How can I run a CMD or .bat file in silent mode? I'm looking to prevent the CMD interface from being shown to the user.
Include the phrase:
#echo off
right at the top of your bat script.
I have proposed in StackOverflow question a way to run a batch file in the background (no DOS windows displayed)
That should answer your question.
Here it is:
From your first script, call your second script with the following line:
wscript.exe invis.vbs run.bat %*
Actually, you are calling a vbs script with:
the [path]\name of your script
all the other arguments needed by your script (%*)
Then, invis.vbs will call your script with the Windows Script Host Run() method, which takes:
intWindowStyle : 0 means "invisible windows"
bWaitOnReturn : false means your first script does not need to wait for your second script to finish
See the question for the full invis.vbs script:
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.Run """" & WScript.Arguments(0) & """" & sargs, 0, False
^
means "invisible window" ---|
Update after Tammen's feedback:
If you are in a DOS session and you want to launch another script "in the background", a simple /b (as detailed in the same aforementioned question) can be enough:
You can use start /b second.bat to launch a second batch file asynchronously from your first that shares your first one's window.
I think this is the easiest and shortest solution to running a batch file without opening the DOS window, it can be very distracting when you want to schedule a set of commands to run periodically, so the DOS window keeps popping up, here is your solution.
Use a VBS Script to call the batch file ...
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell" )
WshShell.Run chr(34) & "C:\Batch Files\ mycommands.bat" & Chr(34), 0
Set WshShell = Nothing
Copy the lines above to an editor and save the file with .VBS extension. Edit the .BAT file name and path accordingly.
Use Advanced BAT to EXE Converter from http://www.battoexeconverter.com
This will allow you to embed any additional binaries with your batch file in to one stand alone completely silent EXE and its freeware
Use Bat To Exe Converter to do this
http://download.cnet.com/Bat-To-Exe-Converter/3000-2069_4-10555897.html (Choose Direct Download Link)
1 - Open Bat to Exe Converter, select your Bat file.
2 - In Option menu select "Invisible Application", then press compile button.
Done!
Try SilentCMD. This is a small freeware program that executes a batch file without displaying the command prompt window.
If i want to run command promt in silent mode, then there is a simple vbs command:
Set ws=CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
ws.Run "TASKKILL.exe /F /IM iexplore.exe"
if i wanted to open an url in cmd silently, then here is a code:
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Return = WshShell.Run("iexplore.exe http://otaxi.ge/log/index.php", 0)
'wait 10 seconds
WScript.sleep 10000
Set ws=CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
ws.Run "TASKKILL.exe /F /IM iexplore.exe"
I'm pretty confident I like this method the best. Copy and paste the code below into a .vbs file. From there you'll call the batch file... so make sure you edit the last line to specify the path and name of the batch file (which should contain the file you'd like to launch or perform the actions you need performed)
Const HIDDEN_WINDOW = 12
strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _
& "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
Set objStartup = objWMIService.Get("Win32_ProcessStartup")
Set objConfig = objStartup.SpawnInstance_
objConfig.ShowWindow = HIDDEN_WINDOW
Set objProcess = GetObject("winmgmts:root\cimv2:Win32_Process")
errReturn = objProcess.Create("C:\PathOfFile\name.bat", null, objConfig, intProcessID)
It definitely worked for me. Comments are welcomed :)
Another way of doing it, without 3rd party programs nor converters ("batch to exe" programs actually just put your batch file in the tmp folder and then run it silently so anyone can just fetch it from there an get your code) no vbs files (because nobody knows vbs) just one line at the beginning of the batch file.
#echo off > NUL
The below silent .bat file code prevents the need to have two bat files (using "goto" and ":").
It does it all in the same .bat file. Tested and confirmed working in Windows 10
Make sure you replace "C:\pathToFile\ThisBatFile.bat " with the path to this same .bat file! Keep the space after ".bat".
#echo off
if [%1]==[] (
goto PreSilentCall
) else (
goto SilentCall
)
:PreSilentCall
REM Insert code here you want to have happen BEFORE this same .bat file is called silently
REM such as setting paths like the below two lines
set WorkingDirWithSlash=%~dp0
set WorkingDirectory=%WorkingDirWithSlash:~0,-1%
REM below code will run this same file silently, but will go to the SilentCall section
cd C:\Windows\System32
if exist C:\Windows\Temp\invis.vbs ( del C:\Windows\Temp\invis.vbs /f /q )
echo CreateObject("Wscript.Shell").Run "C:\pathToFile\ThisBatFile.bat " ^& WScript.Arguments(0), 0, False > C:\Windows\Temp\invis.vbs
wscript.exe C:\Windows\Temp\invis.vbs Initialized
if %ERRORLEVEL%==0 (
echo Successfully started SilentCall code. This command prompt can now be exited.
goto Exit
)
:SilentCall
cd %WorkingDirectory%
REM Insert code you want to be done silently.
REM Make sure this section has no errors as you won't be able to tell if there are any,
REM since it will be running silently. You can add a greater than symbol at the end of
REM your commands in this section to output the results to a .txt file for the purpose
REM of debugging this section of code.
:Exit
If your .bat file needs more than just the "Initialized" argument (which tells the bat file to go to :SilentCall section), add "^& WScript.Arguments(1)," , "^& WScript.Arguments(2)," ,etc. depending on the number of arguments, then edit the line where wscript.exe is called:
"wscript.exe C:\Windows\Temp\invis.vbs Initialized BatFileArgOne BatFileArgTwo"
I'm created RunApp to do such a job and also using it in my production env, hope it's helps.
The config like below:
file: config.arg
:style:hidden
MyBatchFile.bat
arg1
arg2
And launch runapp.exe instead.
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 have this script to create an email from CMD script and insert TO, SUBJECT and BODY automatically.
I have a few variables already:
%USERNAME%
%TICKETNO%
It works, it creates a new email, puts the TO address, SUBJECT and BODY automatically. Variables work fine.
Now I want to insert the body as a sort of variable (redirected input to the command from varying text documents)
cd "c:\program files\microsoft office\office14\"
start outlook.exe /c ipm.note /m "%USERNAME%#domain.com&subject=Request %TICKETNO% Completed&body=exampletext”
Whatever I tried I can’t make it insert after &body input redirected from a text file. For now I'm just specifying the text document but I can't get the syntax right. I don't really know how to do it but I tried a bunch of things last night and just couldn't get it to work.
Example (pardon my noobishness):
start outlook.exe /c ipm.note /m "%USERNAME%#domain.com&subject=Request %TICKETNO% Completed&body=” <body.txt
How can I do this? Is it possible?
Create the text file as HTML file and attach the HTML file using below syntax
start outlook.exe /c ipm.note /a 'html' /m "%USERNAME%#domain.com&subject=Request %TICKETNO% Completed&body
Basically just attempting to create a very basic program that will display the last modified date of a file on our server. Problem is I have no idea how to write it. This is what I attempted
cd \\Server\Folder
msg dir
I also ran into the problem "CMD Does not support UNC Paths as Current Directories" when I tried to change the CD to our servers directory.
What I would like it to do is display in a dialog box the modified date of a "Text.txt" located on our server \\Server\Folder
Any and all help is appreciated
Next .bat script should work:
set "_folder=\\Server\Folder"
set "_filename=Text.txt"
set "_filedatetime=N/A"
pushd %_folder%
for %%G in (%_filename%) do (
rem echo %%~tG %%~fG
if not "%%~tG"=="" set "_filedatetime=%%~tG"
)
popd
echo file %_folder%\%_filename% date and time: %_filedatetime%
Note there is no dialog box in pure cmd command line interpreter, try set /P.
Resources:
SET: Display, set, or remove CMD environment variables
PUSHD, POPD: and UNC Network paths
FOR commands
~ Parameter Extensions
I need to write a .bat or .cmd script that will find all instances of file type .log in the directory it is run from, and for each of those search it for "searchstring", counting how many times it appears. Then I need to rename the file (original name: "[name].log") to "name.log". This is to enable me to get a very quick visual count of the number of errors in a file (which is part of what the log contains).
I've already got the for loop that locates all *.log files, but how do I count instances of a particular string?
try this:
for /f "tokens=2delims=:" %a in ('find /c "string" *.log') do #set /a count+=%a
echo %count%
Code is for shell prompt. For shell file replace %a with %%a.