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
Related
There is an old command line tool my company uses to deploy log files to various servers.... whoever wrote it made it very very repetitive.
There is a lot of prompting that happens and I want to automate this process. We have a long term goal of replacing this .exe file down the line but for now automation works for the short term..
Example
./logdeploy.exe
Enter the destination folder:
I would like the powershell script to just automatically enter the folder, since its literally the same folder. because this exe is going to ask for it at least 20 times throughout this process, so copy paste just gets anyoing.
Is this even possible to do?
If there really is no way around simulating interactive user input in order to automate your external program, a solution is possible under the following assumption:
Your external program reads interactive responses from stdin (the standard input stream).
While doing so is typical, it's conceivable that a given program's security-sensitive prompts such as for passwords deliberately accept input from the terminal only, as so to expressly prevent automating responses.
If the first assumption holds, the specific method that must be used to send the response strings via stdin depends on whether the external program clears the keyboard buffer before each prompt.
(a) If it does not, you can simply send all strings in a single operation.
(b) If it does, you need to insert delays between sending the individual strings, so as to ensure that input is only sent when the external program is actively prompting for input.
This approach is inherently brittle, because in the absence of being able to detect when the external program is read to read a prompt response, you have to guess how much time needs to elapse between sending responses - and that time may vary based on many runtime conditions.
It's best to use longer delays for better reliability, which, however, results in increased runtime overall.
Implementation of (a):
As zett42 and Mathias R. Jessen suggest, use the following to send strings C:\foo and somepass 20 times to your external program's stdin stream:
('C:\foo', 'somepass') * 20 | ./logdeploy.exe
Again, this assumes that ./logdeploy.exe buffers keyboard input it receives before it puts up the next prompt.
Implementation of (b):
Note: The following works in PowerShell (Core) 7+ only, because only there is command output being sent to an external program properly streamed (sent line by line, as it becomes available); unfortunately, Windows PowerShell collects all output first.
# PowerShell 7+ only
# Adjust the Start-Sleep intervals as needed.
1..20 | ForEach-Object {
Start-Sleep 1
'C:\foo'
Start-Sleep 2
'somepass'
} | ./logdeploy.exe
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 an exe that runs though Windows Console and prompts for responses for three questions. I created a batch file to contain criteria and would like to automate all three responses to the questions so selecting the bat file runs the data within the batch file.
I need to pass the following criteria
1)machine name
(Enter)
2)password
(Enter)
3)backup
(Enter)
I tried "machinename| exe" and it runs fine, and then brings up the prompt for 2)'s answer. I would like answer all three prompts and then run the exe.
Assuming all inputs are executed via stdin, then either a pipe or redirection should work for all three inputs.
The simplest method is to create a temporary response file and use redirection.
#echo off
>response.tmp (
echo machinename
echo password
echo backup
)
<response.tmp prog.exe
del response.tmp
It would seem it would be easy to use a pipe and get rid of the temp file
(echo machinename&echo password&echo backup)|prog.exe
But there is one problem - the parser inserts a space before each & and the ). This will probably break things.
Note that each side of the pipe is executed via cmd /c, so each side is parsed twice. It is the initial pipe parser that inserts the unwanted space.
The simplest way I have found to prevent the extra space is to delay the appearance of the & so that the parser initially thinks the entire left side is a single ECHO command.
#echo off
setlocal
set "+=&"
echo machinename%%+%%echo password%%+%%echo backup|prog.exe
EDIT
The fact that your program hangs at the password prompt implies that the password is read directly from the console, and not via stdin. In this case, you will need something like the freeware AutoIT utility.
Okay, I've searched all across this site, without any luck.
Here's my problem:
I have an .exe that produces two output files when run, which it does fine when I actually use the .exe itself.
However, when I run it in MATLAB (yes it actually runs and has identical system messages just like in the command prompt), the two output files are NOT produced. I'm not sure if this is something that can be controlled using system() in MATLAB, or this is a problem with the .exe.
My code to run the .exe (it also takes an input file) is simply this:
system(['C:\MyProgram.exe ' myInputFile]);
Any tips, pointers, advice, or solutions are greatly appreciated!!!
I assume myInputfile as a string. I guess your program is NOT running, because I'd say your command is not working. Try the following:
yourCommand = strcat('c: && MyProgram.exe',{' '},myInputFile);
system( yourCommand{1} );
{' '} is neccesary, because spaces at the end of strings are ignored.
You can not just type your path into the command line, you need to define the path before and then call the function. As you cannot put all commands in a row, you need to use &&, which is like typing Enter in the command window.
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.