I'm trying to figure out how to create a new folder that has the date, not time, appended to the end of the directory name. I just need the current time of creation, and nothing more.
Trying to use something really basic like the following as an example...
if exists CNC_%date% goto EXIST
if not exists CNC_%date% goto CREATE
:CREATE
mkdir CNC_%date%
:EXIST
echo Folder already exists!
echo Check directory and rename it to prevent loss of data.
echo.
echo Press any key to exit.
pause >nul
goto END
:CREATE
echo Creation successful!
echo Press any key to exit.
pause >nul
:END
exit
... results in the creation of a nested directory like "C:\"CNC_Fri 11"\22\2013" because of the backslashes.
IS there any way to pipe the backslashes through a native Windows program, and switch them with underscores? In Linux grep would have been my answer, but I need a native Windows method as this needs to be portable.
mkdir cnc_%date:/=_%
Use the date variable with the slashs replaced with underscore
Related
I often want to return to the previous directory I was just in in cmd.exe, but windows does not have the "cd -" functionality of Unix. Also typing cd ../../.. is a lot of typing.
Is there a faster way to go up several directory levels?
And ideally return back afterwards?
This worked for me in powershell
cd ..
Steps:
pushd . (Keep old folder path on the stack)
cd ..\.. (Move to the folder whare you like to)
popd (Pop it from the stack. Meaning, Come back to the old folder)
On Windows CMD, I got used to using pushd and popd. Before changing directory I use pushd . to put the current directory on the stack, and then I use cd to move elsewhere. You can run pushd as often as you like, each time the specified directory goes on the stack. You can then CD to whatever directory, or directories , that you want. It does not matter how many times you run CD. When ready to return , I use popd to return to whatever directory is on top of the stack. This is suitable for simple use cases and is handy, as long as you remember to push a directory on the stack before using CD.
Run cmd.exe using the /k switch and a starting batch file that invokes doskey to use an enhanced versions of the cd command.
Here is a simple batch file to change directories to the first parameter (%1) passed in, and to remember the initial directory by calling pushd %1.
md_autoruns.cmd:
#echo off
cd %1
pushd %1
title aliases active
cls
%SystemRoot%\System32\doskey.exe /macrofile=c:\tools\aliases
We will also need a small helper batch file to remember the directory changes and to ignore changes to the same directory:
mycd.bat:
#echo off
if '%*'=='' cd & exit /b
if '%*'=='-' (
cd /d %OLDPWD%
set OLDPWD="%cd%"
) else (
cd /d %*
if not errorlevel 1 set OLDPWD="%cd%"
)
And a small aliases file showing what to do to make it all work:
aliases:
cd=C:\tools\mycd.bat $*
cd\=c:\tools\mycd.bat ..
A:=c:\tools\mycd.bat A:
B:=c:\tools\mycd.bat B:
C:=c:\tools\mycd.bat C:
...
Z:=c:\tools\mycd.bat Z:
.=cd
..=c:\tools\mycd.bat ..
...=c:\tools\mycd.bat ..\..
....=c:\tools\mycd.bat ..\..\..
.....=c:\tools\mycd.bat ..\..\..\..
......=c:\tools\mycd.bat ..\..\..\..\..
.......=c:\tools\mycd.bat ..\..\..\..\..\..
........=c:\tools\mycd.bat ..\..\..\..\..\..\..
.........=c:\tools\mycd.bat ..\..\..\..\..\..\..\..
tools=c:\tools\mycd.bat C:\tools
wk=c:\tools\mycd.bat %WORKSPACE%
Now you can go up a directory level by typing ..
Add another . for each level you want to go up.
When you want to go back, type cd - and you will be back where you started.
Aliases to jump to directories like wk or tools (shown above) swiftly take you from location to location, are easy to create, and can really help if you work in the command line frequently.
You could use the command:
cd ..\ -> To go up one level
cd ..\..\ -> To go up two levels
Note the space after cd
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.
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 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
Im searching a tool which allows me to specify some folders as "bookmarks" and than access them on the commandline (on Windows XP) via a keyword. Something like:
C:\> go home
D:\profiles\user\home\> go svn-project1
D:\projects\project1\svn\branch\src\>
I'm currently using a bunch of batch files, but editing them by hand is a daunting task. On Linux there is cdargs or shell bookmarks but I haven't found something on windows.
Thanks for the Powershell suggestion, but I'm not allowed to install it on my box at work, so it should be a "classic" cmd.exe solution.
What you are looking for is called DOSKEY
You can use the doskey command to create macros in the command interpreter. For example:
doskey mcd=mkdir "$*"$Tpushd "$*"
creates a new command "mcd" that creates a new directory and then changes to that directory (I prefer "pushd" to "cd" in this case because it lets me use "popd" later to go back to where I was before)
The $* will be replaced with the remainder of the command line after the macro, and the $T is used to delimit the two different commands that I want to evaluate. If I typed:
mcd foo/bar
at the command line, it would be equivalent to:
mkdir "foo/bar"&pushd "foo/bar"
The next step is to create a file that contains a set of macros which you can then import by using the /macrofile switch. I have a file (c:\tools\doskey.macros) which defines the commands that I regularly use. Each macro should be specified on a line with the same syntax as above.
But you don't want to have to manually import your macros every time you launch a new command interpreter, to make it happen automatically, just open up the registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun and set the value to be doskey /macrofile "c:\tools\doskey.macro". Doing this will make sure that your macros are automatically predefined every time you start a new interpreter.
Extra thoughts:
- If you want to do other things in AutoRun (like set environment parameters), you can delimit the commands with the ampersand. Mine looks like: set root=c:\SomeDir&doskey /macrofile "c:\tools\doskey.macros"
- If you prefer that your AutoRun settings be set per-user, you can use the HKCU node instead of HKLM.
- You can also use doskey to control things like the size of the command history.
- I like to end all of my navigation macros with \$* so that I can chain things together
- Be careful to add quotes as appropriate in your macros if you want to be able to handle paths with spaces in them.
I was looking for this exact functionality, for simple cases. Couldn't find a solution, so I made one myself:
#ECHO OFF
REM Source found on https://github.com/DieterDePaepe/windows-scripts
REM Please share any improvements made!
REM Folder where all links will end up
set WARP_REPO=%USERPROFILE%\.warp
IF [%1]==[/?] GOTO :help
IF [%1]==[--help] GOTO :help
IF [%1]==[/create] GOTO :create
IF [%1]==[/remove] GOTO :remove
IF [%1]==[/list] GOTO :list
set /p WARP_DIR=<%WARP_REPO%\%1
cd %WARP_DIR%
GOTO :end
:create
IF [%2]==[] (
ECHO Missing name for bookmark
GOTO :EOF
)
if not exist %WARP_REPO%\NUL mkdir %WARP_REPO%
ECHO %cd% > %WARP_REPO%\%2
ECHO Created bookmark "%2"
GOTO :end
:list
dir %WARP_REPO% /B
GOTO :end
:remove
IF [%2]==[] (
ECHO Missing name for bookmark
GOTO :EOF
)
if not exist %WARP_REPO%\%2 (
ECHO Bookmark does not exist: %2
GOTO :EOF
)
del %WARP_REPO%\%2
GOTO :end
:help
ECHO Create or navigate to folder bookmarks.
ECHO.
ECHO warp /? Display this help
ECHO warp [bookmark] Navigate to existing bookmark
ECHO warp /remove [bookmark] Remove an existing bookmark
ECHO warp /create [bookmark] Navigate to existing bookmark
ECHO warp /list List existing bookmarks
ECHO.
:end
You can list, create and delete bookmarks. The bookmarks are stored in text files in a folder in your user directory.
Usage (copied from current version):
A folder bookmarker for use in the terminal.
c:\Temp>warp /create temp # Create a new bookmark
Created bookmark "temp"
c:\Temp>cd c:\Users\Public # Go somewhere else
c:\Users\Public>warp temp # Go to the stored bookmark
c:\Temp>
Every warp uses a pushd command, so you can trace back your steps using popd.
c:\Users\Public>warp temp
c:\Temp>popd
c:\Users\Public>
Open a folder of a bookmark in explorer using warp /window <bookmark>.
List all available options using warp /?.
With just a Batch file, try this... (save as filename "go.bat")
#echo off
set BookMarkFolder=c:\data\cline\bookmarks\
if exist %BookMarkFolder%%1.lnk start %BookMarkFolder%%1.lnk
if exist %BookMarkFolder%%1.bat start %BookMarkFolder%%1.bat
if exist %BookMarkFolder%%1.vbs start %BookMarkFolder%%1.vbs
if exist %BookMarkFolder%%1.URL start %BookMarkFolder%%1.URL
Any shortcuts, batch files, VBS Scripts or Internet shortcuts you put in your bookmark folder (in this case "c:\data\cline\bookmarks\" can then be opened / accessed by typing "go bookmarkname"
e.g. I have a bookmark called "stack.url". Typing go stack takes me straight to this page.
You may also want to investigate Launchy
With PowerShell you could add the folders as variables in your profile.ps1 file, like:
$vids="C:\Users\mabster\Videos"
Then, like Unix, you can just refer to the variables in your commands:
cd $vids
Having a list of variable assignments in the one ps1 file is probably easier than maintaining separate batch files.
Another alternative approach you may want to consider could be to have a folder that contains symlinks to each of your projects or frequently-used directories. So you can do something like
cd \go\svn-project-1
cd \go\my-douments
Symlinks can be made on a NTFS disk using the Junction tool
Without Powershell you can do it like this:
C:\>set DOOMED=c:\windows
C:\>cd %DOOMED%
C:\WINDOWS>
Crono wrote:
Are Environment variables defined via "set" not meant for the current session only? Can I persist them?
They are set for the current process, and by default inherited by any process that it creates. They are not persisted to the registry. Their scope can be limited in cmd scripts with "setlocal" (and "endlocal").
Environment variables?
set home=D:\profiles\user\home
set svn-project1=D:\projects\project1\svn\branch\src
cd %home%
On Unix I use this along with popd/pushd/cd - all the time.