I am quite new to coding and using plink and currently having problems trying to upload my vcf file into the plink command prompt.
I typed:
plink --vcf [PD630.vcf]
But got this error:
Error: Failed to open [PD630.vcf]. (--vcf expects complete file name; did you forget the .vcf at the end?)
However, I have already typed the complete and accurate file name into the brackets multiple times.
I think you have taken the usage instructions too literally.
It is common when writing out command-line parameters to use square brackets to represent an optional argument, so --vcf [filename] would mean "the --vcf switch can optionally be followed by a filename". The square brackets don't need to be typed literally, and typing them will make the program look for a file with those brackets in its name.
So instead of plink --vcf [filename.vcf] you probably want just plink --vcf filename.vcf.
Related
Here is a screen shot of the issue. You can see that I'm in a folder named C:\Test[ and I get an error when attempting to run Test.ps1 via a PowerShell command line:
Using an absolute file name doesn't make any difference:
I also tried escaping the bracket with a backtick, but had no luck with that.
Of course, in this simple example, I can just run .\Test.ps1 directly, but this is part of a bigger issue where a PowerShell script is run from an HTA which could be located in a folder that contains a left bracket, right bracket, or both. Different issues occur depending on the combination. It would be too confusing to show all permutations in one question, so I'm starting with this one, as it is the simplest to demonstrate.
My current "solution" is to display an error message if the user is attempting to run the HTA from a directory that contains left or right brackets, but I'd prefer to find a way to make it work.
I've read through various articles regarding square bracket folder names and PowerShell, but they all refer to using "-literalpath" or backticks within a PowerShell script and the only command line reference I found said to use "-file" which, of course, I'm already using.
That was this article:
Cannot run PowerShell script in folder with square braces
The answers provided in that article don't work for a folder with a single left bracket and actually don't really solve all issues for folders with a pair of brackets because even though "-file" allows the script to run, there will be further issues if there is a filename parameter passed to the script, but that's another issue. Let's see if we can just sort this single left bracket problem first.
Looks like that you can use the -InputFormat with the powershell command to help?
The brackets will need double backtick characters within the single quotes, the cat command only needed a single backtick like the cd command:
PS C:\> cat '.\Test`[\test.ps1'
echo "hello"
PS C:\> powershell -InputFormat "text" 'c:\test``[\test.ps1'
hello
Use ` before a bracket.
For example, I made a folder called hi[, now to go to that directory, use cd 'hi`[' and it will work.
Note: It only works with single quote ('), using double quotes (") throws an error
Attempting to write a Wget to get and save Vanguard pricing data. So far I have 2 statements that both work correctly from the Command Line when I paste the string. When I save the string as a bat file one works and the other gives an unexpected result.
The string that works correctly in both places is:
Wget64 --output-document=C:\Users\Default\downloads\VVA_Daily_Portfolio-%DATE:~-4%-%DATE:~4,2%-%DATE:~7,2%.html "https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/annuities/variable"
The string that only works in the Command Line and not as a bat file is:
Wget64 --output-document=C:\Users\Default\downloads\VVA_Fund64_History-%DATE:~-4%-%DATE:~4,2%-%DATE:~7,2%.html "https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/tools/pricehistorysearch?radio=1&results=get&FundType=VVAP&FundIntExt=INT&FundId=0064&fundName=0064&fundValue=0064&radiobutton2=1&beginDate=03%2F01%2F2017&endDate=12%2F31%2F2017&year=#res"
Can someone help me write the script so that the expected result is achieved. I suspect that the Vanguard website can tell the difference between a Command Line vs bat file query, or that there is something inherently different between the two methods of execution.
ANy assistance is appreciated. Dan
The cmd command parser behaves differently in command line and batch files. In this case, the main problem is the variable expansion. In command line when a variable does not contain a value (it is undefined), the variable read operation is not removed, but inside batch files the read operation is removed.
That means that something like echo(%thisDoesNotExist% will output (under the assumption the variable does not exist) %thisDoesNotExist% in command line and nothing in batch file.
What relation has this with your problem?
If we split your wget in parts you have
Wget64
--output-document="C:\Us ... y-%DATE:~-4%-%DATE:~4,2%-%DATE:~7,2%.html"
^........^ ^.........^ ^.........^
"https://pe ... h?radio=1& ... &beginDate=03%2F01%2F2017&endDate=12%2F31%2F2017&year=#res"
^....^ ^....^
You can see where the parser tries to resolve variables, correctly in the output case and incorrectly (from the purpouse of the command point of view) in the URL.
You need to escape (by doubling them) the percent signs that are not part of a variable read operation, ex. ... beginDate=03%%2F01%%2F2017&...
I have been working on a project that uses a program called TeraTerm to send commands to a TV via a serial port. I have discovered that when I open the program manually after a reboot, I have to open the correct port and then send the .dat command file several times before it actually takes (Turns off the TV).
The commands I am using are from this page.
Anyway, I ran the command
TTERMPRO /C=7 /DS /FD=C:\Commands\TurnOffTest3.dat /FD=C:\Commands\TurnOffTest3.dat /FD=C:\Commands\TurnOffTest3.dat
hoping that it would allow me to send the file multiple times. The TeraTerm window did open as usual, but the file was either not sent or had no effect.
There is a very high likelyhood that I am sending the commands incorrectly, as I am very new to the command prompt itself. Is there a way that I can call the command to send a file multiple times? If I am not interpreting the interface given on the website correctly or even if the way I am using the commands is just flat out wrong, any and all advice is welcome.
Side note: yes, I am sure that the command file that I am sending is the correct one because when I send the file manually (i. e. use the GUI) the TV turns off as expected.
EDIT: I have tried sending the file with and without quotes in its name.
for /L %G in (1,1,3) do TTERMPRO …
Read more in FOR command:
If you are using the FOR command at the command line rather than
in a batch program, use just one percent sign: %G instead of
%%G.
Noticed in help information about system commands for /? as well: To use the FOR command in a batch program, specify %%variable instead of %variable. Variable names are case sensitive, so %i is different from %I.
==> for /?
Runs a specified command for each file in a set of files.
FOR %variable IN (set) DO command [command-parameters]
%variable Specifies a single letter replaceable parameter.
(set) Specifies a set of one or more files. Wildcards may be used.
command Specifies the command to carry out for each file.
command-parameters
Specifies parameters or switches for the specified command.
To use the FOR command in a batch program, specify %%variable instead
of %variable. Variable names are case sensitive, so %i is different
from %I.
…
Further reading in Syntax: Escape Characters, Delimiters and Quotes
I am quite stuck; I need to compress the content of a folder, where I have multiple files (extension .dat). I went for shell scripting.
So far I told myself that is not that hard: I just need to recursively read the content of the dir, get the name of the file and zip it, using the name of the file itself.
This is what I wrote:
for i in *.dat; do zip $i".zip" $i; done
Now when I try it I get a weird behavior: each file is called like "12/23/2012 data102 test1.dat"; and when I run this sequence of commands; I see that zip instead of recognizing the whole file name, see each part of the string as single entity, causing the whole operation to fail.
I told myself that I was doing something wrong, and that the i variable was wrong; so I have replaced echo, instead than the zip command (to see which one was the output of the i variable); and the $i output is the full name of the file, not part of it.
I am totally clueless at this point about what is going on...if the variable i is read by zip it reads each single piece of the string, instead of the whole thing, while if I use echo to see the content of that variable it gets the correct output.
Do I have to pass the value of the filename to zip in a different way? Since it is the content of a variable passed as parameter I was assuming that it won't matter if the string is one or has spaces in it, and I can't find in the man page the answer (if there is any in there).
Anyone knows why do I get this behavior and how to fix it? Thanks!
You need to quote anything with spaces in it.
zip "$i.zip" "$i"
Generally speaking, any variable interpolation should have double quotes unless you specifically require the shell to split it into multiple tokens. The internal field separator $IFS defaults to space and tab, but you can change it to make the shell do word splitting on arbitrary separators. See any decent beginners' shell tutorial for a detailed account of the shell's quoting mechanisms.
Suppose you have an .EXE and you want to check if it has Command-Line Options. How can one know if the .EXE has this ability. In my case I know that Nir Sofers WebBrowserPassView.exe has the ability to start it via cmd.exe and WebBrowserPassView.exe /stext output.txt. But how can I find out if I don't know?
The easiest way would be to use use ProcessExplorer but it would still require some searching.
Make sure your exe is running and open ProcessExplorer.
In ProcessExplorer find the name of your binary file and double click it to show properties.
Click the Strings tab.
Search down the list of string found in the binary file. Most strings will be garbage so they can be ignored. Search for anything that might possibly resemble a command line switch.
Test this switch from the command line and see if it does anything.
Note that it might be your binary simply has no command line switches.
For reference here is the above steps applied to the Chrome executable. The command line switches accepted by Chrome can be seen in the list:
Invoke it from the shell, with an argument like /? or --help. Those are the usual help switches.
Sysinternals has another tool you could use, Strings.exe
Example:
strings.exe c:\windows\system32\wuauclt.exe > %temp%\wuauclt_strings.txt && %temp%\wuauclt_strings.txt
Just use IDA PRO (https://www.hex-rays.com/products/ida/index.shtml) to disassemble the file, and search for some known command line option (using Search...Text) - in that section you will then typically see all the command line options - for the program (LIB2NIST.exe) in the screenshot below, for example, it shows a documented command line option (/COM2TAG) but also some undocumented ones, like /L. Hope this helps?
Really this is an extension to Marcin's answer.
But you could also try passing "rubbish" arguments to see if you get any errors back. Getting any response from the executable directly in the shell will mean that it is likely looking at the arguments you're passing, with an error response being close to a guarantee that it is.
Failing that you might have to directly ask the publishers/creators/owners... sniffing the binaries yourself just seems like far too much work for an end-user.
Unless the writer of the executable has specifically provided a way for you to display a list of all the command line switches that it offers, then there is no way of doing this.
As Marcin suggests, the typical switches for displaying all of the options are either /? or /help (some applications might prefer the Unix-style syntax, -? and -help, respectively). But those are just a common convention.
If those don't work, you're out of luck. You'll need to check the documentation for the application, or perhaps try decompiling the executable (if you know what you're looking for).
This is what I get from console on Windows 10:
C:\>find /?
Searches for a text string in a file or files.
FIND [/V] [/C] [/N] [/I] [/OFF[LINE]] "string" [[drive:][path]filename[ ...]]
/V Displays all lines NOT containing the specified string.
/C Displays only the count of lines containing the string.
/N Displays line numbers with the displayed lines.
/I Ignores the case of characters when searching for the string.
/OFF[LINE] Do not skip files with offline attribute set.
"string" Specifies the text string to find.
[drive:][path]filename
Specifies a file or files to search.
If a path is not specified, FIND searches the text typed at the prompt
or piped from another command.