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page last uploaded: 15 March 2010, 21:20 |
Many clever tricks are mentioned on my other pages, especially Solutions found on alt.msdos.batch
Every now and then a real "jewel" is sent to me by mail or otherwise.
A selection of these tricks will be displayed on this page.
PUSHD "%~dp0" ever since, as the first command in any batch file that could be run from a UNC path.PUSHD command, the start/working directory of the batch file will be changed to %windir%\System32.PUSHD "%~dp0" is by far the most reliable way to do this, and it will work with RUNAS, PSEXEC, UNC paths, UAC and Explorer's "Run as..." option.Doing basic string substitution as described on www.robvanderwoude.com/ntset.php was pretty easy when using constant values.
But it took me a while to figure out how to do substitution when the string being substituted was determined programmatically.
Now that I have it figured out I'd like to share it with you so that you might be able to share it with all of your readers...Prerequisite:
Delayed expansion must be enabledScript:
SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
SET HOSTS_FILE=C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
SET VARIABLE_HOSTS_FILE=!HOSTS_FILE:%SystemRoot%=%%SystemRoot%%!
ECHO HOSTS_FILE=%HOSTS_FILE%
ECHO VARIABLE_HOSTS_FILE=%VARIABLE_HOSTS_FILE%
ENDLOCAL
GOTO:EOFOutput:
HOSTS_FILE=C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
VARIABLE_HOSTS_FILE=%SystemRoot%\System32\drivers\etc\hostsI used this kind of substitution to create machine independent instructions for fellow developers and testers to re-run my unit tests under their machine's source code location.
Here's a sample of my script's output:
ECHO To repeat this test run use the following command: pushd "%_LCSROOT%\dev\server\eps\CollaborationApi\utest\OotyTests\" & runall /run=x& popd
SET /A to work with really large numbers?I want to submit these scripts/subroutines for the world to use, it allows one to multiply two numbers that are much larger than the limitations of
SET /A.
I don't know if I have plans to create more math related subroutines, but it seemed to be a necessity to do math in batch and not have to use some third party tool or another script language.The point of Multiply.cmd and IsLarger.cmd is to work with number beyond the command lines ability.
You can Multiply an integer of hundreds of digits by another integer of many if not hundreds of digits.
Also IsLarger.cmd can compare integers of thousands of digits long.
The best part is this is all native NT Shell scripting tested on Windows XP, Windows 2003, and Windows Vista. (It might work on Windows 2000 - don't know haven't tried). No third party utilities are needed or reliance upon vbscript or some other language.I submitted these as batch files, but the subroutines starting with the labels
:Multiplyand:IsLargeris all you need to paste in your batch file to start using these - one other requirement, you have to haveSETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSIONin your script for this to work.Syntax in your script:
CALL :MULTIPLY CrazyLongNumber OtherCrazyLongNumber MyFavoriteVariableDo not surround your variables with percents or bangs (you are passing a reference to the variable, not the actual variable)
CALL :MULTIPLY VariableContainingBigNumber OtherVariableConatiningBigNumber_GiveItToMeVariableor if you use my script as is its just
MULTIPLY.CMD 121390487120394780398 123498712304981703948097and you get the answer.
Multiply.cmd 2 2
4Same thing with IsLarger, prints TRUE, FALSE, or EQUAL (you are saying, is this first number larger than this second number?)
IsLarger.CMD 2948372948273234234 2342983472938472938472342342342342234234
FALSE
IsLarger.CMD 5 4
TRUE
IsLarger.cmd 1 2
FALSE
IsLarger.cmd 2 2
EQUALIf you use just the subroutine, no percents or bangs:
CALL :IsLarger _BIGNUMBER1 _BIGNUMBER2 _MYVARIABLE
FOR /L %%B IN (0,1,9) DO SET _NUMVAR=!_NUMVAR:%%B=%%B !FOR loop.Combined with Carlos Montiers' extension of the available variables in FOR loops, we can now, in theory at least, nest up to 75 FOR loops!Hi, I have discovered that we can use numbers in the variable FOR command, like this:
FOR /L %%ˆ6 IN (1 1 10) DO (
ECHO %%ˆ6
)
FOR /D /R %%ˆ2 IN (*) DO (
ECHO %%ˆ2
)
FOR /F "tokens=1,2,3" %%ˆ0 IN ('VER') DO (
ECHO.%%ˆ0 %%ˆ1 %%ˆ2
)
FOR %%ˆ1 IN ("%~nx0") DO (
ECHO %%~nxtˆ1
)
FOR /F "tokens=1" %%ˆ7 IN ('VER') DO (
ECHO.%%ˆ7
)
FOR %%ˆ1 IN ("%~nx0") DO (
ECHO %%~nxatdˆ1
)
SET /P commands:@echo off
set /p "suma=2+2 : " # La suma, my comment
if %suma% equ 4 (
echo.Bien
) else (
echo.Mal
)
set suma
@echo off
set /p "suma=2+2 : " // La suma
if %suma% equ 4 (
echo.Bien
) else (
echo.Mal
)
set suma
@echo off
set /p "suma=2+2 : " /* La suma */
if %suma% equ 4 (
echo.Bien
) else (
echo.Mal
)
set suma
@echo off
set /p "suma=2+2 : " ' Comment
if %suma% equ 4 (
echo.Bien
) else (
echo.Mal
)
set suma
@echo off
set /p "suma=2+2 : " Comment
if %suma% equ 4 (
echo.Bien
) else (
echo.Mal
)
set suma
@echo off
for %%. in (H e l l o _ W o r l d) do (
call :show %%.
)
goto:eof
:show
<nul set /p "=%*" // Comentario
ping -n 1 loopback > nul
goto:eofFOR /F loop (I added some highlighting
to discriminate between the individual lines):
Wow! I need a wider screen.I just discovered that you can use more than 26 characters in the command
for /f, so we can reach a limit of 31 tokens.
In orderfor /f "tokens=1"or simplyfor /fcan use the following characters:& : <
We can start from and arrive at characters within this range from low to high:> ? @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ \ ] ˆ _ ` a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z { | }
Note: The following characters must be escaped with a caret (ˆ):ˆ < > | &as follows:ˆˆ ˆ< ˆ> ˆ| ˆ&
Finally a few examples:
@echo off
set palabras=p1 p2 p3 p4 p5 p6 p7 p8 p9 p10 p11 p12 p13 p14 p15 p16 p17 p18 p19 p20 p21 p22 p23 p24 p25 p26 p27 p28 p29 p30 p31 p32 p33 p34 p35
for /f "tokens=1" %%ˆ& in ("%palabras%") do (echo %%ˆ&)
for /f "tokens=1" %%ˆ< in ("%palabras%") do (echo %%ˆ<)
for /f "tokens=1,2,3" %%ˆ> in ("%palabras%") do (echo %%ˆ>%%?%%@)
for /f "tokens=1-31" %%? in ("%palabras%") do (echo %%?%%@%%A%%B%%C%%D%%E%%F%%G%%H%%I%%J%%K%%L%%M%%N%%O%%P%%Q%%R%%S%%T%%U%%V%%W%%X%%Y%%Z%%[%%\%%])
for /f "tokens=1-31" %%ˆˆ in ("%palabras%") do (echo %%ˆˆ%%_%%`%%a%%b%%c%%d%%e%%f%%g%%h%%i%%j%%k%%l%%m%%n%%o%%p%%q%%r%%s%%t%%u%%v%%w%%x%%y%%z%%{%%ˆ|)
for /f "tokens=1-31" %%_ in ("%palabras%") do (echo %%_%%`%%a%%b%%c%%d%%e%%f%%g%%h%%i%%j%%k%%l%%m%%n%%o%%p%%q%%r%%s%%t%%u%%v%%w%%x%%y%%z%%{%%ˆ|%%})
pause
updated
The value of my discovery is that for example if, before declaring:
for /f "tokens=1-4" %%Y in ("p1 p2 p3 p4") do (echo %%Y%%Z...)
and wanted to show the token 1,2,3,4 we could only show the token 1 and 2, because then comes %%Y and %%Z then ... we did not know that letter came.
So now we can do:
for /f "tokens=1-4" %%Y in ("p1 p2 p3 p4") do (echo %%Y%%Z%%[%%\)
The other, the documents said 52 variables, ie 26 + 26 (az) and (AZ) for an inside another for, or for using a single letter of the alphabet any case, but now we have more than 65 variables, for example:
@echo off
for /f "tokens=1-10" %%ˆ> in ("El cmd.exe es el interprete de comandos en OS2 y") do (
for /f "tokens=1-10" %%H in ("sistemas basados en Windows NT incluyendo Windows 2000 Windows XP") do (
for /f "tokens=1-8" %%R in ("Windows Server 2003 y Windows Vista. Es el") do (
for /f "tokens=1-12" %%Z in ("equivalente de command.com en MS-DOS y sistemas de la familia Windows 9x.") do (
for /f "tokens=1-10" %%f in ("A diferencia de su antecesor command.com este programa es tan") do (
for /f "tokens=1-14" %%p in ("solo una aplicacion no es una parte del sistema operativo y no posee la") do (
echo %%ˆ>%%?%%@%%A%%B%%C%%D%%E%%F%%G%%H%%I%%J%%K%%L%%M%%N%%O%%P%%Q%%R%%S%%T%%U%%V%%W%%X%%Y%%Z%%[%%\%%]%%ˆˆ%%_%%`%%a%%b%%c%%d%%e%%f%%g%%h%%i%%j%%k%%l%%m%%n%%o%%p%%q%%r%%s%%t%%u%%v%%w%%x%%y%%z%%{%%ˆ|%%}
)
)
)
)
)
)
pause
So, in summary, my discovery increases the maximum of 26 to 31 tokens, and the maximum for the global variables, from 52 to over 65, more say in the example just because they are used within the range, but not individual characters.
Written by Carlos Montiers.
Nice trick, and it can be used for KiXtart scripts too!The purpose is to be able to execute AutoIT code directly from inside a batch file (and so not having to worry about .au3 being associated with autoit).
.CMD file begins :
-------------------------------------------
; ::Batch code ,cmd.exe will run the lines beginning with comma and exit
; @echo off
; start C:\AutoIT\AutoIT3.exe %0 %*
; exit
; :: AutoIT code , autoit will ignore the lines beginning with semicolon
MsgBox (0 , "Box" , "Just A Box")
-------------------------------------------
.CMD file ends
KIX32.EXE is in the PATH) it will display the current date
and time in YYYYMMDDHHmmss format:; @ECHO OFF
; KIX32.EXE "%~f0"
; EXIT
$RC = SetOption( "ASCII", "ON" )
SubStr( @Date, 1, 4 )
SubStr( @Date, 6, 2 )
SubStr( @Date, 9, 2 )
SubStr( @Time, 1, 2 )
SubStr( @Time, 4, 2 )
SubStr( @Time, 7, 2 )Marvellous!Recently I came across a little trick using the REN command (tested on XP).
It is possible to use REN to delete every character after the last occurrence of a character by using the wildcard * followed by the desired character:
REM Rename filename.ext to filena
REN filename.ext *a
If you wanted to use a space or ampersand it would need to be contained in double quotes i.e.
REN "good&bad" "*&"
If you use a dot "*." the dot will also be trimmed off by windows because it doesn't allow file names to end with a dot.
Very simple but seemingly undocumented...............
@ECHO OFF
REM Code:
ECHO Hello
REM Comments:
(COMMENT
HELLO!
HI!@ECHO OFF
CALL :Put Me canse de escribir tantas lineas ...
CALL :Put Este es el typewritter effect reloaded
CALL :Put o echo dinamico xD
>NUL PAUSE
GOTO:EOF
:Put
IF NOT DEFINED .m_ SET.m_=%*
IF NOT DEFINED .m_ GOTO:EOF
<NUL SET /P .m_=%.m_:˜0,1%
>NUL PING -n 10
SET .m_=%.m_:˜1%
IF DEFINED .m_ (GOTO:Put) ELSE (ECHO.)
GOTO:EOFI was looking at you tips and tricks section and noticed you have a way to get the first and last line of a text file, but what it you want the /nth /line of text...
This trick takes advantage of two features of NT batch, calling batch labels and GOTO :EOF, which of course ends a call(or batch). The folowing will get the third line of a text file and set it to the variable TEXT_LINE.
SET NthLine=3
SET /A NthLine-=1
CALL :LINEGRAB
GOTO RESTOFFILE
:LINEGRAB
FOR /F "skip=%NthLine% tokens=*" %%G IN (TEXTFILE.TXT) DO SET TEXT_LINE=%%G&&GOTO :EOF
:RESTOFFILE
There is one limitation to this, because for /f skips blank lines any blank lines will cause the line grabbed to be off.
SET /A NthLine -= 1
TYPE textfile ˆ| MORE /E +%NthLine% > "%Temp%.\~nthline.tmp"
SET /P TextLine= < "%Temp%.\~nthline.tmp"SET NthLine=3
SET /A NthLine -= 1
CALL :LINEGRAB
GOTO RESTOFFILE
:LINEGRAB
FOR /F "tokens=*" %%A IN ('MORE /E +%NthLine% TEXTFILE.TXT') DO (
SET TextLine=%%A
GOTO:EOF
)
:RESTOFFILE• For the DIR command, adding the /S flag to the /B will fully qualify file and directory names. Of course, using the /S flag will search all subdirectories which may not be what you want.
Examples:
DIR /B /S C:\Temp
C:\Temp\A.txt
C:\Temp\B.txt
DIR /B C:\Temp
A.txt
B.txt
• If you add the /S flag when deleting a specific file, you will get a resulting message with the file name fully qualified. Again, use the /S flag with caution on a delete. Without the /S flag, you do not get a message.
Example:
C:\Temp>DEL /S A.txt
Deleted file - C:\Temp\A.txt
C:\Temp>
Rob,
I feel your pain about finding a logged-on user... but there is hope from the most unlikely of places... using Netsh.
netsh diag show computer /v
Checkout near the bottom:UserName =
If there is no username, there is no logged-on user. Sweet!
Programmatically in Batch:
FOR /F "tokens=3" %%a IN ('netsh diag show computer /v ˆ| FIND /i "username"') DO ECHO %%a
Remotely using Batch via Psexec:
SET REMOTE_COMPUTER=%1
FOR /F "tokens=3" %%a IN ('PSEXEC.exe \\%REMOTE_COMPUTER% netsh diag show computer /v ˆ| FIND /i "username"') DO ECHO %%a
Note: this only gets you the locally logged-on user: Windows Server 2003 Terminal Services Users will not show up on this.
-r \\%REMOTE_COMPUTER%
switch should do the trick without the need for PSEXEC, but my own
tests using this switch failed.NETSH Diag Show Computer /V command,
there is a lot of valuable information available.SET /P to read the first line
of a file and store it in an environment variable.SET /P TestVar=<C:\boot.ini
SET TestVar
FOR /F "tokens=*" %%A IN (C:\boot.ini) DO SET TestVar=%%A
SET TestVarSET /P reads the first line,
whereas FOR /F reads the last line!Wow! Great!Sometimes it is necessary to get a Driveletter from a mapping.
Normally you will define a fixed Driveletter which you will map to your Remote path.
After you have done all things you will delete the drive mapping.
I found an simple solution for Windows Server 2003. Maybe it's also working in Windows 2000.
WithPUSHD \\Server\Share\[path]the system automatically creates a driveletter for you and jumps to it.
In the next step you can get the current Drive with %CD%.
When you usePOPDyou will jump back and the drivemapping is also deleted.
Attention: BecausePUSHDcan be nested you have to make sure that withPOPDyou don't delete your current directory!
In my scripts I will use the following lines to Map a remote path:
PUSHD \\Server\Share\path
SET rmt=%CD%
CALL %rmt%\script.cmd
PUSHD \\server\sharename
CD >> C:\pushdtest.log
POPD
CD >> C:\pushdtest.logX:\
C:\
X:\
C:\Thanks, Chris.Under XP (And I assume NT/2000 as well) it is possible to create a group of commands from the command line (not a batch file). This is useful for, among other things, copy&pasting scripts off of the internet for testing without saving. To do this, just type "(" and hit enter, enter each command one by one (or paste a previously copied list of commands), then type ")" and hit enter.
As well, it allows for groups of commands intended to be executed sequentially to be entered beforehand then allowed to run, useful if you are running external programs that you need to wait for and don't want to write a batch file for that specific job.
Output for every command may also be redirected at the end of the block, in the same manner as Tip 7 on the Clever Tricks page: ") > log.txt" instead of just ")"
C:\>(
More? cd
More? echo %windir%
More? echo This may be useful to someone wanting
More? echo to enter multiple commands in a row...
More? )
C:\
C:\WINDOWS
This may be useful to someone wanting
to enter multiple commands in a row...
C:\>
Thanks, Chris.Well, now I just found something more useful: A way to increase readability.
After thinking about why this works under NT/etc, I realized its because under windows, a physical linebreak is represented by 2 characters, and the escape character only escapes one of them, leaving the other there. My guess is that under OS/2, a linebreak is only a single character.
After some testing, I found that using just the second half of the linebreak, its possible to make it all neat and non-spaced out (the hex value is shown in notepad as a square, it won't provide a physical linebreak):
ECHO testˆ<hex 0A>
testˆ<0A>
testˆ<0A>
test
will result in:
test
test
test
test
To use in a SET command:
SET var=testˆˆˆ<0A><0A>ˆ<0A>
testˆˆˆ<0A><0A>ˆ<0A>
testˆˆˆ<0A><0A>ˆ<0A>
test
ECHO %var%
will result in:
test
test
test
test
The reason that the <0A> is repeated twice is that the first one is ignored, which would be interpreted asˆˆˆˆwhich is not what is wanted. Having a few control codes on the end instead of excessive linebreaks is much more readable, while providing the same behaviour. The only requirement is that you be able to enter the correct value.
I have [...] discovered that you can run '
egather2 -local' to output the native XML file rather than the .eg2 file.
You can also specify which information is output by egather2 by specify the probe name on the command line, eg:egather2 -local -probe SYSTEM_SUMMARYYou can get a list of probe names to specify by running
egather2 -listprobes
Well, this sure is a nice simple replacement for my (now
obsolete) SNDisk2.bat.
Thanks, Martin
Continuing Martin's research I have discovered even more
undocumented command line switches.
I used the command:
STRINGS -a EGATHER2.EXE | FINDSTR /R /B /I /C:"-[A-Z0-9][A-Z0-9]"
-Y2
-ht
-wB
-binaryfile
-xmlfile
-textfile
-asciifile
-dgmlfile
-vpd
-stdout
-local
-probe
-probes
-listprobes
-html
-filename
-level
-debug
-step
-nolimit
-silent
-batch
-help
-64OS
-zc-help switch and you'll notice that most of
these switches are indeed undocumented.
EGATHER2 -html -batch
EGATHER2 -html -batch -filename\\remoteserver\remoteshare\%ComputerName%-filename and the actual file name; and no
extension, the -html switch will take care
of that)
REGSVR32 %systemroot%\apppatch\slayerui.dll
ECHO Press Enter to continue . . .
SET /P =
SET /P =Press Enter to continue . . .
DIR,
DIR /A
:: bootdrv1.bat
@ECHO off
:: By Laurence Soucy
:: http://users.telenor.dk/~dsl645578/batfiles.htm::
:: To place drive letter into variable
ECHO %comspec%|choice.com/n/c%comspec% set bootdrv=>%temp%.\bootdrv$.bat
FOR %%c in (CALL DEL) do %%c %temp%.\bootdrv$.bat
ECHO "%bootdrv%"
@ECHO OFF
CD | CHOICE /N /C:ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ SET curdrive=>%temp%.\curdrv$.bat
FOR %%A IN (CALL DEL) DO %%A %temp%.\curdrv$.bat
ECHO "%curdrive%"
command1 > logfile.log
command2 >> logfile.log
command3 >> logfile.log
(
command1
command2
command3
) > logfile.log
VER | NET USE * \\server\share [ /USER:domain\user ]
PING server | FIND "TTL=" >NUL
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 ECHO Error pinging server
PING server -n 1 | FIND "TTL=" >NUL
IF NOT ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO Next
PING server -w 3000 | FIND "TTL=" >NUL
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 ECHO Error pinging server
:Next
RUNDLL USER.EXE,SwapMouseButton
RUNDLL32 USER32.DLL,SwapMouseButton
CONTROL MAIN.CPL
RUNDLL32 SHELL32.DLL,Control_RunDLL MAIN.CPL,@0,1
START RUNDLL32 RNAUI.DLL,RnaDial exact name of dialer entry
TRACERT -h 1 -w 1
FOR /F "tokens=2 delims= " %%A IN ('PING -a %1 ˆ| FIND "[%1]"') DO ECHO.%%AFIND /V part if you expect host names
containing the (sub)string "TTL".
DEBUG < %0.BAT
GOTO Around
(do not skip this blank line)
(original DEBUG script goes here)
(do not skip this blank line)
:Around
The win98 tasks scheduler creates .JOB files when you setup a program to run on a certain occasion.
These .JOB files contain information about some things like the path to the program that should be run and probably when it will run.
I've also seen that there's allways a character that indicates wether the .JOB file is active or not.
Checking if a certain task will be run or not could then be done in a batch file:
TYPE C:\Windows\Tasks\Thejobb.job | FIND "%character%" >NUL
IF NOT ERRORLEVEL 1 ECHO Job not active!
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 ECHO Job is active!Where %character% is the one character that will disappear from the .JOB file when it's activated.
I've found that the ASCII 196 is a pretty safe bet, but you should scan the file you want to test, both when you have it activated and when it is inactive.
Then check if it's really this character that differs (I suggest looking at it in notepad, thats how I did it).
If you're really unlucky the active-or-not charcter could be found twice in the file, on its active-or-not position and some other place, this test will then not work.
Check also that your program's name does not contain the control character.
Tip provided by Oskar Bäckström
Uncommon use of NT's SET /A switch:
As you may or may not be aware, it isn't necessary to specify a
variable when using SET /A.
Try this:
SET /A 0XFFand you should see the number 255 (the decimal value of the
hexadecimal number FF) on screen.
Used without a variable, the result of the mathematical expression
is displayed on screen.
As explained on my "Useless
Tips" page in more detail, the result is displayed without
a carriage return/line feed at the end!
Tip provided by
Ken Gould
A final word of thanks to all who sent me their tips and tricks.
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page last uploaded: 15 March 2010, 21:20 |