Inside a batch file, I am trying to write a for loop to process files in a directory. I have tried doing this:
for %%file in (*.in) do echo %%file
It tells me: %file was unexpected at this time.
Can someone solve my problem?
Thanks
A loop variable cannot have more than 1 letter in its name, eg:
for %%f in (*.in) do echo %%f
Related
I'm trying to use this script to assist technicians with renaming files that are found on an end users computer within their %appdata% folder. The script works up until this point, but I can't figure out how to take the output of the DIR search to use it as the current directory so I can modify the destination folder.
Basically, I need to make changes to this folder:
C:\users\bob\appdata\local\apps\2.0\'7'\'7'\time...exe_bfe88f94fc69adaa_0005.0011_none_b883acbb6e8d0075
The two 7's or wildcards are always different folder directory names, so that's why I can't use a static path to make changes to these folders. Anyways, here is the script so far, it works just fine in locating the folder I need, but I cannot seem to use the output to specify it as the target so I can make changes to it. Thank you for your help.
cd %appdata%
cd ..
cd local\apps\2.0
dir "time...exe_bfe88f94fc69adaa_0005.0011_none_39f58db4ac6311ec" /ad /s
I've tried using the pipeline argument (|) and the '&' and then using a rename command or a removedir, but it cannot find the file specified.
Thank you for your help!
Here's a batch-file which is a little more direct than just recursing the entire tree. It only steps over the two 'unknown' directory names, (%%~nxG\%%~nxH), and checks there for the named directory, (which you should edit as needed on line 3):
#Echo Off & SetLocal EnableExtensions
Set "DirName=time...exe_bfe88f94fc69adaa_0005.0011_none_39f58db4ac6311ec"
Set "BaseDir=%LocalAppData%\apps\2.0"
Set "AppPath="
For /D %%G In ("%BaseDir%\*")Do For /D %%H In ("%%G\*")Do For %%I In (
"%%H\%DirName%")Do If "%%~aI" GEq "d" Set "AppPath=%%~I"
If Not Defined AppPath Echo %DirName% Not Found & Pause & Exit /B 1
Echo %%AppPath%% = %AppPath% & Pause
Nothing else should be modified except for the last line which I added just to provide some output, (you/your technicians would use "%AppPath%" to reference the target directory from that point forward).
If you were looking for something in powershell, then perhaps this will push you in the right direction:
$DirName = "time...exe_bfe88f94fc69adaa_0005.0011_none_39f58db4ac6311ec"
$AppPath = (RvPa "$Env:LocalAppData\apps\2.0\*\*\$DirName").Path
$AppPath
Once again the last line is just to provide output and show you the variable you'll need to reference your target directory, and the first line will need editing as needed.
This code uses a FOR loop to find directory names that match. There is an ECHO inside the loop since I do not know if multiple directories could be found.
#ECHO OFF
CD "%APPDATA%\.."
FOR /F "delims=" %%A IN ('DIR /S /B /A:D "time...exe_bfe88f94fc69adaa_0005.0011_none_39f58db4ac6311ec"') DO (
ECHO Found directory "%%~A"
SET THEDIR=%%~A
)
DIR "%THEDIR%"
REN "%THEDIR%\file1.txt" "file2.txt"
My Problem
As there are a ton of threads that address 'using a batch file to return file modify date' (or delete files older than, etc) - let me first specify my issue.
I'm looking to create a batch (not PowerShell, etc) that will return the last modify date of a specific file given UNC path and filename.
Code, Attempt 1
I've taken a peek at a few potential solutions on other threads, but I've run into a number of unique issues. The first and most obvious solution for this would be the "ForFiles" command in batch. For example:
set myPath=\\myUNCpath
set myFile=myFileName.csv
forfiles /p "%myPath%" /m %myFile% /c "GoTo OldFile" /d -6
Thus, if the file is older than I want -- jump to a specific section of my batch for that. However, this yields the error:
ERROR: UNC paths (\machine\share) are not supported.
However, this cmd won't work due to the use of UNC (which is critical as this batch is called by system's task scheduler). So it seems like the 'ForFiles' cmd is out.
Code, Attempt 2
I could go a more round about way of doing it, but simply retrieving the last modified date of the file (which in batch would return a string). I can truncate the string to the necessary date values, convert to a date, and then compare to current date. To do that, I've also looked into just using a for loop such as:
set myFile=\\myUNCpath\myFileName.csv
echo %myFile%
pause
FOR %%f IN (%myFile%) DO SET myFileDate=%%~tf
echo %myFileDate%
pause
Though my first debug echo provides the proper full file name, my second debug just returns ECHO is off., which tells me it's either not finding the file or the for loop isn't returning the file date. Not sure why.
I've also tried minor changes to this just to double check environmental variable syntax:
FOR %%f IN (%myFile%) DO SET myFileDate=%%~ta
Returns %ta
And finally:
FOR %%f IN (%myFile%) DO SET myFileDate=%~ta
Which without the extra '%', just crashes the batch.
I'm really at a loss at this point. So any tips or guidance would be greatly appreciated!
Using forfiles to a UNC path can be used using PushD
For just echoing the file older than x in UNC path, simply just use
PushD %myPath% &&(
forfiles -s -m %myFile% -d -6 -c "cmd /c echo /q #file
) & PopD
Here is one way how to use goto if file older than x found in UNC path using your examples.
if not exist "C:\temp" mkdir C:\temp
if not exist "C:\temp\test.txt" echo.>"c:\temp\test.txt"
break>"c:\temp\test.txt"
set myPath=\\myUNCpath
set myFile=myFileName.csv
PushD %myPath% &&(
forfiles -s -m %myFile% -d -6 -c "cmd /c echo /q #file >> c:\temp\test.txt"
) & PopD
for /f %%i in ("C:\temp\test.txt") do set size=%%~zi
if %size% gtr 0 goto next
:next
Huge thanks to both #Squashman and #MadsTheMan for the help. Luckily this batch finally is the piece of code that I can take to my boss to push switching over to at least using PowerShell!
Anyway, for those of you looking for the best way to get a UNC path file's modify date, here is what I've come up with. Not very different than other threads (and a thanks goes out to Squashman for spotting my missing " " in the for loop).
set myFile=\\myUNCpath\myFileName.ext
FOR %%f IN ("%myFile%") DO SET myFileDate=%%~tf
::And if you'd like to try to do long winded calculations you can further break the dates down via...
set fileMonth=%myFileDate:~0,2%
set fileDay=%myFileDate:~3,2%
set fileYear=%myFileDate:~6,4%
set currentDate=%date%
set currentMonth=%currentDate:~4,2%
set currentDay=%currentDate:~7,2%
set currentYear=%currentDate:~10,4%
The plan was to then convert the strings to integers, and then use a switch-case block to determine if the variance between dates was acceptable... blah blah blah.
Long story short - if you are limited to batch (and not creating secondary files -- such as a csv or the temp file suggested by MadsTheMan) you're going to have a really long script on your hands that still might have flaws (like leap year, etc unless you're adding even MORE code), when you could just make the comparison calculation using one line of code in other programs.
I want to rename 2 files "Data1.txt" to "Log1.rtf" and "Data2.txt" to "Log2.rtf"
I am currently using this code
#ECHO OFF
FOR %%I IN ("%~dp0*.txt") DO (
SET "ext=%%~xI"
SETLOCAL EnableDelayedExpansion
RENAME "%%I" "%%~nI!Log.rtf"
ENDLOCAL
)
But it give output "data1log.rtf" and "data2log.rtf"
of course:
RENAME "%%I" "%%~nI!Log.rtf"
But it give output data1log.rtf and data2log.rtf
btw. what do you try to achive with setlocal delayedexpansion and that single ! ?
EDIT: if you insist in doing it with for (because perhaps, you have many files to rename):
#echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
for %%i in (*.txt) do (
set file=%%i
set file=!file:Data=Log!
set file=!file:.txt=.rtf!
echo ren %%i !file!
)
the first set sets the variable file to the filename
the second one replaces Data with Log
the third one replaces .txt with .rtf
then rename original filename (%%i) to the changed filename (!file!)
(the echo is there to just show the command on screen instead of really renaming files. Good for testing. If you are sure, that the code does, what you want, just remove the echo)
the setlocal enabledelayedexpansion is needed to use a variable, that is changed inside a block (between ( and )) inside the same block. Therefore you have to use the variable as !var! instead of %var%
Note: of course this code could be improved, but as a beginner: keep it as simple (and readable) as possible. For example, this code will replace Data, but not data or DATA, it will not handle spaces in filenames, ...
It might work better if you used separate code to rename each of the files, or does that defeat the object?
this website shows how to rename a file using command line:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/56013-file-folder-rename-command-prompt.html
for %%a in ("%~dp0data*.txt"
) do for /f "delims=DdAaTt" %%b in ("%%~na"
) do echo ren "%%~fa" "log%%b.rtf"
It just iterates over the indicated list of files, and for each filename, uses the unnecesary characters as delimiters for an aditional for loop. That way only the number is left and used to rename the file.
Commands to rename are echoed to console. If output is correct, remove the echo command to rename the files.
User mv command to rename files in windows (Using CLI)
As mentioned in above answer, mv command can be used in windows as well to rename the filename. I tried rename and ren commands s suggested, but I was getting error: bash: ren: command not found.
Use below to change the filename:
mv filename new_filename
I have a program that I need to run via command line that I want to make a batch file for to save time. It looks for any files in the same directory with a specific extension and then runs the exe to manipulate the file. Something like:
example.exe option1 *.ext
Where .ext is a file with the correct type of extension it's looking for. The file type usually has different filenames, but always the same extension. The option is just something the program knows how to use so that can be ignored for now.
Trick is I only want this to run IF there isn't already another file in the same directory with the same name but a different extension.
I think I saw something about being able to use IF statements in batch files, but I have no idea how this would be done. Any ideas?
You can iterate yourself over the files:
for %%x in (*.ext) do (
if exist %%~n.someotherext example.exe option1 "%%x"
)
echo off
REM search .txt files.
for %%f in (*.txt) do (
REM skip if a .log file with the same name exists.
if not exist %%~nf.log (
echo Now executing %%f
notepad.exe %%f
REM Terminate the loop after the first succesful file
goto end
) else (
echo Skipping %%f
)
)
echo Nothing to process.
:end
pause
I'm trying to recurse through my music directory and copy every file called folder.jpg to a file in the same directory called cover.jpg.
I've tried variations of suggestions in this question such as this:
for /r %i in (folder.jpg) do copy %i cover.jpg
Resulting in "The system cannot find the file specified."
How can I solve this problem?
Edit
Here's what I ended up going with:
for /r %i in (folder.jpg) do copy "%i" "%~picover.jpg"
Try this:
for /f "usebackq delims==" %I in (`dir /b /s ^| findstr folder.jpg`) do copy "%I" "%~pIcover.jpg"
Decoder Ring:
usebackq :: run the command in the backquotes and use the output as the input for the loop
delims== :: use the equal sign as a delimeter. Really you could use any character that isn't valid in a file name
dir /b /s :: do a recursive directory listing only outputting the bare file names
^| :: ^ escapes the pipe character, the pipe - well pipes the output from the first command to the second
findstr :: searches the input for matching lines, and only outputs them
%~pI :: the tilde p instructs the variable expansion to only output the path rather than full file name + path. Note, this includes a trailing \
I hope this helps!
You are missing double-quotes on the copy command.
The %i variable will be holding the full-path to the file -- which may contain spaces.
Try using:
for /r %i in (folder.jpg) do copy "%i" cover.jpg
You probably don't have any files in your music folder called folder.jpg so it fails right?
I tried this in mymusic folder with a dummy file called folder.jpg and it copied it normally. ;)
Edit:
Kishi is right, you are missing the double quotes on the second %i
PowerShell must replace CMD. It is inevitable and righteous. And it's my job to help it along...
gci -r . folder.jpg | % { copy $_.FullName ([IO.Path]::Combine( $_.Directory.FullName, "cover.jpg" )) }
You could just use xcopy with the /s flag...
EDIT:
My bad - didn't read the question properly. Xcopy with /s will help when just copying the files to a fixed destination.