For me it was important, that I have no errorLevel 1 after I exited the batch file. I found an suitable and easy answer this way:
DeleteMyself.cmd:
START CMD /C DEL DeleteMyself.cmd
Test batch if DeleteMyself.cmd is returning errorLevel 0. TestDeleteMyself.cmd:
call DeleteMyself.cmd
echo Errorlevel: %errorLevel%
Related
I have a batch file in an administrative partition of my portable drive, with a shortcut symlinked to it on the root of the drive. The purpose of the file is to unmount the drive and remount it as the specified letter (mostly for convenience).
When the file is opened, it is opened relative to the current letter rather than to the volume ID, so naturally, when the unmount happens, the command processor has no idea what to do next as it reads the file as needed rather than caching it.
There are two foreseeable solutions that I can think of but can't figure out:
Make the file get cached into RAM before executing
Make the file run relative to the volume ID instead of the mountpoint (tried using {VOLID}\file where {VOLID} is the volume ID, but it couldn't find the file although it was there (navigating to {VOLID}\ correctly opened the directory, but trying to open the file didn't correctly open the file.
Despite of the other answers, it's trivial to cache a whole batch script to RAM.
You only need to build a single block, as blocks are parsed and cached before they can be executed.
But blocks have some drawbacks, percent expansion doesn't work, therefore you need to use delayed expansion.
call and goto can't be used, as they would try to read from the file again.
(goto) 2>nul & (
echo The script is started
REM Need to change the directory, else the unmount doesn't work
c:
mountvol e: /p
mountvol g: \\?\Volume{VOLID}\
dir G:\
echo The script will end now
REM Here you need the goto 2>nul hack to avoid an error message
)
The (goto) 2>nul & seems strange here, but it's explained at SO:How to make a batch file delete itself?.
It works also without the goto, but then the scripts ends with an error message
Have the batch file determine where it is running from see this. If it's running from the portable drive have it make a copy of itself to a permanent drive location (c:\temp for instance) then run that copy of the batch file.
When running a bath file there is no concept of running it from RAM. Windows command processor will always go back to the .bat file for the 'next' command to run. If you edit a batch file while it's running the command processor will pick up your changes.
JJF wrote already the correct answer. It is not possible to copy a batch file to RAM and inform Windows command interpreter to interpret the command lines in memory. It would be possible to create a RAM disk, copy the batch file to the RAM disk and run it from there. But this just makes the task more complicated than necessary.
This commented batch code demonstrates how to copy a batch file to directory for temporary files and start it there for complete processing in a separate Windows command process.
#echo off
rem Is the batch file path not the path of directory for temporary files?
if /I not "%~dp0" == "%TEMP%\" (
rem Copy the batch file to directory for temporary files.
copy "%~f0" "%TEMP%" >nul
rem Run the copy in a separate command process with name of the batch
rem file with extension as window title and exit this batch process.
start "%~nx0" "%TEMP%\%~nx0"
goto :EOF
)
echo The batch file is now running from directory for temporary files.
echo.
pause
rem Delete the batch file in directory for temporary files
rem and exit the command process started for this batch file.
del "%TEMP%\%~nx0" & exit
Replace the two echo commands and the pause command by your batch code.
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.
call /? ... explains %~dp0 (drive and path of argument 0 which is the batch file itself) and %~nx0 (name and extension of batch file)
copy /?
del /?
echo /?
exit /?
goto /?
if /?
pause /?
rem /?
start /?
See also answer on Single line with multiple commands using Windows batch file for an explanation of operator & used here two run the two commands del and exit read from one line to avoid an opened console window with an error message as batch file deleted unexpected for the Windows command interpreter while processing it.
I am having trouble with a batch file. I have 2 files the first batch file runs and it creates the directory and copies the files needed. It appears to call the second batch file correctly because it opens the instructions.txt but then it stops. I will be running the first batch file from a CD and then the dbinstall.bat from the C:\testing folder.
this is my setup.bat
#echo off
md "C:\testing"
xcopy *.* C:\testing
CALL "C:\testing\dbinstall.bat"
Which in turns should call and run this
REM ***PLEASE REPLACE %DWVerFileName.exe WITH THE PROPER VERSION OF THE EXE FILE***
REM ***MAKE SURE THE 7z FILE INCLUDES THE CUSTOMER NAME AND THEN CHANGE %filename%.7z TO THE FILE NAME***
CALL "C:\testing\Instructions.rtf"
start /b /wait "C:\testing\7z423.exe"
SET AppExePath="%ProgramFiles(x86)%\7-zip\7z.exe"
IF NOT EXIST %AppExePath% SET AppExePath="%ProgramFiles%\7-zip\7z.exe"
%AppExePath% e database.7z
start /b /wait "setup.exe"
SQLCMD -E -S touch -Q "RESTORE DATABASE testing FROM DISK='C:\testing\database.bak'"
I am stuck and any help would be appreciated. Thanks
Since we have no idea of what "it stops" means, or where "it stops", I'd guess
CALL "C:\testing\Instructions.rtf"
should be
start "instructions" "C:\testing\Instructions.rtf"
which would then invoke whatever program is associated with .rtf, no doubt dislaying the instructions and keeping the displaying mechanism open while the 7z423 executable runs.
I have the following code which doesn't seem to be working properly - is someone able to assist with how to run command-lines in batch files
#echo off
set changeFrom=321
set changeTo=123
set origFile=config.txt
set newFile=config1.txt
test.bat %changeFrom% %changeTo% %origFile%>%newFile%
del %origFile%
ren %newFile% %origFile%
::end
I have a file "test.bat" which has code to replace strings in a file - but I Don't get how it can work ?
You need to use call to execute the second bat file from the first like this:
call test.bat %changeFrom% %changeTo% %origFile%>%newFile%
without call the first batch script will exit when the second one exits.
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.
Assuming Windows, is there a way I can detect from within a batch file if it was launched from an open command prompt or by double-clicking? I'd like to add a pause to the end of the batch process if and only if it was double clicked, so that the window doesn't just disappear along with any useful output it may have produced.
Any clever ways to do this? I'm looking for solutions I could rely on to work on a machine that was configured more or less with default settings.
I just ran a quick test and noticed the following, which may help you:
When run from an open command prompt, the %0 variable does not have double quotes around the path. If the script resides in the current directory, the path isn't even given, just the batch file name.
When run from explorer, the %0 variable is always enclosed in double quotes and includes the full path to the batch file.
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="
#echo do something...
#echo %SCRIPT:~0,1% | findstr /l %DQUOTE% > NUL
if %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 set PAUSE_ON_CLOSE=1
:EXIT
if defined PAUSE_ON_CLOSE pause
EDIT:
There was also some weird behavior when running from Explorer that I can't explain. Originally, rather than
#echo %SCRIPT:~0,1% | findstr /l %DQUOTE% > NUL
if %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 set PAUSE_ON_CLOSE=1
I tried using just an if:
if %SCRIPT:0,1% == ^" set PAUSE_ON_CLOSE=1
This would work when running from an open command prompt, but when run from Explorer it would complain that the if statement wasn't correct.
Yes. Patrick Cuff's final example almost worked, but you need to add one extra escape, '^', to make it work in all cases. This works great for me:
set zero=%0
if [^%zero:~0,1%] == [^"] pause
However, if the name of the batch file contains a space, it'll be double quoted in either case, so this solution won't work.
Don't overlook the solution of having two batch files:
abatfile.bat and abatfile-with-pause.bat
The second simply calling the first and adding a pause
Here's what I use :
rem if double clicked it will pause
for /f "tokens=2" %%# in ("%cmdcmdline%") do if /i "%%#" equ "/c" pause
I use a parameter "automode" when I run my batch files from scripts.
set automode=%7
(Here automode is the seventh parameter given.)
Some code follows and when the file should pause, I do this:
if #%automode%==# pause
One easy way to do it is described here:
http://steve-jansen.github.io/guides/windows-batch-scripting/part-10-advanced-tricks.html
There is little typo in the code mentioned in the link. Here is correct code:
#ECHO OFF
SET interactive=0
ECHO %CMDCMDLINE% | FINDSTR /L /I %COMSPEC% >NUL 2>&1
IF %ERRORLEVEL%==0 SET interactive=1
ECHO do work
IF "%interactive%"==1 PAUSE
EXIT /B 0
Similar to a second batch file you could also pause if a certain parameter is not given (called via clicking).
This would mean only one batch file but having to specify a -nopause parameter or something like that when calling from the console.
crazy idea: use tasklist and parse it's results.
I've wrote in a test batch file:
tasklist > test.out
and when I double-clicked it, there was an additional "cmd.exe" process just before the tasklist process, that wasn't there when the script was run from command line (but note that might not be enough if someone opens a command line shell and then double-click the batch file)
Just add pause regardless of how it was opened? If it was opened from command prompt no harm done apart from a harmless pause. (Not a solution but just thinking whether a pause would be so harmful / annoying )